Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

⁵ O Lord, Your loving-kindness goes to the heavens. You are as faithful as the sky is high. ⁶ You are as right and good as mountains are big. You are as fair when You judge as a sea is deep. O Lord, You keep safe both man and animal. ⁷ Of what great worth is Your loving-kindness, O God! The children of men come and are safe in the shadow of Your wings. ⁸ They are filled with the riches of Your house. And You give them a drink from Your river of joy. ⁹ All life came from You. In Your light we see light.

¹⁰ Keep on giving Your loving-kindness to those who know You. Keep on being right and good to the pure in heart.

God’s People Worship False Gods

¹⁹ “Then I said, ‘How I would like to make you My sons and give you a pleasing land, the most beautiful land of the nations!’ And I said, ‘You will call Me, “My Father,” and not turn away from following Me.’ ²⁰ For sure, as a woman is not faithful and leaves her husband, so you have not been faithful to Me, O people of Israel,” says the Lord.

²¹ A voice is heard on the open hill-tops, the cries and prayers of the sons of Israel, because they have made their way sinful. They have forgotten the Lord their God. ²² “Return, O sons who are not faithful. I will heal you and make you faithful.” “See, we come to You, for You are the Lord our God. ²³ For sure the hills are a false hope, a noise on the mountains. In truth, the saving of Israel is in the Lord our God. ²⁴ But false gods have brought us shame and have destroyed what our fathers worked for since we were young, their flocks and cattle, their sons and their daughters. ²⁵ Let us lie down in our shame, and let our shame cover us. For we and our fathers have sinned against the Lord our God ever since we were young. We have not obeyed the voice of the Lord our God.”

How a Husband and Wife Should Live

7 You asked me some questions in your letter. This is my answer. It is good if a man does not get married. ² But because of being tempted to sex sins, each man should get married and have his own wife. Each woman should get married and have her own husband. ³ The husband should please his wife as a husband. The wife should please her husband as a wife. ⁴ The wife is not the boss of her own body. It belongs to the husband. And in the same way, the husband is not the boss of his own body. It belongs to the wife.

⁵ Do not keep from each other that which belongs to each other in marriage unless you agree for awhile so you can use your time to pray. Then come together again or the devil will tempt you to do that which you know you should not do.

⁶ This is what I think. I am not saying you must do it. ⁷ I wish everyone were as I am, but each has his own gift from God. One has one gift. Another has another gift.