Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

A Song of Praise

145 I will praise You, my God and King. I will honor Your name forever and ever. ² I will honor You every day, and praise Your name forever and ever. ³ The Lord is great and our praise to Him should be great. He is too great for anyone to understand. ⁴ Families of this time will praise Your works to the families-to-come. They will tell about Your powerful acts. ⁵ I will think about the shining-greatness of Your power and about Your great works. ⁶ Men will speak of Your powerful acts that fill us with fear. And I will tell of Your greatness. ⁷ Many words will come from their mouths about how good You are. They will sing for joy about how right You are.

⁸ The Lord is full of loving-favor and pity, slow to anger and great in loving-kindness. ⁹ The Lord is good to all. And His loving-kindness is over all His works. ¹⁰ All Your works will give thanks to You, O Lord. And all those who belong to You will honor You. ¹¹ They will speak of the shining-greatness of Your holy nation, and talk of Your power. ¹² They will make Your powerful acts and the great power of Your holy nation known to the sons of men. ¹³ Your holy nation is a nation that lasts forever. And Your rule lasts for all time.

¹⁴ The Lord holds up all who fall. He raises up all who are brought down. ¹⁵ The eyes of all look to You. And You give them their food at the right time. ¹⁶ You open Your hand and fill the desire of every living thing.

¹⁷ The Lord is right and good in all His ways, and kind in all His works. ¹⁸ The Lord is near to all who call on Him, to all who call on Him in truth. ¹⁹ He will fill the desire of those who fear Him. He will also hear their cry and will save them. ²⁰ The Lord takes care of all who love Him. But He will destroy all the sinful. ²¹ My mouth will speak the praise of the Lord. And all flesh will honor His holy name forever and ever.

King Solomon

4 “How beautiful you are, my love! How beautiful you are! Your eyes are like doves behind your face-covering. Your hair is like a flock of goats coming down from Mount Gilead. ² Your teeth are like a flock of sheep that have just had their wool cut and have come up from their washing. All have given birth to two lambs, and not one among them has lost her young. ³ Your lips are like a bright red string. Your mouth is beautiful. The sides of your face are like a piece of a pomegranate under your covering. ⁴ Your neck is like the tower of David, built with beauty. On it hang a thousand battle-coverings, the coverings of men of war. ⁵ Your two breasts are like two young deer, the two young ones of a gazelle, that eat among the lilies. ⁶ Until the morning comes and the shadows hurry away, I will go to the mountain of perfume plants, to the hill of special perfume.

⁷ “You are all beautiful, my love. You are perfect. ⁸ Come with me from Lebanon, my bride. May you come with me from Lebanon. Travel down from the top of Amana, from the top of Senir and Hermon, from the homes of lions, from the mountain homes of leopards.

³ May you have loving-favor and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.

Paul Gives Thanks for Their Faith

⁴ I am thankful to God all the time for you. I am thankful for the loving-favor God has given to you because you belong to Christ Jesus. ⁵ He has made your lives rich in every way. Now you have power to speak for Him. He gave you good understanding. ⁶ This shows that what I told you about Christ and what He could do for you has been done in your lives. ⁷ You have the gifts of the Holy Spirit that you need while you wait for the Lord Jesus Christ to come again. ⁸ Christ will keep you strong until He comes again. No blame will be held against you. ⁹ God is faithful. He chose you to be joined together with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

The Church in Corinth Is Divided

¹⁰ Christian brothers, I ask you with all my heart in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ to agree among yourselves. Do not be divided into little groups. Think and act as if you all had the same mind. ¹¹ My Christian brothers, I have heard from some of Chloe’s family that you are arguing among yourselves. ¹² I hear that some of you are saying, “I am a follower of Paul,” and “I am a follower of Apollos,” and “I am a follower of Peter,” and “I am a follower of Christ.” ¹³ Has Christ been divided? Was Paul put on a cross to die for your sins? Were you baptized in the name of Paul? ¹⁴ I am thankful to God that I baptized Crispus and Gaius only. ¹⁵ No one can say that you were baptized in the name of Paul. ¹⁶ I remember I did baptize the family of Stephanas, but I do not remember baptizing any others. ¹⁷ Christ did not send me to baptize. He sent me to preach the Good News. I did not use big sounding words when I preached. If I had, the power of the cross of Christ would be taken away.