Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
Psalm 105[a]
God’s Fidelity to the Promise
I
1 Give thanks to the Lord, invoke his name;(A)
make known among the peoples his deeds!(B)
2 Sing praise to him, play music;
proclaim all his wondrous deeds!
3 Glory in his holy name;
let hearts that seek the Lord rejoice!
4 Seek out the Lord and his might;
constantly seek his face.(C)
5 Recall the wondrous deeds he has done,
his wonders and words of judgment,
6 You descendants of Abraham his servant,
offspring of Jacob the chosen one!
II
7 He the Lord, is our God
whose judgments reach through all the earth.
8 He remembers forever his covenant,
the word he commanded for a thousand generations,
9 Which he made with Abraham,
and swore to Isaac,(D)
10 And ratified in a statute for Jacob,
an everlasting covenant for Israel:
11 “To you I give the land of Canaan,
your own allotted inheritance.”(E)
III
IV
16 Then he called down a famine on the land,
destroyed the grain that sustained them.[a](A)
17 He had sent a man ahead of them,
Joseph, sold as a slave.(B)
18 They shackled his feet with chains;
collared his neck in iron,(C)
19 Till his prediction came to pass,
and the word of the Lord proved him true.(D)
20 The king sent and released him;
the ruler of peoples set him free.(E)
21 He made him lord over his household,
ruler over all his possessions,(F)
22 To instruct his princes as he desired,
to teach his elders wisdom.
V
23 Then Israel entered Egypt;(G)
Jacob sojourned in the land of Ham.[b]
24 God greatly increased his people,
made them more numerous than their foes.(H)
25 He turned their hearts to hate his people,
to treat his servants deceitfully.(I)
26 He sent his servant Moses,
and Aaron whom he had chosen.(J)
27 [c]They worked his signs in Egypt(K)
and wonders in the land of Ham.
28 He sent darkness and it grew dark,
but they rebelled against his word.
29 He turned their waters into blood
and killed their fish.
30 Their land swarmed with frogs,
even the chambers of their kings.
31 He spoke and there came swarms of flies,
gnats through all their country.
32 For rain he gave them hail,
flashes of lightning throughout their land.
33 He struck down their vines and fig trees,
shattered the trees of their country.
34 He spoke and the locusts came,
grasshoppers without number.(L)
35 They devoured every plant in the land;
they devoured the crops of their fields.
36 He struck down every firstborn in the land,
the first fruits of all their vigor.
37 He brought his people out,
laden with silver and gold;(M)
no one among the tribes stumbled.
38 Egypt rejoiced when they left,
for fear had seized them.
VI
42 For he remembered his sacred promise
to Abraham his servant.
Chapter 33
1 The Lord spoke to Moses: Go! You and the people whom you have brought up from the land of Egypt are to go up from here to the land about which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: I will give it to your descendants.(A) 2 Driving out the Canaanites, Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites, I will send an angel before you(B) 3 to a land flowing with milk and honey. But I myself will not go up in your company, because you are a stiff-necked people; otherwise I might consume you on the way. 4 When the people heard this painful news, they mourned, and no one wore any ornaments.
5 The Lord spoke to Moses: Speak to the Israelites: You are a stiff-necked people. Were I to go up in your company even for a moment, I would destroy you. Now off with your ornaments! Let me think what to do with you. 6 So, from Mount Horeb onward, the Israelites stripped off their ornaments.
Chapter 4[a]
Abraham Justified by Faith. 1 What then can we say that Abraham found, our ancestor according to the flesh?(A) 2 [b]Indeed, if Abraham was justified on the basis of his works, he has reason to boast; but this was not so in the sight of God. 3 (B)For what does the scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”[c] 4 A worker’s wage is credited not as a gift, but as something due.(C) 5 But when one does not work, yet believes in the one who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness. 6 So also David declares the blessedness of the person to whom God credits righteousness apart from works:
7 “Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven(D)
and whose sins are covered.
8 Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord does not record.”
9 Does this blessedness[d] apply only to the circumcised, or to the uncircumcised as well? Now we assert that “faith was credited to Abraham as righteousness.”(E) 10 Under what circumstances was it credited? Was he circumcised or not? He was not circumcised, but uncircumcised. 11 And he received the sign of circumcision as a seal on the righteousness received through faith while he was uncircumcised. Thus he was to be the father of all the uncircumcised who believe, so that to them [also] righteousness might be credited,(F) 12 as well as the father of the circumcised who not only are circumcised but also follow the path of faith that our father Abraham walked while still uncircumcised.
Scripture texts, prefaces, introductions, footnotes and cross references used in this work are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc., Washington, DC All Rights Reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.