Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
My Soul Thirsts for God
Psalm 42
1 For the music director, a contemplative song of the sons of Korah.
2 As the deer pants for streams of water,
so my soul pants for You, O God.
3 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
When will I come and appear before God?
4 My tears have been my food day and night,
while they say to me all day: “Where is your God?”
5 These things I remember as I pour out my soul within me.
For I used to go along with the throng,
walking with them to the House of God, with a voice of joy and praise,
a multitude keeping a festival.
6 Why are you downcast, O my soul?
Why are you murmuring within me?
Hope in God, for I will yet praise Him,
for the salvation of His presence.
7 My God, my soul is downcast within me!
Therefore I remember You from the land of Jordan
and from the peaks of Hermon, from Mount Mitzar.
8 Deep calls to deep in the roar of Your waterfalls.
All Your waves and breakers have swept over me.
9 By day Adonai commands His love,
and at night His song is with me—
a prayer to the God of my life.
10 I will say to God my Rock:
“Why have You forgotten me?
Why do I go about mourning, under the oppression of the enemy?”
11 As with a crushing in my bones,
my adversaries taunt me,
by saying to me all day, “Where is your God?”
12 Why are you downcast, O my soul?
Why are you murmuring within me?
Hope in God, for I will yet praise Him,
the salvation of my countenance and my God.
Send Forth Your Light
Psalm 43
1 Vindicate me, O God,
and champion
my cause against an ungodly nation.
From a deceitful and unjust man, deliver me!
2 For You are my God, my stronghold.
Why have You spurned me?
Why do I go about gloomy because of the oppression of the enemy?
3 Send forth Your light and Your truth—
let them guide me.
Let them bring me to Your holy mountain
and to Your dwelling places.
4 Then I will come to the altar of God,
to the God of my exceeding joy,
and praise You upon the harp
—O God, my God.
5 Why are You downcast, O my soul?
Why are you murmuring within me?
Hope in God, for I will yet praise Him,
the salvation of my countenance.
Courting of Rebekah
24 Now Abraham was old, advanced in years, and Adonai blessed Abraham in everything. 2 Then Abraham said to his servant, the oldest of his household who managed everything that belonged to him, “Now put your hand under my thigh, 3 so that I may make you take an oath by Adonai, the God of heaven and the God of earth, that you will not take a wife for my son from among the daughters of the Canaanites among whom I am dwelling. 4 On the contrary, to my land and to my relatives you must go and get a wife for my son Isaac.
5 But the servant said to him, “Suppose the woman were unwilling to follow after me to this land? Should I then have your son go back to the land you came from?
6 Abraham said to him, “See to it that you don’t return my son there. 7 Adonai, the God of heaven, who took me from my father’s house and from my native land and who spoke to me and made a pledge to me saying, ‘To your seed I will give this land’—He will send His angel before you and you will take a wife for my son from there. 8 If the woman is not willing to follow after you, then you will be free from this oath of mine. Nevertheless, you must not return my son there.” 9 So the servant put his hand under the thigh of Abraham his master, and he made a pledge to him concerning this matter.
10 Then the servant took ten of his master’s camels and left with all the best of his master’s things in his hand. Then he arose and went to Aram-Naharaim, to Nahor’s city. 11 Then he made the camels kneel down outside the city by the well of water at evening time, the time for the going out to draw water.
12 “Adonai, the God of Abraham my master,” he said, “please make something happen before me today, and show loyalty to Abraham my master. 13 Look, I am standing by the spring of water, and the daughters of the men of the city are going out to draw water. 14 Now let it be that the young woman to whom I say, ‘Please tip your jar so that I may drink,’ and she will say, ‘Drink—and I’ll also water your camels’—let her be the one You have appointed for your servant Isaac. So by this I’ll know that You have shown graciousness to my master.”
15 Now before he had finished speaking, behold there was Rebekah (who was born to Bethuel son of Milcah, the wife of Nahor, Abraham’s brother) going out with her jar on her shoulder. 16 Now the young woman was very good looking, a girl of marriageable age, and she was a virgin. She went down to the spring and filled her jar and came up. 17 Then the servant ran to meet her and said, “Please let me sip a little water from your jar.”
18 So she said, “Drink, my lord,” and she quickly lowered her jar onto her hand and gave him a drink. 19 Now when she finished giving him a drink, she said, “I’ll also draw water for your camels until they’ve finished drinking.” 20 So she quickly poured out her jug into the trough, ran back to the well to draw water, and drew water for all his camels, 21 while the man continued to pay close attention to her, keeping silent in order to know whether or not Adonai had made his way successful.
Jewish People Fall Short Too
17 But if you call yourself Jewish and rely upon the Torah and boast in God 18 and know His will and determine what matters because you are instructed from the Torah— 19 and you are sure that you are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, 20 a corrector of the foolish, a teacher of the immature, having in the Torah the embodiment of knowledge and the truth—
21 you then who teach another, do you not teach yourself?
You who preach not to steal, do you steal?
22 You who say not to commit adultery, do you commit adultery?
You who detest idols, do you rob temples?
23 You who take pride in the Torah,
through your violation of the Torah, do you dishonor God?
24 For as it is written, “the name of God is slandered among the nations because of you.”[a]
25 Circumcision is indeed worthwhile if you keep the Torah; but if you break the Torah, your circumcision has become uncircumcision. [b] 26 Therefore, if the uncircumcised keeps the righteous decrees of the Torah, will not his uncircumcision be counted as circumcision? [c] 27 Indeed, the one not circumcised physically who fulfills the Torah will judge you[d] who—even with the written code[e] and circumcision—break the Torah. 28 For one is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision something visible in the flesh. 29 Rather, the Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is of the heart—in Spirit not in letter. His praise is not from men, but from God.[f]
Tree of Life (TLV) Translation of the Bible. Copyright © 2015 by The Messianic Jewish Family Bible Society.