Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
The Path of Eternal Life
Psalm 16
1 A Michtam of David.
Keep me safe, O God, for in You I have found shelter.
2 I said to Adonai: “You are my Lord—
I have no good apart from You.”
3 As for the kedoshim who are in the land,
they are noble—in them is all my delight.
4 As for those who run after another god,
may their sorrows multiply.
I will not pour out their drink offerings of blood,
nor lift up their names with my lips.
5 Adonai is my portion and my cup.
You cast my lot.
6 My boundary lines fall in pleasant places
—surely my heritage is beautiful.
7 I will bless Adonai, who counsels me.
Even at night my heart instructs me.
8 I have set Adonai always before me.
Since He is at my right hand, I will not be shaken.
9 So my heart is glad and my soul rejoices.
My body also rests secure.
10 For You will not abandon my soul to Sheol
nor let Your faithful one see the Pit.[a]
11 You make known to me the path of life.
Abundance of joys are in Your presence,
eternal pleasures at Your right hand.[b]
9 How is your lover different from other lovers,
O most beautiful among women?
How is your lover different from other lovers
that you charge us so?
10 My lover is dazzling and ruddy,
standing out among ten thousand.
11 His head is purest gold,
his hair is wavy,
black as a raven.
12 His eyes are like doves
beside streams of water,
washed with milk,
mounted in their settings.
13 His cheeks are like a bed of spice,
towers of sweet-scented perfume.
His lips are lilies,
dripping with liquid myrrh.
14 His hands are rods of gold set with jasper.
His abdomen is carved ivory
inlaid with sapphires.
15 His legs are pillars of alabaster
set on bases of pure gold.
His appearance is like Lebanon—
excellent like the cedars.
16 His mouth is sweetness.
Yes, he is totally desirable.
This is my lover! Yes, this is my friend,
O daughters of Jerusalem.
6 Where has your lover gone,
most beautiful among women?
Where has your lover turned,
so we may seek him with you?
2 My lover went down to his garden,
to the beds of balsam
to graze his flocks in the gardens
and to gather lilies.
3 I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine.
He browses among the lilies.
The Victory of the Resurrection
15 Now I make known to you, brothers and sisters, the Good News which I proclaimed to you. You also received it, and you took your stand on it, 2 and by it you are being saved if you hold firm to the word I proclaimed to you—unless you believed without proper consideration. 3 For I also passed on to you first of all what I also received—
that Messiah died for our sins
according to the Scriptures,[a]
4 that He was buried,
that He was raised on the third day
according to the Scriptures,
5 and that He appeared to Kefa,
then to the Twelve.
6 Then He appeared to over five hundred
brothers and sisters at one time—
most of them are still alive,
though some have died.[b]
7 Then He appeared to Jacob,
then to all the emissaries,
8 and last of all, as to one untimely born,
He also appeared to me.
9 For I am the least of the emissaries, unworthy to be called an emissary because I persecuted God’s community. 10 But by the grace of God I am what I am. His grace toward me was not in vain. No, I worked harder than them all—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me. 11 Whether then it is I or they, so we proclaim, and so you believed.
Tree of Life (TLV) Translation of the Bible. Copyright © 2015 by The Messianic Jewish Family Bible Society.