Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

A Psalm of thanksgiving.

¹⁷ “As for you, O my flock, the Lord Yahweh says: ‘Behold, I judge between sheep and sheep, the rams and the male goats. ¹⁸ Does it seem a small thing to you to have fed on the good pasture, but you must tread down with your feet the residue of your pasture? And to have drunk of the clear waters, but must you foul the residue with your feet? ¹⁹ As for my sheep, they eat that which you have trodden with your feet, and they drink that which you have fouled with your feet.’

²⁰ “Therefore the Lord Yahweh says to them: ‘Behold, I, even I, will judge between the fat sheep and the lean sheep. ²¹ Because you thrust with side and with shoulder, and push all the diseased with your horns, until you have scattered them abroad, ²² therefore I will save my flock, and they will no more be a prey. I will judge between sheep and sheep. ²³ I will set up one shepherd over them, and he will feed them, even my servant David. He will feed them, and he will be their shepherd.

5 Therefore I exhort the elders among you, as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and who will also share in the glory that will be revealed: ² shepherd the flock of God which is among you, exercising the oversight, not under compulsion, but voluntarily; not for dishonest gain, but willingly; ³ not as lording it over those entrusted to you, but making yourselves examples to the flock. ⁴ When the chief Shepherd is revealed, you will receive the crown of glory that doesn’t fade away.

⁵ Likewise, you younger ones, be subject to the elder. Yes, all of you clothe yourselves with humility and subject yourselves to one another; for “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”^(A)