Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
Praise the Lord![a]
33 You righteous people,
sing to praise the Lord,
and be happy!
It is right for good, honest people to do that.
2 Pick up your harp
and praise the Lord!
Make music for him
with a lyre that has ten strings.
3 Sing to him a new song!
Make beautiful music,
as you sing aloud to praise him.
4 Yes! The Lord's message is true.
We can always trust him to do what is right.
5 He loves everything that is right and fair.
The world is full of his faithful love.
6 The word of the Lord made the heavens.
When he spoke,
all the stars in the sky appeared.
7 He put the water of the sea together in a heap.
He made the deep seas stay in their right places.
8 Everyone who lives on the earth should respect the Lord.
They should bend down to worship him.
9 The Lord spoke,
and the world began!
He spoke his command,
and everything became fixed in its place.[b]
10 Nations decide what they want to do,
but the Lord causes their plans to be useless.
11 But whatever the Lord decides to do
will always happen.
His thoughts will not change
from one century to the next.
12 The Lord blesses the nation
that has him as their God.
He has chosen them to belong to him,
as his own special people.
The Lord's covenant with Abram
15 After this, the Lord spoke to Abram in a dream. God said, ‘Do not be afraid Abram. I will keep you safe. I myself will give you many good gifts.’
2 But Abram said, ‘Almighty Lord, there is one gift that I want. I still have no children. When I die, Eliezer of Damascus will receive everything that I have. 3 Because you have not given me any children, understand this: Everything that I have will one day belong to a servant in my house.’[a]
4 The Lord gave Abram this message: ‘No! Eliezer will not be the one who receives your things. You will have your own son. He will be the one who receives everything that you have.’
5 The Lord took Abram outside. He said to Abram, ‘Look up at the sky. Count the stars. They are too many for you to count!’ Then God said, ‘That is how many descendants you will have.’
6 Abram believed the Lord. As a result, the Lord accepted Abram as right with him.
7 The Lord also said to Abram, ‘I am the Lord. I brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to bring you to this land. I am giving it to you. It will belong to you.’ 8 But Abram said, ‘Almighty Lord, how can I be sure that this land will belong to me?’
9 The Lord said to Abram, ‘Bring a young cow, a goat and a male sheep to offer them to me. Each animal must be three years old. Also bring a dove and a young pigeon.’
10 Abram brought the three animals and the two birds to offer to God. Abram cut each animal in two pieces. He put the halves opposite each other. But he did not cut the birds in two pieces. 11 Some birds flew down to eat the animals' dead bodies. But Abram sent them away.
12 When the sun was going down, Abram started to sleep. Suddenly he became very afraid because it was dark all around him. 13 Then the Lord said to Abram, ‘Be sure of this: Your descendants will live in a foreign country. They will be strangers there. People will do bad things to them and they will become slaves. This will continue for 400 years. 14 But I will punish the people of that country who give them trouble. After this, your descendants will leave that country. They will take many valuable things with them. 15 But as for you, Abram, you will have a long life. When you die, you will have peace in your mind. 16 After four generations, your descendants will come back here to Canaan. At that time, I will punish the Amorites because they do very bad things. But the time has not yet arrived that I will punish them.’[b]
17 Then the sun went down and it became dark. Abram saw a pot that had coals in it. The coals were burning and making smoke. There was also a branch that burned with bright fire. These passed between the halves of the animals that Abram had cut in two pieces.[c]
18 On that day, the Lord made a covenant with Abram. The Lord promised, ‘I give this land to your descendants. The land starts from the river of Egypt and continues as far as the River Euphrates. 19 These people live in the land: Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, 20 Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites,
Jesus causes two blind men to see again
27 Jesus left the house. While he walked along, two blind men began to follow him. They were shouting out to him, ‘Son of David! Please be kind to us and help us!’[a]
28 Jesus went into a house and the blind men came to him there. Jesus asked them, ‘Do you believe that I can make your eyes become well?’ The men replied, ‘Yes, Master, we believe that you can do this.’
29 So Jesus touched the men's eyes. He said to them, ‘Because you believed in me, you will now see again.’ 30 Then immediately the men could see again. Jesus said strongly to them, ‘You must not tell anyone about this.’ 31 So the men went away. But they told everybody in that part of the country all about what Jesus had done for them.
Jesus causes a man to speak again
32 While those two men were leaving, some people brought another man to Jesus. This man could not speak because of a bad spirit in him. 33 Jesus made the bad spirit go out of the man and leave him. Then the man began to speak again. Everybody there was very surprised. They said, ‘Nobody has seen anything like this happen in Israel before.’
34 But the Pharisees said, ‘This man can send bad spirits out of people because Satan gives him authority. Satan is the one who rules the bad spirits.’
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