Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
9 How can a young person live a pure life?
By obeying your word.
10 With all my heart I try to obey you.
Don’t let me break your commands.
11 I have taken your words to heart
so I would not sin against you.
12 Lord, you should be praised.
Teach me your demands.
13 My lips will tell about
all the laws you have spoken.
14 I enjoy living by your rules
as people enjoy great riches.
15 I think about your orders
and study your ways.
16 I enjoy obeying your demands,
and I will not forget your word.
Judah Is God’s Witness
8 Bring out the people who have eyes but don’t see
and those who have ears but don’t hear.
9 All the nations gather together,
and all the people come together.
Which of their gods said this would happen?
Which of their gods can tell what happened in the beginning?
Let them bring their witnesses to prove they were right.
Then others will say, “It is true.”
10 The Lord says, “You are my witnesses
and the servant I chose.
I chose you so you would know and believe me,
so you would understand that I am the true God.
There was no God before me,
and there will be no God after me.
11 I myself am the Lord;
I am the only Savior.
12 I myself have spoken to you, saved you, and told you these things.
It was not some foreign god among you.
You are my witnesses, and I am God,”
says the Lord.
13 “I have always been God.
No one can save people from my power;
when I do something, no one can change it.”
4 We can say this, because through Christ we feel certain before God. 5 We are not saying that we can do this work ourselves. It is God who makes us able to do all that we do. 6 He made us able to be servants of a new agreement from himself to his people. This new agreement is not a written law, but it is of the Spirit. The written law brings death, but the Spirit gives life.
7 The law that brought death was written in words on stone. It came with God’s glory, which made Moses’ face so bright that the Israelites could not continue to look at it. But that glory later disappeared. 8 So surely the new way that brings the Spirit has even more glory. 9 If the law that judged people guilty of sin had glory, surely the new way that makes people right with God has much greater glory. 10 That old law had glory, but it really loses its glory when it is compared to the much greater glory of this new way. 11 If that law which disappeared came with glory, then this new way which continues forever has much greater glory.
The Holy Bible, New Century Version®. Copyright © 2005 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.