Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
Walking with Integrity
Psalm 26
1 Of David.
Vindicate me, Adonai,
for I have walked in my integrity,
and trusted in Adonai without wavering.
2 Probe me, Adonai, and test me,
refine my mind and my heart.
3 For Your love is before my eyes
and I have walked in Your truth.
4 I have not sat with men of falsehood,
nor do I consort with hypocrites.
5 I detest the company of evildoers,
and do not sit with the wicked.
6 I will wash my hands in innocence,
so I can walk around Your altar, Adonai,
7 hearing the voice of thanksgiving
while proclaiming all Your wonders.
8 Adonai, I love the House where You live,
the place where Your glory dwells.
9 Do not take my soul away with sinners,
nor my life with people of bloodshed—
10 in whose hands are wicked schemes,
whose right hand is full of bribes.
11 But I—I will walk in my integrity.
Redeem me and be gracious to me.
12 My feet stand on level ground.
In congregations I will bless Adonai.
Eliphaz: God is Righteous
4 Then Eliphaz the Temanite responded and said:
2 “If one attempts a word with you, will you become impatient?
But who can keep from speaking?
3 Behold, you have instructed many;
you have strengthened weak hands.
4 Your words have supported those who stumbled,
and strengthened buckling knees.
5 Yet now it has come to you,
and you are discouraged;
it strikes you,
and you are dismayed.
6 Is not your piety your confidence,
the integrity of your ways your hope?
7 Reflect now:
Who, being innocent, ever perished?
And where were the upright destroyed?
8 As I have seen, those who plow iniquity
and sow harm, reap them.[a]
9 By the breath[b] of God they perish;
by the blast of His anger they vanish.[c]
10 The lion may roar and the cub growl,
but the teeth of young lions are broken.
11 The mighty lion perishes for lack of prey
and the lioness’ cubs are scattered.
Testimony of an Accusing Spirit
12 Now a word was secretly brought to me,
and my ear caught a whisper of it.
13 Amid unsettling visions in the night,
when a deep sleep falls on men,
14 dread and trembling seized me,
and made my bones shake.
15 Then a spirit brushed over my face,
and the hair of my flesh stood on end.
16 It stood still,
but I could not recognize its appearance,
A form was before my eyes
and I heard a murmur, a voice:
17 ‘Can a mortal be righteous before God;
or a man pure before his Creator?
18 If He puts no trust in His servants
and accuses His angels of error,
19 how much more those
who dwell in houses of clay,
whose foundation is in the dust,
who are crushed before the moth?
20 From morning until evening they are beaten into pieces—
unnoticed, they perish forever.
21 Is not their tent cord pulled out,
so that they die without wisdom.’”
Life in the Spirit
8 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Messiah Yeshua. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Messiah Yeshua has set you free from the law of sin and death. 3 For what was impossible for the Torah—since it was weakened on account of the flesh—God has done. Sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as a sin offering, He condemned sin in the flesh— 4 so that the requirement of the Torah might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Ruach.
5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Ruach set their minds on the things of the Ruach. 6 For the mindset of the flesh is death, but the mindset of the Ruach is life and shalom. 7 For the mindset of the flesh is hostile toward God, for it does not submit itself to the law of God—for it cannot. 8 So those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
9 However, you are not in the flesh but in the Ruach—if indeed the Ruach Elohim dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Ruach of Messiah, he does not belong to Him. 10 But if Messiah is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the Spirit is alive because of righteousness. 11 And if the Ruach of the One who raised Yeshua from the dead dwells in you, the One who raised Messiah Yeshua from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Ruach who dwells in you.
Tree of Life (TLV) Translation of the Bible. Copyright © 2015 by The Messianic Jewish Family Bible Society.