Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
5 O Lord, your mercy reaches to the heavens,
your faithfulness to the skies.
6 Your righteousness is like the mountains of God,
your judgments like the deep ocean.
You save people and animals, O Lord.
7 Your mercy is so precious, O God,
that Adam’s descendants take refuge
in the shadow of your wings.
8 They are refreshed with the rich foods in your house,
and you make them drink from the river of your pleasure.
9 Indeed, the fountain of life is with you.
In your light we see light.
10 Continue to show your mercy to those who know you
and your righteousness to those whose motives are decent.
19 “I wanted to treat you like children
and give you a pleasant land,
the most beautiful property among the nations.
I thought that you would call me Father and wouldn’t turn away from me.
20 But like a wife who betrays her husband,
so you, nation of Israel, betrayed me,” declares the Lord.
21 The sound of crying is heard on the hills.
It is the crying and the pleading of the people of Israel.
They have become crooked
and have forgotten the Lord their God.
22 “Come back, you rebellious people,
and I will forgive you for being unfaithful.”
Here we are!
We have come to you because you are the Lord our God.
23 Truly, the noise from the hills, from the mountains,
is the noise of false worship.
Truly, the Lord our God will rescue us.
24 Ever since we were young,
the shameful worship ⌞of Baal⌟
has taken everything our ancestors worked for,
their flocks and herds, their sons and daughters.
25 We must lie down in our shame
and be covered by our disgrace.
Ever since we were young, we and our ancestors have sinned
against the Lord our God.
We haven’t obeyed the Lord our God.
Advice about Marriage
7 Now, concerning the things that you wrote about: It’s good for men not to get married. 2 But in order to avoid sexual sins, each man should have his own wife, and each woman should have her own husband.
3 Husbands and wives should satisfy each other’s ⌞sexual⌟ needs. 4 A wife doesn’t have authority over her own body, but her husband does. In the same way, a husband doesn’t have authority over his own body, but his wife does.
5 Don’t withhold yourselves from each other unless you agree to do so for a set time to devote yourselves to prayer. Then you should get back together so that Satan doesn’t use your lack of self-control to tempt you. 6 What I have just said is not meant as a command but as a suggestion. 7 I would like everyone to be like me. However, each person has a special gift from God, and these gifts vary from person to person.
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