Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
Psalm 1
The Two Ways
1 How happy is the one who does not
walk in the advice of the wicked
or stand in the pathway with sinners
or sit in the company of mockers!(A)
2 Instead, his delight is in the Lord’s instruction,
and he meditates on it day and night.(B)
3 He is like a tree planted beside flowing streams[a]
that bears its fruit in its season,(C)
and its leaf does not wither.(D)
Whatever he does prospers.(E)
20 Look up and see
those coming from the north.(A)
Where is the flock entrusted to you,
the sheep that were your pride?
The Destiny of Jerusalem
21 What will you say when he appoints
close friends as leaders over you,
ones you yourself trained?
Won’t labor pains seize you,(B)
as they do a woman in labor?
22 And when you ask yourself,
“Why have these things happened to me?”
it is because of your great guilt(C)
that your skirts have been stripped off,(D)
your body exposed.[a]
23 Can the Cushite change his skin,
or a leopard his spots?
If so, you might be able to do what is good,(E)
you who are instructed in evil.
24 I will scatter you[b] like drifting chaff(F)
before the desert wind.
25 This is your lot,
what I have decreed for you—
this is the Lord’s declaration—
because you have forgotten me(G)
and trusted in lies.(H)
26 I will pull your skirts up over your face
so that your shame might be seen.(I)
27 Your adulteries and your lustful neighing,(J)
your depraved prostitution
on the hills, in the fields—
I have seen your abhorrent acts.
Woe to you, Jerusalem!
You are unclean—
for how long yet?(K)
17 If you appeal to the Father who judges impartially(A) according to each one’s work,(B) you are to conduct yourselves in reverence(C) during your time living as strangers. 18 For you know that you were redeemed from your empty way of life(D) inherited from your ancestors, not with perishable things like silver or gold,(E) 19 but with the precious blood of Christ,(F) like that of an unblemished and spotless lamb.(G) 20 He was foreknown(H) before the foundation of the world but was revealed in these last times(I) for you. 21 Through him you believe in God,(J) who raised him from the dead(K) and gave him glory,(L) so that your faith and hope are in God.
22 Since you have purified yourselves by your obedience to the truth,[a] so that you show sincere brotherly love for each other,(M) from a pure[b] heart love one another constantly,[c](N) 23 because you have been born again(O)—not of perishable seed(P) but of imperishable—through the living and enduring word of God.(Q) 24 For
All flesh is like grass,
and all its glory(R) like a flower of the grass.
The grass withers, and the flower falls,
25 but the word of the Lord endures forever.[d](S)
And this word is the gospel that was proclaimed to you.
The Living Stone and a Holy People
2 Therefore, rid yourselves of(T) all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all slander.(U)
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