Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
Book II—Psalms 42–72[a]
Psalm 42[b]
Prayer of Longing for God
1 For the director.[c] A maskil of the sons of Korah.
2 As a deer longs for running streams,
so my soul longs for you, O God.[d]
3 My soul[e] thirsts for God, the living God.
When shall I come to behold the face of God?
4 My tears have become my food
day and night,
while people taunt me all day long, saying,
“Where is your God?”
5 As I pour out my soul,
I recall those times
when I journeyed with the multitude
and led them in procession to the house of God,
amid loud cries of joy and thanksgiving
on the part of the crowd keeping festival.
6 Why are you so disheartened, O my soul?
Why do you sigh within me?
Place your hope in God,
for I will once again praise him,
my Savior and my God.[f]
7 My soul is disheartened within me;
therefore, I remember you
from the land of Jordan and Hermon,
from Mount Mizar.[g]
8 The depths of the sea resound
in the roar of your waterfalls;[h]
all your waves and your breakers
sweep over me.
9 During the day the Lord grants his kindness,
and at night his praise is with me,
a prayer to the living God.[i]
10 I say to God, my Rock,[j]
“Why have you forgotten me?
Why must I go about in mourning
while my enemy oppresses me?”
11 It crushes my bones
when my foes taunt me,
jeering at me all day long,
“Where is your God?”[k]
12 Why are you so disheartened, O my soul?
Why do you sigh within me?
Place your hope in God;
for I will once again praise him,
my Savior and my God.[l]
Psalm 43[a]
Prayer To Worship God Anew
1 Grant me your justice, O God,
and plead my cause against a godless nation;
rescue me from those who are deceitful and unjust.
2 You, O God, are my refuge;
why have you rejected me?
Why must I go about in mourning,
while my enemy oppresses me?
3 Send forth your light and your truth;[b]
they will serve as my guide.
Let them bring me to your holy mountain,
to the place of your dwelling.
4 Then I will go to the altar of God,
to the God of my joy and delight,
and I will praise you[c] with the harp,
O God, my God.
5 Why are you so disheartened, O my soul?
Why do you sigh within me?
Place your hope in God;
for I will once again praise him,
my Savior and my God.[d]
Chapter 24
The Marriage of Isaac.[a] 1 Abraham was now old, well advanced in years, and the Lord had blessed him in everything. 2 Abraham said to his servant, the oldest of his household, who supervised his property, “Place your hand under my thigh[b] 3 and swear to the Lord, the God of heaven and the God of the earth, that you will not get a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites among whom we live. 4 Rather, go to my homeland, to my family, and choose a wife for my son Isaac.”
5 The servant asked him, “If the woman does not wish to follow me to this land, should I take your son back to the land from which you came?”
6 Abraham answered him, “Never take my son back there! 7 The Lord, the God of heaven and the God of the earth, who called me out from the house of my father and the land of my birth, spoke to me and promised, ‘To your descendants I will give this land.’ He himself will send an angel before you so that you can find a wife for my son. 8 If the woman does not wish to follow you, you will be absolved of the oath you have made to me. Only, you must not take my son back there.” 9 The servant placed his hand under the thigh of Abraham, his master, and he swore an oath to him concerning these things.
10 The servant took ten of his master’s camels along with all kinds of different precious objects and he set out and went to Aram-naharaim,[c] to the city of Nahor. 11 He rested the camels outside of the city, near the well, at evening time when the women would go out to draw water.
12 He said, “O Lord, God of my master Abraham, grant me success today and be gracious to my master Abraham! 13 Behold, I am in front of the well and the young women of the town are coming out to draw water. 14 That young woman to whom I say, ‘Lower your jug and let me drink,’ and she responds, ‘Drink, and I will give your camels some water too,’ let her be the one you have chosen for Isaac, your servant. By this I will know that you have acted kindly to my master.”
15 He barely finished speaking when Rebekah, who was the daughter of Bethuel, the son of Milcah, who was the wife of Abraham’s brother Nahor, came out with a jug on her shoulder. 16 The young woman was very pretty and a virgin, never having slept with a man. She went down to the well and filled her jug and came back up.
17 The servant hurried up to her and said, “Please give me some of the water from your jug.”
18 She answered, “Drink, my lord,” and quickly lowered the jug unto her hand and gave him some water to drink.
19 When she had finished letting him drink, she said, “I will draw water for your camels as well, until they have finished drinking.” 20 She quickly emptied her jug in the water trough and ran off to draw more water from the well until all the camels had drunk from it. 21 The man watched in silence to see whether or not the Lord would grant success to this quest.
17 [a]You call yourself a Jew and rely on the Law and are proud of your relationship to God, 18 and you know his will and are able to distinguish between right and wrong because you have been instructed in the Law, 19 and you are confident that you are a guide to the blind, a light for those in darkness, 20 an instructor of the foolish, and a teacher of the simple because in the Law you have the embodiment of knowledge and truth.
21 You, then, who teach others, do you not teach yourself? You who preach against stealing, are you yourself a thief? 22 You who forbid adultery, are you yourself an adulterer? You who abhor idols, do you commit sacrilege? 23 You who boast of the Law, do you dishonor God by breaking it? 24 As it is written, “Because of you the name of God is reviled among the Gentiles.”
25 Circumcision and the Heart.[b] Circumcision has value if you obey the Law. However, if you break the Law, you have become as if you had never been circumcised. 26 In the same way, if one who is not circumcised keeps the precepts of the Law, will not his uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision? 27 Then the man who is not physically circumcised but nevertheless observes the Law will condemn you who have the written code and circumcision but break the Law.
28 A man is not a Jew who is only one outwardly, nor is true circumcision external and physical. 29 Rather, the Jew is one who is a Jew inwardly, and true circumcision is of the heart—spiritual, not literal. He receives his praise not from human beings but from God.
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