Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
Safety of Abiding in the Presence of God
91 He (A)who dwells in the secret place of the Most High
Shall abide (B)under the shadow of the Almighty.
2 (C)I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress;
My God, in Him I will trust.”
3 Surely (D)He shall deliver you from the snare of the [a]fowler
And from the perilous pestilence.
4 (E)He shall cover you with His feathers,
And under His wings you shall take refuge;
His truth shall be your shield and [b]buckler.
5 (F)You shall not be afraid of the terror by night,
Nor of the arrow that flies by day,
6 Nor of the pestilence that walks in darkness,
Nor of the destruction that lays waste at noonday.
14 “Because he has set his love upon Me, therefore I will deliver him;
I will [a]set him on high, because he has (A)known My name.
15 He shall (B)call upon Me, and I will answer him;
I will be (C)with him in trouble;
I will deliver him and honor him.
16 With [b]long life I will satisfy him,
And show him My salvation.”
False Prophets and Empty Oracles
9 My heart within me is broken
Because of the prophets;
(A)All my bones shake.
I am like a drunken man,
And like a man whom wine has overcome,
Because of the Lord,
And because of His holy words.
10 For (B)the land is full of adulterers;
For (C)because of a curse the land mourns.
(D)The pleasant places of the wilderness are dried up.
Their course of life is evil,
And their might is not right.
11 “For (E)both prophet and priest are profane;
Yes, (F)in My house I have found their wickedness,” says the Lord.
12 “Therefore(G) their way shall be to them
Like slippery ways;
In the darkness they shall be driven on
And fall in them;
For I (H)will bring disaster on them,
The year of their punishment,” says the Lord.
13 “And I have seen [a]folly in the prophets of Samaria:
(I)They prophesied by Baal
And (J)caused My people Israel to err.
14 Also I have seen a horrible thing in the prophets of Jerusalem:
(K)They commit adultery and walk in lies;
They also (L)strengthen the hands of evildoers,
So that no one turns back from his wickedness.
All of them are like (M)Sodom to Me,
And her inhabitants like Gomorrah.
15 “Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts concerning the prophets:
‘Behold, I will feed them with (N)wormwood,
And make them drink the water of gall;
For from the prophets of Jerusalem
[b]Profaneness has gone out into all the land.’ ”
16 Thus says the Lord of hosts:
“Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you.
They make you worthless;
(O)They speak a vision of their own heart,
Not from the mouth of the Lord.
17 They continually say to those who despise Me,
‘The Lord has said, (P)“You shall have peace” ’;
And to everyone who (Q)walks according to the [c]dictates of his own heart, they say,
(R)‘No evil shall come upon you.’ ”
18 For (S)who has stood in the counsel of the Lord,
And has perceived and heard His word?
Who has marked His word and heard it?
19 Behold, a (T)whirlwind of the Lord has gone forth in fury—
A violent whirlwind!
It will fall violently on the head of the wicked.
20 The (U)anger of the Lord will not turn back
Until He has executed and performed the thoughts of His heart.
(V)In the latter days you will understand it perfectly.
Christ Our Pattern
8 (A)I speak not by commandment, but I am testing the sincerity of your love by the diligence of others. 9 For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, (B)that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might become (C)rich.
10 And in this (D)I give advice: (E)It is to your advantage not only to be doing what you began and (F)were desiring to do a year ago; 11 but now you also must complete the doing of it; that as there was a readiness to desire it, so there also may be a completion out of what you have. 12 For (G)if there is first a willing mind, it is accepted according to what one has, and not according to what he does not have.
13 For I do not mean that others should be eased and you burdened; 14 but by an equality, that now at this time your abundance may supply their lack, that their abundance also may supply your lack—that there may be equality. 15 As it is written, (H)“He who gathered much had nothing left over, and he who gathered little had no lack.”
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.