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Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Daily Bible readings that follow the church liturgical year, with thematically matched Old and New Testament readings.

Duration: 1245 days

Psalm 25:1-10

Psalm 25^[a]

By David.

25 O Lord, I come before you in prayer.^[b]
²My God, I trust in you.
Please do not let me be humiliated;
do not let my enemies triumphantly rejoice over me.
³Certainly none who rely on you will be humiliated.
Those who deal in treachery will be thwarted^[c] and humiliated.
⁴Make me understand your ways, O Lord.
Teach me your paths.^[d]
⁵Guide me into your truth^[e] and teach me.
For you are the God who delivers me;
on you I rely all day long.
⁶Remember^[f] your compassionate and faithful deeds, O Lord,
for you have always acted in this manner.^[g]
⁷Do not hold against me^[h] the sins of my youth^[i] or my rebellious acts.
Because you are faithful to me, extend to me your favor, O Lord.^[j]
⁸The Lord is both kind and fair;^[k]
that is why he teaches sinners the right way to live.^[l]
⁹May he show^[m] the humble what is right.^[n]
May he teach^[o] the humble his way.
¹⁰The Lord always proves faithful and reliable^[p]
to those who follow the demands of his covenant.^[q]

Footnotes

Psalm 25:1 sn Psalm 25. The psalmist asks for divine protection, guidance and forgiveness as he affirms his loyalty to and trust in the Lord. This psalm is an acrostic; every verse begins with a successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet, except for v. 18, which, like v. 19, begins with ר (resh) instead of the expected ק (qof). The final verse, which begins with פ (pe), stands outside the acrostic scheme.
Psalm 25:1 tn Heb “to you, O Lord, my life I lift up.” To “lift up” one’s “life” to the Lord means to express one’s trust in him through prayer. See Pss 86:4; 143:8.
Psalm 25:3 tn Heb “those who deal in treachery in vain.” The adverb רֵיקָם (reqam, “in vain”) probably refers to the failure (or futility) of their efforts. Another option is to understand it as meaning “without cause” (cf. NIV “without excuse”; NRSV “wantonly treacherous”).
Psalm 25:4 sn Teach me your paths. In this context the Lord’s “ways” and “paths” refer to the moral principles which the Lord prescribes for his followers. See vv. 8-10.
Psalm 25:5 sn The Lord’s commandments are referred to as truth here because they are a trustworthy and accurate expression of the divine will.
Psalm 25:6 tn That is, “remember” with the intention of repeating.
Psalm 25:6 tn Heb “for from antiquity [are] they.”
Psalm 25:7 tn Heb “do not remember,” with the intention of punishing.
Psalm 25:7 sn That is, the sins characteristic of youths, who lack moral discretion and wisdom.
Psalm 25:7 tn Heb “according to your faithfulness, remember me, you, for the sake of your goodness, O Lord.”
Psalm 25:8 tn Heb “good and just.”
Psalm 25:8 tn Heb “teaches sinners in the way.”
Psalm 25:9 tn The prefixed verbal form is jussive; the psalmist expresses his prayer.
Psalm 25:9 tn Heb “may he guide the humble into justice.” The Hebrew term עֲנָוִים (ʿanavim, “humble”) usually refers to the oppressed, but in this context, where the psalmist confesses his sin and asks for moral guidance, it apparently refers to sinners who humble themselves before God and seek deliverance from their sinful condition.
Psalm 25:9 tn The prefixed verbal form is interpreted as a jussive (it stands parallel to the jussive form, “may he guide”).
Psalm 25:10 tn Heb “all the paths of the Lord are faithful and trustworthy.” The Lord’s “paths” refer here to his characteristic actions.
Psalm 25:10 tn Heb “to the ones who keep his covenant and his testimonies.”

Nehemiah 9:6-15

⁶You alone are the Lord. You made the heavens, even the highest heavens,^[a] along with all their multitude of stars,^[b] the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them. You impart life to them all, and the multitudes of heaven worship you.

⁷“You are the Lord God who chose Abram and brought him forth from Ur of the Chaldeans. You changed his name to Abraham. ⁸When you perceived that his heart was faithful toward you, you established a^[c] covenant with him to give his descendants^[d] the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, and the Girgashites. You have fulfilled your promise,^[e] for you are righteous.

⁹“You saw the affliction of our ancestors in Egypt, and you heard their cry at the Red Sea.^[f] ¹⁰You performed awesome signs^[g] against Pharaoh, against his servants, and against all the people of his land, for you knew that the Egyptians^[h] had acted presumptuously^[i] against them. You made for yourself a name that is celebrated to this day. ¹¹You split the sea before them, and they crossed through^[j] the sea on dry ground. But you threw their pursuers^[k] into the depths, like a stone into surging^[l] waters. ¹²You guided them with a pillar of cloud by day and with a pillar of fire by night to illumine for them the path they were to travel.

¹³“You came down on Mount Sinai and spoke with them from heaven. You provided them with just judgments, true laws, and good statutes and commandments. ¹⁴You made known to them your holy Sabbath; you issued commandments, statutes, and laws to them through^[m] Moses your servant. ¹⁵You provided bread from heaven for them in their time of hunger, and you brought forth water from the rock for them in their time of thirst. You told them to enter in order to possess the land that you had sworn^[n] to give them.

1 Thessalonians 5:1-11

The Day of the Lord

5 Now on the topic of times and seasons,^[a] brothers and sisters,^[b] you have no need for anything to be written to you. ²For you know quite well that the day of the Lord^[c] will come in the same way as a thief in the night.^[d] ³Now when^[e] they are saying, “There is peace and security,”^[f] then sudden destruction comes on them, like labor pains^[g] on a pregnant woman, and they will surely not escape. ⁴But you, brothers and sisters,^[h] are not in the darkness for the day to overtake you like a thief would. ⁵For you all are sons of the light and sons of the day. We are not of the night nor of the darkness. ⁶So then we must not sleep as the rest, but must stay alert and sober. ⁷For those who sleep, sleep at night and those who get drunk are drunk at night. ⁸But since we are of the day, we must stay sober by putting on the breastplate^[i] of faith and love and as a helmet our hope for salvation.^[j] ⁹For God did not destine us for wrath^[k] but for gaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. ¹⁰He died^[l] for us so that whether we are alert or asleep^[m] we will come to life together with him. ¹¹Therefore encourage one another and build up each other, just as you are in fact doing.

Footnotes

1 Thessalonians 5:1 tn Grk “concerning the times and the seasons,” a reference to future periods of eschatological fulfillment (cf. Acts 1:7).
1 Thessalonians 5:1 tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:4.
1 Thessalonians 5:2 sn The day of the Lord is the period of time in the future when the Lord will intervene in the events of this earth to consummate his redemption and his judgment (Isa 2:11-12; 13:6-13; Ezek 30:3; Joel 1:15; 2:32; 3:18; Amos 5:18-20; Obad 15-17; Zeph 1:7-18; 2:2-3; Zech 14:1, 13, 20-21; Mal 4:1, 5; 1 Cor 1:8; 5:5; 2 Cor 1:14; 2 Thess 2:2; 2 Pet 3:10). It includes both blessings and curses, though the latter is emphasized here.
1 Thessalonians 5:2 sn Jesus used a thief coming at night as an illustration of the unexpected and hostile nature of the coming of God’s judgment in the future. This is repeated in various ways in v. 4; 2 Pet 3:10; Rev 3:3; 16:15.
1 Thessalonians 5:3 tc ‡ δέ (de, “now”) is found in א² B D 0226 6 1505 1739 1881 2464 al, but lacking in א* A F G 33 it. γάρ (gar, “for”) is the reading of the Byzantine text and a few other witnesses (Ψ 0278 1175 1241 M al). Although normally the shorter reading is to be preferred, the external evidence is superior for δέ (being found in the somewhat better Alexandrian and Western witnesses). What, then, is to explain the γάρ? Scribes were prone to replace δέ with γάρ, especially in sentences suggesting a causal or explanatory idea, thus making the point more explicit. Internally, the omission of δέ looks unintentional, a case of homoioarcton (otandelegwsin). Although a decision is difficult, in this instance δέ has the best credentials for authenticity.
1 Thessalonians 5:3 tn Grk “peace and security,” with “there is” understood in the Greek construction.
1 Thessalonians 5:3 tn Grk a singular “birth pain.”
1 Thessalonians 5:4 tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:4.
1 Thessalonians 5:8 sn An allusion to Isa 59:17.
1 Thessalonians 5:8 tn Grk “hope of salvation” (“a helmet…for salvation” is an allusion to Isa 59:17).
1 Thessalonians 5:9 sn God did not destine us for wrath. In context this refers to the outpouring of God’s wrath on the earth in the day of the Lord (1 Thess 5:2-4).
1 Thessalonians 5:10 tn Grk “the one who died,” describing Jesus Christ (1 Thess 5:9). Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started at the beginning of v. 10 in the translation.
1 Thessalonians 5:10 sn The phrases alert or asleep may be understood (1) of moral alertness (living in faith, love, and hope as vv. 6, 8 call for, versus being unresponsive to God) or (2) of physical life and death (whether alive or dead). The first fits better with the context of 5:1-9, while the second returns to the point Paul started with in 4:13-18 (no disadvantage for the believing dead).

New English Translation (NET)

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Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Psalm 25[a]

By David.

Footnotes

Footnotes

The Day of the Lord

Footnotes

Psalm 25^[a]