◀ All Reading Plans / Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous) / Psalm 119:41-48 (I will keep God’s law); Deuteronomy 26:16—27:7 (The covenant ratified); Matthew 19:16-22 (Keeping the commandments) (New English Translation)

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Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Daily Bible readings that follow the church liturgical year, with sequential stories told across multiple weeks.

Duration: 1245 days

Psalm 119:41-48

ו (Vav)

⁴¹May I experience your loyal love,^[a] O Lord,
and your deliverance,^[b] as you promised.^[c]
⁴²Then I will have a reply for the one who insults me,^[d]
for I trust in your word.
⁴³Do not completely deprive me of a truthful testimony,^[e]
for I await your justice.
⁴⁴Then I will keep^[f] your law continually
now and for all time.^[g]
⁴⁵I will be secure,^[h]
for I seek your precepts.
⁴⁶I will speak^[i] about your regulations before kings
and not be ashamed.
⁴⁷I will find delight in your commands,
which I love.
⁴⁸I will lift my hands to^[j] your commands,
which I love,
and I will meditate on your statutes.

Footnotes

Psalm 119:41 tn Heb “and may your loyal love come to me.”
Psalm 119:41 tn Or “salvation” (so many English versions).
Psalm 119:41 tn Heb “according to your word.”
Psalm 119:42 tn Heb “and I will answer [the] one who insults me a word.” The prefixed verbal form with vav (ו) conjunctive indicates purpose/result after the jussive (see v. 41).
Psalm 119:43 tn Heb “do not snatch from my mouth a word of truth to excess.” The psalmist wants to be able to give a reliable testimony about the Lord’s loyal love (vv. 41-42), but if God does not intervene, the psalmist will be deprived of doing so, for the evidence of such love (i.e., deliverance) will be lacking.
Psalm 119:44 tn The cohortative verbal form with vav (ו) conjunctive indicates purpose/result after the negated jussive (see v. 43).
Psalm 119:44 tn Or “forever and ever.”
Psalm 119:45 tn Heb “and I will walk about in a wide place.” The cohortative with prefixed vav (ו) conjunctive gives a further consequence of the anticipated positive divine response (see vv. 43-44). Another option is to take the cohortative as expressing the psalmist’s request. In this case one could translate, “and please give me security.”
Psalm 119:46 tn The series of four cohortatives with prefixed vav (ו) conjunctive in vv. 46-48 list further consequences of the anticipated positive divine response to the request made in v. 43.
Psalm 119:48 tn Lifting the hands is often associated with prayer (Pss 28:2; 63:4; Lam 2:19). (1) Because praying to God’s law borders on the extreme, some prefer to emend the text to “I lift up my hands to you,” eliminating “your commands, which I love” as dittographic. In this view these words were accidentally repeated from the previous verse. (2) However, it is possible that the psalmist closely associates the law with God himself because he views the law as the expression of the divine will. (3) Another option is that “lifting the hands” does not refer to prayer here, but to the psalmist’s desire to receive and appropriate the law. (4) Still others understand this to be an action praising God’s commands (so NCV; cf. TEV, CEV, NLT).

Deuteronomy 26:16-27:7

Narrative Interlude

¹⁶Today the Lord your God is commanding you to keep these statutes and ordinances, something you must do with all your heart and soul.^[a] ¹⁷Today you have declared the Lord to be your God, and that you will walk in his ways, keep his statutes, commandments, and ordinances, and obey him. ¹⁸And today the Lord has declared you to be his special people (as he already promised you) so you may keep all his commandments. ¹⁹Then^[b] he will elevate you above all the nations he has made and you will receive praise, fame, and honor.^[c] You will^[d] be a people holy to the Lord your God, as he has said.

The Assembly at Shechem

27 Then Moses and the elders of Israel commanded the people: “Pay attention to all the commandments^[e] I am giving^[f] you today. ²When you cross the Jordan River^[g] to the land the Lord your God is giving you, you must erect great stones and cover^[h] them with plaster. ³Then you must inscribe on them all the words of this law when you cross over, so that you may enter the land the Lord your God is giving you, a land flowing with milk and honey just as the Lord, the God of your ancestors,^[i] said to you. ⁴So when you cross the Jordan you must erect on Mount Ebal^[j] these stones about which I am commanding you today, and you must cover them with plaster. ⁵Then you must build an altar there to the Lord your God, an altar of stones—do not use an iron tool on them. ⁶You must build the altar of the Lord your God with whole stones and offer burnt offerings on it to the Lord your God. ⁷Also you must offer fellowship offerings and eat them there, rejoicing before the Lord your God.

Matthew 19:16-22

The Rich Young Man

¹⁶Now^[a] someone came up to him and said, “Teacher, what good thing must I do to gain eternal life?”^[b] ¹⁷He said to him, “Why do you ask me about what is good? There is only one who is good. But if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments.” ¹⁸“Which ones?” he asked. Jesus replied, “Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, ¹⁹honor your father and mother,^[c] and love your neighbor as yourself.”^[d] ²⁰The young man said to him, “I have wholeheartedly obeyed^[e] all these laws.^[f] What do I still lack?” ²¹Jesus said to him, “If you wish to be perfect, go sell your possessions and give the money^[g] to the poor, and you will have treasure^[h] in heaven. Then come, follow me.” ²²But when the young man heard this he went away sorrowful, for he was very rich.^[i]

Footnotes

Matthew 19:16 tn Grk “And behold one came.” The Greek word ἰδού (idou) has not been translated because it has no exact English equivalent here, but adds interest and emphasis (BDAG 468 s.v. 1). Here καί (kai) has been translated as “now” to indicate the transition to a new topic.
Matthew 19:16 sn Here the questioner asks how to gain eternal life. In several places Matthew uses “life” or “eternal life” in proximity with “the kingdom of heaven” or merely “the kingdom,” suggesting a close relationship between the two concepts (compare Matt 25:34 with v. 46; Matt 19:16, 17, 29 with vv. 23, 24). Matthew consistently portrays “eternal life” as something a person enters in the world to come, whereas the Gospel of John sees “eternal life” as beginning in the present and continuing into the future (cf. John 5:24).
Matthew 19:19 sn A quotation from Exod 20:12-16; Deut 5:16-20.
Matthew 19:19 sn A quotation from Lev 19:18.
Matthew 19:20 tn Grk “kept.” The implication of this verb is that the man has obeyed the commandments without fail, so the adverb “wholeheartedly” has been added to the translation to bring out this nuance.
Matthew 19:20 tn Grk “these things.” The referent of the pronoun (the laws mentioned by Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.sn While the rich man was probably being sincere when he insisted I have wholeheartedly obeyed all these laws, he had confined his righteousness to external obedience. The rich man’s response to Jesus’ command—to give away all he had—revealed that internally he loved money more than God.
Matthew 19:21 tn The words “the money” are not in the Greek text, but are implied. Direct objects were often omitted in Greek when clear from the context.
Matthew 19:21 sn The call for sacrifice comes with a promise of eternal reward: You will have treasure in heaven. Jesus’ call is a test to see how responsive the man is to God’s direction through him. Will he walk the path God’s agent calls him to walk? For a rich person who got it right, see Zacchaeus in Luke 19:1-10.
Matthew 19:22 tn Grk “he had many possessions.” This term (κτῆμα, ktēma) is often used for land as a possession.

New English Translation (NET)

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Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

ו (Vav)

Footnotes

Narrative Interlude

The Assembly at Shechem

Footnotes

The Rich Young Man

Footnotes