Scripture Reading for the
Common Calendar Year
(beginning January 1st)

March 17

Text taken from the
Third Millennium Bible^® (TMB^®)
(New Authorized Version^TM NAV^TM)

The Lectionary According to the Common Calendar

Psalm 69:19-36

19 Thou hast known my reproach and my shame and my dishonor;
mine adversaries are all before Thee.
20 Reproach hath broken my heart,
and I am full of heaviness;
I looked for some to take pity, but there was none,
and for comforters, but I found none.
21 They gave me also gall for my meat,
and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.

29 But I am poor and sorrowful;
let Thy salvation, O God, set me up on high.
30 I will praise the name of God with a song,
and will magnify Him with thanksgiving.
31 This also shall please the LORD better than an ox
or a bullock that hath horns and hoofs.
32 The humble shall see this and be glad,
and your heart shall live, that seek God.
33 For the LORD heareth the poor,
and despiseth not His prisoners.

34 Let the heaven and earth praise Him,
the seas and every thing that moveth therein.
35 For God will save Zion and will build the cities of Judah,
that they may dwell there and possess it.
36 The seed also of His servants shall inherit it,
and them that love His name shall dwell therein.

Matthew 22:34-40

34 But when the Pharisees had heard that He had put the Sadducees to silence, they were gathered together. 35 Then one of them, who was a lawyer, asked Him a question, tempting Him and saying, 36 "Master, which is the great commandment in the law?" 37 Jesus said unto him,

"'Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.' 38 This is the first and great commandment. 39 And the second is like unto it: `Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.' 40 On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets."

Romans 8:31-39

31 What then shall we say of these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? 32 He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? 33 Who shall lay anything to the charge against God's elect? It is God who justifieth. 34 Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ who died, yea rather, who is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.

35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36 As it is written:

"For Thy sake we are killed all the day long;
we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter."

37 Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us. 38 For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, 39 nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Deuteronomy 4:1-24

1 "Now therefore hearken, O Israel, unto the statutes and unto the judgments which I teach you to do them, that ye may live, and go in and possess the land which the LORD God of your fathers giveth you. 2 Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish aught from it, that ye may keep the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you. 3 Your eyes have seen what the LORD did because of Baalpeor; for all the men who followed Baalpeor, the LORD thy God hath destroyed them from among you. 4 But ye that did cleave unto the LORD your God are alive every one of you this day. 5 Behold, I have taught you statutes and judgments, even as the LORD my God commanded me, that ye should do so in the land whither ye go to possess it. 6 Keep therefore and do them; for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations who shall hear all these statutes, and say, `Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.' 7 For what nation is there so great, who hath God so nigh unto them as the LORD our God is in all things that we call upon Him for? 8 And what nation is there so great, that hath statutes and judgments so righteous as all this law which I set before you this day?

9 "Only take heed to thyself and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen, and lest they depart from thy heart all the days of thy life; but teach them to thy sons and thy sons' sons, 10 especially the day that thou stoodest before the LORD thy God in Horeb, when the LORD said unto me, `Gather Me the people together, and I will make them hear My words, that they may learn to fear Me all the days that they shall live upon the earth, and that they may teach their children.' 11 And ye came near and stood under the mountain; and the mountain burned with fire unto the midst of heaven, with darkness, clouds, and thick darkness. 12 And the LORD spoke unto you out of the midst of the fire. Ye heard the voice of the words, but saw no similitude; only ye heard a voice. 13 And He declared unto you His covenant, which He commanded you to perform, even Ten Commandments; and He wrote them upon two tablets of stone. 14 And the LORD commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and judgments, that ye might do them in the land whither ye go over to possess it.

15 "Take ye therefore good heed unto yourselves (for ye saw no manner of similitude on the day that the LORD spoke unto you in Horeb out of the midst of the fire), 16 lest ye corrupt yourselves and make you a graven image: the similitude of any figure, the likeness of male or female, 17 the likeness of any beast that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged fowl that flieth in the air, 18 the likeness of any thing that creepeth on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the waters beneath the earth; 19 and lest thou lift up thine eyes unto heaven, and when thou seest the sun and the moon and the stars, even all the host of heaven, shouldest be driven to worship them and serve them, which the LORD thy God hath imparted unto all nations under the whole heaven. 20 But the LORD hath taken you and brought you forth out of the iron furnace, even out of Egypt, to be unto Him a people of inheritance, as ye are this day. 21 Furthermore the LORD was angry with me for your sakes, and swore that I should not go over the Jordan, and that I should not go in unto that good land which the LORD thy God giveth thee for an inheritance. 22 But I must die in this land, I must not go over the Jordan; but ye shall go over and possess that good land. 23 Take heed unto yourselves, lest ye forget the covenant of the LORD your God which He made with you, and make yourselves a graven image or the likeness of any thing which the LORD thy God hath forbidden thee. 24 For the LORD thy God is a consuming fire, even a jealous God.

Words of Wisdom - Proverbs 11:1 

A false balance is an abomination to the LORD, 
but a just weight is His delight.