Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
BOOK IV
(Psalms 90–106)
Psalm 90
Eternal God and Mortal Man
A prayer of Moses, the man of God.
1 Lord, You have been our refuge[a]
in every generation.(A)
2 Before the mountains were born,
before You gave birth to the earth and the world,
from eternity to eternity, You are God.(B)
3 You return mankind to the dust,
saying, “Return, descendants of Adam.”(C)
4 For in Your sight a thousand years
are like yesterday that passes by,
like a few hours of the night.(D)
5 You end their lives;[b] they sleep.(E)
They are like grass that grows in the morning—
6 in the morning it sprouts and grows;
by evening it withers and dries up.(F)
9 For all our days ebb away under Your wrath;
we end our years like a sigh.(A)
10 Our lives last[a] seventy years
or, if we are strong, eighty years.
Even the best of them are[b] struggle and sorrow;
indeed, they pass quickly and we fly away.(B)
11 Who understands the power of Your anger?
Your wrath matches the fear that is due You.(C)
10 Look, the day is coming!
Doom has gone out.(A)
The rod has blossomed;(B)
arrogance has bloomed.(C)
11 Violence has grown into a rod of wickedness.(D)
None of them will remain:
none of their multitude,
none of their wealth,
and none of the eminent[a] among them.
12 The time has come; the day has arrived.
Let the buyer not rejoice(E)
and the seller not mourn,
for wrath is on all her masses.(F)
13 The seller will certainly not return
to what was sold
as long as he and the buyer remain alive.[b]
For the vision concerning all its people
will not be revoked,
and none of them will preserve
his life because of his iniquity.
14 They have blown the trumpet(G)
and prepared everything,
but no one goes to war,
for My wrath is on all her masses.
15 The sword is on the outside;(H)
plague and famine are on the inside.
Whoever is in the field will die by the sword,
and famine and plague will devour
whoever is in the city.
16 The survivors among them will escape(I)
and live on the mountains
like doves of the valley,
all of them moaning,
each over his own iniquity.
17 All their hands will become weak,(J)
and all their knees will turn to water.
18 They will put on sackcloth,
and horror will overwhelm them.
Shame will cover all their faces,
and all their heads will be bald.(K)
19 They will throw their silver into the streets,
and their gold will seem like something filthy.(L)
Their silver and gold will be unable to save them
in the day of the Lord’s wrath.(M)
They will not satisfy their appetites
or fill their stomachs,
for these were the stumbling blocks(N)
that brought about their iniquity.
20 He appointed His beautiful ornaments for majesty,
but[c] they made their abhorrent images from them,
their detestable things.(O)
Therefore, I have made these
into something filthy for them.
21 I will hand these things over
to foreigners as plunder(P)
and to the wicked of the earth as spoil,
and they will profane them.
22 I will turn My face from the wicked
as they profane My treasured place.
Violent men will enter it and profane it.
23 Forge the chain,(Q)
for the land is filled with crimes of bloodshed,
and the city is filled with violence.(R)
24 So I will bring the most evil of nations(S)
to take possession of their houses.
I will put an end to the pride of the strong,
and their sacred places will be profaned.(T)
25 Anguish is coming!
They will seek peace, but there will be none.
26 Disaster after disaster will come,(U)
and there will be rumor after rumor.(V)
Then they will seek a vision from a prophet,(W)
but instruction will perish from the priests
and counsel from the elders.(X)
27 The king will mourn;
the prince will be clothed in grief;
and the hands of the people of the land will tremble.
I will deal with them according to their own conduct,
and I will judge them by their own standards.(Y)
Then they will know that I am Yahweh.
An Unclean Spirit’s Return
43 “When an unclean spirit comes out of a man, it roams through waterless places looking for rest but doesn’t find any.(A) 44 Then it says, ‘I’ll go back to my house that I came from.’ And returning, it finds the house vacant, swept, and put in order. 45 Then off it goes and brings with it seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and settle down there. As a result, that man’s last condition is worse than the first.(B) That’s how it will also be with this evil generation.”
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