Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
Celebration of God’s Justice
For the choir director: according to Muth-labben. A psalm of David.
9 I will thank the Lord with all my heart;
I will declare all your wondrous works.(A)
2 I will rejoice and boast about you;(B)
I will sing about your name, Most High.(C)
3 When my enemies retreat,
they stumble and perish before you.(D)
4 For you have upheld my just cause;(E)
you are seated on your throne as a righteous judge.(F)
5 You have rebuked the nations:(G)
You have destroyed the wicked;(H)
you have erased their name for ever and ever.(I)
6 The enemy has come to eternal ruin;
you have uprooted the cities,
and the very memory of them has perished.(J)
7 But the Lord sits enthroned for ever;(K)
he has established his throne for judgement.(L)
8 And he judges the world with righteousness;
he executes judgement on the nations with fairness.(M)
9 The Lord is a refuge for the persecuted,
a refuge in times of trouble.(N)
10 Those who know your name trust in you
because you have not abandoned
those who seek you, Lord.(O)
Job’s Reply to Eliphaz
16 Then Job answered:
2 I have heard many things like these.
You are all miserable comforters.(A)
3 Is there no end to your empty[a](B) words?
What provokes you that you continue testifying?
4 If you were in my place I could also talk like you.
I could string words together against you
and shake my head at you.
5 Instead, I would encourage you with my mouth,
and the consolation from my lips would bring relief.(C)
6 If I speak, my suffering is not relieved,
and if I hold back, does any of it leave me?
7 Surely he[b] has now exhausted me.
You have devastated my entire family.
8 You have shrivelled me up[c] – it has become a witness;
my frailty rises up against me and testifies to my face.
9 His anger tears at me, and he harasses(D) me.
He gnashes his teeth at me.
My enemy pierces me with his eyes.
10 They open their mouths against me
and strike my cheeks with contempt;(E)
they join themselves together against me.
11 God hands me over to the unjust;[d]
he throws me to the wicked.
12 I was at ease, but he shattered me;
he seized me by the scruff of the neck
and smashed me to pieces.
He set me up as his target;(F)
13 his archers[e] surround me.
He pierces my kidneys without mercy
and pours my bile on the ground.
14 He breaks through my defences again and again;[f]
he charges at me like a warrior.(G)
Faithful Service to Christ
45 ‘Who then is a faithful and wise servant,(A) whom his master has put in charge of his household, to give them food at the proper time?(B) 46 Blessed is that servant whom the master finds doing his job when he comes.(C) 47 Truly I tell you, he will put him in charge of all his possessions. 48 But if that wicked servant says in his heart, “My master is delayed,” 49 and starts to beat his fellow servants, and eats and drinks with drunkards,(D) 50 that servant’s master will come on a day he does not expect him and at an hour he does not know. 51 He will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
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