Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
Book Three
Many of the psalms in Book Three (Psalms 73–89) are attributed to Asaph. He was a Levite musician appointed by David to lead the worship that surrounded the covenant chest in the congregation tent (1 Chronicles 16:4–6). Asaph and his descendants continued this work through much of Israel’s history, specifically when Solomon dedicated the temple (2 Chronicles 5:12), when Josiah revived the worship of the Eternal One in Jerusalem (2 Chronicles 35:15), and when Ezra and Nehemiah dedicated the wall around Jerusalem (Nehemiah 12:35).
The psalms attributed to Asaph were liturgical, that is, they were chanted or sung as a part of the regular worship of God in the temple by the priests, Levites, and perhaps other worshipers too. Whether songs of lament, requests for guidance, or pleas for mercy, these psalms were sung in the one place God would hear them best—at His temple—the nexus between heaven and earth.
Psalm 73
A song of Asaph.
1 Truly God is good to His people, Israel,
to those with pure hearts.
2 Though I know this is true, I almost lost my footing;
yes, my steps were on slippery ground.
3 You see, there was a time when I envied arrogant men
and thought, “The wicked look pretty happy to me.”
4 For they seem to live carefree lives, free of suffering;
their bodies are strong and healthy.
5 They don’t know trouble as we do;
they are not plagued with problems as the rest of us are.
6 They’ve got pearls of pride strung around their necks;
they clothe their bodies with violence.
7 They have so much more than enough.
Their eyes bulge because they are so fat with possessions.
They have more than their hearts could have ever imagined.
8 There is nothing sacred, and no one is safe.
Vicious sarcasm drips from their lips;
they bully and threaten to crush their enemies.
9 They even mock God as if He were not above;
their arrogant tongues boast throughout the earth; they feel invincible.
10 Even God’s people turn and are carried away by them;
they watch and listen, yet find no fault in them.
11 You will hear them say, “How can the True God possibly know anyway? He’s not even here.
So how can the Most High have any knowledge of what happens here?”
12 Let me tell you what I know about the wicked:
they are comfortably at rest while their wealth is growing and growing.
13 Oh, let this not be me! It seems I have scrubbed my heart to keep it clean
and washed my hands in innocence.
And for what? Nothing.
14 For all day long, I am being punished,
each day awakening to stern chastisement.
15 If I had said to others these kinds of things about the plight of God’s good people,
then I know I would have betrayed the next generation.
16 Trying to solve this mystery on my own exhausted me;
I couldn’t bear to look at it any further.
17 So I took my questions to the True God,
and in His sanctuary I realized something so chilling and final: their lives have a deadly end.
18 Because You have certainly set the wicked upon a slippery slope,
You’ve set them up to slide to their destruction.
19 And they won’t see it coming. It will happen so fast:
first, a flash of terror, and then desolation.
20 It is like a dream from which someone awakes.
You will wake up, Lord, and loathe what has become of them.
21 You see, my heart overflowed with bitterness and cynicism;
I felt as if someone stabbed me in the back.
22 But I didn’t know the truth;
I have been acting like a stupid animal toward You.
23 But look at this: You are still holding my right hand;
You have been all along.
24 Even though I was angry and hard-hearted, You gave me good advice;
when it’s all over, You will receive me into Your glory.
25 For all my wanting, I don’t have anyone but You in heaven.
There is nothing on earth that I desire other than You.
26 I admit how broken I am in body and spirit,
but God is my strength, and He will be mine forever.
27 It will happen: whoever shuns You will be silenced forever;
You will bring an end to all who refuse to be true to You.
28 But the closer I am to You, my God, the better because life with You is good.
O Lord, the Eternal, You keep me safe—
I will tell everyone what You have done.
3 The word of the Eternal came to the prophet Jonah a second time.
Eternal One: 2 Get up, and go to that powerful and notorious city of Nineveh, and pass on to them the message I’m giving you.
3 Having learned his lesson, Jonah yielded to the Eternal’s command and headed on the road to Nineveh. Now Nineveh was an important city, so large that it took three days to travel throughout it. 4 Jonah had barely begun to walk the first day’s journey into the city when he stopped.
Jonah (shouting out to the people of Nineveh): After 40 days, Nineveh will be annihilated.
5 With that announcement, the people of Nineveh started to trust in Jonah’s God! Every person—whether young or old, rich or poor, male or female—fasted and wore a sack as a sign of remorse for his past wickedness. 6 The people of Nineveh told each other about this, until the news made it all the way to the king of Nineveh, who ruled the entire Assyrian Empire. The king changed from his royal robes to sackcloth, and instead of sitting up high on his throne, he sat down low in the dust. 7 He sent an official message to his subjects.
King’s Message: By order of the king of Nineveh and his nobles, “No human being, animal, cattle, or flock may taste anything. None of them may go out to eat or drink any water. 8 Instead let both humans and animals cover themselves with sacks. Let all who belong to this empire call to God sincerely and turn from their wicked ways and violent acts. 9 Perhaps Jonah’s God will show mercy and relent from His judgment. Perhaps out of compassion He will not unleash His fierce anger against us, and we may be spared.”
10 God saw all they did and how they turned from their evil ways. So He relented and decided not to unleash the disasters He said He would through His servant Jonah.
8 Don’t imagine, dear friends, that God’s timetable is the same as ours; as the psalm says, for with the Lord, one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years is like one day.[a]
Scoffers use the delay in His second coming to question if He is going to return at all. Peter responds by saying that God’s perspective on time is not like ours. What seems long from a finite, human perspective is incredibly short from an eternal one. Peter also describes how God is not slow, but patient. God wants to allow the time needed for as many sinners as possible to turn from their sinful ways. Unlike some depictions of God as vindictive and enjoying inflicting punishment on people, the God we see here desires that all be saved and not destroyed. If we had true spiritual insight, we would not be amazed by the severity of eternal judgment but by the intensity of God’s mercy.
9 Now the Lord is not slow about enacting His promise—slow is how some people want to characterize it—no, He is not slow but patient and merciful to you, not wanting anyone to be destroyed, but wanting everyone to turn away from following his own path and to turn toward God’s.[b]
10 The day of the Lord will come unexpectedly like a thief in the night; and on that day, the sky will vanish with a roar, the elements will melt with intense heat, and the earth and all the works done on it will be seen as they truly are.[c] 11 Knowing that one day all this will come to pass, think what sort of people you ought to be—how you should be living faithful and godly lives, 12 waiting hopefully for and hastening the coming of God’s day when the heavens will vanish in flames and the elements melt away with intense heat. 13 What will happen next, and what we hope for, is what God promised: a new heaven and a new earth where justice reigns.
The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.