Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

3 The psalm of David when he fled from the face of his son Absalom.

² Why, O Lord, are they multiplied that afflict me? many are they who rise up against me.

³ Many say to my soul: There is no salvation for him in his God.

⁴ But thou, O Lord art my protector, my glory, and the lifter up of my head.

⁵ I have cried to the Lord with my voice: and he hath heard me from his holy hill.

⁶ I have slept and taken my rest: and I have risen up, because the Lord hath protected me.

⁷ I will not fear thousands of the people, surrounding me: arise, O Lord; save me, O my God.

⁸ For thou hast struck all them who are my adversaries without cause: thou hast broken the teeth of sinners.

⁹ Salvation is of the Lord: and thy blessing is upon thy people.

⁵ Behold ye among the nations, and see: wonder, and be astonished: for a work is done in your days, which no man will believe when it shall be told.

⁶ For behold, I will raise up the Chaldeans, a bitter and swift nation, marching upon the breadth of the earth, to possess the dwelling places that are not their own.

⁷ They are dreadful, and terrible: from themselves shall their judgment, and their burden proceed.

⁸ Their horses are lighter than leopards, and swifter than evening wolves; and their horsemen shall be spread abroad: for their horsemen shall come from afar, they shall fly as an eagle that maketh haste to eat.

⁹ They shall all come to the prey, their face is like a burning wind: and they shall gather together captives as the sand.

¹⁰ And their prince shall triumph over kings, and princes shall be his laughingstock: and he shall laugh at every strong hold, and shall cast up a mount, and shall take it.

¹¹ Then shall his spirit be changed, and he shall pass, and fall: this is his strength of his god.

¹² Wast thou not from the beginning, O Lord my God, my holy one, and we shall not die? Lord, thou hast appointed him for judgment: and made him strong for correction.

¹³ Thy eyes are too pure to behold evil, and thou canst not look on iniquity. Why lookest thou upon them that do unjust things, and holdest thy peace when the wicked devoureth the man that is more just than himself?

¹⁴ And thou wilt make men as the fishes of the sea, and as the creeping things that have no ruler.

¹⁵ He lifted up all them with his hook, he drew them in his drag, and gathered them into his net: for this he will be glad and rejoice.

¹⁶ Therefore will he offer victims to his drag, and he will sacrifice to his net: because through them his portion is made fat, and his meat dainty.

¹⁷ For this cause therefore he spreadeth his net, and will not spare continually to slay the nations.

² My brethren, count it all joy, when you shall fall into divers temptations;

³ Knowing that the trying of your faith worketh patience.

⁴ And patience hath a perfect work; that you may be perfect and entire, failing in nothing.

⁵ But if any of you want wisdom, let him ask of God, who giveth to all men abundantly, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.

⁶ But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea, which is moved and carried about by the wind.

⁷ Therefore let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord.

⁸ A double minded man is inconstant in all his ways.

⁹ But let the brother of low condition glory in his exaltation:

¹⁰ And the rich, in his being low; because as the flower of the grass shall he pass away.

¹¹ For the sun rose with a burning heat, and parched the grass, and the flower thereof fell off, and the beauty of the shape thereof perished: so also shall the rich man fade away in his ways.