Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
Psalm 65
For the worship leader. A song of David.
1 All will stand in awe to praise You.
Praise will sweep through Zion, the Sacred City, O God.
Solemn vows uttered to You will now be performed.
2 You hear us pray in words and silence;
all humanity comes into Your presence.
3 Injustice overwhelms me!
But You forgive our sins, restoring as only You can.
4 You invite us near, drawing us
into Your courts—what an honor and a privilege!
We feast until we’re full on the goodness of Your house,
Your sacred temple made manifest.
5 You leave us breathless when Your awesome works answer us by putting everything right.
God of our liberation—
You are the hope of all creation, from the far corners of the earth
to distant life-giving oceans.
6 With immense power, You erected mountains.
Wrapped in strength, You compelled
7 Choppy seas,
crashing waves,
and crowds of people
To sit in astonished silence.
8 Those who inhabit the boundaries of the earth are awed by Your signs,
strong and subtle hints of Your indelible presence.
Even the dawn and dusk respond to You with joy.
9 You spend time on the good earth,
watering and nourishing the networks of the living.
God’s river is full of water!
By preparing the land,
You have provided us grain for nourishment.
10 You are the gentle equalizer: soaking the furrows,
smoothing soil’s ridges,
Softening sun-baked earth with generous showers,
blessing the fruit of the ground.
11 You crown the year with a fruitful harvest;
the paths are worn down by carts overflowing with unstoppable growth.
12 Barren desert pastures yield fruit;
craggy hills are now dressed for celebration.
13 Meadows are clothed with frolicking flocks of lambs;
valleys are covered with a carpet of autumn-harvest grain;
the land shouts and sings in joyous celebration.
6 You’ve heard what I foretold; now you’ve seen what has happened—
do you agree that I’m God?
Well, from this moment, I am telling you new things,
secrets hidden that no one has known.
7 They are created now—brand new, never before announced, never before heard.
So you can’t claim, “Look, I already knew them.”
8 There’s no way you could have heard or known
because, even from long ago, you have never listened.
For I’ve always known that you are a conniving lot;
you’ve been a troublesome rebel from birth.
9 On account of My reputation, I hold back my anger;
for My own weighty grandeur, I am patient with you,
So that I don’t make an absolute break with you.
10 I have refined you, but not in the way silver is refined.
Instead, I try you in the furnace of suffering.
For God, suffering is not an end in itself. God uses suffering and hardship to purge the bad and foster the good in His covenant people.
11 But it is all on account of Me, not of you, that I act,
that I retain honor, that My glory is Mine alone, and not sullied.
14 My brothers and sisters, I am ultimately confident that you are full of goodness, knowledge, and the ability to help and instruct one another. 15 I have written to you with unflinching honesty on many topics because I do not want you to ever lose sight of the tremendous grace God has given me. 16 His grace makes me who I am, a minister of the Anointed One, Jesus, called to serve the nations.
Though Paul’s churches are made up of Jews and non-Jews, Paul’s special calling is to be God’s emissary to the nations beyond Israel, known as the Gentiles.
The good news of God is the focus of my priestly work. In effect, these nations have become an offering to God, totally acceptable, indeed made holy by the work of the Holy Spirit. 17 So in Jesus, the Anointed One, I have reason to celebrate the things I do for God. 18 I don’t want to be presumptuous, so I will restrict myself to what the Anointed has accomplished through my words and actions, which has culminated in the obedience of the nations. 19 My words and actions have been rooted in Spirit-empowered signs and miracles. The upshot is this: I have been able to preach the good news of the Anointed One in city after city from Jerusalem all the way around the Mediterranean to Illyricum. 20 I have dreamed of preaching the gospel in places where no one has ever heard of the Anointed so that I do not build on a foundation laid by anyone else. 21 But as the Scriptures say,
They will see Him even though they’ve never been told about Him;
they will understand even though they never heard of Him.[a]
The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.