Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
For the choir director; by David, the servant of the Lord. He sang this song to the Lord when the Lord rescued him from all his enemies, especially from Saul. He said,
18 I love you, O Lord, my strength.
2 The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my Savior,
my God, my rock in whom I take refuge,
my shield, and the strength of my salvation,
my stronghold.
3 The Lord should be praised.
I called on him, and I was saved from my enemies.
20 The Lord rewarded me
because of my righteousness,
because my hands are clean.
He paid me back
21 because I have kept the ways of the Lord
and I have not wickedly turned away from my God,
22 because all his judgments are in front of me
and I have not turned away from his laws.
23 I was innocent as far as he was concerned.
I have kept myself from guilt.
24 The Lord paid me back
because of my righteousness,
because he can see that my hands are clean.
25 ⌞In dealing⌟ with faithful people you are faithful,
with innocent people you are innocent,
26 with pure people you are pure.
⌞In dealing⌟ with devious people you are clever.
27 You save humble people,
but you bring down a conceited look.
28 O Lord, you light my lamp.
My God turns my darkness into light.
29 With you I can attack a line of soldiers.
With my God I can break through barricades.
30 God’s way is perfect!
The promise of the Lord has proven to be true.
He is a shield to all those who take refuge in him.
31 Who is God but the Lord?
Who is a rock except our God?
32 God arms me with strength
and makes my way perfect.
18 (You ignored the rock who fathered you
and forgot the God who gave you life.)
19 The Lord saw this and rejected them,
because his own sons and daughters had made him angry.
20 He said, “I will turn away from them
and find out what will happen to them.
They are devious people,
children who can’t be trusted.
28 My people have lost their good sense.
They are not able to understand.
29 If only they were wise enough to understand this
and realize what will happen to them!
30 How could one person chase a thousand
or two people make ten thousand flee?
Their rock used these people to defeat them
and the Lord gave them no help.
31 Their rock isn’t like our rock.
Even our enemies will agree with this.
32 Their grapevines come from the vineyards of Sodom
and from the fields of Gomorrah.
Their grapes are poisonous,
and their clusters are bitter.
33 Their wine is snake venom,
the deadly poison of cobras.
34 Isn’t this what I’ve stored
under lock and key in my storehouses?
35 I will take revenge and be satisfied.
In due time their foot will slip,
because their day of disaster is near.
Their doom is coming quickly.
36 The Lord will judge his people
and have compassion on his servants
when he sees that their strength is gone
and that no one is left, neither slaves nor free people.
37 Then he will ask, “Where are their gods?
Where is the rock they took refuge in?
38 Where are the gods who ate the fat from their sacrifices
and drank the wine from their wine offerings?
Let them come to help you!
Let them be your refuge!”
39 See, I am the only God.
There are no others.
I kill, and I make alive.
I wound, and I heal,
and no one can rescue you from my power.
33 God’s riches, wisdom, and knowledge are so deep
that it is impossible to explain his decisions
or to understand his ways.
34 “Who knows how the Lord thinks?
Who can become his adviser?”
35 Who gave the Lord something
which the Lord must pay back?
36 Everything is from him and by him and for him.
Glory belongs to him forever! Amen!
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