Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

144 ⁽⁰⁾ By David:

⁽¹⁾ Blessed be Adonai, my rock,
who trains my hands for war
and my fingers for battle.
² He shows me grace; and he is my fortress,
my stronghold, in whom I find shelter,
my shield, in whom I take refuge,
who subdues my people under me.

³ Adonai, what are mere mortals,
that you notice them at all;
humans, that you think about them?
⁴ Man is like a puff of wind,
his days like a fleeting shadow.

⁵ Adonai, lower the heavens, and come down;
touch the mountains, make them pour out smoke.
⁶ Shoot out lightning, and scatter them;
send out your arrows, and rout them.
⁷ Reach out your hands from on high;
rescue me; save me out of deep water,
out of the power of strangers,
⁸ whose mouths speak worthless words
and whose right hands swear false oaths.

⁹ God, I will sing a new song to you;
sing praises to you with a ten-stringed harp.
¹⁰ You give kings their victories;
you save your servant David from the cruel sword.
¹¹ Rescue me, save me from the power of strangers,
whose mouths speak worthless words
and whose right hands swear false oaths.

¹² Our sons in their youth will be
like full-grown saplings,
our daughters will be like sculptured pillars
fit for the corner of a palace.
¹³ Our barns are full with crops of every kind;
the sheep in our fields number thousands, tens of thousands.
¹⁴ our oxen are well-fed,
our city walls have no breach,
our people are not taken captive,
and there are no cries of protest in our cities’ open places.
¹⁵ How happy the people who live in such conditions!
How happy the people whose God is Adonai!

¹⁰ “‘Your mother was like a strong grapevine
planted by the water.
It was fruitful and luxuriant
because of the abundant water.
¹¹ It had strong branches
to be used as scepters by rulers;
besides having thick foliage,
it grew taller and taller,
until its height was noticed,
with its mass of branches.
¹² But it was torn up in fury
and flung on the ground.
An east wind withered her fruit,
her strong branches were broken off;
they dried up; and fire consumed the vine.
¹³ It has been transplanted to the desert,
to a dry, thirsty land.
¹⁴ Fire has gone out from its own branches,
burning up its fruit,
so that now it has no strong branch
to be a ruler’s scepter.’”

This lamentation became very well known.

“Look! I am laying in Tziyon a stone,
a chosen and precious cornerstone;
and whoever rests his trust on it
will certainly not be humiliated.”^[a]

“The very stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone”;^[b]

a stone that will make people stumble,
a rock over which they will trip.^[c]