Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
Psalm 5
For the Music Director. With the flutes. A Psalm of David.
1 Give ear to my words, O Lord;
consider my meditation.
2 Listen to the voice of my cry,
my King and my God,
for to You will I pray.
3 O Lord, in the morning You will hear my voice;
in the morning I will direct my prayer to You,
and I will watch expectantly.
4 For You are not a God who has pleasure in wickedness,
nor will evil dwell with You.
5 Those who boast will not stand in Your sight;
You hate all workers of iniquity.
6 You will destroy those who speak lies;
the Lord abhors
the bloodthirsty and deceitful man.
7 But as for me, in the abundance of Your mercy
I will enter Your house;
in fear of You I will worship
at Your holy temple.
8 Lead me, O Lord, in Your righteousness
because of my enemies;
make Your way straight before me.
9 For there is no uprightness in their mouth;
destruction is in their midst;
their throat is an open tomb;
they flatter with their tongue.
10 Declare them guilty, O God;
may they fall by their own counsels;
cast them out in the multitude of their transgressions,
for they have rebelled against You.
11 But may all those who seek refuge in You rejoice;
may they ever shout for joy,
because You defend them;
may those who love Your name be joyful in You.
12 For You, Lord, will bless the righteous;
You surround him with favor like a shield.
18 Nevertheless in those days, says the Lord, I will not make a full end of you. 19 It shall come to pass when they say, “Why does the Lord our God do all these things to us?” then you shall answer them, “As you have forsaken Me and served strange gods in your land, so you will serve strangers in a land that is not yours.”
20 Declare this in the house of Jacob
and publish it in Judah, saying:
21 Hear this now, O foolish people and without understanding,
who have eyes but do not see,
who have ears but do not hear.
22 Do you not fear Me? says the Lord.
Will you not tremble at My presence?
For I have placed the sand for the boundary of the sea
by a perpetual decree so that it cannot pass over it.
And though the waves toss themselves, yet they cannot prevail;
though they roar, yet they cannot pass over it.
23 But this people has a revolting and a rebellious heart;
they have revolted and gone aside.
24 They do not say in their heart,
“Let us now fear the Lord our God,
who gives rain, both the former and the latter, in its season.
He reserves for us the appointed weeks of the harvest.”
25 Your iniquities have turned away these things,
and your sins have withheld good things from you.
26 For among My people are found wicked men.
They lie in wait, as he who sets snares;
they set a trap, they catch men.
27 As a cage is full of birds,
so are their houses full of deceit.
Therefore they have become great and rich.
28 They are fat, they are sleek.
Indeed, they excel in deeds of wickedness.
They do not judge the cause of the fatherless,
so that they may prosper;
and the right of the needy they do not defend.
29 Shall I not punish them for these things?
says the Lord.
Shall not My soul be avenged
on such a nation as this?
30 An appalling and horrible thing
has been committed in the land.
31 The prophets prophesy falsely,
and the priests rule by their own authority;
and My people love to have it so.
Yet what will you do in the end?
13 For this reason we thank God without ceasing because, when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you received it not as the word of men, but as it truly is, the word of God, which effectively works also in you who believe. 14 For you, brothers, became followers of the churches of God, which in Judea are in Christ Jesus. You also have suffered the same things from your own countrymen, as they have from the Jews, 15 who both killed the Lord Jesus and their own prophets and have persecuted us. They do not please God and are contrary to all men, 16 forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they might be saved. In this way they are always piling up their sins, but wrath has come upon them to the extreme.
Paul’s Desire to Visit Again
17 But we, brothers, being taken from you for a short time, in presence, not in heart, endeavored all the more abundantly to see your face with great desire. 18 Therefore we wished to come to you—even I, Paul, once and again—but Satan hindered us. 19 For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Will it not even be you in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at His coming? 20 You are our glory and joy.
The Holy Bible, Modern English Version. Copyright © 2014 by Military Bible Association. Published and distributed by Charisma House.