Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

63 O God, You are my God. I will seek You early. My soul thirsts for You. My flesh longs greatly after You in a barren and dry land, without water.

² Thus, when I behold Your power and Your Glory, I behold You as in the Sanctuary.

³ For Your lovingkindness is better than life. My lips shall praise You.

⁴ Thus will I magnify You all my life and lift up my hands in Your Name.

⁵ My soul shall be satisfied, as with marrow and fatness, and my mouth shall praise You with joyful lips,

⁶ When I remember You on my bed, I think upon You in the night watches.

⁷ Therefore, because You have been my helper, I will rejoice under the shadow of Your wings.

⁸ My soul clings to You. Your right hand upholds me.

⁹ Therefore, those who seek my soul to destroy it, they shall go into the lowest parts of the Earth.

¹⁰ They shall cast him down with the edge of the sword. They shall be a portion for foxes.

¹¹ But the king shall rejoice in God. All who swear by Him shall rejoice. For the mouth of those who speak lies shall be stopped. To him who excels: A Psalm of David

1 The Word of the LORD that came to Joel, the son of Pethuel:

² Hear this, O elders! And listen, all you inhabitants of the land! Has there been such a thing in your days, or even in the days of your fathers?

³ Tell your children about it. And let your children tell it to their children, and their children to another generation.

⁴ That which was left by the gnawing locust the swarming locust has eaten. And the leftovers of the swarming locust the creeping locust has eaten. And the leftovers of the creeping locust the consuming locust has eaten.

⁵ Awake you drunkards! And weep and howl all you drinkers of wine because of the new wine. For it shall be pulled from your mouth.

⁶ “Yea, a nation comes upon My land, mighty and without number, whose teeth are like the teeth of a lion. And he has the jaws of a great lion.

⁷ “He has laid waste My vine and splinters the bark of My fig tree. He makes it bare and casts it down. Its branches are made white.”

⁸ Mourn like a virgin, girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth.

⁹ The Meat Offering and the Drink Offering are cut off from the House of the LORD. The priests, the LORD’s ministers, mourn.

¹⁰ The field is wasted. The land mourns. For the grain is destroyed. The new wine has dried up, and the oil has decayed.

¹¹ Be ashamed, O farmers! Howl, O you vinedressers, for the wheat and for the barley, because the harvest of the field has perished!

¹² The vine has dried up. And the fig tree has decayed. The pomegranate tree and the palm tree and the apple tree, all the trees of the field, are withered. Surely, the joy has withered away from the sons of men.”

¹³ Gird yourselves and lament, you priests. Howl, you ministers of the Altar! Come! Lie all night in sackcloth, you ministers of my God. For the Meat Offering and the Drink Offering are taken away from the House of your God.

¹⁴ Sanctify yourself a fast. Call a solemn assembly. Gather the elders, all the inhabitants of the land, into the House of the LORD your God, and cry to the LORD,

⁶ But now, lately, when Timothy came from you to us and brought us good tidings of your faith and love (and that you have good remembrance of us always, desiring to see us, as we also you),

⁷ therefore brothers, in all our affliction and necessity, we were encouraged by you through your faith.

⁸ For now if you stand fast in the Lord, we are alive!

⁹ For what thanks can we render to God for you - for all the joy with which we rejoice for your sakes before our God,

¹⁰ night and day, praying exceedingly – so that we might see your face and accomplish that which is lacking in your faith?

¹¹ Now may God himself - even our Father - and our Lord Jesus Christ, guide our journey to you.

¹² And the Lord increase you and make you abound in love toward one another, and toward all, even as we do toward you;

¹³ to make your hearts stable and unblameable in holiness before God, and our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all His saints.