Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
Wishing to Be Near God
A psalm of David when he was in the desert of Judah.
63 God, you are my God.
I search for you.
I thirst for you
like someone in a dry, empty land
where there is no water.
2 I have seen you in the Temple
and have seen your strength and glory.
3 Because your love is better than life,
I will praise you.
4 I will praise you as long as I live.
I will lift up my hands in prayer to your name.
5 I will be content as if I had eaten the best foods.
My lips will sing, and my mouth will praise you.
6 I remember you while I’m lying in bed;
I think about you through the night.
7 You are my help.
Because of your protection, I sing.
8 I stay close to you;
you support me with your right hand.
9 Some people are trying to kill me,
but they will go down to the grave.
10 They will be killed with swords
and eaten by wild dogs.
11 But the king will rejoice in his God.
All who make promises in his name will praise him,
but the mouths of liars will be shut.
God Judges the Nations
9 Announce this among the nations:
Prepare for war!
Wake up the soldiers!
Let all the men of war come near and attack.
10 Make swords from your plows,
and make spears from your hooks for trimming trees.
Let even the weak person say,
“I am a soldier.”
11 All of you nations, hurry,
and come together in that place.
Lord, send your soldiers
to gather the nations.
12 “Wake up, nations,
and come to attack in the Valley Where the Lord Judges.
There I will sit to judge
all the nations on every side.
13 Swing the cutting tool,
because the harvest is ripe.
Come, walk on them as you would walk on grapes to get their juice,
because the winepress is full
and the barrels are spilling over,
because these people are so evil!”
14 There are huge numbers of people
in the Valley of Decision,[a]
because the Lord’s day of judging is near
in the Valley of Decision.
15 The sun and the moon will become dark,
and the stars will stop shining.
16 The Lord will roar like a lion from Jerusalem;
his loud voice will thunder from that city,
and the sky and the earth will shake.
But the Lord will be a safe place for his people,
a strong place of safety for the people of Israel.
17 “Then you will know that I, the Lord your God,
live on my holy Mount Zion.
Jerusalem will be a holy place,
and strangers will never even go through it again.
A New Life Promised for Judah
18 “On that day wine will drip from the mountains,
milk will flow from the hills,
and water will run through all the ravines of Judah.
A fountain will flow from the Temple of the Lord
and give water to the valley of acacia trees.
19 But Egypt will become empty,
and Edom an empty desert,
because they were cruel to the people of Judah.
They killed innocent people in that land.
20 But there will always be people living in Judah,
and people will live in Jerusalem from now on.
21 Egypt and Edom killed my people,
so I will definitely punish them.”
The Lord lives in Jerusalem!
29 “Soon after the trouble of those days,
‘the sun will grow dark,
and the moon will not give its light.
The stars will fall from the sky.
And the powers of the heavens will be shaken.’ Isaiah 13:10; 34:4
30 “At that time, the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky. Then all the peoples of the world will cry. They will see the Son of Man coming on clouds in the sky with great power and glory. 31 He will use a loud trumpet to send his angels all around the earth, and they will gather his chosen people from every part of the world.
32 “Learn a lesson from the fig tree: When its branches become green and soft and new leaves appear, you know summer is near. 33 In the same way, when you see all these things happening, you will know that the time is near, ready to come. 34 I tell you the truth, all these things will happen while the people of this time are still living. 35 Earth and sky will be destroyed, but the words I have said will never be destroyed.
The Holy Bible, New Century Version®. Copyright © 2005 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.