Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
95 Come, let’s sing to Adonai!
Let’s shout for joy to the Rock of our salvation!
2 Let’s come into his presence with thanksgiving;
let’s shout for joy to him with songs of praise.
3 For Adonai is a great God,
a great king greater than all gods.
4 He holds the depths of the earth in his hands;
the mountain peaks too belong to him.
5 The sea is his — he made it —
and his hands shaped the dry land.
6 Come, let’s bow down and worship;
let’s kneel before Adonai who made us.
7 For he is our God, and we are the people
in his pasture, the sheep in his care.
If only today you would listen to his voice:
8 “Don’t harden your hearts, as you did at M’rivah,
as you did on that day at Massah in the desert,
9 when your fathers put me to the test;
they challenged me, even though they saw my work.
10 For forty years I loathed that generation;
I said, ‘This is a people whose hearts go astray,
they don’t understand how I do things.’
11 Therefore I swore in my anger
that they would not enter my rest.”
11 Then all Isra’el gathered themselves to David in Hevron and said, “Here, we are your own flesh and bone. 2 In the past, even when Sha’ul was king, it was you who led Isra’el’s military campaigns; and Adonai your God said to you, ‘You will shepherd my people Isra’el, and you will be chief over my people Isra’el.’” 3 So all the leaders of Isra’el came to the king in Hevron; and David made a covenant with them in Hevron in the presence of Adonai. Then they anointed David king over Isra’el, as Adonai had said through Sh’mu’el.
4 David and all Isra’el went to Yerushalayim, also known as Y’vus; and the Y’vusi, the inhabitants of that region, were there. 5 The inhabitants of Y’vus taunted David by saying, “You won’t get in here!” Nevertheless, David captured the stronghold of Tziyon, also known now as the City of David. 6 David said, “Whoever attacks the Y’vusi first will be commander-in-chief.” Yo’av the son of Tz’ruyah attacked first and was made commander.
7 David lived in the stronghold; therefore they called it the City of David. 8 David built up the city around it, starting at the Millo [earth rampart] and going on around; while Yo’av repaired the rest of the city. 9 David grew greater and greater, because Adonai-Tzva’ot was with him.
13 One of the elders asked me, “These people dressed in white robes — who are they, and where are they from?” 14 “Sir,” I answered, “you know.” Then he told me, “These are the people who have come out of the Great Persecution. They have washed their robes and made them white with the blood of the Lamb. 15 That is why they are before God’s throne.
“Day and night they serve him in his Temple;
and the One who sits on the throne
will put his Sh’khinah upon them.
16 “They will never again be hungry,
they will never again be thirsty,
the sun will not beat down on them,
nor will any burning heat.[a]
Copyright © 1998 by David H. Stern. All rights reserved.