Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
An instruction: of Asaph.
74 Why, O God, hast thou cast off for ever? [why] doth thine anger smoke against the sheep of thy pasture?
2 Remember thine assembly, which thou hast purchased of old, which thou hast redeemed [to be] the portion of thine inheritance, this mount Zion, wherein thou hast dwelt.
3 Lift up thy steps unto the perpetual desolations: everything in the sanctuary hath the enemy destroyed.
4 Thine adversaries roar in the midst of thy place of assembly; they set up their signs [for] signs.
5 [A man] was known as he could lift up axes in the thicket of trees;
6 And now they break down its carved work altogether, with hatchets and hammers.
7 They have set on fire thy sanctuary, they have profaned the habitation of thy name to the ground.
8 They said in their heart, Let us destroy them together: they have burned up all God's places of assembly in the land.
9 We see not our signs; there is no more any prophet, neither is there among us any that knoweth how long.
10 How long, O God, shall the adversary reproach? Shall the enemy contemn thy name for ever?
11 Why withdrawest thou thy hand, and thy right hand? [pluck it] out of thy bosom: consume [them].
12 But God is my king of old, accomplishing deliverances in the midst of the earth.
13 *Thou* didst divide the sea by thy strength; thou didst break the heads of the monsters on the waters:
14 *Thou* didst break in pieces the heads of leviathan, thou gavest him to be meat to those that people the desert.
15 *Thou* didst cleave fountain and torrent, *thou* driedst up ever-flowing rivers.
16 The day is thine, the night also is thine; *thou* hast prepared the moon and the sun:
17 *Thou* hast set all the borders of the earth; summer and winter—*thou* didst form them.
18 Remember this, that an enemy hath reproached Jehovah, and a foolish people have contemned thy name.
19 Give not up the soul of thy turtle-dove unto the wild beast; forget not the troop of thine afflicted for ever.
20 Have respect unto the covenant; for the dark places of the earth are full of the dwellings of violence.
21 Oh let not the oppressed one return ashamed; let the afflicted and needy praise thy name.
22 Rise up, O God, plead thine own cause: remember how the foolish man reproacheth thee all the day;
23 Forget not the voice of thine adversaries: the tumult of those that rise up against thee ascendeth continually.
16 Jehovah, in trouble they sought thee; they poured out [their] whispered prayer when thy chastening was upon them.
17 As a woman with child, that draweth near her delivery, is in travail, [and] crieth out in her pangs; so have we been before thee, Jehovah.
18 We have been with child, we have been in travail, we have as it were brought forth wind; we have not wrought the deliverance of the land, neither have the inhabitants of the world fallen.
19 Thy dead shall live, my dead bodies shall arise. Awake and sing in triumph, ye that dwell in dust; for thy dew is the dew of the morning, and the earth shall cast forth the dead.
20 Come, my people, enter into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee; hide thyself just for a little moment, until the indignation be past.
21 For behold, Jehovah cometh out of his place to visit the iniquity of the inhabitants of the earth upon them; and the earth shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain.
27 In that day Jehovah, with his sore and great and strong sword, will visit leviathan the fleeing serpent, and leviathan the crooked serpent; and he will slay the monster that is in the sea.
14 And he was casting out a demon, and it was dumb; and it came to pass, the demon being gone out, the dumb [man] spoke. And the crowds wondered.
15 But some from among them said, By Beelzebub the prince of the demons casts he out demons.
16 And others tempting [him] sought from him a sign out of heaven.
17 But *he*, knowing their thoughts, said to them, Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation: and a house set against a house falls;
18 and if also Satan is divided against himself, how shall his kingdom subsist? because ye say that I cast out demons by Beelzebub.
19 But if *I* by Beelzebub cast out demons, your sons—by whom do they cast [them] out? For this reason *they* shall be your judges.
20 But if by the finger of God I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God is come upon you.
21 When the strong [man] armed keeps his own house, his goods are in peace;
22 but when the stronger than he coming upon [him] overcomes him, he takes away his panoply in which he trusted, and he will divide the spoil [he has taken] from him.
23 He that is not with me is against me, and he that gathers not with me scatters.
24 When the unclean spirit has gone out of the man, he goes through dry places seeking rest; and not finding [any] he says, I will return to my house whence I came out.
25 And having come, he finds it swept and adorned.
26 Then he goes and takes seven other spirits worse than himself, and entering in, they dwell there; and the last condition of that man becomes worse than the first.
27 And it came to pass as he spake these things, a certain woman, lifting up her voice out of the crowd, said to him, Blessed is the womb that has borne thee, and the paps which thou hast sucked.
28 But *he* said, Yea rather, blessed are they who hear the word of God and keep [it].
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