Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Psalm 89

A skillful song, or a didactic or reflective poem, of Ethan the Ezrahite.

¹ I will sing of the mercy and loving-kindness of the Lord forever; with my mouth will I make known Your faithfulness from generation to generation.

² For I have said, Mercy and loving-kindness shall be built up forever; Your faithfulness will You establish in the very heavens [unchangeable and perpetual].

³ [You have said] I have made a ^[a]covenant with My chosen one, I have sworn to David My servant,

⁴ Your Seed I will establish forever, and I will build up your throne for all generations. Selah [pause, and calmly think of that]!^(A)

⁵ Let heaven (the angels) praise Your wonders, O Lord, Your faithfulness also in the assembly of the holy ones (the holy angels).

⁶ For who in the heavens can be compared to the Lord? Who among the mighty [heavenly beings] can be likened to the Lord,

⁷ A God greatly feared and revered in the council of the holy (angelic) ones, and to be feared and worshipfully revered above all those who are round about Him?

⁸ O Lord God of hosts, who is a mighty one like unto You, O Lord? And Your faithfulness is round about You [an essential part of You at all times].

⁹ You rule the raging of the sea; when its waves arise, You still them.

¹⁰ You have broken Rahab (Egypt) in pieces; with Your mighty arm You have scattered Your enemies.

¹¹ The heavens are Yours, the earth also is Yours; the world and all that is in it, You have founded them.

¹² The north and the south, You have created them; Mount Tabor and Mount Hermon joyously praise Your name.

¹³ You have a mighty arm; strong is Your hand, Your right hand is soaring high.

¹⁴ Righteousness and justice are the foundation of Your throne; mercy and loving-kindness and truth go before Your face.

¹⁵ Blessed (happy, fortunate, to be envied) are the people who know the joyful sound [who understand and appreciate the spiritual blessings symbolized by the feasts]; they walk, O Lord, in the light and favor of Your countenance!

¹⁶ In Your name they rejoice all the day, and in Your righteousness they are exalted.

¹⁷ For You are the glory of their strength [their proud adornment], and by Your favor our horn is exalted and we walk with uplifted faces!

¹⁸ For our shield belongs to the Lord, and our king to the Holy One of Israel.

²² And Hilkiah and they whom the king had appointed went to Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shallum son of Tokhath, the son of Hasrah, keeper of the wardrobe. She dwelt in Jerusalem, in the Second Quarter. They spoke to her to that effect.

²³ And she answered them, Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Tell the man who sent you to me,

²⁴ Thus says the Lord: Behold, I will bring evil upon this place and upon its inhabitants, even all the curses that are written in the book which they have read before the king of Judah.

²⁵ Because they have forsaken Me and have burned incense to other gods, that they might provoke Me to anger with all the works of their hands, therefore My wrath shall be poured out upon this place and shall not be quenched.

²⁶ But say to King Josiah of Judah, who sent you to inquire of the Lord, Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, concerning the words which you have heard:

²⁷ Because your heart was tender and penitent and you humbled yourself before God when you heard His words against this place and its inhabitants, and humbled yourself before Me and rent your clothes and wept before Me, I have heard you, says the Lord.

²⁸ Behold, I will gather you to your fathers, and you shall be gathered to your grave in peace, and your eyes shall not see all the evil that I will bring upon this place and its inhabitants. So they brought the king word again.

²⁹ Then King Josiah sent and gathered all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem.

³⁰ And [he] went up into the house of the Lord, as did all the men of Judah, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the priests, the Levites, and all the people, great and small; and he [the king] read in their hearing all the words of the Book of the Covenant that was found in the Lord’s house.

³¹ Then the king stood in his place and made a covenant before the Lord—to walk after the Lord and to keep His commandments, His testimonies, and His statutes with all his heart and with all his soul, to perform the words of the covenant that are written in this book.

³² And he caused all who were present in Jerusalem and Benjamin to stand in confirmation of it. And the inhabitants of Jerusalem did according to the covenant of God, the God of their fathers.

³³ Josiah removed all the [idolatrous] abominations from all the territory that belonged to the Israelites, and made all who were in Israel serve the Lord their God. All his days they did not turn from following the Lord, the God of their fathers.

¹⁷ By faith Abraham, when he was put to the test [while the testing of his faith was ^[a]still in progress], ^[b]had already brought Isaac for an offering; he who had gladly received and welcomed [God’s] promises was ready to sacrifice his only son,^(A)

¹⁸ Of whom it was said, Through Isaac shall your descendants be reckoned.^(B)

¹⁹ For he reasoned that God was able to raise [him] up even from among the dead. Indeed in the sense that Isaac was figuratively dead [potentially sacrificed], he did [actually] receive him back from the dead.

²⁰ [With eyes of] faith Isaac, looking far into the future, invoked blessings upon Jacob and Esau.^(C)

²¹ [Prompted] by faith Jacob, when he was dying, blessed each of Joseph’s sons and bowed in prayer over the top of his staff.^(D)

²² [Actuated] by faith Joseph, when nearing the end of his life, referred to [the promise of God for] the departure of the Israelites out of Egypt and gave instructions concerning the burial of his own bones.^(E)

²³ [Prompted] by faith Moses, after his birth, was kept concealed for three months by his parents, because they saw how comely the child was; and they were not overawed and terrified by the king’s decree.^(F)

²⁴ [Aroused] by faith Moses, when he had grown to maturity and ^[c]become great, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter,^(G)

²⁵ Because he preferred to share the oppression [suffer the hardships] and bear the shame of the people of God rather than to have the fleeting enjoyment of a sinful life.

²⁶ He considered the contempt and abuse and shame [borne for] the Christ (the Messiah Who was to come) to be greater wealth than all the treasures of Egypt, for he looked forward and away to the reward (recompense).

²⁷ [Motivated] by faith he left Egypt behind him, being unawed and undismayed by the wrath of the king; for he never flinched but held staunchly to his purpose and endured steadfastly as one who gazed on Him Who is invisible.^(H)

²⁸ By faith (simple trust and confidence in God) he instituted and carried out the Passover and the sprinkling of the blood [on the doorposts], so that the destroyer of the firstborn (the angel) might not touch those [of the children of Israel].^(I)