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.

¹⁴ Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will fulfill the good promise I have made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah.

¹⁵ In those days and at that time will I cause a righteous Branch [the Messiah] to grow up to David; and He shall execute justice and righteousness in the land.^(A)

¹⁶ In those days Judah shall be saved and Jerusalem shall dwell safely. And this is the name by which it will be called, The Lord is Our Righteousness (our Rightness, our Justice).

¹⁷ For thus says the Lord: David shall never fail [to have] a man [descendant] to sit on the throne of the house of Israel,

¹⁸ Nor shall the Levitical priests fail [to have] a man [descendant] to offer burnt offerings before Me and to burn cereal offerings and to make sacrifices continually (all day long).

¹⁹ And the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, saying,

²⁰ Thus says the Lord: If you can break My covenant with the day, and My covenant with the night, so that there should not be day and night in their season,

²¹ Then can also My covenant be broken with David My servant, so that he shall not have a son to reign upon his throne, and [My league be broken also] with the Levitical priests, My ministers.

²² As the host of [the stars of] the heavens cannot be numbered nor the sand of the sea be measured, so will I multiply the offspring of David My servant and the Levites who minister to Me.

²³ Moreover, the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, saying,

²⁴ Have you not noticed that these people [the Jews] are saying, The Lord has cast off the two families [Israel and Judah] which He chose? Thus My people have despised [themselves in relation to God as His covenant people], so that they are no more a nation in their [own] sight.

²⁵ Thus says the Lord: If My covenant with day and night does not stand, and if I have not appointed the ordinances of the heavens and the earth [the whole order of nature],

²⁶ Then will I also cast away the descendants of Jacob and David My servant and will not choose one of his offspring to be ruler over the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. For I will cause their captivity to be reversed, and I will have mercy, kindness, and steadfast love on and for them.^(B)

⁴¹ Peter said, Lord, are You telling this parable for us, or for all alike?

⁴² And the Lord said, Who then is that faithful steward, the wise man whom his master will set over those in his household service to supply them their allowance of food at the appointed time?

⁴³ Blessed (happy and ^[a]to be envied) is that servant whom his master finds so doing when he arrives.

⁴⁴ Truly I tell you, he will set him in charge over all his possessions.

⁴⁵ But if that servant says in his heart, My master is late in coming, and begins to strike the menservants and the maids and to eat and drink and get drunk,

⁴⁶ The master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour of which he does not know, and will punish him and cut him off and assign his lot with ^[b]the unfaithful.

⁴⁷ And that servant who knew his master’s will but did not get ready or act as he would wish him to act shall be beaten with many [lashes].

⁴⁸ But he who did not know and did things worthy of a beating shall be beaten with few [lashes]. For everyone to whom much is given, of him shall much be required; and of him to whom men entrust much, they will require and demand all the more.^(A)