Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
BOOK III (Psalms 73-89)
A song of Asaph.
A Plea for Deliverance
73 God is indeed good to Israel,
to those pure in heart.
2 Now as for me, my feet nearly stumbled,
as I almost lost my step.
3 For I was envious of the proud
when I observed the prosperity of the wicked.
4 For there is no struggle at their deaths,
and their bodies are healthy.
5 They do not experience problems common to ordinary people;
they aren’t afflicted as others[a] are.
6 Therefore pride is their necklace
and violence covers them like a garment.
7 Their eyes bulge from obesity
and the imaginations of their mind cross the border into sin.[b]
8 In their mockery they speak evil;
from their arrogant position they speak oppression.
9 They choose to speak[c] against heaven;
while they talk about things on earth.
10 Therefore God’s[d] people return there
and drink it all in like water until they’re satiated.
11 Then they say,
“How can God know?
Does the Most High have knowledge?”
12 Just look at these wicked people!
They’re perpetually carefree
as they increase their wealth.
13 I kept my heart pure for nothing
and kept my hands clean from guilt.
14 For I suffer all day long
and I am punished every morning.
15 If I say, “I will talk like this,”
I would betray a generation of your children.
16 When I tried to understand this,
it was too difficult for me
17 until I entered the sanctuaries of God.
Then I understood their destiny.
18 You have certainly set them in slippery places;
you will make them fall to their ruin.
19 How desolate they quickly become,
completely destroyed by calamities.
20 Like a dream when one awakens, Lord,
you will despise their image when you arise.
21 When I chose to be bitter
I was emotionally pained.
22 Then, I was too stupid
and didn’t realize I was acting like[e] a wild animal with you.
23 But now I am always with you,
for you keep holding my right hand.
24 You will guide me with your wise advice,
and later you will receive me with honor.
25 Whom do I have in heaven but you?
I desire nothing on this [f]earth.
26 My body and mind may fail,
but God is my strength[g] and my portion forever.
27 Those far from you will perish;
you will destroy those who are unfaithful to you.
28 As for me, how good for me it is that God is near!
I have made the Lord God my refuge
so I can tell about all your deeds.
The Lord Again Calls Jonah to Go to Nineveh
3 This message from the Lord came to Jonah a second time: 2 “Get up and go to Nineveh, that great city, and proclaim to it the message that I tell you.” 3 So Jonah got up and went to Nineveh to do what the Lord had ordered.
Now Nineveh was a very large city,[a] requiring[b] a three-day journey to cross through it.[c] 4 As Jonah started into the city on the first day’s journey, he proclaimed the message, “40 days more and Nineveh will be overthrown!”
The City of Nineveh Repents
5 The people of Nineveh believed God. They called for a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least important. 6 When the message reached the king of Nineveh, he got up from his throne, removed his royal garments, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat down in ashes. 7 Then he had this proclamation published throughout Nineveh:
“By decree of the king and his nobles:
No man or animal, herd or flock, is to taste anything, graze, or drink water. 8 Instead, let both man and animal clothe themselves with sackcloth and cry out to God forcefully. Let every person turn from his evil ways and from his tendency to do violence.[d] 9 Who knows but that God may relent, have compassion, and turn from his fierce anger, so that we are not exterminated?”
10 God took note of what they did—that they turned from their evil ways. Because God relented concerning the trouble about which he had warned them, he did not carry it out.
8 Don’t forget this fact, dear friends: With the Lord a single day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a single day. 9 The Lord is not slow about his promise, as some people understand slowness, but is being patient with you. He does not want anyone to perish, but everyone to find room for repentence. 10 But the Day of the Lord will come like a thief. On that day[a] the heavens will disappear with a roaring sound, the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done on it will be exposed.
11 Since everything will be destroyed in this way, think of the kind of holy and godly people you ought to be 12 as you look forward to and hasten the coming of the day of God, when the heavens will be set ablaze and dissolved and the elements will melt with fire. 13 But in keeping with his promise, we are looking forward to new heavens and a new earth, where righteousness is at home.
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