Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Book Three

Psalm 73

A Psalm of Asaph.

¹ Truly God is [only] good to Israel, even to those who are upright and pure in heart.

² But as for me, my feet were almost gone, my steps had well-nigh slipped.

³ For I was envious of the foolish and arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.

⁴ For they suffer no violent pangs in their death, but their strength is firm.

⁵ They are not in trouble as other men; neither are they smitten and plagued like other men.

⁶ Therefore pride is about their necks like a chain; violence covers them like a garment [like a long, luxurious robe].

⁷ Their eyes stand out with fatness, they have more than heart could wish; and the imaginations of their minds overflow [with follies].

⁸ They scoff, and wickedly utter oppression; they speak loftily [from on high, maliciously and blasphemously].

⁹ They set their mouths against and speak down from heaven, and their tongues swagger through the earth [invading even heaven with blasphemy and smearing earth with slanders].^(A)

¹⁰ Therefore His people return here, and waters of a full cup [offered by the wicked] are [blindly] drained by them.

¹¹ And they say, How does God know? Is there knowledge in the Most High?

¹² Behold, these are the ungodly, who always prosper and are at ease in the world; they increase in riches.

¹³ Surely then in vain have I cleansed my heart and washed my hands in innocency.

¹⁴ For all the day long have I been smitten and plagued, and chastened every morning.

¹⁵ Had I spoken thus [and given expression to my feelings], I would have been untrue and have dealt treacherously against the generation of Your children.

¹⁶ But when I considered how to understand this, it was too great an effort for me and too painful

¹⁷ Until I went into the sanctuary of God; then I understood [for I considered] their end.

¹⁸ [After all] You do set the [wicked] in slippery places; You cast them down to ruin and destruction.

¹⁹ How they become a desolation in a moment! They are utterly consumed with terrors!

²⁰ As a dream [which seems real] until one awakens, so, O Lord, when You arouse Yourself [to take note of the wicked], You will despise their outward show.

²¹ For my heart was grieved, embittered, and in a state of ferment, and I was pricked in my heart [as with the sharp fang of an adder].

²² So foolish, stupid, and brutish was I, and ignorant; I was like a beast before You.

²³ Nevertheless I am continually with You; You do hold my right hand.

²⁴ You will guide me with Your counsel, and afterward receive me to honor and glory.

²⁵ Whom have I in heaven but You? And I have no delight or desire on earth besides You.

²⁶ My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the Rock and firm Strength of my heart and my Portion forever.

²⁷ For behold, those who are far from You shall perish; You will destroy all who are false to You and like [spiritual] harlots depart from You.

²⁸ But it is good for me to draw near to God; I have put my trust in the Lord God and made Him my refuge, that I may tell of all Your works.

3 And the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, saying,

² Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and preach and cry out to it the preaching that I tell you.

³ So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city of three days’ journey [sixty miles in circumference].

⁴ And Jonah began to enter into the city a day’s journey, and he cried, Yet forty days and Nineveh shall be overthrown!

⁵ So the people of Nineveh believed in God and proclaimed a fast and put on sackcloth [in penitent mourning], from the greatest of them even to the least of them.

⁶ For word came to the king of Nineveh [of all that had happened to Jonah, and his terrifying message from God], and he arose from his throne and he laid his robe aside, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.

⁷ And he made proclamation and published through Nineveh, By the decree of the king and his nobles: Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything; let them not feed nor drink water.

⁸ But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth and let them cry mightily to God. Yes, let every one turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands.

⁹ Who can tell, God may turn and revoke His sentence against us [when we have met His terms], and turn away from His fierce anger so that we perish not.^(A)

¹⁰ And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God revoked His [sentence of] evil that He had said that He would do to them and He did not do it [for He was comforted and eased concerning them].

⁸ Nevertheless, do not let this one fact escape you, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day.^(A)

⁹ The Lord does not delay and is not tardy or slow about what He promises, according to some people’s conception of slowness, but He is long-suffering (extraordinarily patient) toward you, not desiring that any should perish, but that all should turn to repentance.

¹⁰ But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will vanish (pass away) with a thunderous crash, and the [^[a]material] elements [of the universe] will be dissolved with fire, and the earth and the works that are upon it will be burned up.

¹¹ Since all these things are thus ^[b]in the process of being dissolved, what kind of person ought [each of] you to be [in the meanwhile] in consecrated and holy behavior and devout and godly qualities,

¹² While you wait and earnestly long for (expect and hasten) the coming of the day of God by reason of which the flaming heavens will be dissolved, and the [^[c]material] elements [of the universe] will flare and melt with fire?^(B)

¹³ But we look for new heavens and a new earth according to His promise, in which righteousness (uprightness, freedom from sin, and right standing with God) is to abide.^(C)