Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

A Psalm of David, when he fled from Absalom his son.

3 Jehovah, how many are they that trouble me, many they that rise up against me!

² Many say of my soul, There is no salvation for him in God. Selah.

³ But thou, Jehovah, art a shield about me; my glory, and the lifter up of my head.

⁴ With my voice will I call to Jehovah, and he will answer me from the hill of his holiness. Selah.

⁵ I laid me down and slept; I awaked, for Jehovah sustaineth me.

⁶ I will not fear for myriads of the people that have set themselves against me round about.

⁷ Arise, Jehovah; save me, my God! For thou hast smitten all mine enemies upon the cheekbone, thou hast broken the teeth of the wicked.

⁸ Salvation is of Jehovah; thy blessing is upon thy people. Selah.

⁵ See ye among the nations, and behold, and wonder marvellously; for [I] work a work in your days, which ye will not believe, though it be declared [to you].

⁶ For behold, I raise up the Chaldeans, that bitter and impetuous nation, which marcheth through the breadth of the earth, to possess dwelling-places that are not theirs.

⁷ They are terrible and dreadful: their judgment and their dignity proceed from themselves.

⁸ And their horses are swifter than the leopards, and are more agile than the evening wolves; and their horsemen prance proudly, and their horsemen come from afar: they fly as an eagle that hasteth to devour.

⁹ They come all of them for violence: the crowd of their faces is forwards, and they gather captives as the sand.

¹⁰ Yea, he scoffeth at kings, and princes are a scorn unto him; he derideth every stronghold: for he heapeth up dust, and taketh it.

¹¹ Then will his mind change, and he will pass on, and become guilty: this his power is become his +god.

¹² —Art thou not from everlasting, Jehovah my God, my Holy One? We shall not die. Jehovah, thou hast ordained him for judgment; and thou, O Rock, hast appointed him for correction.

¹³ [Thou art] of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on mischief: wherefore lookest thou upon them that deal treacherously, [and] keepest silence when the wicked swalloweth up a [man] more righteous than he?

¹⁴ And thou makest men as the fishes of the sea, as the creeping things, that have no ruler over them.

¹⁵ He taketh up all of them with the hook, he catcheth them in his net, and gathereth them into his drag; therefore he rejoiceth and is glad:

¹⁶ therefore he sacrificeth unto his net, and burneth incense unto his drag; for by them his portion is become fat, and his meat dainty.

¹⁷ Shall he therefore empty his net, and not spare to slay the nations continually?

² Count it all joy, my brethren, when ye fall into various temptations,

³ knowing that the proving of your faith works endurance.

⁴ But let endurance have [its] perfect work, that ye may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

⁵ But if any one of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all freely and reproaches not, and it shall be given to him:

⁶ but let him ask in faith, nothing doubting. For he that doubts is like a wave of the sea driven by the wind and tossed about;

⁷ for let not that man think that he shall receive anything from the Lord;

⁸ [he is] a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

⁹ But let the brother of low degree glory in his elevation,

¹⁰ and the rich in his humiliation, because as [the] grass's flower he will pass away.

¹¹ For the sun has risen with its burning heat, and has withered the grass, and its flower has fallen, and the comeliness of its look has perished: thus the rich also shall wither in his goings.