Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
Psalm 3[a]
Threatened but Trusting
1 A psalm of David, when he fled from his son Absalom.[b](A)
I
2 How many are my foes, Lord!
How many rise against me!
3 [c]How many say of me,
“There is no salvation for him in God.”(B)
Selah
4 But you, Lord, are a shield around me;
my glory, you keep my head high.(C)
II
5 With my own voice I will call out to the Lord,
and he will answer me from his holy mountain.
Selah
6 I lie down and I fall asleep,
[and] I will wake up, for the Lord sustains me.(D)
7 I do not fear, then, thousands of people
arrayed against me on every side.
III
God’s Response
5 [a]Look over the nations and see!
Be utterly amazed!
For a work is being done in your days
that you would not believe, were it told.(A)
6 For now I am raising up the Chaldeans,(B)
that bitter and impulsive people,
Who march the breadth of the land
to take dwellings not their own.
7 They are terrifying and dreadful;
their right and their exalted position are of their own making.
8 Swifter than leopards are their horses,
and faster than desert wolves.
Their horses spring forward;
they come from far away;
they fly like an eagle hastening to devour.
9 All of them come for violence,
their combined onslaught, a stormwind
to gather up captives like sand.
10 They scoff at kings,
ridicule princes;
They laugh at any fortress,
heap up an earthen ramp, and conquer it.
11 Then they sweep through like the wind and vanish—
they make their own strength their god![b]
Habakkuk’s Second Complaint
12 Are you not from of old, O Lord,
my holy God, immortal?(C)
Lord, you have appointed them for judgment,[c]
O Rock,[d] you have set them in place to punish!
13 Your eyes are too pure to look upon wickedness,
and the sight of evil you cannot endure.
Why, then, do you gaze on the faithless in silence
while the wicked devour those more just than themselves?
14 You have made mortals like the fish in the sea,
like creeping things without a leader.
15 He[e] brings them all up with a hook,
and hauls them away with his net;
He gathers them in his fishing net,
and then rejoices and exults.
16 Therefore he makes sacrifices to his net,[f]
and burns incense to his fishing net;
For thanks to them his portion is rich,
and his meal lavish.
17 Shall they, then, keep on drawing his sword
to slaughter nations without mercy?
II. The Value of Trials and Temptation
Perseverance in Trial. 2 (A)Consider it all joy, my brothers, when you encounter various trials,[a] 3 for you know that the testing[b] of your faith produces perseverance. 4 And let perseverance be perfect, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. 5 But if any of you lacks wisdom,[c] he should ask God who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly, and he will be given it.(B) 6 But he should ask in faith, not doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed about by the wind.(C) 7 For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord, 8 since he is a man of two minds, unstable in all his ways.
9 The brother in lowly circumstances[d] should take pride in his high standing,(D) 10 and the rich one in his lowliness, for he will pass away “like the flower of the field.”(E) 11 For the sun comes up with its scorching heat and dries up the grass, its flower droops, and the beauty of its appearance vanishes. So will the rich person fade away in the midst of his pursuits.
Scripture texts, prefaces, introductions, footnotes and cross references used in this work are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc., Washington, DC All Rights Reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.