Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

3 LORD, how my adversaries are increased? How many rise against me?

² Many say to my soul, “There is no help for him in God.” Selah.

³ But You, LORD, are a buckler for me, my glory, and the lifter of my head.

⁴ I called to the LORD with my voice, and He heard me out of His Holy Mountain. Selah.

⁵ I laid down and slept; and rose up again. For the LORD sustained me.

⁶ I will not be afraid of tens of thousands of people who should beset me all around.

⁷ O LORD, arise! Help me, my God! For You have struck all my enemies upon the cheekbone. You have broken the teeth of the wicked.

⁸ Salvation belongs to the LORD. And Your blessing is upon Your people. Selah. To him who excels on Neginoth: A Psalm of David.

⁵ “Behold among the heathen, and watch, and wonder, and marvel. For I will work a work in your days. You will not believe it, though it is told to you.

⁶ “For lo, I raise up the Chaldeans, that bitter and furious nation, who shall go upon the breadth of the land to possess the dwelling places that are not theirs.

⁷ “They are terrible and fearful. Their judgment and their dignity shall proceed themselves.

⁸ “Also, their horses are swifter than leopards, and fiercer than wolves in the evening. And their horsemen are numerous. And their horsemen shall come from afar. They shall fly as the eagle diving toward prey.

⁹ “They all come to plunder. For their faces shall be an East wind. And they shall gather the captivity as the sand.

¹⁰ “And they shall mock the kings. And the princes shall be a scorn to them. They shall deride every stronghold. For they shall gather dust and take it.

¹¹ “Then they shall take courage and transgress and do wickedly, imputing their power to their god.”

¹² Are not You of old, O LORD my God, my Holy One? We shall not die. O LORD, You have ordained them for judgment! And, O God, You have established them for correction.

¹³ You are of pure Eyes and cannot consider evil. You cannot regard wickedness. Why do You look upon the transgressors and hold Your tongue when the wicked devours the man who is more righteous than he?

¹⁴ And men who have no ruler over them You make as the fish of the sea and as the creeping things.

¹⁵ They take up all with the hook. They catch it in their net and gather it in their fishing net, over which they rejoice and are glad.

¹⁶ Therefore, they sacrifice to their net and burn incense to their fishing net, because by them their portion is fat and their food plentiful.

¹⁷ Shall they, therefore, stretch out their net while continuing to slay the nations without pity?

² My brothers, count it all joy when you fall into diverse trials,

³ knowing that the trying of your faith brings forth patience.

⁴ And let patience have her perfect work, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.

⁵ If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, Who gives liberally to all and reproaches no one. And it shall be given him.

⁶ But let him ask in faith, and do not waver. For the one who wavers is like a wave of the sea, tossed by the wind and carried away.

⁷ Do not let that man think he shall receive anything from the Lord.

⁸ A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways.

⁹ Let the brother of low degree rejoice, in that he is exalted;

¹⁰ likewise the one who is rich, in that he is made low. For as the flower of the grass, he shall vanish away.

¹¹ For when the Sun rises with heat, the grass withers, its flower falls away and its good shape perishes. So, also, shall the rich man wither away in all his ways.