Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
The Blessedness of Dwelling in the House of God
To the Chief Musician. (A)On[a] an instrument of Gath. A Psalm of the sons of Korah.
84 How (B)lovely [b]is Your tabernacle,
O Lord of hosts!
2 (C)My soul longs, yes, even faints
For the courts of the Lord;
My heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.
3 Even the sparrow has found a home,
And the swallow a nest for herself,
Where she may lay her young—
Even Your altars, O Lord of hosts,
My King and my God.
4 Blessed are those who dwell in Your (D)house;
They will still be praising You. Selah
Disobedience Brings God’s Judgment
9 Oh, (A)that my head were waters,
And my eyes a fountain of tears,
That I might weep day and night
For the slain of the daughter of my people!
2 Oh, that I had in the wilderness
A lodging place for travelers;
That I might leave my people,
And go from them!
For (B)they are all adulterers,
An assembly of treacherous men.
3 “And like their bow (C)they have bent their tongues for lies.
They are not valiant for the truth on the earth.
For they proceed from (D)evil to evil,
And they (E)do not know Me,” says the Lord.
4 “Everyone(F) take heed to his [a]neighbor,
And do not trust any brother;
For every brother will utterly supplant,
And every neighbor will (G)walk with slanderers.
5 Everyone will (H)deceive his neighbor,
And will not speak the truth;
They have taught their tongue to speak lies;
They weary themselves to commit iniquity.
6 Your dwelling place is in the midst of deceit;
Through deceit they refuse to know Me,” says the Lord.
7 Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts:
“Behold, (I)I will refine them and [b]try them;
(J)For how shall I deal with the daughter of My people?
8 Their tongue is an arrow shot out;
It speaks (K)deceit;
One speaks (L)peaceably to his neighbor with his mouth,
But [c]in his heart he [d]lies in wait.
9 (M)Shall I not punish them for these things?” says the Lord.
“Shall I not avenge Myself on such a nation as this?”
10 I will take up a weeping and wailing for the mountains,
And (N)for the [e]dwelling places of the wilderness a lamentation,
Because they are burned up,
So that no one can pass through;
Nor can men hear the voice of the cattle.
(O)Both the birds of the heavens and the beasts have fled;
They are gone.
11 “I will make Jerusalem (P)a heap of ruins, (Q)a den of jackals.
I will make the cities of Judah desolate, without an inhabitant.”
12 (R)Who is the wise man who may understand this? And who is he to whom the mouth of the Lord has spoken, that he may declare it? Why does the land perish and burn up like a wilderness, so that no one can pass through?
13 And the Lord said, “Because they have forsaken My law which I set before them, and have (S)not obeyed My voice, nor walked according to it, 14 but they have (T)walked according to the [f]dictates of their own hearts and after the Baals, (U)which their fathers taught them,” 15 therefore thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: “Behold, I will (V)feed them, this people, (W)with wormwood, and give them [g]water of gall to drink. 16 I will (X)scatter them also among the Gentiles, whom neither they nor their fathers have known. (Y)And I will send a sword after them until I have consumed them.”
Perilous Times and Perilous Men
3 But know this, that (A)in the last days [a]perilous times will come: 2 For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, 3 unloving, [b]unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, 4 (B)traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5 (C)having a form of godliness but (D)denying its power. And (E)from such people turn away! 6 For (F)of this sort are those who creep into households and make captives of gullible women loaded down with sins, led away by various lusts, 7 always learning and never able (G)to come to the knowledge of the truth. 8 (H)Now as Jannes and Jambres resisted Moses, so do these also resist the truth: (I)men of corrupt minds, (J)disapproved concerning the faith; 9 but they will progress no further, for their folly will be manifest to all, (K)as theirs also was.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.