Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
Pilgrim Road to Adonai’s Courts
Psalm 84
1 For the music director, upon the Gittite lyre, a psalm of the sons of Korah.
2 How lovely are Your tabernacles,
Adonai-Tzva’ot!
3 My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of Adonai.
My heart and my flesh sing for joy to the living God.
4 Even the sparrow has found a home,
and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young
—near Your altars, Adonai-Tzva’ot—
my King and my God!
5 Blessed are they who dwell in Your House
—they are ever praising You. Selah
6 Blessed is one whose strength is in You,
in whose heart are the pilgrim roads.
7 Passing through the valley of Baca,
they make it a spring.
The early rain covers it with blessings.
9 If only I had a travelers’ lodging place
in the wilderness,
then I might leave my people
and get away from them!
For they are all adulterers,
a bunch of traitors.
2 They bend their tongue like a bow.
Lies, not faithfulness,
prevail in the land.
“For they go from evil to evil
and do not know Me,” says Adonai.
3 Beware, everyone, of your neighbor!
Don’t even trust a brother.
For every brother grabs like Jacob
and every neighbor spreads slander.
4 Everyone deceives his neighbor
and does not speak the truth.
They taught their tongue to speak lies.
They wear themselves out doing wrong.
5 “You dwell in the midst of deceit.
In deceit they refuse to know Me.”
It is a declaration of Adonai.
6 Therefore thus says Adonai-Tzva’ot:
“I am about to refine them and test them.
For what else can I do
for the daughter of My people?
7 Their tongue is a deadly arrow,
speaking deceit.
With his mouth
each says shalom to his neighbor,
while inwardly setting a trap for him.
8 For such things shall I not punish them?”
It is a declaration of Adonai.
“Should I not avenge Myself
on such a nation as this?”
9 For the mountains I lift up weeping and wailing,
a lament for the desert pastures.
For they are so scorched
that no one passes through—
the lowing of cattle is not heard.
The birds of the air have fled
and the animals are gone.
10 “I will make Jerusalem a heap of ruins,
a lair for jackals.
I will make the cities of Judah
a wasteland without inhabitant.
11 Who is the one wise enough to understand this?
To whom has the mouth of Adonai spoken
that he may explain it?
Why is the land ruined,
laid waste like a wilderness,
so that no one passes through?”
12 Adonai said “It is because they have forsaken My Torah that I set before them. They have neither obeyed My voice nor walked according to it, 13 but have walked after the stubbornness of their heart, and after the Baalim that their fathers taught them. 14 Therefore, thus says Adonai-Tzva’ot, the God of Israel, “look, I will make this people eat wormwood and drink poisoned water. 15 I will scatter them among the nations whom neither they nor their fathers have known. I will pursue them with the sword, until I have finished with them.”
16 Thus says Adonai-Tzva’ot:
“Pay attention! Call the dirge-singers and let them come.
Send for the most skillful wailers and let them come!”
Opposition in the Last Days
3 But understand this, that in the last days[a] hard times will come— 2 for people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 hardhearted, unforgiving, backbiting, without self-control, brutal, hating what is good, 4 treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5 holding to an outward form of godliness but denying its power. Avoid these people! 6 For among these are those who slip into households and deceive weak women weighed down with sins, led away by various desires, 7 always learning yet never able to come to the knowledge of truth. 8 Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses,[b] so do these people oppose the truth, men corrupted in mind and worthless concerning the faith. 9 But these people will not make any more progress—for their folly, like that of Jannes and Jambres, will be obvious to everyone.
Tree of Life (TLV) Translation of the Bible. Copyright © 2015 by The Messianic Jewish Family Bible Society.