Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Psalm 84

To the Chief Musician; set to a Philistine lute, or [possibly] a particular Gittite tune. A Psalm of the sons of Korah.

¹ How lovely are Your tabernacles, O Lord of hosts!

² My soul yearns, yes, even pines and is homesick for the courts of the Lord; my heart and my flesh cry out and sing for joy to the living God.

³ Yes, the sparrow has found a house, 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 (happy, fortunate, to be envied) are those who dwell in Your house and Your presence; they will be singing Your praises all the day long. Selah [pause, and calmly think of that]!

⁵ Blessed (happy, fortunate, to be envied) is the man whose strength is in You, in whose heart are the highways to Zion.

⁶ Passing through the Valley of Weeping (Baca), they make it a place of springs; the early rain also fills [the pools] with blessings.

⁷ They go from strength to strength [increasing in victorious power]; each of them appears before God in Zion.

¹⁷ Thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider and call for the mourning women to come; send for the skillful women to come.

¹⁸ Let them make haste and raise a wailing over us and for us, that our eyes may run down with tears and our eyelids gush with water.

¹⁹ For a sound of wailing is heard [coming] out of Zion: How we are plundered and ruined! We are greatly confounded and utterly put to shame, because we have forsaken the land, because they have cast down our dwellings [our dwellings that have cast us out].

²⁰ Yet hear the word of the Lord, O you women, and let your ears receive the word of His mouth; teach your daughters a lament, and each one [teach] her neighbor a dirge.

²¹ For death has come up into our windows; it has entered into our palaces, cutting off the children from outdoors and the young men from the streets.

²² Speak, Thus says the Lord: The dead bodies of men shall fall like dung on the open field and like sheaves [of grain] behind the reaper, and none shall gather them.^(A)

²³ Thus says the Lord: Let not the wise and skillful person glory and boast in his wisdom and skill; let not the mighty and powerful person glory and boast in his strength and power; let not the person who is rich [in physical gratification and earthly wealth] glory and boast in his [temporal satisfactions and earthly] riches;

²⁴ But let him who glories glory in this: that he understands and knows Me [personally and practically, directly discerning and recognizing My character], that I am the Lord, Who practices loving-kindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth, for in these things I delight, says the Lord.^(B)

²⁵ Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will punish all who though circumcised [outwardly, in the flesh] are still uncircumcised [in corresponding inward purity]—^(C)

²⁶ Egypt, Judah, Edom, the children of Ammon, Moab [all of whom are related except Egypt], and all who live in the desert and who clip off the corners of their hair and beards; for all these nations are uncircumcised [in heart], and all the house of Israel is uncircumcised in heart.

¹⁰ Now you have closely observed and diligently followed my teaching, conduct, purpose in life, faith, patience, love, steadfastness,

¹¹ Persecutions, sufferings—such as occurred to me at Antioch, at Iconium, and at Lystra, persecutions I endured, but out of them all the Lord delivered me.

¹² Indeed all who delight in piety and are determined to live a devoted and godly life in Christ Jesus will meet with persecution [will be made to suffer because of their religious stand].

¹³ But wicked men and imposters will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and leading astray others and being deceived and led astray themselves.

¹⁴ But as for you, continue to hold to the things that you have learned and of which you are convinced, knowing from whom you learned [them],

¹⁵ And how from your childhood you have had a knowledge of and been acquainted with the sacred Writings, which are able to instruct you and give you the understanding for salvation which comes through faith in Christ Jesus [through the ^[a]leaning of the entire human personality on God in Christ Jesus in absolute trust and confidence in His power, wisdom, and goodness].