Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Psalm 65

To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David. A song.

¹ To You belongs silence (the submissive wonder of reverence which bursts forth into praise) and praise is due and fitting to You, O God, in Zion; and to You shall the vow be performed.

² O You Who hear prayer, to You shall all flesh come.

³ Iniquities and much varied guilt prevail against me; [yet] as for our transgressions, You forgive and purge them away [make atonement for them and cover them out of Your sight]!

⁴ Blessed (happy, fortunate, to be envied) is the man whom You choose and cause to come near, that he may dwell in Your courts! We shall be satisfied with the goodness of Your house, Your holy temple.

⁵ By fearful and glorious things [that terrify the wicked but make the godly sing praises] do You answer us in righteousness (rightness and justice), O God of our salvation, You Who are the confidence and hope of all the ends of the earth and of those far off on the seas;

⁶ Who by [Your] might have founded the mountains, being girded with power,

⁷ Who still the roaring of the seas, the roaring of their waves, and the tumult of the peoples,

⁸ So that those who dwell in earth’s farthest parts are afraid of [nature’s] signs of Your presence. You make the places where morning and evening have birth to shout for joy.

⁹ You visit the earth and saturate it with water; You greatly enrich it; the river of God is full of water; You provide them with grain when You have so prepared the earth.

¹⁰ You water the field’s furrows abundantly, You settle the ridges of it; You make the soil soft with showers, blessing the sprouting of its vegetation.

¹¹ You crown the year with Your bounty and goodness, and the tracks of Your [chariot wheels] drip with fatness.

¹² The [luxuriant] pastures in the uncultivated country drip [with moisture], and the hills gird themselves with joy.

¹³ The meadows are clothed with flocks, the valleys also are covered with grain; they shout for joy and sing together.

48 Hear this, O house of Jacob, who are called by the name of Israel and who come forth from the seed of Judah, you who swear allegiance by the name of the Lord and make mention of the God of Israel—but not in truth and sincerity, nor in righteousness (rightness and moral and spiritual rectitude in every area and relation)—

² For they call themselves [citizens] of the holy city and depend on the God of Israel—the Lord of hosts is His name.

³ I have declared from the beginning the former things [which happened in times past to Israel]; they went forth from My mouth and I made them known; then suddenly I did them, and they came to pass [says the Lord].

⁴ Because I knew that you were obstinate, and your neck was an iron sinew and your brow was brass,

⁵ Therefore I have declared things to come to you from of old; before they came to pass I announced them to you, so that you could not say, My idol has done them, and my graven image and my molten image have commanded them.

¹² All who have sinned without the Law will also perish without [regard to] the Law, and all who have sinned under the Law will be judged and condemned by the Law.

¹³ For it is not merely hearing the Law [read] that makes one righteous before God, but it is the doers of the Law who will be held guiltless and acquitted and justified.

¹⁴ When Gentiles who have not the [divine] Law do instinctively what the Law requires, they are a law to themselves, since they do not have the Law.

¹⁵ They show that the essential requirements of the Law are written in their hearts and are operating there, with which their consciences (sense of right and wrong) also bear witness; and their [moral] ^[a]decisions (their arguments of reason, their condemning or approving ^[b]thoughts) will accuse or perhaps defend and excuse [them]

¹⁶ On that day when, as my Gospel proclaims, God by Jesus Christ will judge men in regard to ^[c]the things which they conceal (their hidden thoughts).^(A)