Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Psalm 92

A Psalm. A song for the Sabbath day.

¹ It is a good and delightful thing to give thanks to the Lord, to sing praises [with musical accompaniment] to Your name, O Most High,

² To show forth Your loving-kindness in the morning and Your faithfulness by night,

³ With an instrument of ten strings and with the lute, with a solemn sound upon the lyre.

⁴ For You, O Lord, have made me glad by Your works; at the deeds of Your hands I joyfully sing.

⁵ How great are Your doings, O Lord! Your thoughts are very deep.

⁶ A man in his rude and uncultivated state knows not, neither does a [self-confident] fool understand this:

⁷ That though the wicked spring up like grass and all evildoers flourish, they are doomed to be destroyed forever.

⁸ But You, Lord, are on high forever.

⁹ For behold, Your adversaries, O Lord, for behold, Your enemies shall perish; all the evildoers shall be scattered.

¹⁰ But my horn (emblem of excessive strength and stately grace) You have exalted like that of a wild ox; I am anointed with fresh oil.

¹¹ My eye looks upon those who lie in wait for me; my ears hear the evildoers that rise up against me.

¹² The [uncompromisingly] righteous shall flourish like the palm tree [be long-lived, stately, upright, useful, and fruitful]; they shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon [majestic, stable, durable, and incorruptible].

¹³ Planted in the house of the Lord, they shall flourish in the courts of our God.

¹⁴ [Growing in grace] they shall still bring forth fruit in old age; they shall be full of sap [of spiritual vitality] and [rich in the] verdure [of trust, love, and contentment].

¹⁵ [They are living memorials] to show that the Lord is upright and faithful to His promises; He is my Rock, and there is no unrighteousness in Him.^(A)

28 If you will listen diligently to the voice of the Lord your God, being watchful to do all His commandments which I command you this day, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth.

² And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you if you heed the voice of the Lord your God.

³ Blessed shall you be in the city and blessed shall you be in the field.

⁴ Blessed shall be the fruit of your body and the fruit of your ground and the fruit of your beasts, the increase of your cattle and the young of your flock.

⁵ Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading trough.

⁶ Blessed shall you be when you come in and blessed shall you be when you go out.

⁷ The Lord shall cause your enemies who rise up against you to be defeated before your face; they shall come out against you one way and flee before you seven ways.

⁸ The Lord shall command the blessing upon you in your storehouse and in all that you undertake. And He will bless you in the land which the Lord your God gives you.

⁹ The Lord will establish you as a people holy to Himself, as He has sworn to you, if you keep the commandments of the Lord your God and walk in His ways.

¹⁰ And all people of the earth shall see that you are called by the name [and in the presence of] the Lord, and they shall be afraid of you.

¹¹ And the Lord shall make you have a surplus of prosperity, through the fruit of your body, of your livestock, and of your ground, in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers to give you.

¹² The Lord shall open to you His good treasury, the heavens, to give the rain of your land in its season and to bless all the work of your hands; and you shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow.

¹³ And the Lord shall make you the head, and not the tail; and you shall be above only, and you shall not be beneath, if you heed the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you this day and are watchful to do them.

¹⁴ And you shall not turn aside from any of the words which I command you this day, to the right hand or to the left, to go after other gods to serve them.

¹⁷ So this I say and solemnly testify in [the name of] the Lord [as in His presence], that you must no longer live as the heathen (the Gentiles) do in their perverseness [in the folly, vanity, and emptiness of their souls and the futility] of their minds.

¹⁸ Their ^[a]moral understanding is darkened and their reasoning is beclouded. [They are] alienated (estranged, self-banished) from the life of God [with no share in it; this is] because of the ignorance (the want of knowledge and perception, the willful blindness) that is ^[b]deep-seated in them, due to their hardness of heart [to the insensitiveness of their moral nature].

¹⁹ In their spiritual apathy they have become callous and past feeling and reckless and have abandoned themselves [a prey] to unbridled sensuality, eager and greedy to indulge in every form of impurity [that their depraved desires may suggest and demand].

²⁰ But you did not so learn Christ!

²¹ Assuming that you have really heard Him and been taught by Him, as [all] Truth is in Jesus [embodied and personified in Him],

²² Strip yourselves of your former nature [put off and discard your old unrenewed self] which characterized your previous manner of life and becomes corrupt through lusts and desires that spring from delusion;

²³ And be constantly renewed in the spirit of your mind [having a fresh mental and spiritual attitude],

²⁴ And put on the new nature (the regenerate self) created in God’s image, [Godlike] in true righteousness and holiness.

²⁵ Therefore, rejecting all falsity and being done now with it, let everyone express the truth with his neighbor, for we are all parts of one body and members one of another.^(A)

²⁶ When angry, do not sin; do not ever let your wrath (your exasperation, your fury or indignation) last until the sun goes down.

²⁷ Leave no [such] room or foothold for the devil [give no opportunity to him].

²⁸ Let the thief steal no more, but rather let him be industrious, making an honest living with his own hands, so that he may be able to give to those in need.

²⁹ Let no foul or polluting language, nor evil word nor unwholesome or worthless talk [ever] come out of your mouth, but only such [speech] as is good and beneficial to the spiritual progress of others, as is fitting to the need and the occasion, that it may be a blessing and give grace (God’s favor) to those who hear it.

³⁰ And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God [do not offend or vex or sadden Him], by Whom you were sealed (marked, branded as God’s own, secured) for the day of redemption (of final deliverance through Christ from evil and the consequences of sin).

³¹ Let all bitterness and indignation and wrath (passion, rage, bad temper) and resentment (anger, animosity) and quarreling (brawling, clamor, contention) and slander (evil-speaking, abusive or blasphemous language) be banished from you, with all malice (spite, ill will, or baseness of any kind).

³² And become useful and helpful and kind to one another, tenderhearted (compassionate, understanding, loving-hearted), forgiving one another [readily and freely], as God in Christ forgave you.

5 Therefore be imitators of God [copy Him and follow His example], as well-beloved children [imitate their father].

² And walk in love, [esteeming and delighting in one another] as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us, a ^[c]slain offering and sacrifice to God [for you, so that it became] a sweet fragrance.^(B)