Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Psalm 75

To the Chief Musician; [set to the tune of] “Do Not Destroy.” A Psalm of Asaph. A song.

¹ We give praise and thanks to You, O God, we praise and give thanks; Your wondrous works declare that Your ^[a]Name is near and they who invoke Your Name rehearse Your wonders.

² When the proper time has come [for executing My judgments], I will judge uprightly [says the Lord].

³ When the earth totters, and all the inhabitants of it, it is I Who will poise and keep steady its pillars. Selah [pause, and calmly think of that]!

⁴ I said to the arrogant and boastful, Deal not arrogantly [do not boast]; and to the wicked, Lift not up the horn [of personal aggrandizement].

⁵ Lift not up your [aggressive] horn on high, speak not with a stiff neck and insolent arrogance.

⁶ For not from the east nor from the west nor from the south come promotion and lifting up.^(A)

⁷ But God is the Judge! He puts down one and lifts up another.

⁸ For in the hand of the Lord there is a cup [of His wrath], and the wine foams and is red, well mixed; and He pours out from it, and all the wicked of the earth must drain it and drink its dregs.^(B)

⁹ But I will declare and rejoice forever; I will sing praises to the God of Jacob.

¹⁰ All the horns of the ungodly also will I cut off [says the Lord], but the horns of the [uncompromisingly] righteous shall be exalted.

3 Woe to her that is rebellious and polluted, the oppressing city [Jerusalem]!

² She did not listen to and heed the voice [of God]; she accepted no correction or instruction; she trusted not in the Lord [nor leaned on or was confident in Him, but was confident in her own wealth]; she drew not near to her God [but to the god of Baal or Molech].

³ Her officials in the midst of her are roaring lions; her judges are evening wolves; they gnaw not the bones on the morrow, for nothing is left by morning.

⁴ Her prophets are light [lacking truth, gravity, and steadiness] and men of treachery; her priests have profaned the sanctuary; [defrauding God and man by pretending their own word is God’s word] they have done violence to the law.^(A)

⁵ The Lord in the midst of her is [uncompromisingly] righteous; He will not do iniquity. Every morning He brings His justice to light; He fails not, but the unjust [person] knows no shame.

⁶ I [the Lord] have cut off nations; their battlements and corner towers are desolate and in ruins. I laid their streets waste so that none passes over them; their cities are destroyed so that there is no man, there is no inhabitant.

⁷ I said, Only let her [reverently and worshipfully] fear Me, receive correction and instruction, and [Jerusalem’s] dwelling shall not be cut off. However, I have punished her [according to all that I have appointed concerning her in the way of punishment], but all the more they are eager to make all their doings corrupt and infamous.

⁸ Therefore [earnestly] wait for Me, says the Lord, [waiting] for the day when I rise up to the attack [as a witness, accuser, or judge, and a testimony]. For My decision and determination and right it is to gather the nations together, to assemble the kingdoms, to pour upon them My indignation, even all [the heat of] My fierce anger; for [in that day] all the earth shall be consumed with the fire of My zeal and jealousy.

⁹ For then [changing their impure language] I will give to the people a clear and pure speech from pure lips, that they may all call upon the name of the Lord, to serve Him with one unanimous consent and one united shoulder [bearing the yoke of the Lord].

¹⁰ From beyond the rivers of Cush or Ethiopia those who pray to Me, the daughter of My dispersed people, will bring and present My offering.

¹¹ In that day you [the congregation of Israel] shall not be put to shame for all your deeds by which you have rebelled and transgressed against Me, for then I will take away out of your midst those who exult in your majesty and pride; and you shall no more be haughty [and carry yourselves arrogantly on or] because of My holy mountain.

¹² For I will leave in the midst of you a people afflicted and poor, and they shall trust, seek refuge, and be confident in the name of the Lord.

¹³ What is left of Israel shall not do iniquity or speak lies, neither shall a deceitful tongue be found in their mouth, for they shall feed and lie down and none shall make them afraid.

²¹ Tell me, you who are bent on being under the Law, will you listen to what the Law [really] says?

²² For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the bondmaid and one by the free woman.^(A)

²³ But whereas the child of the slave woman was born according to the flesh and had an ordinary birth, the son of the free woman was born in fulfillment of the promise.

²⁴ Now all this is an allegory; these [two women] represent two covenants. One covenant originated from Mount Sinai [where the Law was given] and bears [children destined] for slavery; this is Hagar.

²⁵ Now Hagar is (stands for) Mount Sinai in Arabia and she corresponds to and belongs in the same category with the present Jerusalem, for she is in bondage together with her children.

²⁶ But the Jerusalem above (^[a]the Messianic kingdom of Christ) is free, and she is our mother.

²⁷ For it is written in the Scriptures, Rejoice, O barren woman, who has not given birth to children; break forth into a joyful shout, you who are not feeling birth pangs, for the desolate woman has many more children than she who has a husband.^(B)

²⁸ But we, brethren, are children [^[b]not by physical descent, as was Ishmael, but] like Isaac, born ^[c]in virtue of promise.

²⁹ Yet [just] as at that time the child [of ordinary birth] born according to the flesh despised and persecuted him [who was born remarkably] according to [the promise and the working of] the [Holy] Spirit, so it is now also.^(C)

³⁰ But what does the Scripture say? Cast out and send away the slave woman and her son, for never shall the son of the slave woman be heir and share the inheritance with the son of the free woman.^(D)

³¹ So, brethren, we [who are born again] are not children of a slave woman [^[d]the natural], but of the free [^[e]the supernatural].

5 In [this] freedom Christ has made us free [and completely liberated us]; stand fast then, and do not be hampered and held ensnared and submit again to a yoke of slavery [which you have once put off].