Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
Psalm 18
Praise for Deliverance
For the choir director. Of the servant of the Lord, David, who spoke the words of this song to the Lord on the day the Lord rescued him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul.(A) He said:
20 The Lord rewarded me
according to my righteousness;(A)
He repaid me
according to the cleanness of my hands.(B)
21 For I have kept the ways of the Lord
and have not turned from my God to wickedness.(C)
22 Indeed, I have kept all His ordinances in mind[a]
and have not disregarded His statutes.(D)
23 I was blameless toward Him(E)
and kept myself from sinning.
24 So the Lord repaid me
according to my righteousness,(F)
according to the cleanness of my hands in His sight.(G)
25 With the faithful
You prove Yourself faithful;
with the blameless man
You prove Yourself blameless;
26 with the pure
You prove Yourself pure,
but with the crooked
You prove Yourself shrewd.(H)
27 For You rescue an afflicted people,(I)
but You humble those with haughty eyes.(J)
28 Lord, You light my lamp;
my God illuminates my darkness.(K)
29 With You I can attack a barrier,[b]
and with my God I can leap over a wall.(L)
18 You ignored the Rock who gave you birth;
you forgot the God who gave birth to you.
19 When the Lord saw this, He despised them,
provoked to anger by His sons and daughters.
20 He said: “I will hide My face from them;
I will see what will become of them,
for they are a perverse generation—
unfaithful children.
28 Israel is a nation lacking sense
with no understanding at all.[a]
29 If only they were wise, they would figure it out;
they would understand their fate.
30 How could one man pursue a thousand,
or two put ten thousand to flight,
unless their Rock had sold them,
unless the Lord had given them up?
31 But their “rock” is not like our Rock;
even our enemies concede.
32 For their vine is from the vine of Sodom
and from the fields of Gomorrah.
Their grapes are poisonous;
their clusters are bitter.
33 Their wine is serpents’ venom,
the deadly poison of cobras.
34 “Is it not stored up with Me,
sealed up in My vaults?
35 Vengeance[b] belongs to Me; I will repay.[c](A)
In time their foot will slip,
for their day of disaster is near,
and their doom is coming quickly.”
36 The Lord will indeed vindicate His people
and have compassion on His servants(B)
when He sees that their strength is gone
and no one is left—slave or free.
37 He will say: “Where are their gods,
the ‘rock’ they found refuge in?
38 Who ate the fat of their sacrifices
and drank the wine of their drink offerings?
Let them rise up and help you;
let it[d] be a shelter for you.
39 See now that I alone am He;
there is no God but Me.(C)
I bring death and I give life;
I wound and I heal.
No one can rescue anyone from My hand.(D)
A Hymn of Praise
33 Oh, the depth of the riches(A)
both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God!(B)
How unsearchable His judgments(C)
and untraceable His ways!
34 For who has known the mind of the Lord?(D)
Or who has been His counselor?
35 Or who has ever first given to Him,
and has to be repaid?(E)[a]
36 For from Him and through Him
and to Him are all things.(F)
To Him be the glory forever. Amen.
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