Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
Psalm 26
Plea for Justice and Declaration of Righteousness
Of David.
1 Vindicate me, O Lord,
for I have walked in my integrity,
and I have trusted in the Lord without wavering.(A)
2 Prove me, O Lord, and try me;
test my heart and mind.(B)
3 For your steadfast love is before my eyes,
and I walk in faithfulness to you.[a](C)
4 I do not sit with the worthless,
nor do I consort with hypocrites;(D)
5 I hate the company of evildoers
and will not sit with the wicked.(E)
6 I wash my hands in innocence
and go around your altar, O Lord,(F)
7 singing aloud a song of thanksgiving
and telling all your wondrous deeds.(G)
8 O Lord, I love the house in which you dwell
and the place where your glory abides.(H)
Punishment Is Inevitable
15 Then the Lord said to me: Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet my heart would not turn toward this people. Send them out of my sight, and let them go!(A) 2 And when they say to you, “Where shall we go?” you shall say to them: Thus says the Lord:
Those destined for pestilence, to pestilence,
and those destined for the sword, to the sword;
those destined for famine, to famine,
and those destined for captivity, to captivity.(B)
3 And I will appoint over them four kinds of destroyers, says the Lord: the sword to kill, the dogs to drag away, and the birds of the air and the wild animals of the earth to devour and destroy.(C) 4 I will make them a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth because of what King Manasseh son of Hezekiah of Judah did in Jerusalem.(D)
5 Who will have pity on you, O Jerusalem,
or who will bemoan you?
Who will turn aside
to ask about your welfare?
6 You have rejected me, says the Lord;
you are going backward,
so I have stretched out my hand against you and destroyed you—
I am weary of relenting.(E)
7 I have winnowed them with a winnowing fork
in the gates of the land;
I have bereaved them; I have destroyed my people;
they did not turn from their ways.(F)
8 Their widows became more numerous
than the sand of the seas;
I have brought against the mothers of youths
a destroyer at noonday;
I have made anguish and terror
fall upon her suddenly.
9 She who bore seven has languished;
she has swooned away;
her sun went down while it was yet day;
she has been shamed and disgraced.
And the rest of them I will give to the sword
before their enemies,
says the Lord.(G)
7 For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work, but only until the one who now restrains it is removed.(A) 8 And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus[a] will destroy[b] with the breath of his mouth, annihilating him by the manifestation of his coming.(B) 9 The coming of the lawless one is apparent in the working of Satan, who uses all power, signs, lying wonders,(C) 10 and every kind of wicked deception for those who are perishing because they refused to love the truth and so be saved.(D) 11 For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion, leading them to believe what is false,(E) 12 so that all who have not believed the truth but took pleasure in unrighteousness will be condemned.(F)
New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.