Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Psalm 144

[A Psalm] of David.

¹ Blessed be the Lord, my Rock and my keen and firm Strength, Who teaches my hands to war and my fingers to fight—

² My Steadfast Love and my Fortress, my High Tower and my Deliverer, my Shield and He in Whom I trust and take refuge, Who subdues my people under me.

³ Lord, what is man that You take notice of him? Or [the] son of man that You take account of him?^(A)

⁴ Man is like vanity and a breath; his days are as a shadow that passes away.

⁵ Bow Your heavens, O Lord, and come down; touch the mountains, and they shall smoke.

⁶ Cast forth lightning and scatter [my enemies]; send out Your arrows and embarrass and frustrate them.

⁷ Stretch forth Your hand from above; rescue me and deliver me out of great waters, from the hands of hostile aliens (tribes around us)

⁸ Whose mouths speak deceit and whose right hands are right hands [raised in taking] fraudulent oaths.

⁹ I will sing a new song to You, O God; upon a harp, an instrument of ten strings, will I offer praises to You.

¹⁰ You are He Who gives salvation to kings, Who rescues David His servant from the hurtful sword [of evil].

¹¹ Rescue me and deliver me out of the power of [hostile] alien [tribes] whose mouths speak deceit and whose right hands are right hands [raised in taking] fraudulent oaths.

¹² When our sons shall be as plants grown large in their youth and our daughters as sculptured corner pillars hewn like those of a palace;

¹³ When our garners are full, affording all manner of store, and our sheep bring forth thousands and ten thousands in our pastures;

¹⁴ When our oxen are well loaded; when there is no invasion [of hostile armies] and no going forth [against besiegers—when there is no murder or manslaughter] and no outcry in our streets;

¹⁵ Happy and blessed are the people who are in such a case; yes, happy (blessed, fortunate, prosperous, to be envied) are the people whose God is the Lord!

⁵ Who is this who comes up from the wilderness leaning upon her beloved? [And as they sighted the home of her childhood, the bride said] Under the apple tree I awakened you; there your mother gave you birth, there she was in travail and bore you.

⁶ Set me like a seal upon your heart, like a seal upon your arm; for love is as strong as death, jealousy is as hard and cruel as Sheol (the place of the dead). Its flashes are flashes of fire, a most vehement flame [the very flame of the Lord]!^(A)

⁷ Many waters cannot quench love, neither can floods drown it. If a man would offer all the goods of his house for love, he would be utterly scorned and despised.

⁸ [Gathered with her family and the wedding guests in her mother’s cottage, the bride said to her stepbrothers, When I was a little girl, you said] We have a little sister and she has no breasts. What shall we do for our sister on the day when she is spoken for in marriage?

⁹ If she is a wall [discreet and womanly], we will build upon her a turret [a dowry] of silver; but if she is a door [bold and flirtatious], we will enclose her with boards of cedar.

¹⁰ [Well] I am a wall [with battlements], and my breasts are like the towers of it. Then was I in [the king’s] eyes as one [to be respected and to be allowed] to find peace.

¹¹ Solomon had a vineyard at Baal-hamon; he let out the vineyard to keepers; everyone was to bring him a thousand pieces of silver for its fruit.

¹² You, O Solomon, can have your thousand [pieces of silver], and those who tend the fruit of it two hundred; but my vineyard, which is mine [with all its radiant joy], is before me!

¹³ O you who dwell in the gardens, your companions have been listening to your voice—now cause me to hear it.

¹⁴ [Joyfully the radiant bride turned to him, the one altogether lovely, the chief among ten thousand to her soul, and with unconcealed eagerness to begin her life of sweet companionship with him, she answered] Make haste, my beloved, and come quickly, like a gazelle or a young hart [and take me to our waiting home] upon the mountains of spices!

⁴⁵ Upon seeing what Jesus had done, many of the Jews who had come with Mary believed in Him. [They trusted in Him and adhered to Him and relied on Him.]

⁴⁶ But some of them went back to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done.

⁴⁷ So the chief priests and Pharisees called a meeting of the council (the Sanhedrin) and said, What are we to do? For this Man performs many signs (evidences, miracles).

⁴⁸ If we let Him alone to go on like this, everyone will believe in Him and adhere to Him, and the Romans will come and suppress and destroy and take away our [holy] place and our nation [^[a]our temple and city and our civil organization].

⁴⁹ But one of them, Caiaphas, who was the high priest that year, declared, You know nothing at all!

⁵⁰ Nor do you understand or reason out that it is expedient and better for your own welfare that one man should die on behalf of the people than that the whole nation should perish (be destroyed, ruined).

⁵¹ Now he did not say this simply of his own accord [he was not self-moved]; but being the high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus was to die for the nation,^(A)

⁵² And not only for the nation but also for the purpose of uniting into one body the children of God who have been scattered far and wide.^(B)

⁵³ So from that day on they took counsel and plotted together how they might put Him to death.

⁵⁴ For that reason Jesus no longer appeared publicly among the Jews, but left there and retired to the district that borders on the wilderness (the desert), to a village called Ephraim, and there He stayed with the disciples.

⁵⁵ Now the Jewish Passover was at hand, and many from the country went up to Jerusalem in order that they might purify and consecrate themselves before the Passover.

⁵⁶ So they kept looking for Jesus and questioned among themselves as they were standing about in the temple [^[b]area], What do you think? Will He not come to the Feast at all?

⁵⁷ Now the chief priests and Pharisees had given orders that if anyone knew where He was, he should report it to them, so that they might arrest Him.