Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
Psalm 63
Comfort and Assurance in God’s Presence
A Psalm of David, when he was in the Wilderness of Judah.
1 O God, you are my God; I seek you;
my soul thirsts for you;
my flesh faints for you,
as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.(A)
2 So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary,
beholding your power and glory.(B)
3 Because your steadfast love is better than life,
my lips will praise you.(C)
4 So I will bless you as long as I live;
I will lift up my hands and call on your name.(D)
5 My soul is satisfied as with a rich feast,[a]
and my mouth praises you with joyful lips(E)
6 when I think of you on my bed
and meditate on you in the watches of the night,(F)
7 for you have been my help,
and in the shadow of your wings I sing for joy.(G)
8 My soul clings to you;
your right hand upholds me.(H)
Judgment in the Valley of Jehoshaphat
9 Proclaim this among the nations:
Consecrate yourselves for war;
stir up the warriors.
Let all the soldiers draw near;
let them come up.
10 Beat your plowshares into swords
and your pruning hooks into spears;
let the weakling say, “I am a warrior.”(A)
11 Come quickly,[a]
all you nations all around;
gather yourselves there.
Bring down your warriors, O Lord.(B)
12 Let the nations rouse themselves
and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat,
for there I will sit to judge
all the neighboring nations.(C)
13 Put in the sickle,
for the harvest is ripe.
Go in, tread,
for the winepress is full.
The vats overflow,
for their wickedness is great.(D)
14 Multitudes, multitudes,
in the valley of decision!
For the day of the Lord is near
in the valley of decision.(E)
15 The sun and the moon are darkened,
and the stars withdraw their shining.
16 The Lord roars from Zion
and utters his voice from Jerusalem,
and the heavens and the earth shake.
But the Lord is a refuge for his people,
a stronghold for the people of Israel.(F)
The Glorious Future of Judah
17 So you shall know that I, the Lord your God,
dwell in Zion, my holy mountain.
And Jerusalem shall be holy,
and strangers shall never again pass through it.(G)
18 In that day
the mountains shall drip sweet wine,
the hills shall flow with milk,
and all the streambeds of Judah
shall flow with water;
a fountain shall come forth from the house of the Lord
and water the Wadi Shittim.(H)
19 Egypt shall become a desolation
and Edom a desolate wilderness,
because of the violence done to the people of Judah,
in whose land they have shed innocent blood.(I)
20 But Judah shall be inhabited forever
and Jerusalem to all generations.(J)
21 I will avenge their blood, and I will not clear the guilty,[b]
for the Lord dwells in Zion.(K)
The Coming of the Son of Man
29 “Immediately after the suffering of those days
the sun will be darkened,
and the moon will not give its light;
the stars will fall from heaven,
and the powers of heaven will be shaken.(A)
30 “Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see ‘the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven’ with power and great glory.(B) 31 And he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.(C)
The Lesson of the Fig Tree
32 “From the fig tree learn its lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts forth its leaves, you know that summer is near. 33 So also, when you see all these things, you know that he[a] is near, at the very gates. 34 Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place.(D) 35 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.(E)
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.