Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
Book IV
(Psalms 90–106)
Psalm 90
God’s Eternity and Human Frailty
A Prayer of Moses, the man of God.
1 Lord, you have been our dwelling place[a]
in all generations.(A)
2 Before the mountains were brought forth
or ever you had formed the earth and the world,
from everlasting to everlasting you are God.(B)
3 You turn us[b] back to dust
and say, “Turn back, you mortals.”(C)
4 For a thousand years in your sight
are like yesterday when it is past
or like a watch in the night.(D)
5 You sweep them away; they are like a dream,
like grass that is renewed in the morning;(E)
6 in the morning it flourishes and is renewed;
in the evening it fades and withers.(F)
7 For we are consumed by your anger;
by your wrath we are overwhelmed.
8 You have set our iniquities before you,
our secret sins in the light of your countenance.(G)
9 For all our days pass away under your wrath;
our years come to an end[a] like a sigh.(A)
10 The days of our life are seventy years
or perhaps eighty, if we are strong;
even then their span[b] is only toil and trouble;
they are soon gone, and we fly away.(B)
11 Who considers the power of your anger?
Your wrath is as great as the fear that is due you.(C)
12 So teach us to count our days
that we may gain a wise heart.(A)
Judgment on Idolatrous Israel
6 The word of the Lord came to me: 2 O mortal, set your face toward the mountains of Israel and prophesy against them 3 and say: You mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord God! Thus says the Lord God to the mountains and the hills, to the ravines and the valleys: I, I myself, will bring a sword upon you, and I will destroy your high places.(A) 4 Your altars shall become desolate, and your incense stands shall be broken, and I will throw down your slain in front of your idols.(B) 5 I will lay the corpses of the people of Israel in front of their idols, and I will scatter your bones around your altars. 6 Wherever you live, your towns shall be waste and your high places ruined, so that your altars will be waste and ruined,[a] your idols broken and destroyed, your incense stands cut down, and your works wiped out.(C) 7 The slain shall fall in your midst; then you shall know that I am the Lord.(D)
8 But I will spare some. Some of you shall escape the sword among the nations and be scattered through the countries.(E) 9 Your survivors shall remember me among the nations where they are carried captive, how I was crushed by their wanton heart that turned away from me and their wanton eyes that turned after their idols. Then they will be loathsome in their own sight for the evils that they have committed, for all their abominations.(F) 10 And they shall know that I am the Lord; I did not threaten in vain to bring this disaster upon them.
11 Thus says the Lord God: Strike your hands together and stamp your foot and say Alas! for all the vile abominations of the house of Israel. For they shall fall by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence.(G) 12 Those far off shall die of pestilence, those nearby shall fall by the sword, and any who are left and are spared shall die of famine. Thus I will spend my fury upon them.(H) 13 And you shall know that I am the Lord when their slain lie among their idols around their altars, on every high hill, on all the mountaintops, under every green tree, and under every leafy oak, wherever they offered pleasing odor to all their idols.(I) 14 I will stretch out my hand against them and make the land desolate and waste, throughout all their settlements, from the wilderness to Riblah.[b] Then they shall know that I am the Lord.(J)
The Bowls of God’s Wrath
16 Then I heard a loud voice from the temple telling the seven angels, “Go and pour out on the earth the seven bowls of the wrath of God.”(A)
2 So the first angel went and poured his bowl on the earth, and a foul and painful sore came on those who had the brand of the beast and who worshiped its image.(B)
3 The second angel poured his bowl into the sea, and it became like the blood of a corpse, and every living thing in the sea died.(C)
4 The third angel poured his bowl into the rivers and the springs of water, and they became blood.(D) 5 And I heard the angel of the waters say,
“You are just, O Holy One, who are and were,
for you have judged these things;(E)
6 because they shed the blood of saints and prophets,
you have given them blood to drink.
It is what they deserve!”
7 And I heard the altar respond,
“Yes, O Lord God, the Almighty,
your judgments are true and just!”(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.