Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
BOOK IV
(Psalms 90–106)
Psalm 90
A prayer of Moses, the man of God.
90 Lord, you have been our help,
generation after generation.
2 Before the mountains were born,
before you birthed the earth and the inhabited world—
from forever in the past
to forever in the future, you are God.
3 You return people to dust,
saying, “Go back, humans,”
4 because in your perspective a thousand years
are like yesterday past,
like a short period during the night watch.
5 You sweep humans away like a dream,
like grass that is renewed in the morning.
6 True, in the morning it thrives, renewed,
but come evening it withers, all dried up.
7 Yes, we are wasting away because of your wrath;
we are paralyzed with fear on account of your rage.
8 You put our sins right in front of you,
set our hidden faults in the light from your face.
9 Yes, all our days slip away because of your fury;
we finish up our years with a whimper.
10 We live at best to be seventy years old,
maybe eighty, if we’re strong.
But their duration brings hard work and trouble
because they go by so quickly.
And then we fly off.
11 Who can comprehend the power of your anger?
The honor that is due you corresponds to your wrath.
12 Teach us to number our days
so we can have a wise heart.
Against the mountains of Israel
6 The Lord’s word came to me: 2 Human one, face Israel’s mountains, and prophesy to them. 3 Say:
Hear the Lord God’s word, mountains of Israel!
The Lord God proclaims to the mountains and hills,
to the valleys and their deepest ravines:
I’m about to bring a sword against you
and destroy your shrines.
4 Your altars will be destroyed,
your incense altars broken.
And I’ll make your slain fall in front of your idols.
5 I’ll throw the Israelites’ corpses in front of their idols,
and I’ll scatter your bones all around your altars.
6 Wherever you live,
cities will be in ruins, shrines made desolate,
turned into utter ruin.
Your altars will be punished
and then broken down.
Your idols will be demolished,
your incense altars shattered,
and all your works wiped out.
7 The slain will fall among you,
and you will know that I am the Lord.
8 But I will spare a few.
Some of you will escape the nations’ swords
when you are scattered throughout the lands.
9 Your fugitives will remember me
in the nations to which they’ve been banished,
how I was crushed when their roving hearts turned away from me,
and their roving eyes went after their idols.
They will loathe themselves
for their treacherous acts and detestable practices,
10 and they will know that I am the Lord.
Not in vain have I threatened to bring this evil against them.
11 The Lord God proclaims: Clap your hands, stamp your feet, and cry “Horror” over all the detestable practices of the house of Israel. They will fall by the sword, famine, and plague. 12 Whoever is far off will die of plague, whoever is nearby will fall to the sword, and whoever finds refuge will die of famine. I’ll satisfy my wrath against them! 13 They will know that I am the Lord when their slain appear among their idols and around their altars, wherever they offered up pleasing aromas for all their idols, on every high hill and mountaintop, and under every lofty tree and leafy oak. 14 Wherever they live, I will direct my power against them. I will turn the land into a greater wasteland than the Riblah desert. Then they will know that I am the Lord.
16 Then I heard a loud voice from the temple say to the seven angels, “Go and pour out the seven bowls of God’s anger on the earth.” 2 So the first angel poured his bowl on the earth, and a nasty and terrible sore appeared on the people who had the beast’s mark and worshipped its image. 3 The second angel poured his bowl into the sea, and the sea turned into blood, like the blood of a corpse, and every living thing in the sea died. 4 The third angel poured his bowl into the rivers and springs of water, and they turned into blood. 5 Then I heard the angel of the waters say,
“You are just, holy one, who is and was,
because you have given these judgments.
6 They poured out the blood of saints and prophets,
and you have given them blood to drink. They deserve it!”
7 And I heard the altar say,
“Yes, Lord God Almighty, your judgments are true and just.”
Copyright © 2011 by Common English Bible