Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Psalm 9

God’s Power and Justice

To the leader: according to Muth-labben. A Psalm of David.

First Vision: The Horsemen

⁷ On the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh month, the month of Shebat, in the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came to the prophet Zechariah son of Berechiah son of Iddo: ⁸ In the night I saw a man mounted on a red horse! He was standing among the myrtle trees in the shadows,^[a] and behind him were red, sorrel, and white horses.^{(A) 9} Then I said, “What are these, my lord?” The angel who spoke with me said to me, “I will show you what they are.”^{(B) 10} So the man who was standing among the myrtle trees answered, “They are those whom the Lord has sent to patrol the earth.”^{(C) 11} Then they spoke to the angel of the Lord who was standing among the myrtle trees, “We have patrolled the earth, and the whole earth remains at peace.”^{(D) 12} Then the angel of the Lord said, “O Lord of hosts, how long will you withhold mercy from Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, with which you have been angry these seventy years?”^{(E) 13} Then the Lord replied with gracious and comforting words to the angel who spoke with me.^{(F) 14} So the angel who spoke with me said to me, “Proclaim this message: Thus says the Lord of hosts: I am very zealous for Jerusalem and for Zion,^{(G) 15} and I am extremely angry with the nations that are at ease, for while I was only a little angry, they made the disaster worse.^{(H) 16} Therefore, thus says the Lord: I have returned to Jerusalem with compassion; my house shall be built in it, says the Lord of hosts, and a measuring line shall be stretched out over Jerusalem.^{(I) 17} Proclaim further: Thus says the Lord of hosts: My cities shall again overflow with prosperity; the Lord will again comfort Zion and again choose Jerusalem.”^(J)

The Righteous Judgment of God

2 Therefore you are without excuse, whoever you are, when you judge others, for in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, are doing the very same things.^{(A) 2} We know that God’s judgment on those who do such things is in accordance with truth. ³ Do you imagine, whoever you are, that when you judge those who do such things and yet do them yourself, you will escape the judgment of God? ⁴ Or do you despise the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience? Do you not realize that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?^{(B) 5} But by your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath, when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.^{(C) 6} He will repay according to each one’s deeds:^{(D) 7} to those who by patiently doing good seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life, ⁸ while for those who are self-seeking and who obey not the truth but injustice, there will be wrath and fury.^{(E) 9} There will be affliction and distress for everyone who does evil, both the Jew first and the Greek,^{(F) 10} but glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, both the Jew first and the Greek. ¹¹ For God shows no partiality.^(G)