Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
Psalm 52
God Judges the Proud
For the choir director. A Davidic Maskil. When Doeg the Edomite went and reported to Saul, telling him, “David went to Ahimelech’s house.”(A)
1 Why brag about evil, you hero!(B)
God’s faithful love is constant.(C)
2 Like a sharpened razor,
your tongue devises destruction,
working treachery.(D)
3 You love evil instead of good,
lying instead of speaking truthfully.(E)
4 You love any words that destroy,
you treacherous tongue!(F)
5 This is why God will bring you down forever.
He will take you, ripping you out of your tent;
He will uproot you from the land of the living.(G)
6 The righteous will look on with awe
and will ridicule him:(H)
7 “Here is the man
who would not make God his refuge,
but trusted in the abundance of his riches,
taking refuge in his destructive behavior.”[a](I)
12 But where can wisdom(A) be found,
and where is understanding located?
13 No man can know its value,[a]
since it cannot be found in the land of the living.
14 The ocean depths say, “It’s not in me,”
while the sea declares, “I don’t have it.”(B)
15 Gold cannot be exchanged for it,
and silver cannot be weighed out for its price.
16 Wisdom cannot be valued in the gold of Ophir,(C)
in precious onyx or sapphire.[b](D)
17 Gold and glass do not compare with it,
and articles of fine gold cannot be exchanged for it.(E)
18 Coral and quartz are not worth mentioning.
The price of wisdom is beyond pearls.
19 Topaz from Cush cannot compare with it,
and it cannot be valued in pure gold.
20 Where then does wisdom come from,
and where is understanding located?
21 It is hidden from the eyes of every living thing
and concealed from the birds of the sky.
22 Abaddon and Death(F) say,
“We have heard news of it with our ears.”
23 But God understands the way to wisdom,
and He knows its location.
24 For He looks to the ends of the earth
and sees everything under the heavens.
25 When God fixed the weight of the wind
and limited the water by measure,(G)
26 when He established a limit[c] for the rain(H)
and a path for the lightning,
27 He considered wisdom and evaluated it;
He established it and examined it.
28 He said to mankind,
“The fear of the Lord is this: wisdom.
And to turn from evil is understanding.”(I)
Entering the Kingdom
13 “Enter through the narrow gate.(A) For the gate is wide and the road is broad that leads to destruction,(B) and there are many who go through it. 14 How narrow is the gate and difficult the road that leads to life, and few find it.
15 “Beware of false prophets(C) who come to you in sheep’s(D) clothing(E) but inwardly are ravaging wolves.(F) 16 You’ll recognize them by their fruit.(G) Are grapes gathered from thornbushes or figs from thistles?(H) 17 In the same way, every good tree produces good fruit, but a bad tree produces bad fruit. 18 A good tree can’t produce bad fruit; neither can a bad tree produce good fruit. 19 Every tree that doesn’t produce good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.(I) 20 So you’ll recognize them by their fruit.(J)
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