Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

38 ⁽⁰⁾ A psalm of David, serving as a reminder:

^2 (1) Adonai, don’t rebuke me when you are angry
or discipline me when you are enraged,
^3 (2) for your arrows penetrate me deeply,
and your hand is pressing me down.

^4 (3) Your indignation left no part of me intact;
my sin made my whole body sick;
^5 (4) for my iniquities loom high over my head
as a heavy burden, too heavy for me.

^6 (5) I have stinking, festering wounds
because of my foolishness.
^7 (6) I am bent down, prostrate completely;
I go about mourning all day long.

^8 (7) For my insides burn with fever,
and my whole body is sick.
^9 (8) I am numb, completely crushed;
my anguished heart makes me groan aloud.

^10 (9) Adonai, all my longing is known to you;
my sighing is not hidden from you.
^11 (10) My heart is throbbing, my strength is gone,
and the light in my eyes has left me.

^12 (11) My friends and companions shun my disease;
even the closest keep their distance.
^13 (12) Those seeking my life lay snares for me,
those seeking to harm me speak of disaster
and think up deceptions all day long.

^14 (13) But I’m like a deaf man — I don’t hear it;
and, like a mute, I don’t say a word.
^15 (14) Yes, I’ve become like a man who doesn’t hear
and in whose mouth are no defenses.

^16 (15) For it is in you, Adonai, that I hope.
You will answer, Adonai my God.
^17 (16) I said, “Don’t let them gloat over me
or boast against me when my foot slips.”

^18 (17) For I am about to fall,
and my pain is always with me.
^19 (18) I acknowledge my guilt,
I am anxious because of my sin.

^20 (19) But my enemies are alive and well,
those who wrongfully hate me increase their numbers;
^21 (20) and, since they repay good with evil,
they oppose me because I pursue good.

^22 (21) Don’t abandon me, Adonai!
My God, don’t be far from me!
^23 (22) Come quickly to help me,
Adonai, my salvation!

¹⁸ Yet Adonai is just waiting to show you favor,
he will have pity on you from on high;
for Adonai is a God of justice;
happy are all who wait for him!
¹⁹ People in Tziyon, who live in Yerushalayim,
you will weep no more.
At the sound of your cry, he will show you his grace;
on hearing it, he will answer you.
²⁰ Though Adonai may give you but bread and water,
and not very much of that;
your teacher will no longer hide himself,
but with your own eyes you will see your teacher.
²¹ With your ears you will hear a word from behind you:
“This is the way; stay on it,
whether you go to the right or the left.”
²² You will treat as unclean your silver-covered idols
and your cast metal images plated with gold;
you will throw them away, like menstrual cloths;
you will say to them, “Get out of here!”

²³ Then he will give you rain for the seed
you use to sow your land;
and the food that comes from the ground
will be rich and abundant.
When that day comes, your cattle
will graze in spacious pastures.
²⁴ The oxen and donkeys that work the land
will eat a tasty mixture,
winnowed free of chaff,
spread by pitchfork and shovel.
²⁵ On every high mountain and lofty hill
will be streams and flowing brooks,
on a day of great slaughter,
when the towers fall.
²⁶ Moreover, the light of the moon will be
as bright as the light of the sun;
and the light of the sun will be seven times stronger,
like the light of seven days [in one],
on the day Adonai binds up the wounds of his people
and heals the bruise caused by the blow.