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!

5 Remember, Adonai, what has happened to us;
look, and see our disgrace.
² The land we possessed has been passed on to strangers,
our homes to foreigners.
³ We have become fatherless orphans,
our mothers now are widows.
⁴ We have to pay to drink our own water;
we have to buy our own wood.
⁵ The yoke is on our necks; we are persecuted;
we toil to exhaustion but are given no rest.
⁶ We made pacts with Egypt and Ashur
to get enough food.
⁷ Our ancestors sinned and no longer exist;
we bear the weight of their guilt.
⁸ We are ruled by slaves,
and there is no one to save us from their power.
⁹ We get our food at the peril of our lives
because of the sword in the desert.
¹⁰ Our skins are as black as a furnace
because of the searing blasts of famine.
¹¹ They have raped the women of Tziyon,
virgins in the cities of Y’hudah.
¹² Princes are hung up by their hands,
leaders receive no respect.
¹³ Young men are compelled to grind at the mill,
boys stagger under loads of wood.
¹⁴ The old men have deserted the city gate,
the young men have given up their music.
¹⁵ Joy has vanished from our hearts,
our dancing has turned into mourning.
¹⁶ The crown has fallen from our heads.
Woe to us! for we have sinned.
¹⁷ This is why our hearts are sick;
this is why our eyes grow dim —
¹⁸ it’s because of Mount Tziyon, so wasted
that jackals have overrun it.
¹⁹ You, Adonai, reign forever;
your throne endures through all generations.
²⁰ Why do you never remember us?
Why abandon us for so long a time?
²¹ Adonai, turn us back to you; and we will come back;
renew our days, as they were in the past —
²² unless you have totally rejected us
in a fury that knows no limits.

[Adonai, turn us back to you; and we will come back;
renew our days, as they were in the past.]