Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
A psalm of David when he was in the Desert of Judah.
63 God, you are my God.
I seek you with all my heart.
With all my strength I thirst for you
in this dry desert
where there isn’t any water.
2 I have seen you in the sacred tent.
There I have seen your power and your glory.
3 Your love is better than life.
So I will bring glory to you with my lips.
4 I will praise you as long as I live.
I will call on your name when I lift up my hands in prayer.
5 I will be as satisfied as if I had eaten the best food there is.
I will sing praise to you with my mouth.
6 As I lie on my bed I remember you.
I think of you all night long.
7 Because you have helped me,
I sing in the shadow of your wings.
8 I hold on to you tightly.
Your powerful right hand takes good care of me.
9 Those who want to kill me will be destroyed.
They will go down into the grave.
10 They will be killed by swords.
They will become food for wild dogs.
11 But the king will be filled with joy because of what God has done.
All those who make promises in God’s name will be able to brag.
But the mouths of liars will be shut.
9 Announce this among the nations.
Tell them to prepare for battle.
Nations, get your soldiers ready!
Bring all your fighting men together
and march out to attack.
10 Hammer your plows into swords.
Hammer your pruning tools into spears.
Let anyone who is weak say,
“I am strong!”
11 Come quickly, all you surrounding nations.
Gather together in the Valley of Jehoshaphat.
Lord, send down your soldiers from heaven!
12 The Lord says,
“Stir up the nations into action!
Let them march into the valley
where I will judge them.
I will take my seat in court.
I will judge all the surrounding nations.
13 My soldiers, swing your blades.
The nations are ripe for harvest.
Come and stomp on them as if they were grapes.
Crush them until the winepress of my anger is full.
Do it until the wine spills over
from the places where it is stored.
The nations have committed far too many sins!”
14 Huge numbers of soldiers are gathered in the valley
where the Lord will hand down his sentence.
The day of the Lord is near in that valley.
15 The sun and moon will become dark.
The stars won’t shine anymore.
16 The Lord will roar like a lion from Jerusalem.
His voice will sound like thunder from Zion.
The earth and the heavens will tremble.
But the Lord will keep the people of Israel safe.
He will be a place of safety for them.
The Lord Blesses His People
17 The Lord says,
“You will know that I am the Lord your God.
I live in Zion.
It is my holy mountain.
Jerusalem will be my holy city.
People from other lands
will never again attack it.
18 “At that time fresh wine will drip from the mountains.
Milk will flow down from the hills.
Water will run through all Judah’s valleys.
A fountain will flow out of my temple.
It will water the places where acacia trees grow.
19 But Egypt will be deserted.
Edom will become a dry and empty desert.
They did terrible harm to the people of Judah.
My people were not guilty of doing anything wrong.
But Egypt and Edom spilled their blood anyway.
20 My people will live in Judah and Jerusalem forever.
The land will be their home for all time to come.
21 Egypt and Edom have spilled my people’s blood.
Should I let them escape my judgment?
No, I will not.”
The Lord lives in Zion!
29 “Right after the terrible suffering of those days,
“ ‘The sun will be darkened.
The moon will not shine.
The stars will fall from the sky.
The heavenly bodies will be shaken.’ (Isaiah 13:10; 34:4)
30 “Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven. At that time, all the peoples of the earth will mourn. They will mourn when they see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven. He will come with power and great glory. 31 He will send his angels with a loud trumpet call. They will gather his chosen people from all four directions. They will bring them from one end of the heavens to the other.
32 “Learn a lesson from the fig tree. As soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near. 33 In the same way, when you see all these things happening, you know that the end is near. It is right at the door. 34 What I’m about to tell you is true. The people living now will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened. 35 Heaven and earth will pass away. But my words will never pass away.
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