Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

17 ⁽⁰⁾ A prayer of David:

⁽¹⁾ Hear a just cause, Adonai, heed my cry;
listen to my prayer from honest lips.
² Let my vindication come from you,
let your eyes see what is right.

³ You probed my heart,
you visited me at night,
and you assayed me without finding evil thoughts
that should not pass my lips.
⁴ As for what others do, by words from your lips
I have kept myself from the ways of the violent;
⁵ my steps hold steadily to your paths,
my feet do not slip.

⁶ Now I call on you, God, for you will answer me.
Turn your ear to me, hear my words.
⁷ Show how wonderful is your grace,
savior of those who seek at your right hand
refuge from their foes.
⁸ Protect me like the pupil of your eye,
hide me in the shadow of your wings
⁹ from the wicked, who are assailing me,
from my deadly enemies, who are all around me.
¹⁰ They close their hearts to compassion;
they speak arrogantly with their mouths;
¹¹ they track me down, they surround me;
they watch for a chance to bring me to the ground.
¹² They are like lions eager to tear the prey,
like young lions crouching in ambush.

¹³ Arise, Adonai, confront them! Bring them down!
With your sword deliver me from the wicked,
¹⁴ with your hand, Adonai, from human beings,
from people whose portion in life is this world.
You fill their stomachs with your treasure,
their children will be satisfied too
and will leave their wealth to their little ones.

¹⁵ But my prayer, in righteousness, is to see your face;
on waking, may I be satisfied with a vision of you.

“A curse on the person who trusts in humans,
who relies on merely human strength,
whose heart turns away from Adonai.
⁶ He will be like a tamarisk in the ‘Aravah —
when relief comes, it is unaffected;
for it lives in the sun-baked desert,
in salty, uninhabited land.
⁷ Blessed is the man who trusts in Adonai;
Adonai will be his security.
⁸ He will be like a tree planted near water;
it spreads out its roots by the river;
it does not notice when heat comes;
and its foliage is luxuriant;
it is not anxious in a year of drought
but keeps on yielding fruit.

⁹ “The heart is more deceitful than anything else
and mortally sick. Who can fathom it?
¹⁰ I, Adonai, search the heart;
I test inner motivations;
in order to give to everyone
what his actions and conduct deserve.”

¹¹ A partridge hatches eggs it did not lay;
like this are those who get rich unjustly:
in the prime of life their wealth will desert them;
in the end they will prove to be fools.

¹² Throne of Glory,
exalted from the beginning!
Our Holy Sanctuary,
¹³ Hope of Isra’el, Adonai!
All who abandon you will be ashamed,
those who leave you will be inscribed in the dust,
because they have abandoned Adonai,
the source of living water.
¹⁴ Heal me, Adonai, and I will be healed;
save me, and I will be saved,
for you are my praise.

¹⁵ They keep asking me,
“Where is the word of Adonai?
Let it come now.”
¹⁶ As for me, I have not run away
from being a shepherd who follows you;
you know I didn’t want this fatal day;
what came from my lips has been clear to you.
¹⁷ So do not be my ruin,
you, my refuge on the day of disaster.
¹⁸ Let my persecutors be ashamed, not me;
let them be terrified, not me.
Bring on them the day of disaster,
destroy them with double destruction.