Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
145 (0) Praise. By David:
(1) I will praise you to the heights, my God, the king;
I will bless your name forever and ever.
2 Every day I will bless you;
I will praise your name forever and ever.
3 Great is Adonai and greatly to be praised;
his greatness is beyond all searching out.
4 Each generation will praise your works to the next
and proclaim your mighty acts.
5 I will meditate on the glorious splendor
of your majesty and on the story of your wonders.
6 People will speak of your awesome power,
and I will tell of your great deeds.
7 They will gush forth the fame of your abounding goodness,
and they will sing of your righteousness.
8 Adonai is merciful and compassionate,
slow to anger and great in grace.
3 (2) For Adonai is restoring the pride of Ya‘akov,
along with the pride of Isra’el;
because plunderers have plundered them
and ravaged their vines.
4 (3) The shields of [Ninveh’s] warriors are [dyed] red;
the soldiers are wearing scarlet.
The steel of the chariots flashes like fire
as they prepare for battle.
The cypress [spears] are poisoned.
5 (4) The chariots rush madly about in the streets,
jostling each other in the open places;
their appearance is like torches,
they run here and there like lightning.
6 (5) [The king of Ninveh] assigns his officers;
they stumble as they march;
they hurry to its wall and set up shields
to protect the battering ram.
7 (6) The gates of the rivers are opened,
and the palace melts away.
8 (7) Its mistress is stripped and carried away;
her handmaids moan, they sound like doves,
as they beat their breasts.
9 (8) Ninveh is like a pool whose water ebbs away.
“Stop! Stop!” But none of it goes back.
10 (9) Plunder the silver! Plunder the gold!
There is no end to the treasure,
weighed down with precious things.
11 (10) She is void, vacant; she is made bare.
Hearts are melting, knees are knocking;
every stomach is churning,
every face is drained of color.
12 (11) What has become of the lion’s den,
the cave where the young lions fed,
where lion and lioness walked with their cubs,
and no one made them afraid?
13 (12) The lion would tear up food for his cubs
and strangle prey for his lionesses;
he used to fill his caves with prey,
his lairs with torn flesh.
5 Examine yourselves to see whether you are living the life of trust. Test yourselves. Don’t you realize that Yeshua the Messiah is in you? — unless you fail to pass the test. 6 But I hope you will realize that we are not failures. 7 And we pray to God that you will do nothing wrong. We are not concerned with our appearing successful, but with your doing what is right, even if we appear to be failures. 8 For we cannot act against the truth, only for it. 9 So we rejoice whenever we are weak and you are strong; indeed, what we pray for is that you become perfect. 10 I write these things while away from you, so that when I am with you I will not have to use my authority to deal sharply with you, for the Lord gave it to me for building up and not for tearing down.
Copyright © 1998 by David H. Stern. All rights reserved.