Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Psalm 102

A Prayer of the afflicted; when he is overwhelmed and faint and pours out his complaint to God.

¹ Hear my prayer, O Lord, and let my cry come to You.

² Hide not Your face from me in the day when I am in distress! Incline Your ear to me; in the day when I call, answer me speedily.

³ For my days consume away like smoke, and my bones burn like a firebrand or like a hearth.

⁴ My heart is smitten like grass and withered, so that [in absorption] I forget to eat my food.

⁵ By reason of my loud groaning [from suffering and trouble] my flesh cleaves to my bones.

⁶ I am like a melancholy pelican or vulture of the wilderness; I am like a [desolate] owl of the waste places.

⁷ I am sleepless and lie awake [mourning], like a bereaved sparrow alone on the housetop.

⁸ My adversaries taunt and reproach me all the day; and they who are angry with me use my name as a curse.

⁹ For I have eaten the ashes [in which I sat] as if they were bread and have mingled my drink with weeping

¹⁰ Because of Your indignation and Your wrath, for You have taken me up and cast me away.

¹¹ My days are like an evening shadow that stretches out and declines [with the sun]; and I am withered like grass.

¹² But You, O Lord, are enthroned forever; and the fame of Your name endures to all generations.

¹³ You will arise and have mercy and loving-kindness for Zion, for it is time to have pity and compassion for her; yes, the set time has come [the moment designated].^(A)

¹⁴ For Your servants take [melancholy] pleasure in the stones [of her ruins] and show pity for her dust.

¹⁵ So the nations shall fear and worshipfully revere the name of the Lord, and all the kings of the earth Your glory.^(B)

¹⁶ When the Lord builds up Zion, He will appear in His glory;

¹⁷ He will regard the plea of the destitute and will not despise their prayer.

⁵ Lean on, trust in, and be confident in the Lord with all your heart and mind and do not rely on your own insight or understanding.

⁶ In all your ways know, recognize, and acknowledge Him, and He will direct and make straight and plain your paths.

⁷ Be not wise in your own eyes; reverently fear and worship the Lord and turn [entirely] away from evil.^(A)

⁸ It shall be health to your nerves and sinews, and marrow and moistening to your bones.

⁹ Honor the Lord with your capital and sufficiency [from righteous labors] and with the firstfruits of all your income;^(B)

¹⁰ So shall your storage places be filled with plenty, and your vats shall be overflowing with new wine.^(C)

¹¹ My son, do not despise or shrink from the chastening of the Lord [His correction by punishment or by subjection to suffering or trial]; neither be weary of or impatient about or loathe or abhor His reproof,^(D)

¹² For whom the Lord loves He corrects, even as a father corrects the son in whom he delights.

⁴⁴ Our forefathers had the tent (tabernacle) of witness in the wilderness, even as He Who directed Moses to make it had ordered, according to the pattern and model he had seen.^(A)

⁴⁵ Our forefathers in turn brought it [this tent of witness] in [with them into the land] with Joshua when they dispossessed the nations which God drove out before the face of our forefathers. [So it remained here] until the time of David,^(B)

⁴⁶ Who found grace (favor and spiritual blessing) in the sight of God and prayed that he might be allowed to find a dwelling place for the God of Jacob.^(C)

⁴⁷ But it was Solomon who built a house for Him.^(D)

⁴⁸ However, the Most High does not dwell in houses and temples made with hands; as the prophet says,^(E)

⁴⁹ Heaven [is] My throne, and earth the footstool for My feet. What [kind of] house can you build for Me, says the Lord, or what is the place in which I can rest?

⁵⁰ Was it not My hand that made all these things?^(F)

⁵¹ You stubborn and stiff-necked people, still heathen and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you are always ^[a]actively resisting the Holy Spirit. As your forefathers [were], so you [are and so you do]!^(G)

⁵² Which of the prophets did your forefathers not persecute? And they slew those who proclaimed beforehand the coming of the Righteous One, Whom you now have betrayed and murdered—

⁵³ You who received the Law as it was ordained and set in order and delivered by angels, and [yet] you did not obey it!

⁵⁴ Now upon hearing these things, they [the Jews] were cut to the heart and infuriated, and they ground their teeth against [Stephen].

⁵⁵ But he, full of the Holy Spirit and controlled by Him, gazed into heaven and saw the glory (the splendor and majesty) of God, and Jesus standing at God’s right hand;

⁵⁶ And he said, Look! I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing at God’s right hand!