Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
David's Song of Victory[a] (A)
18 How I love you, Lord!
You are my defender.
2 The Lord is my protector;
he is my strong fortress.
My God is my protection,
and with him I am safe.
He protects me like a shield;
he defends me and keeps me safe.
3 I call to the Lord,
and he saves me from my enemies.
Praise the Lord!
20 The Lord rewards me because I do what is right;
he blesses me because I am innocent.
21 I have obeyed the law of the Lord;
I have not turned away from my God.
22 I have observed all his laws;
I have not disobeyed his commands.
23 He knows that I am faultless,
that I have kept myself from doing wrong.
24 And so he rewards me because I do what is right,
because he knows that I am innocent.
25 O Lord, you are faithful to those who are faithful to you;
completely good to those who are perfect.
26 You are pure to those who are pure,
but hostile to those who are wicked.
27 You save those who are humble,
but you humble those who are proud.
28 O Lord, you give me light;
you dispel my darkness.
29 You give me strength to attack my enemies
and power to overcome their defenses.
30 This God—how perfect are his deeds!
How dependable his words!
He is like a shield
for all who seek his protection.
31 The Lord alone is God;
God alone is our defense.
32 He is the God who makes me strong,
who makes my pathway safe.
18 They forgot their God, their mighty savior,
the one who had given them life.
19 “When the Lord saw this, he was angry
and rejected his sons and daughters.
20 ‘I will no longer help them,’ he said;
‘then I will see what happens to them,
those stubborn, unfaithful people.
28 “Israel is a nation without sense;
they have no wisdom at all.
29 They fail to see why they were defeated;
they cannot understand what happened.
30 Why were a thousand defeated by one,
and ten thousand by only two?
The Lord, their God, had abandoned them;
their mighty God had given them up.
31 Their enemies know that their own gods are weak,
not mighty like Israel's God.
32 Their enemies, corrupt as Sodom and Gomorrah,
are like vines that bear bitter and poisonous grapes,
33 like wine made from the venom of snakes.
34 “The Lord remembers what their enemies have done;
he waits for the right time to punish them.
35 (A)The Lord will take revenge and punish them;
the time will come when they will fall;
the day of their doom is near.
36 (B)The Lord will rescue his people
when he sees that their strength is gone.
He will have mercy on those who serve him,
when he sees how helpless they are.
37 Then the Lord will ask his people,
‘Where are those mighty gods you trusted?
38 You fed them the fat of your sacrifices
and offered them wine to drink.
Let them come and help you now;
let them run to your rescue.
39 “‘I, and I alone, am God;
no other god is real.
I kill and I give life, I wound and I heal,
and no one can oppose what I do.
Praise to God
33 (A)How great are God's riches! How deep are his wisdom and knowledge! Who can explain his decisions? Who can understand his ways? 34 (B)As the scripture says,
“Who knows the mind of the Lord?
Who is able to give him advice?
35 (C)Who has ever given him anything,
so that he had to pay it back?”
36 (D)For all things were created by him, and all things exist through him and for him. To God be the glory forever! Amen.
Good News Translation® (Today’s English Version, Second Edition) © 1992 American Bible Society. All rights reserved. For more information about GNT, visit www.bibles.com and www.gnt.bible.