Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Psalm 5

To the Chief Musician; on wind instruments. A Psalm of David.

¹ Listen to my words, O Lord, give heed to my sighing and groaning.

² Hear the sound of my cry, my King and my God, for to You do I pray.

³ In the morning You hear my voice, O Lord; in the morning I prepare [a prayer, a sacrifice] for You and watch and wait [for You to speak to my heart].

⁴ For You are not a God Who takes pleasure in wickedness; neither will the evil [man] so much as dwell [temporarily] with You.

⁵ Boasters can have no standing in Your sight; You abhor all evildoers.

⁶ You will destroy those who speak lies; the Lord abhors [and rejects] the bloodthirsty and deceitful man.

⁷ But as for me, I will enter Your house through the abundance of Your steadfast love and mercy; I will worship toward and at Your holy temple in reverent fear and awe of You.

⁸ Lead me, O Lord, in Your righteousness because of my enemies; make Your way level (straight and right) before my face.

⁹ For there is nothing trustworthy or steadfast or truthful in their talk; their heart is destruction [or a destructive chasm, a yawning gulf]; their throat is an open sepulcher; they flatter and make smooth with their tongue.^(A)

¹⁰ Hold them guilty, O God; let them fall by their own designs and counsels; cast them out because of the multitude of their transgressions, for they have rebelled against You.

¹¹ But let all those who take refuge and put their trust in You rejoice; let them ever sing and shout for joy, because You make a covering over them and defend them; let those also who love Your name be joyful in You and be in high spirits.

¹² For You, Lord, will bless the [uncompromisingly] righteous [him who is upright and in right standing with You]; as with a shield You will surround him with goodwill (pleasure and favor).

¹⁸ But even in those days, says the Lord, I will not make a full and complete end of you.

¹⁹ And when your people say, Why has the Lord our God done all these things to us? then you shall answer them, As you have forsaken Me, says the Lord, and have served strange gods in your land, so shall you serve strangers (gods) in a land that is not yours.

²⁰ Declare this in the house of Jacob and publish it in Judah:

²¹ Hear now this, O foolish people without understanding or heart, who have eyes and see not, who have ears and hear not:^(A)

²² Do you not fear and reverence Me? says the Lord. Do you not tremble before Me? I placed the sand for the boundary of the sea, a perpetual barrier beyond which it cannot pass and by an everlasting ordinance beyond which it cannot go? And though the waves of the sea toss and shake themselves, yet they cannot prevail [against the feeble grains of sand which God has ordained by nature to be sufficient for His purpose]; though [the billows] roar, yet they cannot pass over that [barrier]. [Is not such a God to be reverently feared and worshiped?]

²³ But these people have hearts that draw back from God and wills that rebel against Him; they have revolted and quit His service and have gone away [into idolatry].

²⁴ Nor do they say in their hearts, Let us now reverently fear and worship the Lord our God, Who gives rain, both the autumn and the spring rain in its season, Who reserves and keeps for us the appointed weeks of the harvest.

²⁵ Your iniquities have turned these blessings away, and your sins have kept good [harvests] from you.

²⁶ For among My people are found wicked men; they watch like fowlers who lie in wait; they set a trap, they catch men.

²⁷ As a cage is full of birds, so are their houses full of deceit and treachery; therefore they have become great and grown rich,

²⁸ They have grown fat and sleek. Yes, they surpass in deeds of wickedness; they do not judge and plead with justice the cause of the fatherless, that they may prosper, and they do not defend the rights of the needy.

²⁹ Shall I not punish them for these things? says the Lord. Shall I not avenge Myself on such a nation as this?

³⁰ An appalling and horrible thing [bringing desolation and destruction] has come to pass in the land:

³¹ The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests exercise rule at their own hands and by means of the prophets. And My people love to have it so! But what will you do when the end comes?

¹³ And we also [especially] thank God continually for this, that when you received the message of God [which you heard] from us, you welcomed it not as the word of [mere] men, but as it truly is, the Word of God, which is effectually at work in you who believe [^[a]exercising its superhuman power in those who adhere to and trust in and rely on it].

¹⁴ For you, brethren, became imitators of the assemblies (churches) of God in Christ Jesus which are in Judea, for you too have suffered the same kind of treatment from your own fellow countrymen as they did [who were persecuted at the hands] of the Jews,

¹⁵ Who killed both the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and harassed and drove us out, and continue to make themselves hateful and offensive to God and to show themselves foes of all men,

¹⁶ Forbidding and hindering us from speaking to the Gentiles (the nations) that they may be saved. So as always they fill up [to the brim the measure of] their sins. But God’s wrath has come upon them at last [completely and forever]!^(A)

¹⁷ But since we were bereft of you, brethren, for a little while in person, [of course] not in heart, we endeavored the more eagerly and with great longing to see you face to face,

¹⁸ Because it was our will to come to you. [I mean that] I, Paul, again and again [wanted to come], but Satan hindered and impeded us.

¹⁹ For what is our hope or happiness or our victor’s wreath of exultant triumph when we stand in the presence of our Lord Jesus at His coming? Is it not you?

²⁰ For you are [indeed] our glory and our joy!