Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
Psalm 63
A Psalm of David; when he was in the Wilderness of Judah.
1 O God, You are my God, earnestly will I seek You; my inner self thirsts for You, my flesh longs and is faint for You, in a dry and weary land where no water is.
2 So I have looked upon You in the sanctuary to see Your power and Your glory.
3 Because Your loving-kindness is better than life, my lips shall praise You.
4 So will I bless You while I live; I will lift up my hands in Your name.
5 My whole being shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness; and my mouth shall praise You with joyful lips
6 When I remember You upon my bed and meditate on You in the night watches.
7 For You have been my help, and in the shadow of Your wings will I rejoice.
8 My whole being follows hard after You and clings closely to You; Your right hand upholds me.
9 But those who seek and demand my life to ruin and destroy it shall [themselves be destroyed and] go into the lower parts of the earth [into the underworld of the dead].
10 They shall be given over to the power of the sword; they shall be a prey for foxes and jackals.
11 But the king shall rejoice in God; everyone who swears by Him [that is, who binds himself by God’s authority, acknowledging His supremacy, and devoting himself to His glory and service alone; every such one] shall glory, for the mouths of those who speak lies shall be stopped.
9 Proclaim this among the nations: Prepare war! Stir up the mighty men! Let all the men of war draw near, let them come up.
10 Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruning hooks into spears; let the weak say, I am strong [a warrior]!(A)
11 Hasten and come, all you nations round about, and assemble yourselves; there You, O Lord, will bring down Your mighty ones (Your warriors).
12 Let the nations bestir themselves and come up to the Valley of Jehoshaphat, for there will I sit to judge all the nations round about.
13 Put in the sickle, for the [vintage] harvest is ripe; come, get down and tread the grapes, for the winepress is full; the vats overflow, for the wickedness [of the peoples] is great.(B)
14 Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision! For the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision.(C)
15 The sun and the moon are darkened and the stars withdraw their shining.
16 The Lord will thunder and roar from Zion and utter His voice from Jerusalem, and the heavens and the earth shall shake; but the Lord will be a refuge for His people and a stronghold to the children of Israel.(D)
17 So shall you know, understand, and realize that I am the Lord your God, dwelling in Zion, My holy mountain. Then shall Jerusalem be holy, and strangers and foreigners [not born into the family of God] shall no more pass through it.
18 And in that day, the mountains shall drip with fresh juice [of the grape] and the hills shall flow with milk; and all the brooks and riverbeds of Judah shall flow with water, and a fountain shall come forth from the house of the Lord and shall water the Valley of Shittim.(E)
19 Egypt shall be a desolation and Edom shall be a desolate wilderness for their violence against the children of Judah, because they have shed innocent blood in their land.
20 But Judah shall remain and be inhabited forever, and Jerusalem from generation to generation.
21 And I will cleanse and hold as innocent their blood and avenge it, blood which I have not cleansed, held innocent, and avenged, for the Lord dwells in Zion.
29 Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not shed its light, and the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken.(A)
30 Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn and [a]beat their breasts and lament in anguish, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory [in brilliancy and splendor].(B)
31 And He will send out His angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather His elect (His chosen ones) from the four winds, [even] from one end of the [b]universe to the other.(C)
32 From the fig tree learn this lesson: as soon as its [c]young shoots become soft and tender and it puts out its leaves, you know [d]of a surety that summer is near.
33 So also when you see these signs, [e]all taken together, coming to pass, you may know [f]of a surety that He is near, at the very doors.
34 Truly I tell you, this generation ([g]the whole multitude of people living at the same time, [h]in a definite, [i]given period) will not pass away till all these things [j]taken together take place.
35 [k]Sky and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away.
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