Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
Psalm 84[a]
For the music director, according to the gittith style;[b] written by the Korahites, a psalm.
84 How lovely is the place where you live,[c]
O Lord of Heaven’s Armies![d]
2 I desperately want to be[e]
in the courts of the Lord’s temple.[f]
My heart and my entire being[g] shout for joy
to the living God.
3 Even the birds find a home there,
and the swallow[h] builds a nest,
where she can protect her young[i]
near your altars, O Lord of Heaven’s Armies,
my King and my God.
4 How blessed[j] are those who live in your temple
and praise you continually. (Selah)
5 How blessed are those who[k] find their strength in you,
and long to travel the roads that lead to your temple.[l]
6 As they pass through the Baca Valley,[m]
he provides a spring for them.[n]
The rain[o] even covers it with pools of water.[p]
7 They are sustained as they travel along;[q]
each one appears[r] before God in Zion.
9 (8:23)[a] I wish that my head were a well full of water[b]
and my eyes were a fountain full of tears!
If they were, I could cry day and night
for those of my dear people[c] who have been killed.
2 (9:1) I wish I had a lodging place in the wilderness
where I could spend some time like a weary traveler.[d]
Then I would desert my people
and walk away from them
because they are all unfaithful to God,
a congregation[e] of people that has been disloyal to him.”[f]
The Lord Laments That He Has No Choice But to Judge Them
3 The Lord says,[g]
“These people are like soldiers who have readied their bows.
Their tongues are always ready to shoot out lies.[h]
They have become powerful in the land,
but they have not done so by honest means.[i]
Indeed, they do one evil thing after another[j]
and do not pay attention to me.[k]
4 Everyone must be on his guard around his friends.
He must not even trust any of his relatives.[l]
For every one of them will find some way to cheat him.[m]
And all his friends will tell lies about him.
5 One friend deceives another
and no one tells the truth.
These people have trained themselves[n] to tell lies.
They do wrong and are unable to repent.
6 They do one act of violence after another,
and one deceitful thing after another.[o]
They refuse to pay attention to me,”[p]
says the Lord.
7 Therefore the Lord of Heaven’s Armies says:[q]
“I will now purify them in the fires of affliction[r] and test them.
The wickedness of my dear people[s] has left me no choice.
What else can I do?[t]
8 Their tongues are like deadly arrows.[u]
They are always telling lies.[v]
Friendly words for their neighbors come from their mouths,
but their minds are thinking up ways to trap them.[w]
9 I will certainly punish them for doing such things!” says the Lord.
“I will certainly bring retribution on such a nation as this!”[x]
The Coming Destruction Calls For Mourning
10 I said,[y]
“I will weep and mourn[z] for the grasslands on the mountains;[aa]
I will sing a mournful song for the pastures in the wilderness
because they are so scorched no one travels through them.
The sound of livestock is no longer heard there.
Even the birds in the sky and the wild animals in the fields
have fled and are gone.”
11 The Lord said,[ab]
“I will make Jerusalem a heap of ruins.
Jackals will make their home there.[ac]
I will destroy the towns of Judah
so that no one will be able to live in them.”
12 I said,[ad]
“Who is wise enough to understand why this has happened?[ae]
Who has a word from the Lord that can explain it?[af]
Why does the land lie in ruins?
Why is it as scorched as a desert through which no one travels?”
13 The Lord answered, “This has happened because these people have rejected my laws that I gave them. They have not obeyed me or followed those laws.[ag] 14 Instead they have followed the stubborn inclinations of their own hearts. They have paid allegiance to[ah] the gods called Baal,[ai] as their fathers[aj] taught them to do. 15 So then, listen to what I, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel,[ak] say,[al] ‘I will make these people eat the bitter food of suffering and drink the poison water of judgment.[am] 16 I will scatter them among nations that neither they nor their ancestors[an] have known anything about. I will send people chasing after them with swords[ao] until I have destroyed them.’”[ap]
Ministry in the Last Days
3 But understand this, that in the last days difficult[a] times will come. 2 For people[b] will be lovers of themselves,[c] lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 unloving, irreconcilable, slanderers, without self-control, savage, opposed to what is good, 4 treacherous, reckless, conceited, loving pleasure rather than loving God. 5 They will maintain the outward appearance[d] of religion but will have repudiated its power. So avoid people like these.[e] 6 For some of these insinuate themselves[f] into households and captivate weak women[g] who are overwhelmed with sins and led along by various passions. 7 Such women are always seeking instruction,[h] yet never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth. 8 And just as Jannes and Jambres[i] opposed Moses, so these people—who have warped minds and are disqualified in the faith[j]—also oppose the truth. 9 But they will not go much further,[k] for their foolishness will be obvious to everyone, just like it was with Jannes and Jambres.[l]
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