Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
Psalm 65
To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David. A song.
1 To You belongs silence (the submissive wonder of reverence which bursts forth into praise) and praise is due and fitting to You, O God, in Zion; and to You shall the vow be performed.
2 O You Who hear prayer, to You shall all flesh come.
3 Iniquities and much varied guilt prevail against me; [yet] as for our transgressions, You forgive and purge them away [make atonement for them and cover them out of Your sight]!
4 Blessed (happy, fortunate, to be envied) is the man whom You choose and cause to come near, that he may dwell in Your courts! We shall be satisfied with the goodness of Your house, Your holy temple.
5 By fearful and glorious things [that terrify the wicked but make the godly sing praises] do You answer us in righteousness (rightness and justice), O God of our salvation, You Who are the confidence and hope of all the ends of the earth and of those far off on the seas;
6 Who by [Your] might have founded the mountains, being girded with power,
7 Who still the roaring of the seas, the roaring of their waves, and the tumult of the peoples,
8 So that those who dwell in earth’s farthest parts are afraid of [nature’s] signs of Your presence. You make the places where morning and evening have birth to shout for joy.
9 You visit the earth and saturate it with water; You greatly enrich it; the river of God is full of water; You provide them with grain when You have so prepared the earth.
10 You water the field’s furrows abundantly, You settle the ridges of it; You make the soil soft with showers, blessing the sprouting of its vegetation.
11 You crown the year with Your bounty and goodness, and the tracks of Your [chariot wheels] drip with fatness.
12 The [luxuriant] pastures in the uncultivated country drip [with moisture], and the hills gird themselves with joy.
13 The meadows are clothed with flocks, the valleys also are covered with grain; they shout for joy and sing together.
14 Then the Lord said to Moses, Pharaoh’s heart is hard and stubborn; he refuses to let the people go.
15 Go to Pharaoh in the morning; he will be going out to the water; wait for him by the river’s brink; and the rod which was turned to a serpent you shall take in your hand.
16 And say to him, The Lord, the God of the Hebrews has sent me to you, saying, Let My people go, that they may serve Me in the wilderness; and behold, heretofore you have not listened.
17 Thus says the Lord, In this you shall know, recognize, and understand that I am the Lord: behold, I will smite with the rod in my hand the waters in the [Nile] River, and they shall be turned to blood.
18 The fish in the river shall die, the river shall become foul smelling, and the Egyptians shall loathe to drink from it.
19 And the Lord said to Moses, Say to Aaron, Take your rod and stretch out your hand over the waters of Egypt, over their streams, rivers, pools, and ponds of water, that they may become blood; and there shall be blood throughout all the land of Egypt, in containers both of wood and of stone.
20 Moses and Aaron did as the Lord commanded; [Aaron] lifted up the rod and smote the waters in the river in the sight of Pharaoh and his servants, and all the waters in the river were turned to blood.
21 And the fish in the river died; and the river became foul smelling, and the Egyptians could not drink its water, and there was blood throughout all the land of Egypt.
22 But the magicians of Egypt did the same by their enchantments and secret arts; and Pharaoh’s heart was made hard and obstinate, and he did not listen to Moses and Aaron, just as the Lord had said.
23 And Pharaoh turned and went into his house; neither did he take even this to heart.
24 And all the Egyptians dug round about the river for water to drink, for they could not drink the water of the [Nile].
13 So when the south wind blew softly, supposing they were gaining their object, they weighed anchor and sailed along Crete, hugging the coast.
14 But soon afterward a violent wind [of the character of a typhoon], called a northeaster, came bursting down from the island.
15 And when the ship was caught and was unable to head against the wind, we gave up and, letting her drift, were borne along.
16 We ran under the shelter of a small island called Cauda, where we managed with [much] difficulty to draw the [ship’s small] boat on deck and secure it.
17 After hoisting it on board, they used supports with ropes to undergird and brace the ship; then afraid that they would be driven into the Syrtis [quicksands off the north coast of Africa], they lowered the gear (sails and ropes) and so were driven along.
18 As we were being dangerously tossed about by the violence of the storm, the next day they began to throw the freight overboard;
19 And the third day they threw out with their own hands the ship’s equipment (the tackle and the furniture).
20 And when neither sun nor stars were visible for many days and no small tempest kept raging about us, all hope of our being saved was finally abandoned.
21 Then as they had eaten nothing for a long time, Paul came forward into their midst and said, Men, you should have listened to me, and should not have put to sea from Crete and brought on this disaster and harm and misery and loss.
22 But [even] now I beg you to be in good spirits and take heart, for there will be no loss of life among you but only of the ship.
23 For this [very] night there stood by my side an angel of the God to Whom I belong and Whom I serve and worship,
24 And he said, Do not be frightened, Paul! It is necessary for you to stand before Caesar; and behold, God has given you all those who are sailing with you.
25 So keep up your courage, men, for I have faith (complete confidence) in God that it will be exactly as it was told me;
26 But we shall have to be stranded on some island.
27 The fourteenth night had come and we were drifting and being driven about in the Adriatic Sea, when about midnight the sailors began to suspect that they were drawing near to some land.
28 So they took soundings and found twenty fathoms, and a little farther on they sounded again and found fifteen fathoms.
29 Then fearing that we might fall off [our course] onto rocks, they dropped four anchors from the stern and kept wishing for daybreak to come.
30 And as the sailors were trying to escape [secretly] from the ship and were lowering the small boat into the sea, pretending that they were going to lay out anchors from the bow,
31 Paul said to the centurion and the soldiers, Unless these men remain in the ship, you cannot be saved.
32 Then the soldiers cut away the ropes that held the small boat, and let it fall and drift away.
33 While they waited until it should become day, Paul entreated them all to take some food, saying, This is the fourteenth day that you have been continually in suspense and on the alert without food, having eaten nothing.
34 So I urge (warn, exhort, encourage, advise) you to take some food [for your safety]—it will give you strength; for not a hair is to perish from the head of any one of you.
35 Having said these words, he took bread and, giving thanks to God before them all, he broke it and began to eat.
36 Then they all became more cheerful and were encouraged and took food themselves.
37 All told there were 276 souls of us in the ship.
38 And after they had eaten sufficiently, [they proceeded] to lighten the ship, throwing out the wheat into the sea.
Copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation