Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Psalm 88

A song. A Psalm of the sons of Korah. To the Chief Musician; set to chant mournfully. A didactic or reflective poem of Heman the Ezrahite.

¹ O Lord, the God of my salvation, I have cried to You for help by day; at night I am in Your presence.^(A)

² Let my prayer come before You and really enter into Your presence; incline Your ear to my cry!

³ For I am full of troubles, and my life draws near to Sheol (the place of the dead).

⁴ I am counted among those who go down into the pit (the grave); I am like a man who has no help or strength [a mere shadow],

⁵ Cast away among the dead, like the slain that lie in a [nameless] grave, whom You [seriously] remember no more, and they are cut off from Your hand.

⁶ You have laid me in the depths of the lowest pit, in darkness, in the deeps.

⁷ Your wrath lies hard upon me, and You have afflicted me with all Your waves. Selah [pause, and calmly think of that]!^(B)

⁸ You have put my [familiar] friends far from me; You have made me an abomination to them. I am shut up, and I cannot come forth.

⁹ My eye grows dim because of sorrow and affliction. Lord, I have called daily on You; I have spread forth my hands to You.

¹⁰ Will You show wonders to the dead? Shall the departed arise and praise You? Selah [pause, and calmly think of that]!

¹¹ Shall Your steadfast love be declared in the grave? Or Your faithfulness in Abaddon (Sheol, as a place of ruin and destruction)?

¹² Shall Your wonders be known in the dark? And Your righteousness in the place of forgetfulness [where the dead forget and are forgotten]?

¹³ But to You I cry, O Lord; and in the morning shall my prayer come to meet You.

¹⁴ Lord, why do You cast me off? Why do You hide Your face from me?^(C)

¹⁵ I was afflicted and close to death from my youth up; while I suffer Your terrors I am distracted [I faint].

¹⁶ Your fierce wrath has swept over me; Your terrors have destroyed me.

¹⁷ They surround me like a flood all day long; together they have closed in upon me.

¹⁸ Lover and friend have You put far from me; my familiar friends are darkness and the grave.

21 The Lord said to Moses, Speak to the priests [exclusive of the high priest], the sons of Aaron, and say to them that none of them shall defile himself for the dead among his people [by touching a corpse or assisting in preparing it for burial],

² Except for his near [blood] kin, for his mother, father, son, daughter, brother,

³ And for his sister, a virgin, who is near to him because she has had no husband; for her he may be defiled.

⁴ He shall not even defile himself, being a [bereaved] husband [his wife not being his blood kin] or being a chief man among his people, and so profane himself.

⁵ The priests [like the other Israelite men] shall not shave the crown of their heads or clip off the corners of their beard or make any cuttings in their flesh.

⁶ They shall be holy to their God and not profane the name of their God; for they offer the offerings made by fire to the Lord, the bread of their God; therefore they shall be holy.

⁷ They shall not take a wife who is a harlot or polluted or profane or divorced, for [the priest] is holy to his God.

⁸ You shall consecrate him therefore, for he offers the bread of your God; he shall be holy to you, for I the Lord Who sanctifies you am holy.

⁹ The daughter of any priest who profanes herself by playing the harlot profanes her father; she shall be burned with fire [after being stoned].^(A)

¹⁰ But he who is the high priest among his brethren, upon whose head the anointing oil was poured and who is consecrated to put on the [sacred] garments, shall not let the hair of his head hang loose or rend his clothes [in mourning],

¹¹ Neither shall he go in where any dead body lies nor defile himself [by doing so, even] for his father or for his mother;

¹² Neither shall he go out of the sanctuary nor desecrate or make ceremonially unclean the sanctuary of his God, for the crown or consecration of the anointing oil of his God is upon him. I am the Lord.

¹³ He shall take a wife in her virginity.

¹⁴ A widow or a divorced woman or a woman who is polluted or profane or a harlot, these he shall not marry, but he shall take as his wife a virgin of his own people,^(B)

¹⁵ That he may not profane or dishonor his children among his people; for I the Lord do sanctify the high priest.

¹⁶ But thanks be to God Who planted the same earnest zeal and care for you in the heart of Titus.

¹⁷ For he not only welcomed and responded to our appeal, but was himself so keen in his enthusiasm and interest in you that he is going to you of his own accord.

¹⁸ But we are sending along with him that brother [Luke?] whose praise in the Gospel ministry [is spread] throughout all the churches;

¹⁹ And more than that, he has been appointed by the churches to travel as our companion in regard to this bountiful contribution which we are administering for the glory of the Lord Himself and [to show] our eager readiness [as Christians to help one another].

²⁰ [For] we are on our guard, intending that no one should find anything for which to blame us in regard to our administration of this large contribution.

²¹ For we take thought beforehand and aim to be honest and absolutely above suspicion, not only in the sight of the Lord but also in the sight of men.

²² Moreover, along with them we are sending our brother, whom we have often put to the test and have found him zealous (devoted and earnest) in many matters, but who is now more [eagerly] earnest than ever because of [his] absolute confidence in you.

²³ As for Titus, he is my colleague and shares my work in your service; and as for the [other two] brethren, they are the [special] messengers of the churches, a credit and glory to Christ (the Messiah).

²⁴ Show to these men, therefore, in the sight of the churches, the reality and plain truth of your love (your affection, goodwill, and benevolence) and what [good reasons] I had for boasting about and being proud of you.