Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Psalm 123

A Song of ^[a]Ascents.

¹ Unto You do I lift up my eyes, O You Who are enthroned in heaven.

² Behold, as the eyes of servants look to the hand of their master, and as the eyes of a maid to the hand of her mistress, so our eyes look to the Lord our God, until He has mercy and loving-kindness for us.

³ Have mercy on us, O Lord, have mercy on and loving-kindness for us, for we are exceedingly satiated with contempt.

⁴ Our life is exceedingly filled with the scorning and scoffing of those who are at ease and with the contempt of the proud (irresponsible tyrants who disregard God’s law).

7 The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying,

² Stand in the gate of the Lord’s house and proclaim there this word and say, Hear the word of the Lord, all you of Judah who enter in at these gates to worship the Lord.

³ Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place.

⁴ Trust not in the lying words [of the false prophets who maintain that God will protect Jerusalem because His temple is there], saying, This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord.

⁵ For if you thoroughly amend your ways and your doings, if you thoroughly and truly execute justice between every man and his neighbor,

⁶ If you do not oppress the transient and the alien, the fatherless, and the widow or shed innocent blood [by oppression and by judicial murders] in [Jerusalem] or go after other gods to your own hurt,

⁷ Then I will cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave of old to your fathers to dwell in forever.

⁸ Behold, you trust in lying words that cannot benefit [so that you do not profit].

⁹ Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, burn incense to Baal, and go after other gods that you have not known,

¹⁰ And [then dare to] come and stand before Me in this house, which is called by My ^[a]Name, and say, [By the discharge of this religious formality] we are set free!—only to go on with this wickedness and these abominations?

¹¹ Has this house, which is called by My Name, become a den of robbers in your eyes [a place of retreat for you between acts of violence]? Behold, I Myself have seen it, says the Lord.

¹² But go now to My place which was in Shiloh [in Ephraim], where I set My Name at the first, and see what I did to it for the wickedness of My people Israel.^(A)

¹³ And now, because you have done all these things, says the Lord, and [because] when I spoke to you persistently [even rising up early and speaking], you did not listen, and when I called you, you did not answer,

¹⁴ Therefore will I do to this house (the temple), which is called by My Name and in which you trust, to the place which I gave to you and to your fathers, as I did to Shiloh.

¹⁵ And I will cast you out of My sight, as I have cast out all your brethren, even the whole posterity of Ephraim.

⁸ [^[a]You behave as if] you are already filled and think you have enough [you are full and content, feeling no need of anything more]! Already you have become rich [in spiritual gifts and graces]! [Without any counsel or instruction from us, in your conceit], you have ascended your thrones and come into your kingdom without including us! And would that it were true and that you did reign, so that we might be sharing the kingdom with you!

⁹ For it seems to me that God has made an exhibit of us apostles, exposing us to view last [of all, like men in a triumphal procession who are] sentenced to death [and displayed at the end of the line]. For we have become a spectacle to the world [a show in the world’s amphitheater] with both men and angels [as spectators].

¹⁰ We are [looked upon as] fools on account of Christ and for His sake, but you are [supposedly] so amazingly wise and prudent in Christ! We are weak, but you are [so very] strong! You are highly esteemed, but we are in disrepute and contempt!

¹¹ To this hour we have gone both hungry and thirsty; we [^[b]habitually] wear but one undergarment [and shiver in the cold]; we are roughly knocked about and wander around homeless.

¹² And we still toil unto weariness [for our living], working hard with our own hands. When men revile us [^[c]wound us with an accursed sting], we bless them. When we are persecuted, we take it patiently and endure it.

¹³ When we are slandered and defamed, we [try to] answer softly and bring comfort. We have been made and are now the rubbish and filth of the world [the offscouring of all things, the scum of the earth].