Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Psalm 54

Ruthless Men Seek My Life

Heading
For the choir director. With stringed instruments.
A maskil by David. When the Ziphites went and said to Saul, “Isn’t David hiding himself with us?”^[a]

The Plea

The Problem

The Solution

The Outcome

⁵ Then the king of Assyria invaded the whole land. He went up against Samaria and laid siege to it for three years. ⁶ In Hoshea’s ninth year, the king of Assyria captured Samaria and exiled Israel to Assyria. He made them live in Halah and along the Habur River, which is the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.^[a]

⁷ This happened because the people of Israel sinned against the Lord their God, who had brought them up from the land of Egypt, from under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and they feared other gods. ⁸ They walked in the practices of the nations, whom the Lord had driven out before the people of Israel, and the practices which the kings of Israel had introduced. ⁹ The people of Israel did secret things against the Lord their God, which were not right. They also built high places for themselves in all their cities, from watchtower to fortified city. ¹⁰ They set up sacred memorial stones and Asherah poles for themselves upon every high hill and under every leafy tree. ¹¹ They offered sacrifices at all the high places, like the nations that God drove out before them. They did evil things, provoking the Lord to anger. ¹² They served filthy idols even though the Lord had said to them, “You must not do this.”

¹³ The Lord had warned Israel and Judah through all his prophets and seers, saying, “Turn back from your evil ways and keep my commands and my regulations, according to the entire law which I commanded your fathers and which I sent to you through my servants the prophets.” ¹⁴ But they did not listen. They made their necks just as stiff as their fathers, who did not trust in the Lord their God.

¹⁵ They rejected his regulations and the covenant which he made with their fathers and the testimony with which he warned them. They followed useless idols, and they became useless themselves. They followed the other nations around them, about whom the Lord had commanded them, “Do not do as they do.” ¹⁶ They deserted all the commands of the Lord their God, and they made for themselves cast metal images, two calves. They made Asherah poles, and they bowed down to the whole army of the heavens,^[b] and they served Baal. ¹⁷ They made their sons and daughters pass through the fire. They engaged in divination and sought omens and sold themselves to do evil in the eyes of the Lord, provoking him to anger. ¹⁸ So the Lord was furious with Israel, and he removed them from his presence. None was left—only the tribe of Judah.

²⁹ “Woe to you, experts in the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the monuments of the righteous, ³⁰ and you say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have joined with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’ ³¹ By saying this you testify against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. ³² Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers. ³³ You serpents, you offspring of vipers, how will you escape being condemned to hell?

³⁴ “Look, this is why I am sending you prophets, wise men, and experts in the law. Some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will flog in your synagogues and persecute from town to town. ³⁵ As a result, you will be held responsible for all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Berekiah, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar. ³⁶ Amen I tell you: All these things will come upon this generation.

³⁷ “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those sent to her! How often I have wanted to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing! ³⁸ Look, your house is left to you desolate. ³⁹ For I tell you, you will certainly not see me again until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!’”^[a]