Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
Psalm 64
Prayer for Protection from Enemies
To the leader. A Psalm of David.
1 Hear my voice, O God, in my complaint;
preserve my life from the dread enemy.(A)
2 Hide me from the secret plots of the wicked,
from the scheming of evildoers,(B)
3 who whet their tongues like swords,
who aim bitter words like arrows,(C)
4 shooting from ambush at the blameless;
they shoot suddenly and without fear.(D)
5 They hold fast to their evil purpose;
they talk of laying snares secretly,
thinking, “Who can see us?[a](E)
6 Who can search out our crimes?[b]
We have thought out a cunningly conceived plot.”
For the human heart and mind are deep.(F)
7 But God will shoot his arrow at them;
they will be wounded suddenly.
8 Because of their tongue he will bring them to ruin;[c]
all who see them will shake with horror.(G)
9 Then everyone will fear;
they will tell what God has brought about
and ponder what he has done.(H)
10 Let the righteous rejoice in the Lord
and take refuge in him.
Let all the upright in heart glory.(I)
Job Replies: I Know That My Vindicator Lives
19 Then Job answered:
2 “How long will you torment me
and break me in pieces with words?
3 These ten times you have cast reproach upon me;
are you not ashamed to wrong me?
4 And even if it is true that I have erred,
my error remains with me.(A)
5 If indeed you magnify yourselves against me
and make my humiliation an argument against me,(B)
6 know then that God has put me in the wrong
and closed his net around me.(C)
7 Even when I cry out, ‘Violence!’ I am not answered;
I call aloud, but there is no justice.(D)
8 He has walled up my way so that I cannot pass,
and he has set darkness upon my paths.(E)
9 He has stripped my glory from me
and taken the crown from my head.(F)
10 He breaks me down on every side, and I am gone;
he has uprooted my hope like a tree.(G)
11 He has kindled his wrath against me
and counts me as his adversary.(H)
12 His troops come on together;
they have thrown up siegeworks[a] against me
and encamp around my tent.(I)
13 “He has put my family far from me,
and my acquaintances are wholly estranged from me.
14 My relatives and my close friends have failed me;
15 the guests in my house have forgotten me;
my female servants count me as a stranger;
I have become an alien in their eyes.(J)
16 I call to my servant, but he gives me no answer;
I must myself plead with him.
17 My breath is repulsive to my wife;
I am loathsome to my own family.
18 Even young children despise me;
when I rise, they talk against me.(K)
19 All my intimate friends abhor me,
and those whom I love have turned against me.(L)
20 My bones cling to my skin and to my flesh,
and I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.(M)
21 Have pity on me, have pity on me, O you my friends,
for the hand of God has touched me!(N)
22 Why do you, like God, pursue me,
never satisfied with my flesh?(O)
One in Christ
11 So then, remember that at one time you gentiles by birth,[a] called “the uncircumcision” by those who are called “the circumcision”—a circumcision made in the flesh by human hands(A)— 12 remember that you were at that time without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.(B) 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.(C) 14 For he is our peace; in his flesh he has made both into one and has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us,(D) 15 abolishing the law with its commandments and ordinances, that he might create in himself one new humanity in place of the two, thus making peace,(E) 16 and might reconcile both to God in one body[b] through the cross, thus putting to death that hostility through it.[c](F) 17 So he came and proclaimed peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near, 18 for through him both of us have access in one Spirit to the Father.(G) 19 So then, you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God,(H) 20 built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone;[d](I) 21 in him the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord,(J) 22 in whom you also are built together spiritually[e] into a dwelling place for God.
New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.