Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
Psalm 64
For the Music Director. A Psalm of David.
1 Hear my voice, O God, in my complaint;
guard my life from dread of the enemy.
2 Hide me from the secret counsel of the wicked,
from the throng of the workers of iniquity;
3 they sharpen their tongue like a sword,
and bend their bows to shoot their arrows—bitter words,
4 that they may shoot in secret at the blameless;
suddenly they shoot at him and do not fear.
5 They harden themselves in an evil matter;
they talk privately of laying snares;
they say, “Who will see them?”
6 They devise injustice,
saying “We have perfected a secret plot.”
Both the inward thought of man and the heart are deep.
7 But God will suddenly shoot them with an arrow;
they will be wounded.
8 They will bring ruin on themselves
by their own tongues;
all who see them will flee away.
9 All people will fear,
and declare the work of God;
they will wisely consider His deeds.
10 The righteous will be glad in the Lord,
and seek refuge in Him,
and all the upright in heart will glory.
Job Replies: My Redeemer Lives
19 Then Job answered:
2 “How long will you torment my soul
and break me in pieces with words?
3 These ten times you have reproached me;
you are not ashamed that you have wronged me.
4 And if indeed I have erred,
my error remains with me.
5 If indeed you exalt yourselves against me
and plead against me with my disgrace,
6 know now that God has bent me
and has surrounded me with His net.
7 “Look, I cry out concerning wrong, but I am not heard;
I cry aloud, but there is no justice.
8 He has fenced up my way that I cannot pass,
and He has set darkness in my paths.
9 He has stripped me of my glory
and taken the crown from my head.
10 He has destroyed me on every side, and I am gone;
my hope He has uprooted like a tree.
11 He has also kindled His wrath against me,
and He counts me as one of His enemies.
12 His troops come together
and build up their road against me;
they set up camp all around my tent.
13 “He has removed my brothers far from me,
and my acquaintances are completely estranged from me.
14 My relatives have failed,
and my close friends have forgotten me.
15 Those who dwell in my house, and my maidservants,
count me for a stranger;
I am a foreigner in their sight.
16 I called my servant, but he gave me no answer;
I begged him with my mouth.
17 My breath is offensive to my wife;
I am loathsome to the children of my own body.
18 Yes, young children despise me;
I arose, and they spoke against me.
19 All my close friends abhorred me,
and they whom I love are turned against me.
20 My bones cling to my skin and to my flesh,
and I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.
21 “Have pity upon me, have pity upon me, O you my friends,
for the hand of God has struck me!
22 Why do you persecute me as God does,
and are not satisfied with my flesh?
One in Christ
11 Therefore remember that formerly you, the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called the “uncircumcision” by the so-called “circumcision” in the flesh by human hands, 12 were at that time apart from Christ, alienated from the citizenship of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, without hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who were formerly far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
14 For He is our peace, who has made both groups one and has broken down the barrier of the dividing wall, 15 by abolishing in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of the commandments contained in ordinances, that in Himself He might make the two into one new man, thus making peace, 16 and that He might reconcile both to God into one body through the cross, thereby slaying the enmity. 17 And He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. 18 For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father.
19 Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, 20 having been built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, 21 in whom the entire building, tightly framed together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, 22 in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling place of God through the Spirit.
The Holy Bible, Modern English Version. Copyright © 2014 by Military Bible Association. Published and distributed by Charisma House.