Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
Psalm 123
The Eyes of a Servant
Heading
A song of the ascents.
The Eyes of a Servant
1 To you I lift up my eyes,
to you who are seated in heaven.
2 Indeed, as the eyes of slaves look to the hand of their master,
as the eyes of a maid look to the hand of her mistress,
so our eyes look to the Lord our God, until he shows us his grace.
3 Show grace to us, O Lord.
Show grace to us,
for we have had our fill of contempt.
4 Our souls have had their fill of the scorn of the smug
and of the contempt of the arrogant.
Round Two: Zophar’s Speech
20 Then Zophar the Na’amathite responded:
2 This is why my troubled thoughts make me respond again,
and why my thoughts are racing through my mind:
3 I heard a rebuke that insults me,
so my spirit prompts me to respond with understanding.
4 Don’t you know this?
From ancient times,
from the time when Adam[a] was placed on the earth,
5 the triumphant cry of the wicked has been short-lived,
and the joy of the godless lasts only a moment.
6 Although his arrogance reaches up to the skies,
and his head touches the clouds,
7 he will perish forever like his own filth.
Those who saw him will say, “Where is he?”
8 Like a dream, he flies away, and he cannot be found.
Like a vision during the night, he flutters away.
9 An eye catches sight of him, but it does not see him again.
His place will no longer look at him.
10 His children must make restitution to[b] the poor.
His hands must give back his wealth.
11 His bones were once filled with youthful vigor,
but that vigor will lie down with him in the dust.
We Have God’s Inspired Word
16 To be sure, we were not following cunningly devised fables when we made known to you the powerful appearance of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. 17 For he received honor and glory from God the Father, when the voice came to him from within the Majestic Glory, saying, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”[a] 18 We heard this voice, which came out of heaven when we were with him on the holy mountain.
19 We also have the completely reliable prophetic word. You do well to pay attention to it, as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the Morning Star rises in your hearts, 20 since we know this above all else: No prophecy of Scripture comes about from someone’s own interpretation. 21 In fact, no prophecy ever came by the will of man, but men spoke from God[b] as they were being carried along by the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.