Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
Psalm 98
Sing to the Lord a New Song
Heading
A psalm.
Invitation
1 Sing to the Lord a new song,
for he has done marvelous things.
His right hand and his holy arm have worked salvation for him.
Let His People Sing
2 The Lord has made his salvation known.
He has revealed his righteousness to the eyes of the nations.
3 He has remembered his mercy and his faithfulness
to the house of Israel.
All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.
Let All People Sing
4 Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth.
Break out in joyful song! Make music!
5 Make music to the Lord with the lyre,
with the lyre and the sound of music.
6 With trumpets and the sound of the ram’s horn
shout for joy before the King, the Lord.
Let the Whole Earth Sing
7 Let the sea roar, and everything that fills it,
the world, and all who live in it.
8 Let the rivers clap their hands.
Let the mountains sing for joy together before the Lord,
9 for he comes to judge the earth.
He will judge the world in righteousness
and the peoples with fairness.[a]
The Famine
21 There was a famine in the days of David for three years in a row.
David sought the favor[a] of the Lord, and the Lord said, “There is blood guilt on Saul and on his house because he put the Gibeonites to death.” 2 So the king summoned the Gibeonites and spoke to them.
(The Gibeonites were not related to the people of Israel, but they were a remnant of the Amorites. The Israelites had given them a sworn promise, but Saul had sought to kill them in his zeal for the people of Israel and Judah.)
3 David said to the Gibeonites, “What shall I do for you? How will I make atonement[b] to you so you will bless the heritage of the Lord?”
4 The Gibeonites said to him, “The issue between us and Saul and his house cannot be settled with silver and gold. Nor is it up to us to put anyone in Israel to death.”
So David said, “Well then, what are you saying I should do for you?”
5 They said to the king, “From the man who consumed us and who planned to destroy us so that we would have no place in all the territory of Israel, 6 we ask you to give us seven of his male descendants. Allow us to hang them up before the Lord in Gibeah of Saul, who was the chosen of the Lord.”
The king said, “I will grant it.”
7 The king spared Mephibosheth, the son of Saul’s son Jonathan, because of the oath of the Lord between David and Jonathan, the son of Saul. 8 The king took Armoni and Mephibosheth, the two sons of Saul to whom Rizpah daughter of Aiah had given birth, and the five sons of Merab,[c] the daughter of Saul, to whom she gave birth for Adriel son of Barzillai, the Meholathite. 9 David handed them over to the Gibeonites, and they hanged them on the mountain before the Lord. The seven of them died together. They were put to death in the first days of the harvest, at the beginning of the barley harvest.
10 Rizpah daughter of Aiah took sackcloth and spread it out for herself near the rock. From the beginning of the grain harvest until rain started falling on them from the sky,[d] she did not allow the birds of the air to come upon them by day nor the wild animals by night. 11 David was informed about what Rizpah daughter of Aiah, the concubine of Saul, had done. 12 So David went and got the bones of Saul and the bones of Saul’s son Jonathan from the citizens of Jabesh Gilead, who had stolen them from the public square of Beth Shan, where the Philistines had hanged them on the day when the Philistines killed Saul at Gilboa. 13 He brought the bones of Saul and the bones of his son Jonathan from there. They also gathered the bones of the men who had been hanged. 14 Then they buried the bones of Saul and Saul’s son Jonathan in the land of Benjamin at Zela in the tomb of Kish, Saul’s father. They did everything the king commanded. After that, God responded to the prayers for the land.
The Judgment at Christ’s Coming
3 We are always obligated to thank God for you, brothers,[a] as is fitting, because your faith is growing more and more, and the love that each and every one of you has for one another is increasing. 4 So we ourselves boast about you in God’s churches in regard to your patient endurance and faith in all your persecutions and in the trials that you are enduring. 5 This is evidence of God’s righteous verdict that resulted in your being counted worthy of God’s kingdom, for which you also suffer. 6 Certainly, it is right for God to repay trouble to those who trouble you, 7 and to give relief to you, who are troubled along with us. When the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his powerful angels, 8 he will exercise vengeance in flaming fire on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. 9 Such people will receive a just penalty: eternal destruction away from the presence of the Lord and from his glorious strength, 10 on that day when he comes to be glorified among his saints, and to be marveled at among all those who have believed, because our testimony to you was believed. 11 For this reason, we are always praying for you, that our God will make you worthy of your calling and use his power to fulfill every good desire and work of your faith, 12 so that the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you and you in him, in keeping with the grace of our God and Lord Jesus Christ.
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.