Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
Book IV—Psalms 90–106[a]
Psalm 90[b]
Prayer To Use Time Wisely
1 A prayer of Moses, the man of God.[c]
Lord, you have been our refuge
from generation to generation.
2 Before the mountains were brought forth
or the earth and the world came into existence,
from everlasting to everlasting you are God.
3 You turn men back to dust,
saying, “Return,[d] you children of men.”
4 For to you a thousand years
are like a yesterday that has passed
or one of the watches of the night.[e]
5 You snatch them away like a dream;
they are like the grass of the field,[f]
6 which at dawn flourishes and is green
but by nightfall is withered and dry.
7 [g]We have been brought low by your anger
and overwhelmed with terror by your wrath.
8 You have not forgotten our iniquities;
our secret sins are clearly visible in your sight.
9 All our days pass away under your wrath;
our years are consumed like a sigh.
10 The span of our life numbers seventy years,
or perhaps eighty, if we have enough strength.
Most of them are marked by toil and emptiness;[a]
they pass swiftly, and then we fly away.
11 [b]Who understands the might of your anger
and rightly fears the power of your wrath?
12 Teach us to comprehend how few our days are
so that our hearts may be filled with wisdom.
10 Now is the day of the Lord.
Behold, the end is at hand.
The scepter has blossomed;
insolence is at its peak.
11 Violence has now become the means
to punish wickedness.
None of the people will be left,
nor their wealth nor anything of value.
12 The time has come; the day is near.
Let not the buyer rejoice nor the seller mourn,
for fury engulfs the entire populace.
13 The seller will not be able to recover what he has sold as long as he lives. Neither party will be willing to cancel out the transaction.
14 They have sounded the trumpet
and made everything ready,
but no one goes to battle,
my wrath falls upon all alike.
15 The sword is outside;
pestilence and famine are within.
Those in the country will die by the sword;
those in the city will be devoured
by famine and pestilence.
16 If any manage to survive,
they will escape to the mountains
like doves of the valleys.
There I will slaughter them all,
each one for his iniquity.
17 All their hands will be limp,
and all their knees will turn to water.
18 They will put on sackcloth,
their entire body trembling.
Shame shall be on all their faces,
and their heads will be shaved.
19 They shall fling their silver into the streets,
and their gold shall be considered as refuse.
Their silver and gold will not be able to save them
on the day of the Lord’s wrath.
They will not be able to satisfy their hunger
or to fill their bellies,
for wealth was the reason for their iniquity.
20 They used to take pride
in their beautiful jewelry
from which they would fashion
vile, abominable images.
Therefore, I will regard their jewelry
as nothing more than filth.
21 I will hand it all over to foreigners as plunder
and as booty to the wicked of the earth,
and they will defile it.
22 I will turn my face away from them
while they profane my treasured land;
the violent shall enter and defile it.
23 Prepare chains,
because the land is full of bloodshed
and the city is filled with violence.
24 I will bring in the cruelest of the nations
to seize their houses.
I will put an end to the arrogance of the strong,
and their sanctuaries will be profaned.
25 When terror comes, they will seek peace,
but there will be none.
26 There will be disaster after disaster
and rumor upon rumor.
Prophets will be pestered endlessly for a vision;
priests will fail to offer guidance,
and the elders will provide no counsel.
27 The king will go into mourning;
the prince will be enveloped in despair;
the hands of the common people will tremble.
I will deal with them as their conduct deserves,
and I will judge them in accordance with their judgments.
Thus they will know that I am the Lord.
43 New Offensive from the Evil Spirit.[a]“When an unclean spirit goes out of a person, it wanders through waterless regions seeking a place to rest, but it finds none. 44 Then it says, ‘I will return to the home from which I departed.’And when it returns, it finds that home empty, swept clean, and put in order. 45 Then it goes off and brings back with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they enter and settle there. As a result, the plight of that person is worse than before. So it will also be with this evil generation.”
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