Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

¹ Of Solomon.
O God, endow the king with your judgment,
    the son of kings with your righteousness.
^2 [b]He will govern your people fairly
    and deal justly with your poor ones.
³ The mountains will yield peace for the people,
    and the hills, righteousness.
⁴ He will defend the afflicted among the people,
    save the children of the poor,
    and overwhelm the oppressor.
⁵ He will reign as long as the sun,
    as long as the moon, through all generations.
⁶ He will descend like rain on the meadow,
    like showers that water the earth.
⁷ Justice will reign in his days,
    and peace will abound
    until the moon is no more.
⁸ His rule will extend from sea to sea,^[c]
    and from the river to the ends of the earth.
⁹ His foes^[d] will bow down before him,
    and his enemies will lick the dust.
¹⁰ The kings of Tarshish^[e] and the Islands
    will offer him tribute;
the kings of Sheba and Seba
    will present him with gifts.
¹¹ All kings will pay him homage,
    and all nations will serve him.
¹² For he will save the poor who cry out
    and the needy who have no one to help them.
¹³ He will have pity on the lowly and the poor;
    the lives of the needy he will save.
¹⁴ He will free them from oppression and violence,
    for their blood is precious in his sight.
^15 [f]Long may he live!
    May the gold of Sheba be given to him.
May people pray for him unceasingly
    and invoke blessings^[g] on him all day long.
¹⁶ May grain abound throughout the land,
    even growing abundantly on the mountain tops.
May its crops^[h] be as plenteous as those of Lebanon,
    and may its people flourish like the grass of the field.
¹⁷ May his name^[i] be blessed forever;
    may it endure as long as the sun.
May all peoples be blessed in him;
    may all the nations proclaim his greatness.
^18 [j]Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel,
    who alone can perform such wondrous deeds.
¹⁹ May his glorious name be blessed forever,
    and may the whole world be filled with his glory.
    Amen. Amen.
²⁰ The end of the psalms of David, son of Jesse.^[k]

² Therefore, the Lord will abandon them
    only until she who is in labor has given birth.
Then those of the people who survive
    will be reunited with the Israelites.
³ He will rise up to shepherd his flock
    by the strength of the Lord,
in the majesty of the name
    of the Lord his God.
And they will live in security,
    for then his greatness will be renowned
to the ends of the earth.
⁴     He will ensure their peace.

If the Assyrians invade our country
    and set foot upon our land,
we shall raise against them seven shepherds
    and appoint eight^[a] men to serve as rulers.
⁵ They will rule the land of Assyria with the sword,
    and the land of Nimrod with drawn swords.
And we will be delivered from Assyria
    if it invades our country
    or treads upon our borders.

⁶ Then the remnant of Jacob,
    surrounded by many peoples,
will be like dew from the Lord,
    like showers on the grass,
which do not depend upon man
    or wait for any man’s bidding.
⁷ And among the nations the remnant of Jacob
    will be surrounded by many peoples,
like a lion among the beasts of the forest,
    like a young lion among the flocks of sheep,
trampling and tearing to pieces as it goes,
    with no one able to stop the carnage.
⁸ Your hand will be lifted up over your foes,
    and all your adversaries will be destroyed.
⁹ On that day, says the Lord,
    I will slaughter your horses
    and destroy your chariots.