Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Psalm 110

A Psalm of David.

¹ The Lord (God) says to my Lord (the Messiah), Sit at My right hand, until I make Your adversaries Your footstool.^(A)

² The Lord will send forth from Zion the scepter of Your strength; rule, then, in the midst of Your foes.^(B)

³ Your people will offer themselves willingly in the day of Your power, in the beauty of holiness and in holy array out of the womb of the morning; to You [will spring forth] Your young men, who are as the dew.

⁴ The Lord has sworn and will not revoke or change it: You are a priest forever, after the manner and order of Melchizedek.^(C)

⁵ The Lord at Your right hand will shatter kings in the day of His indignation.

⁶ He will execute judgment [in overwhelming punishment] upon the nations; He will fill the valleys with the dead bodies, He will crush the [chief] heads over lands many and far extended.^(D)

⁷ He will drink of the brook by the way; therefore will He lift up His head [triumphantly].

3 My son, forget not my law or teaching, but let your heart keep my commandments;

² For length of days and years of a life [worth living] and tranquility [inward and outward and continuing through old age till death], these shall they add to you.

³ Let not mercy and kindness [shutting out all hatred and selfishness] and truth [shutting out all deliberate hypocrisy or falsehood] forsake you; bind them about your neck, write them upon the tablet of your heart.^(A)

⁴ So shall you find favor, good understanding, and high esteem in the sight [or judgment] of God and man.^(B)

⁵ Lean on, trust in, and be confident in the Lord with all your heart and mind and do not rely on your own insight or understanding.

⁶ In all your ways know, recognize, and acknowledge Him, and He will direct and make straight and plain your paths.

⁷ Be not wise in your own eyes; reverently fear and worship the Lord and turn [entirely] away from evil.^(C)

⁸ It shall be health to your nerves and sinews, and marrow and moistening to your bones.

⁹ Honor the Lord with your capital and sufficiency [from righteous labors] and with the firstfruits of all your income;^(D)

¹⁰ So shall your storage places be filled with plenty, and your vats shall be overflowing with new wine.^(E)

¹¹ My son, do not despise or shrink from the chastening of the Lord [His correction by punishment or by subjection to suffering or trial]; neither be weary of or impatient about or loathe or abhor His reproof,^(F)

¹² For whom the Lord loves He corrects, even as a father corrects the son in whom he delights.

¹¹ [My] brethren, do not speak evil about or accuse one another. He that maligns a brother or judges his brother is maligning and criticizing the Law and judging the Law. But if you judge the Law, you are not a practicer of the Law but a censor and judge [of it].

¹² One only is the Lawgiver and Judge Who is able to save and to destroy [the One Who has the absolute power of life and death]. [But you] who are you that [you presume to] pass judgment on your neighbor?

¹³ Come now, you who say, Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a city and spend a year there and carry on our business and make money.

¹⁴ Yet you do not know [the least thing] about what may happen tomorrow. What is the nature of your life? You are [really] but a wisp of vapor (a puff of smoke, a mist) that is visible for a little while and then disappears [into thin air].

¹⁵ You ought instead to say, If the Lord is willing, we shall live and we shall do this or that [thing].

¹⁶ But as it is, you boast [falsely] in your presumption and your self-conceit. All such boasting is wrong.

¹⁷ So any person who knows what is right to do but does not do it, to him it is sin.