Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
An Appeal against the Devastation of the Land by the Enemy.
A skillful song, or a didactic or reflective poem, of Asaph.
74 O God, why have You rejected us forever?
Why does Your anger smoke against the sheep of Your pasture?
2
Remember Your congregation, which You have purchased of old,
Which You have redeemed to be the tribe of Your inheritance;
Remember Mount Zion, where You have dwelt.
3
Turn your footsteps [quickly] toward the perpetual ruins;
The enemy has damaged everything within the sanctuary.
4
In the midst of Your meeting place Your enemies have roared [with their battle cry];
They have set up their own emblems for signs [of victory].
5
It seems as if one had lifted up
An axe in a forest of trees [to set a record of destruction].
6
And now all the carved work [of the meeting place]
They smash with hatchets and hammers.
7
They have burned Your sanctuary to the ground;
They have profaned the dwelling place of Your [a]name.
8
They said in their heart, “Let us completely subdue them.”
They have burned all the meeting places of God in the land.
9
We do not see our symbols;
There is no longer any prophet [to guide us],
Nor does any among us know for how long.
10
O God, how long will the adversary scoff?
Is the enemy to revile Your name forever?
11
Why do You withdraw Your hand, even Your right hand [from judging the enemy]?
Remove Your hand from Your chest, destroy them!
12
Yet God is my King of old,
Working salvation in the midst of the earth.
13
You divided the [Red] Sea by Your strength;
You broke the heads of the [b]sea monsters in the waters.(A)
14
You crushed the heads of [c]Leviathan (Egypt);
You gave him as food for the creatures of the wilderness.(B)
15
You broke open fountains and streams;
You dried up ever-flowing rivers.(C)
16
The day is Yours, the night also is Yours;
You have established and prepared the [heavenly] light and the sun.
17
You have defined and established all the borders of the earth [the divisions of land and sea and of the nations];
You have made summer and winter.(D)
18
Remember this, O Lord, the enemy has scoffed,
And a foolish and impious people has spurned Your name.
19
Oh, do not hand over the soul of your turtledove to the wild beast;
Do not forget the life of Your afflicted forever.
20
Consider the covenant [You made with Abraham],
For the dark places of the land are full of the habitations of violence.
21
Let not the oppressed return dishonored;
Let the afflicted and needy praise Your name.
22
Arise, O God, plead Your own cause;
Remember how the foolish man scoffs at You all day long.
23
Do not forget the [clamoring] voices of Your adversaries,
The uproar of those who rise against You, which ascends continually [to Your ears].
The Deliverance of Israel
27 In that day the Lord will punish Leviathan the fleeing serpent
With His fierce and great and mighty sword [rescuing Israel from her enemy],
Even Leviathan the twisted serpent;
And He will kill the dragon who lives in the sea.
2
In that day [it will be said of the redeemed nation of Israel],
“A vineyard of [a]wine, sing in praise of it!
3
“I, the Lord, am its Keeper;
I water it every moment.
So that no one will harm it,
I guard it night and day.
4
“I have no wrath.
Should anyone give Me briars and thorns in battle,
I would step on them, I would set them all on fire.
5
“Or let him (Israel) cling to My strength and rely on My protection [My stronghold],
Let him make peace with Me,
Let him make peace with Me.”
6
[b]In the generations to come Jacob will take root;
Israel will blossom and sprout,
And they will fill the surface of the world with fruit.(A)
7
Like the striking [c]by Him who has struck them, has He struck them?
Or like the slaughter of His slain, have they been slain?
8
You contended with them by exile, by driving them away [from Canaan];
He has expelled them with His fierce wind on the day of the east wind.
9
Therefore through this the wickedness [the sin, the injustice, the wrongdoing] of Jacob (Israel) will be atoned for and forgiven;
And this will be [d]the full price [that God requires] for taking away his sin:
When Israel makes all the stones of the [pagan] altars like crushed chalk stones;
When the Asherim and the incense altars will not stand.
10
For the fortified city is isolated,
A settlement deserted and abandoned like the desert;
There the calf will graze,
And there it will lie down and [e]feed on its branches.
11
When its branches are dry, they are broken off;
The women come and [f]make a fire with them.
For they are not a people of understanding,
Therefore He who made them will not have compassion on them,
And He who created them will not be gracious to them.
12 In that day the Lord will thresh [out His grain] from the flowing stream of the River [Euphrates] to the Brook of Egypt, and you will be gathered up one by one, O sons of Israel. 13 It will come to pass in that day that a great trumpet will be blown, and those who were lost and perishing in the land of Assyria and who were scattered in the land of Egypt will come and worship the Lord on the holy mountain at Jerusalem.(B)
Traders Driven from the Temple
45 Jesus went into the temple [enclosure] and began driving out those who were selling,(A) 46 saying to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be a house of prayer’; but you have made it a robbers’ den.”(B)
47 He was teaching day after day in the temple [porches and courts]; but the chief priests and scribes and the leading men among the people were seeking [a way] to put Him to death, 48 and they could not find anything that they could do, for all the people [stayed close to Him and] were hanging on to [a]every word He said.
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