Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
Psalm 68
To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David. A song.
1 God is [already] beginning to arise, and His enemies to scatter; let them also who hate Him flee before Him!
2 As smoke is driven away, so drive them away; as wax melts before the fire, so let the wicked perish before the presence of God.
3 But let the [uncompromisingly] righteous be glad; let them be in high spirits and glory before God, yes, let them [jubilantly] rejoice!
4 Sing to God, sing praises to His name, cast up a highway for Him Who rides through the deserts—His name is the Lord—be in high spirits and glory before Him!
5 A father of the fatherless and a judge and protector of the widows is God in His holy habitation.
6 God places the solitary in families and gives the desolate a home in which to dwell; He leads the prisoners out to prosperity; but the rebellious dwell in a parched land.
7 O God, when You went forth before Your people, when You marched through the wilderness—Selah [pause, and calmly think of that]!—
8 The earth trembled, the heavens also poured down [rain] at the presence of God; yonder Sinai quaked at the presence of God, the God of Israel.
9 You, O God, did send a plentiful rain; You did restore and confirm Your heritage when it languished and was weary.
10 Your flock found a dwelling place in it; You, O God, in Your goodness did provide for the poor and needy.
19 Blessed be the Lord, Who bears our burdens and carries us day by day, even the God Who is our salvation! Selah [pause, and calmly think of that]!
20 God is to us a God of deliverances and salvation; and to God the Lord belongs escape from death [setting us free].
9 [The violent men whose wickedness seems unnoticed] pluck the fatherless infants from the breast [to sell or make them slaves], and take [the clothing on] the poor for a pledge,
10 So that the needy go about naked for lack of clothing, and though hungry, they must carry [but not eat from] the sheaves.
11 Among the olive rows [of the wicked, the poor] make oil; they tread [the fresh juice of the grape from] the presses, but suffer thirst.
12 From out of the populous city men groan, and the very life of the wounded cries for help; yet God [seemingly] regards not the wrong done them.
13 These wrongdoers are of those who rebel against the light; they know not its ways nor stay in its paths.
14 The murderer rises with the light; he kills the poor and the needy, and in the night he becomes as a thief.
15 The eye also of the adulterer waits for the twilight, saying, No eye shall see me, and he puts a disguise upon his face.
16 In the dark, they dig through [the penetrable walls of] houses; by day they shut themselves up; they do not know the sunlight.
17 For midnight is morning to all of them; for they are familiar with the terrors of deep darkness.
18 [You say] Swiftly such men pass away on the face of the waters; their portion is cursed in the earth; [no treader] turns into their vineyards.
19 Drought and heat consume the snow waters; so does Sheol (the place of the dead) those who have sinned.
20 The womb shall forget him, the worm shall feed sweetly on him; he shall be no more remembered, and unrighteousness shall be broken like a tree [which cannot be healed].(A)
21 [The evil man] preys upon the barren, childless woman and does no good to the widow.
22 Yet [God] prolongs the life of the [wicked] mighty by His power; they rise up when they had despaired of life.
23 God gives them security, and they rest on it; and His eyes are upon their ways.
24 They are exalted for a little while, and then are gone and brought low; they are taken out of the way as all others are and are cut off as the tops of the ears of grain.
25 And if this is not so, who will prove me a liar and make my speech worthless?
11 But when Cephas (Peter) came to Antioch, I protested and opposed him to his face [concerning his conduct there], for he was blameable and stood condemned.
12 For up to the time that certain persons came from James, he ate his meals with the Gentile [converts]; but when the men [from Jerusalem] arrived, he withdrew and held himself aloof from the Gentiles and [ate] separately for fear of those of the circumcision [party].
13 And the rest of the Jews along with him also concealed their true convictions and acted insincerely, with the result that even Barnabas was carried away by their hypocrisy (their example of insincerity and pretense).
14 But as soon as I saw that they were not straightforward and were not living up to the truth of the Gospel, I said to Cephas (Peter) before everybody present, If you, though born a Jew, can live [as you have been living] like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how do you dare now to urge and practically force the Gentiles to [comply with the ritual of Judaism and] live like Jews?
Copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation