Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
Psalm 28
Prayer for Help and Thanksgiving for It
Of David.
1 To you, O Lord, I call;
my rock, do not refuse to hear me,
for if you are silent to me,
I shall be like those who go down to the Pit.(A)
2 Hear the voice of my supplication,
as I cry to you for help,
as I lift up my hands
toward your most holy sanctuary.[a](B)
3 Do not drag me away with the wicked,
with those who are workers of evil,
who speak peace with their neighbors
while mischief is in their hearts.(C)
4 Repay them according to their work
and according to the evil of their deeds;
repay them according to the work of their hands;
render them their due reward.(D)
5 Because they do not regard the works of the Lord
or the work of his hands,
he will break them down and build them up no more.(E)
29 When Reuben returned to the pit and saw that Joseph was not in the pit, he tore his clothes.(A) 30 He returned to his brothers and said, “The boy is gone, and I, where can I turn?”(B) 31 Then they took Joseph’s robe, slaughtered a goat, and dipped the robe in the blood.(C) 32 They had the ornamented robe[a] taken to their father, and they said, “This we have found; see now whether it is your son’s robe or not.” 33 He recognized it and said, “It is my son’s robe! A wild animal has devoured him; Joseph has surely been torn to pieces.”(D) 34 Then Jacob tore his garments and put sackcloth on his loins and mourned for his son many days.(E) 35 All his sons and all his daughters sought to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted and said, “No, I shall go down to Sheol to my son, mourning.” Thus his father bewailed him.(F) 36 Meanwhile the Midianites had sold him in Egypt to Potiphar, one of Pharaoh’s officials, the captain of the guard.(G)
4 For if God did not spare the angels when they sinned but cast them into hell and committed them to chains[a] of deepest darkness to be kept until the judgment;(A) 5 and if he did not spare the ancient world, even though he saved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought a flood on the world of the ungodly;(B) 6 and if by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes he condemned them to destruction[b] and made them an example of what is coming to the ungodly;[c] 7 and if he rescued Lot, a righteous man greatly distressed by the debauchery of the lawless(C) 8 (for that righteous man, living among them day after day, was tormented in his righteous soul by their lawless deeds that he saw and heard), 9 then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trial and to keep the unrighteous until the day of judgment, when they will be punished(D) 10 —especially those who indulge their flesh in depraved lust and who despise authority.
Bold and willful, they are not afraid to slander the glorious ones,[d](E)
New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.