Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
Psalm 123
A song for those journeying to worship.
1 I raise my eyes to fix my gaze on You,
for Your throne resides in the heavens.
2 Just as the eyes of servants
closely watch the hand of their masters,
Just as a maid carefully observes
the slightest gesture of her mistress,
In the same way we look to You, Eternal One,
waiting for our God to pour out His mercy upon us.
3 O Eternal One, show us Your mercy. We beg You.
We are not strangers to contempt and pain.
4 We have suffered more than our share
of ridicule and contempt from self-appointed critics who live easy lives
and pompously display their own importance.
6 When Joshua sent the people away, each tribe of Israel went to gain possession of its territorial inheritance. 7 The people served the Eternal as long as Joshua lived and through all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua—those who had seen all the great works that the Eternal had done for Israel.
8 Joshua, son of Nun, the Eternal’s servant, died at the age of 110 years 9 and was buried within the borders of his inheritance at Timnath-heres in the hills of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash. 10 Now that whole generation, the generation that had walked with Moses—the generation that saw the walls of Jericho fall—that generation passed on, and another generation grew up after them, a generation that did not know the Eternal and had not seen the great works He had done for Israel. 11 Consequently this new generation served the gods of Canaan—the Baals[a] as they were called—doing what the Eternal God considered evil. 12 They abandoned the Eternal One, the True God of their ancestors, who brought them safely out of Egypt. Instead, they began to serve the gods of their neighbors, the Canaanites, bowing low before their images, causing the Eternal to burn with anger.
13 The Israelites abandoned the worship of the Eternal One and turned to serve Baal and his consort the moon goddess, Ashtaroth. 14 So the Eternal’s anger burned hot against them, and He caused them to be overcome by those around them, using their enemies to plunder them so that the Israelites could no longer stand against their enemies. 15 Whenever they marched out to battle, the hand of the Eternal One was raised against them in evil, as He had warned and promised them, and they were in anguish.
Just as God used the plagues to judge the Egyptians and deliver His people from bondage (Exodus 7–12), these plagues will help rescue God’s faithful servants.
16 Then I heard a great voice coming from the temple ordering the seven heavenly messengers.
A Voice: Go and pour out the seven bowls of the wrath of God upon the earth.
2 So the first messenger poured out his bowl onto the earth. When he did, a foul-smelling, painful sore broke out on each person who bore the mark of the beast and who worshiped its image.
3 The second messenger poured out his bowl into the sea. When he did, the waters became like the blood that spills from a dead body, and every living creature in the sea died.
4 The third messenger poured out his bowl into the rivers and springs of fresh water. When he did, they, too, became blood. 5 And I heard the messenger over the waters speak.
Messenger over the Waters: You are just, O holy One who is and who was,
for You have judged these things rightly.
6 Because people shed the blood of the saints and prophets,
You have given them blood to quench their thirst.
They are deserving of these punishments.
God’s judgment is true and just. Violent people are thirsty for blood, so God gives it to them. Sometimes judgment means receiving what you desire.
7 And I heard a voice from the altar agree.
A Voice: Yes, Lord God, the All Powerful,
true and right are Your judgments!
The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.