Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

28 Unto Thee will I cry, O Lord my rock; be not silent to me, lest, if Thou be silent, I become like them that go down into the pit.

² Hear the voice of my supplications when I cry unto Thee, when I lift up my hands toward the oracle of Thy sanctuary.

³ Draw me not away with the wicked and with the workers of iniquity, who speak peace to their neighbors, but mischief is in their hearts.

⁴ Give to them according to their deeds and according to the wickedness of their endeavors; give to them according to the work of their hands; render to them their deserts.

⁵ Because they regard not the works of the Lord, nor the operation of His hands, He shall destroy them and not build them up.

⁶ Blessed be the Lord, because He hath heard the voice of my supplications!

⁷ The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusted in Him, and I am helped. Therefore my heart greatly rejoiceth, and with my song will I praise Him.

⁸ The Lord is their strength, and He is the saving strength of His anointed.

⁹ Save the people, and bless Thine inheritance; feed them also, and lift them up forever.

⁹ Therefore is judgment far from us, neither doth justice overtake us; we wait for light, but behold obscurity; for brightness, but we walk in darkness.

¹⁰ We grope for the wall like the blind, and we grope as if we had no eyes; we stumble at noonday as in the night; we are in desolate places as dead men.

¹¹ We all roar like bears, and mourn sore like doves; we look for judgment, but there is none; for salvation, but it is far off from us.

¹² For our transgressions are multiplied before Thee, and our sins testify against us. For our transgressions are with us, and as for our iniquities, we know them:

¹³ in transgressing and lying against the Lord, and departing away from our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood.

¹⁴ And judgment is turned away backward, and justice standeth afar off; for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter.

¹⁵ Yea, truth faileth, and he that departeth from evil maketh himself a prey. And the Lord saw it, and it displeased Him that there was no judgment.

¹⁶ And he saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor; therefore his arm brought salvation unto Him, and his righteousness, it sustained Him.

¹⁷ For He put on righteousness as a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation upon His head; and he put on the garments of vengeance for clothing, and was clad with zeal as a cloak.

¹⁸ According to their deeds, accordingly He will repay, fury to His adversaries, recompense to His enemies; to the islands He will repay recompense.

¹⁹ So shall they fear the name of the Lord from the west and His glory from the rising of the sun. When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him.

2 Therefore laying aside all malice and all guile, and hypocrisy and envy and all evil speaking,

² as newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the Word, that ye may grow thereby,

³ if so it be that ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious.

⁴ Coming to Him as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious,

⁵ ye also as living stones are built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.

⁶ Therefore it is also contained in the Scripture: “Behold, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone, elect, precious; and he that believeth in Him shall not be confounded.”

⁷ Unto you therefore who believe, He is precious; but unto those who are disobedient, “The stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner,”

⁸ and, “A stone of stumbling and a rock of offense,” even to those who stumble at the Word, being disobedient, unto which also they were appointed.

⁹ But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people, that ye should show forth the praises of Him who hath called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.

¹⁰ In times past ye were not a people, but are now the people of God; who had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.