Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
A Davidic psalm,[a] which he sang to the Lord, because of the words of Cush the descendant of Benjamin.
A Prayer for Vindication
7 Lord, my God,
I seek refuge in you.
Deliver me from those who persecute me!
Rescue me!
2 Otherwise, they will rip me to shreds like a lion,
tearing me[b] apart with no one to rescue me.[c]
3 Lord, my God, if I have done this thing,
if there is injustice on my hands,
4 if I have rewarded those who did me good with evil,
if I have plundered my enemy without justification,
5 then, let my enemy pursue me,
let him overtake me,
and let him trample my life to the ground.
Let him put my honor into the dust.
6 Get up, Lord, in your anger!
Rise up, because of the fury of my enemies;
Arouse yourself for me;
you have ordained justice.
7 Let the assembly of the peoples gather around you,
and you will sit[d] high above them.
8 For the Lord will judge the peoples.
Judge me according to my righteousness, Lord,
and according to my integrity, Exalted One.
9 Let the evil of the wicked come to an end,
but establish the righteous.
For you are the righteous God
who discerns the inner thoughts.[e]
10 God is my shield,[f]
the one who delivers the upright in heart.
11 God is a righteous judge,
a God who is angry with sinners[g] every day.
12 If the ungodly one[h] doesn’t repent,
God will sharpen his sword;
he will string his bow and prepare it.
13 He prepares weapons of death for himself,
he makes his arrows into fiery shafts.
14 But the wicked one[i] travails with evil,
he conceives malice and gives birth to lies.
15 He digs a pit, even excavates it;
then he fell into the hole that he had made.
16 The trouble[j] he planned will return on his own head,
and his violence will descend on his skull.
17 But as for me,
I will praise the Lord for his righteousness,
and I will sing to the name of the Lord Most High.
9 Announce this[a] in the fortified citadels of Ashdod,
and in the fortified citadels of the land of Egypt.
Tell them, ‘Gather together on the mountains of Samaria;
look at the great misery among the citadels,[b]
along with the oppression within Egypt.’[c]
10 Because they do not know how to act right,”
declares the Lord,
“they are filling their strongholds with treasures
that they took from others by violence into their fortified citadels.”
11 Therefore this is what the Lord God says:
“An enemy will surround the land.
He[d] will pull down your defenses,
and plunder your fortified citadels.”
12 This is what the Lord says:
“Just as a shepherd might save from the lion’s mouth
only two leg bones or a scrap of an ear,
the Israelis will be saved in a similar manner—
those in Samaria who sit on the remains of their broken beds,[e]
and those in Damascus who lie on the edge of their couches.”
13 “Listen and testify against the house of Jacob,”
declares the Lord God, the God of the Heavenly Armies,
14 “because on that day I will lay out the charges against Israel.
I will also bring judgment upon the altars of Bethel;
the horns of the altar will be cut off
and will fall to the ground.
15 I will wreck both the winter house and the summer house,
and the ivory houses will fall.[f]
These palaces will surely fall,”
declares the Lord.
Judgment on the Women of Israel
4 “Listen to this message, you fat cows from Bashan,
who live on the Samaritan mountains,
who oppress the poor,
who rob the needy,
and who constantly ask your husbands for one more drink!”
2 The Lord God has taken a sacred oath:[g]
“The day is coming when they[h] will take you away on fishhooks,
every last one of you on fishhooks.
3 Each of you will go out through the breaches of the walls[i]
straight to Mt. Hermon,”[j]
declares the Lord.
The Lord’s Rebuke to Israel
4 “Come to Bethel and sin,
to Gilgal and sin even more!
Bring along your morning sacrifices,
and pay your tithes every other day.[k]
5 While you’re at it,[l] present a thank offering with leaven,
and publicize your freewill offerings,
letting everyone hear about it,
because this is what you really love to do, you Israelis,”
declares the Lord God.
Do Not Show Partiality
2 My brothers, do not let your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus, the Messiah,[a] be tainted by favoritism. 2 Suppose a man wearing gold rings and fine clothes comes into your assembly,[b] and a poor man in dirty clothes also comes in. 3 If you give special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say, “Please take this seat,” but you say to the poor man, “Stand over there” or “Sit on the floor at my feet,”[c] 4 then you will have made false distinctions among yourselves and will have judged from evil motives, will you not?
5 Listen, my dear brothers! God has chosen the poor in the world to become rich in faith and to be heirs of the kingdom that he promised to those who keep on loving him, has he not? 6 But you have humiliated the man who is poor. Are not rich people the ones who oppress you and drag you into court? 7 Are not they the ones who blaspheme the noble Name[d] by which you have been called?
Copyright © 1995-2014 by ISV Foundation. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED INTERNATIONALLY. Used by permission of Davidson Press, LLC.