Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
Psalm 44
Past Victory—Present Defeat
Heading
For the choir director. By the Sons of Korah. A maskil.
Past Victory
1 God, our ears have heard.
Our fathers have told us the work you performed
in their days, in days long ago.
2 By your hand you drove out the nations,
but you planted your people.
You crushed the peoples,
but you sent your people forward.
3 For it was not by their sword
that they took possession of the land.
It was not their arm that saved them.
It was your right hand and your arm,
and the light from your face,
because you took pleasure in them.
Present Trust
4 You are the one who is my King, O God.
Command victories for Jacob.
5 Through you we drive back our foes.
Through your name we trample our adversaries.
6 For I do not trust in my bow,
and my sword does not save me.
7 But you save us from our foes,
and you put those who hate us to shame.
8 In God we make our boast all day,
and we will praise your name forever. Interlude
Present Defeat
9 But now you have rejected and humbled us,
and you do not go out with our armies.
10 You made us turn back before the foe,
and those who hate us have taken plunder for themselves.
11 You give us up for food like sheep,
and you have scattered us among the nations.
12 You sold your people for no great price,
and you have not profited from their sale.
13 You have made us a reproach to our neighbors,
scorn and ridicule to those around us.
14 You have made us a laughingstock among the nations,
a reason for the peoples to shake their heads.
15 All day my disgrace is right in front of me,
and the shame on my face covers me,
16 because of the voice of the slanderer and reviler,
because of the enemy and avenger.
17 All this came on us, though we had not forgotten you.
We had not been false to your covenant.
18 Our hearts had not turned back.
Our steps had not slipped off your path.
19 But you crushed us and made us a home for jackals,
and you covered us with the shadow of death.
20 If we had forgotten the name of our God
or spread out our hands to a foreign god,
21 would not God have discovered this,
since he knows the secrets of the heart?
22 Yet for your sake we are killed all day long.
We are considered sheep to be slaughtered.
Present Plea
23 Get up! Why do you sleep, O Lord? Wake up!
Do not reject us forever.
24 Why do you hide your face?
Why do you forget our misery and our oppression?
25 For our souls bow down to the dust.
Our bellies cling to the earth.
26 Stand up! Help us!
Redeem us because of your mercy.
11 Judah, also for you, a harvest has been appointed,
when I restore the fortunes of my people.[a]
Israel’s Corruption
7 Whenever I want to heal Israel,
the guilt of Ephraim is uncovered,
and the evil deeds of Samaria are exposed,
because they deal dishonestly.
Thieves come inside,
and bandits raid outside.
2 In their hearts Ephraim does not realize that I remember all their wickedness.
Now their deeds are all around them.
They are in front of my face.
3 The people of Ephraim make the king glad with their wickedness.
They make their officials happy with their lies.
4 They are all adulterers,
burning like an oven.
The baker does not need to stoke the fire
from the time the dough is kneaded until it is leavened.
5 On the day[b] of our[c] king, the officials became sick from the intoxicating wine.
He reaches out his hand to the blasphemers.
6 Indeed, their hearts are like an oven.
They approach him, while plotting against him.
Their anger sleeps all night,
but in the morning it burns like a blazing fire.
7 They are all hot as an oven.
They devour their rulers.
All their kings have fallen.
Not one of them calls on me.
8 Ephraim mixes itself with the nations.
Ephraim is a flatbread not turned over.
9 Strangers have devoured his strength,
but he does not realize it.
There are gray hairs on his head,
but he does not realize it.
10 The arrogance of Israel testifies against him,
yet they have not returned to the Lord their God,
and they have not sought him, despite all this.
Israel’s Instability
11 Ephraim is like a gullible dove, without sense.
They call to Egypt.
Then they appeal to Assyria.
12 When they go out, I will spread my net over them.
I will bring them down like birds from the sky.
I will discipline them, on the basis of the report about their assembly.[d]
13 Woe to them,
because they have strayed from me!
Destruction comes upon them,
because they have rebelled against me!
I want to redeem them,
but they speak lies against me.
14 They do not cry out to me with their hearts,
but they howl on their beds.
They gather together[e] for grain and new wine.
They turn away from me.
15 Though I trained and strengthened their arms,
they plot evil against me.
16 They return, but not upward.[f]
They are like an unreliable bow.
Their officials will fall by the sword because of their angry tongues.
Because of this, they will be ridiculed in the land of Egypt.
43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor[a] and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 so that you may be children of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun to rise on the evil and the good and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. 46 Indeed if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Even tax collectors do that, don’t they? 47 If you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even the unbelievers do that? 48 So then, be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.