Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
74 O God, why have You rejected us forever? Is Your wrath kindled against the sheep of Your pasture?
2 Think upon the congregation which You have possessed of old; and on the rod of Your inheritance which You have redeemed; and on this Mount Zion wherein You have dwelt.
3 Lift up Your feet to perpetual desolations. The enemy has broken everything in the Sanctuary.
4 Your adversaries roar in the midst of Your congregation and set up their banners for signs.
5 He who lifted the axes upon the thick trees was renowned as one who brought a thing to perfection.
6 But now they break down the carved work thereof with axes and hammers.
7 They have cast Your Sanctuary into the fire and razed it to the ground. They have defiled the dwelling place of Your Name.
8 They said in their hearts, “Let us destroy them altogether.” They have burnt all the synagogues of God in the land.
9 We do not see our signs. There has not been one Prophet, nor is there any with us who knows how long.
10 O God, how long shall the adversary reproach You? Shall the enemy blaspheme Your Name forever?
11 Why do You withdraw Your hand, even Your right hand? Draw it out of Your bosom and consume them!
12 For God is my King of old, working salvation in the midst of the Earth.
13 You divided the sea by Your power. You broke the heads of the dragons in the waters.
14 You broke the head of Leviathan in pieces and gave him to be food for the people in wilderness.
15 You broke up the fountain and river. You dry up mighty rivers.
16 The day is Yours and the night is Yours. You have prepared the light and the Sun.
17 You have set all the borders of the Earth. You have made Summer and Winter.
18 Remember this: the enemy has reproached the LORD and the foolish people have blasphemed Your Name.
19 Do not give the life of Your turtledove to the beast. Do not forget the Congregation of Your poor, forever.
20 Consider Your Covenant; for the dark places of the Earth are full of the habitations of the cruel.
21 O, do not let the oppressed return ashamed! Let the poor and needy praise Your Name.
22 Arise, O God! Maintain Your own cause! Remember Your daily reproach by the foolish man.
23 Do not forget the voice of Your enemies. The tumult of those who rise against You ascends continually. To him who excels: Do not destroy. A Psalm, or song, committed to Asaph
24 Therefore as the flame of fire devours the stubble, and the chaff is consumed by the flame, so their root shall be as rottenness, and their bud shall rise up like dust, because they have cast off the Law of the LORD of hosts, and contemned the Word of the Holy One of Israel.
25 Therefore the wrath of the LORD is kindled against His people, and He has stretched out His hand upon them, and has struck them, so that the mountains trembled and their carcasses were torn in the middle of the streets. For all this, His wrath was not turned away, but His hand was stretched out still.
26 And He will lift up a sign to the nations from afar, and will whistle to them from the end of the Earth. And behold, they shall come quickly with speed.
27 No one shall faint or fall among them. No one shall slumber or sleep. Nor shall the belt of his loins be loosened, nor the strap of his shoes be broken.
28 Whose arrows shall be sharp, and all his bows bent. His horse’s hooves shall be thought of as flint, and his wheels like a whirlwind.
29 His roaring shall be like a lion, and he shall roar like lion’s whelps. They shall roar, and lay hold of the prey. They shall take it away, and no one shall deliver it.
30 And on that day, they shall roar upon them, as the roaring of the sea, and if they look to the Earth, behold darkness and sorrow. And the light shall be darkened in their sky.
44 “Our fathers had the tabernacle of witness in the wilderness, as He had appointed; speaking to Moses so that he would make it according to the pattern which he had seen,
45 “which our fathers also received and (with Joshua) brought into the land possessed by the Gentiles, whom God drove out before our fathers until the days of David,
46 “who found favor before God, and desired that he might find a tabernacle for the God of Jacob.
47 “But Solomon built him a house.
48 “However, the Most High does not dwell in temples made with hands. As says the Prophet,
49 ‘Heaven is My throne. And Earth is My footstool. What house will you build for Me?’, says the Lord. ‘Or, what place is it that I should rest in?
50 ‘Has not My hand made all these things?’
51 “You stiff-necked! With uncircumcised hearts and ears! You have always resisted the Holy Ghost. As your fathers did, so do you!
52 “Which of the Prophets have your fathers not persecuted? And they have killed those who foretold of the coming of the Just One, Of Whom you are now the betrayers and murderers.
53 “Who have received the law by the ordinance of angels and have not kept it.”
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