Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

81 Sing joyfully to God our strength! Sing loud to the God of Jacob!

¹⁰ “(for I am the LORD your God, Who brought you out of the land of Egypt). Open your mouth wide and I will fill it!

¹¹ “But My people would not hear My voice, and Israel would have none of Me.

¹² “So, I gave them up to the hardness of their heart, and they have walked in their own counsels.

¹³ “Oh that My people had listened to me, and Israel had walked in My ways!

¹⁴ “I would soon have humbled their enemies and turned My hand against their adversaries.

¹⁵ “The haters of the LORD will feign subjection to Him, but their time would endure forever.

¹⁶ “And I would have fed them with the fat of wheat, and with honey out of the rock would I have sufficed you.” A Psalm committed to Asaph

12 O LORD, if I dispute with You, You are righteous. Yet, let me talk with You of judgments. Why does the way of the wicked prosper? Why are all those wealthy who rebelliously transgress?

² You have planted them, and they have taken root. They grow and bring forth fruit. You are near in their mouth, and far from their core.

³ But You, LORD, know me. You have seen me and tried my heart toward You. Pull them out, like sheep for the slaughter, and prepare them for the day of slaughter.

⁴ How long shall the land mourn, and the herbs of every field wither, for the wickedness of those who dwell in them? The beasts are consumed, and the birds, because they said, “He will not see our last end.”

⁵ “If you have run with the footmen, and they have wearied you, then how can you match yourself with horses? And if you thought yourself safe in a peaceable land, what will you do in the swelling of Jordan?

⁶ “For even your brethren and the House of your father, even they have dealt unfaithfully with you. And they have cried out altogether upon you. Do not believe them, though they speak good things to you.

⁷ “I have forsaken My House. I have left My heritage. I have given the dearly beloved of My Soul into the hands of her enemies.

⁸ “My heritage is to Me as a lion in the forest. It cries out against Me. Therefore, I have hated it.

⁹ “Shall My heritage be to Me as a bird of diverse colors? Are not the birds around her saying, ‘Come, assemble all the beasts of the field. Come to eat her’?

¹⁰ “Many shepherds have destroyed My vineyard and trampled My portion under foot. They have made a desolate wilderness of My pleasant portion.

¹¹ “They have laid it waste. And it, being waste, mourns to Me. The whole land lies waste because no man sets his mind on it.

¹² “The destroyers have come upon all the high places in the wilderness. For the sword of the LORD shall devour. From one end of the land to the other end of the land, no flesh shall have peace.

¹³ “They have sown wheat and reaped thorns. They were sick and had no profit. And they were ashamed of your fruits because of the fierce wrath of the LORD.”

⁷ Now, the end of all things is at hand. Therefore, be of sound mind, and watching in prayer.

⁸ But above all things, have fervent love among you. For love shall cover a multitude of sins.

⁹ Be hospitable one to another, without grumbling.

¹⁰ The same gifts which everyone has received, let us minister to each other as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.

¹¹ If anyone speaks, let him speak as the words of God. If anyone ministers, let him do so as with the strength which God supplies, so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ; to Whom is praise and dominion, forever and ever. Amen.