Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
Psalm 14
A Portrait of Sinners
For the choir director. Davidic.
1 The fool says in his heart, “God does not exist.”(A)
They are corrupt; they do vile deeds.
There is no one who does good.
2 The Lord looks down from heaven on the human race(B)
to see if there is one who is wise,
one who seeks God.
3 All have turned away;
all alike have become corrupt.
There is no one who does good,
not even one.[a](C)
4 Will evildoers never understand?
They consume My people as they consume bread;(D)
they do not call on the Lord.(E)
Blessing or Curse
4 If you return,[a] Israel—
this is the Lord’s declaration—
you will return to Me,(A)
if you remove your detestable idols(B)
from My presence
and do not waver,
2 then you can swear, “As the Lord lives,”(C)
in truth,(D) in justice, and in righteousness,(E)
then the nations will be blessed[b] by Him(F)
and will pride themselves in Him.(G)
3 For this is what the Lord says to the men of Judah and Jerusalem:
Break up the unplowed ground;(H)
do not sow among the thorns.(I)
4 Circumcise yourselves to the Lord;
remove the foreskin of your hearts,(J)
men of Judah and residents of Jerusalem.
Otherwise, My wrath will break out like fire
and burn with no one to extinguish it(K)
because of your evil deeds.
Judgment from the North
5 Declare in Judah, proclaim in Jerusalem, and say:
Blow the ram’s horn throughout the land.(L)
Cry out loudly and say:
Assemble yourselves,
and let’s flee to the fortified cities.
6 Lift up a signal flag toward Zion.(M)
Run for cover! Don’t stand still!
For I am bringing disaster from the north—
a great destruction.(N)
7 A lion has gone up from his thicket;(O)
a destroyer of nations has set out.
He has left his lair
to make your land a waste.
Your cities will be reduced to uninhabited ruins.(P)
8 Because of this, put on sackcloth;
mourn and wail,(Q)
for the Lord’s burning anger(R)
has not turned away from us.
9 “On that day”—this is the Lord’s declaration—“the king and the officials will lose their courage. The priests will tremble in fear, and the prophets will be scared speechless.”
10 I said, “Oh no, Lord God, You have certainly deceived(S) this people and Jerusalem, by announcing, ‘You will have peace,’(T) while a sword is at[c] our throats.”
The Judgment of False Teachers
2 But there were also false prophets(A) among the people, just as there will be false teachers(B) among you. They will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought(C) them, and will bring swift destruction on themselves. 2 Many will follow their unrestrained ways, and the way of truth will be blasphemed because of them.(D) 3 They will exploit(E) you in their greed(F) with deceptive words. Their condemnation,(G) pronounced long ago, is not idle, and their destruction does not sleep.
4 For if God didn’t spare(H) the angels who sinned but threw them down into Tartarus[a](I) and delivered them to be kept in chains[b] of darkness until judgment;(J) 5 and if He didn’t spare the ancient world, but protected Noah,(K) a preacher of righteousness, and seven others,[c](L) when He brought a flood on the world of the ungodly; 6 and if He reduced the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah(M) to ashes and condemned them to ruin,[d] making them an example to those who were going to be ungodly;[e](N) 7 and if He rescued righteous Lot,(O) distressed by the unrestrained behavior of the immoral 8 (for as he lived among them, that righteous man tormented himself day by day with the lawless deeds he saw and heard(P))— 9 then the Lord knows how to rescue(Q) the godly from trials and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment,(R) 10 especially those who follow the polluting desires of the flesh and despise authority.(S)
Bold, arrogant people! They do not tremble when they blaspheme the glorious ones;
Copyright © 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2009 by Holman Bible Publishers, Nashville Tennessee. All rights reserved.