Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

87 A canticle of a psalm for the sons of Core: unto the end, for Maheleth, to answer understanding of Eman the Ezrahite.

² O Lord, the God of my salvation: I have cried in the day, and in the night before thee.

³ Let my prayer come in before thee: incline thy ear to my petition.

⁴ For my soul is filled with evils: and my life hath drawn nigh to hell.

⁵ I am counted among them that go down to the pit: I am become as a man without help,

⁶ Free among the dead. Like the slain sleeping in the sepulchres, whom thou rememberest no more: and they are cast off from thy hand.

⁷ They have laid me in the lower pit: in the dark places, and in the shadow of death.

⁸ Thy wrath is strong over me: and all thy waves thou hast brought in upon me.

⁹ Thou hast put away my acquaintance far from me: they have set me an abomination to themselves. I was delivered up, and came not forth:

¹⁰ My eyes languished through poverty. All the day I cried to thee, O Lord: I stretched out my hands to thee.

¹¹ Wilt thou shew wonders to the dead? or shall physicians raise to life, and give praise to thee?

¹² Shall any one in the sepulchre declare thy mercy: and thy truth in destruction?

¹³ Shall thy wonders be known in the dark; and thy justice in the land of forgetfulness?

¹⁴ But I, O Lord, have cried to thee: and in the morning my prayer shall prevent thee.

¹⁵ Lord, why castest thou off my prayer: why turnest thou away thy face from me?

¹⁶ I am poor, and in labours from my youth: and being exalted have been humbled and troubled.

¹⁷ Thy wrath hath come upon me: and thy terrors have troubled me.

¹⁸ They have come round about me like water all the day: they have compassed me about together.

¹⁹ Friend and neighbour thou hast put far from me: and my acquaintance, because of misery.

⁹ Proclaim ye this among the nations: prepare war, rouse up the strong: let them come, let all the men of war come up.

¹⁰ Cut your ploughshares into swords, and your spades into spears. Let the weak say: I am strong.

¹¹ Break forth, and come, all ye nations, from round about, and gather yourselves together: there will the Lord cause all thy strong ones to fall down.

¹² Let them arise, and let the nations come up into the valley of Josaphat: for there I will sit to judge all nations round about.

¹³ Put ye in the sickles, for the harvest is ripe: come and go down, for the press is full, the fats run over: for their wickedness is multiplied.

¹⁴ Nations, nations in the valley of destruction: for the day of the Lord is near in the valley of destruction.

¹⁵ The sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars have withdrawn their shining.

¹⁶ And the Lord shall roar out of Sion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem: and the heavens and the earth shall be moved, and the Lord shall be the hope of his people, and the strength of the children of Israel.

5 The ancients therefore that are among you, I beseech, who am myself also an ancient, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ: as also a partaker of that glory which is to be revealed in time to come:

² Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking care of it, not by constraint, but willingly, according to God: not for filthy lucre's sake, but voluntarily:

³ Neither as lording it over the clergy, but being made a pattern of the flock from the heart.

⁴ And when the prince of pastors shall appear, you shall receive a never fading crown of glory.

⁵ In like manner, ye young men, be subject to the ancients. And do you all insinuate humility one to another, for God resisteth the proud, but to the humble he giveth grace.

⁶ Be you humbled therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in the time of visitation:

⁷ Casting all your care upon him, for he hath care of you.

⁸ Be sober and watch: because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, goeth about seeking whom he may devour.

⁹ Whom resist ye, strong in faith: knowing that the same affliction befalls your brethren who are in the world.

¹⁰ But the God of all grace, who hath called us into his eternal glory in Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a little, will himself perfect you, and confirm you, and establish you.

¹¹ To him be glory and empire for ever and ever. Amen.