Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

A Psalm of Asaph.

73 Truly God is good to Israel, to such as are of a pure heart.

² But as for me, my feet were almost gone, my steps had well nigh slipped;

³ For I was envious at the arrogant, seeing the prosperity of the wicked.

⁴ For they have no pangs in their death, and their body is well nourished;

⁵ They have not the hardships of mankind, neither are they plagued like [other] men:

⁶ Therefore pride encompasseth them as a neck-chain, violence covereth them [as] a garment;

⁷ Their eyes stand out from fatness, they exceed the imaginations of their heart:

⁸ They mock and speak wickedly of oppression, they speak loftily:

⁹ They set their mouth in the heavens, and their tongue walketh through the earth.

¹⁰ Therefore his people turn hither, and waters in fulness are wrung out to them.

¹¹ And they say, How can God know, and is there knowledge in the Most High?

¹² Behold, these are the wicked, and they prosper in the world: they heap up riches.

¹³ Truly have I purified my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocency:

¹⁴ For all the day have I been plagued, and chastened every morning.

¹⁵ If I said, I will speak thus, behold, I should be faithless to the generation of thy children.

¹⁶ When I thought to be able to know this, it was a grievous task in mine eyes;

¹⁷ Until I went into the sanctuaries of God; [then] understood I their end.

¹⁸ Truly thou settest them in slippery places, thou castest them down in ruins.

¹⁹ How are they suddenly made desolate! they pass away, consumed with terrors.

²⁰ As a dream, when one awaketh, wilt thou, Lord, on arising despise their image.

³² And now, sons, hearken unto me, and blessed are they that keep my ways:

³³ hear instruction and be wise, and refuse it not.

³⁴ Blessed is the man that heareth me, watching daily at my gates, waiting at the posts of my doors.

³⁵ For whoso findeth me findeth life, and obtaineth favour of Jehovah;

³⁶ but he that sinneth against me doeth violence to his own soul: all they that hate me love death.

9 Wisdom hath built her house, she hath hewn out her seven pillars;

² she hath slaughtered her cattle, she hath mingled her wine, she hath also prepared her table;

³ she hath sent forth her maidens: she crieth upon the summits of the high places of the city,

⁴ Whoso is simple, let him turn in hither. To him that is void of understanding, she saith,

⁵ Come, eat ye of my bread, and drink of the wine that I have mingled.

⁶ Forsake follies and live, and go in the way of intelligence.

²⁹ By faith they passed through the Red sea as through dry land; of which the Egyptians having made trial were swallowed up.

³⁰ By faith the walls of Jericho fell, having been encircled for seven days.

³¹ By faith Rahab the harlot did not perish along with the unbelieving, having received the spies in peace.

³² And what more do I say? For the time would fail me telling of Gideon, and Barak, and Samson, and Jephthah, and David and Samuel, and of the prophets:

³³ who by faith overcame kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped lions' mouths,

³⁴ quenched [the] power of fire, escaped [the] edge of the sword, became strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, made [the] armies of strangers give way.

³⁵ Women received their dead again by resurrection; and others were tortured, not having accepted deliverance, that they might get a better resurrection;

³⁶ and others underwent trial of mockings and scourgings, yea, and of bonds and imprisonment.

³⁷ They were stoned, were sawn asunder, were tempted, died by the death of the sword; they went about in sheepskins, in goatskins, destitute, afflicted, evil treated,

³⁸ (of whom the world was not worthy,) wandering in deserts and mountains, and [in] dens and caverns of the earth.

³⁹ And these all, having obtained witness through faith, did not receive the promise,

⁴⁰ God having foreseen some better thing for us, that they should not be made perfect without us.

12 Let *us* also therefore, having so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, laying aside every weight, and sin which so easily entangles us, run with endurance the race that lies before us,

² looking stedfastly on Jesus the leader and completer of faith: who, in view of the joy lying before him, endured [the] cross, having despised [the] shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.