Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
Book One
Book One (Psalms 1–41) is attributed almost entirely to David; all but four of the psalms (1–2; 10; 33) are ascribed to him. In Hebrew Psalm 10 is a continuation of Psalm 9 because it was composed as an acrostic poem. Likewise, many Hebrew manuscripts combine Psalm 33 with 32. Only later are these divided into separate psalms. Psalm 1 sets the stage for the entire collection by explaining that the study of the Word of God is the foundation of a meaningful, prosperous life.
Psalm 1
1 God’s blessings follow you and await you at every turn:
when you don’t follow the advice of those who delight in wicked schemes,
When you avoid sin’s highway,
when judgment and sarcasm beckon you, but you refuse.
2 For you, the Eternal’s Word is your happiness.
It is your focus—from dusk to dawn.
3 You are like a tree,
planted by flowing, cool streams of water that never run dry.
Your fruit ripens in its time;
your leaves never fade or curl in the summer sun.
No matter what you do, you prosper.
4 For those who focus on sin, the story is different.
They are like the fallen husk of wheat, tossed by an open wind, left deserted and alone.
5 In the end, the wicked will fall in judgment;
the guilty will be separated from the innocent.
6 Their road suddenly will end in death,
yet the journey of the righteous has been charted by the Eternal.
1 These are the words of the teacher,[a] the son of David, king in Jerusalem.
2 Teacher: Life is fleeting, like a passing mist.
It is like trying to catch hold of a breath;
All vanishes like a vapor; everything is a great vanity.
3 What good does it do anyone to work so hard again and again,
sun up to sundown? All his labor to gain but a little?
4 One generation comes, another goes;
but the earth continues to remain.
5 The sun rises and the sun sets,
laboring to come up quickly to its place again and again.
6 The wind in its travels blows toward the south,
then swings back around to the north.
Back and forth,
returning in its circuit again and again.
7 All rivers flow to the sea,
but the sea is never full.
To the place where the rivers flow,
there the water returns to flow once again.
8 Words, words, words! So many words! They are wearisome things;
and yet people cannot refrain from speaking.
No eye has ever surveyed the world and said, “I have seen enough”;
no ear has ever listened to creation and said, “I have heard enough.”
9 What has been, that will be;
what has been done, that will be done.
Nothing is new under the sun;
the future only repeats the past.
10 One person may say of some idea,
“Pay attention to this; it’s original!”
But that same idea has already been expressed;
it’s been with us through the ages.
11 We do not remember those people and events of long ago,
as future generations will not remember what is yet to come.
12 I, the teacher, was king over Israel in Jerusalem. 13 I decided to seek out and study the wisdom of the ages, of all that had been done under the heavens. I soon discovered the harsh realities of the work God has given us that keeps us so busy. 14 I have witnessed all that is done under the sun, and indeed, all is fleeting, like trying to embrace the wind. 15 There is an old saying:
Something crooked cannot be made straight,
and something missing cannot be counted.
16 I mused over it all and thought to myself, “I have done great things, and I have gained more wisdom than anyone who reigned over Jerusalem before me. I have contemplated great wisdom and knowledge.” 17 I decided to study wisdom and instead acquainted myself with madness and folly. It, too, seemed like trying to pursue the wind, 18 for as my wisdom increased, so did my vexation. As my knowledge grew, so did my pain.
29 Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You build monuments to your dead, you mouth pieties over the bodies of prophets, you decorate the graves of your righteous ancestors. 30 And you say, “If we had lived when our forefathers lived, we would have known better—we would not have joined them when they rose up against the prophets.” 31 Even when you are preening, you make plain that you descended from those who murdered our prophets. 32 So why don’t you finish what your forefathers started? 33 You are children of vipers, you belly-dragging snakes. You won’t escape the judgment of hell.
34 That is why I am sending you prophets and wise men, teachers of breadth and depth and substance. You will kill some of them and crucify others. You will flog others in your synagogues. You will pursue them from town to town. 35 And on your heads, stained through your hands and drenching your clothes, my friends, will be all the righteous blood ever shed on this earth, from the blood of innocent Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Berechiah whom you murdered in the house of the Lord between the sanctuary and the altar. 36 I tell you: this generation will bear the blood of all that has gone before.
37 O Jerusalem, Jerusalem. You kill the prophets whom God gives you; you stone those God sends you. I have longed to gather your children the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you refuse to be gathered. 38 Surely you can see that God has already removed His blessing from the house of Israel. 39 I tell you this: you will not see Me again until you say, with the psalmist, “Anyone who comes in the name of the Eternal One will be blessed.”[a]
The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.