Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Psalm 26

[A Psalm] of David.

¹ Vindicate me, O Lord, for I have walked in my integrity; I have [expectantly] trusted in, leaned on, and relied on the Lord without wavering and I shall not slide.

² Examine me, O Lord, and prove me; test my heart and my mind.

³ For Your loving-kindness is before my eyes, and I have walked in Your truth [faithfully].

⁴ I do not sit with false persons, nor fellowship with pretenders;

⁵ I hate the company of evildoers and will not sit with the wicked.

⁶ I will wash my hands in innocence, and go about Your altar, O Lord,

⁷ That I may make the voice of thanksgiving heard and may tell of all Your wondrous works.

⁸ Lord, I love the habitation of Your house, and the place where Your glory dwells.

⁹ Gather me not with sinners and sweep me not away [with them], nor my life with bloodthirsty men,

¹⁰ In whose hands is wickedness, and their right hands are full of bribes.

¹¹ But as for me, I will walk in my integrity; redeem me and be merciful and gracious to me.

¹² My foot stands on an even place; in the congregations will I bless the Lord.

7 Is there not an [appointed] warfare and hard labor to man upon earth? And are not his days like the days of a hireling?

² As a servant earnestly longs for the shade and the evening shadows, and as a hireling who looks for the reward of his work,

³ So am I allotted months of futile [suffering], and [long] nights of misery are appointed to me.

⁴ When I lie down I say, When shall I arise and the night be gone? And I am full of tossing to and fro till the dawning of the day.

⁵ My flesh is clothed with worms and clods of dust; my skin is broken and has become loathsome, and it closes up and breaks out afresh.

⁶ My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle, and are spent without hope.

⁷ Oh, remember that my life is but wind (a puff, a breath, a sob); my eye shall see good no more.

⁸ The eye of him who sees me shall see me no more; while your eyes are upon me, I shall be gone.

⁹ As the cloud is consumed and vanishes away, so he who goes down to Sheol (the place of the dead) shall come up no more.

¹⁰ He shall return no more to his house, neither shall his place know him any more.

¹¹ Therefore I will not restrain my mouth; I will speak in the anguish of my spirit, I will complain in the bitterness of my soul [O Lord]!

¹² Am I the sea, or the sea monster, that You set a watch over me?

¹³ When I say, My bed shall comfort me, my couch shall ease my complaint,

¹⁴ Then You scare me with dreams and terrify me through visions,

¹⁵ So that I would choose strangling and death rather than these my bones.

¹⁶ I loathe my life; I would not live forever. Let me alone, for my days are a breath (futility).

¹⁷ What is man that You should magnify him and think him important? And that You should set Your mind upon him?^(A)

¹⁸ And that You should visit him every morning and try him every moment?

¹⁹ How long will Your [plaguing] glance not look away from me, nor You let me alone till I swallow my spittle?

²⁰ If I have sinned, what [harm] have I done You, O You Watcher and Keeper of men? Why have You set me as a mark for You, so that I am a burden to myself [and You]?

²¹ And why do You not pardon my transgression and take away my iniquity? For now shall I lie down in the dust; and [even if] You will seek me diligently, [it will be too late, for] I shall not be.

¹⁴ Now the Pharisees, who were covetous and lovers of money, heard all these things [taken together], and they began to sneer at and ridicule and scoff at Him.

¹⁵ But He said to them, You are the ones who declare yourselves just and upright before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is exalted and highly thought of among men is detestable and abhorrent (an abomination) in the sight of God.^(A)

¹⁶ Until John came, there were the Law and the Prophets; since then the good news (the Gospel) of the kingdom of God is being preached, and everyone strives violently to go in [would force his ^[a]own way rather than God’s way into it].

¹⁷ Yet it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one dot of the Law to fail and become void.

¹⁸ Whoever divorces (dismisses and repudiates) his wife and marries another commits adultery, and he who marries a woman who is divorced from her husband commits adultery.