Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Psalm 22^[a]

To the Chief Musician; set to [the tune of] Aijeleth Hashshahar [the hind of the morning dawn]. A Psalm of David.

¹ My God, my God, why have You forsaken me? Why are You so far from helping me, and from the words of my groaning?^(A)

² O my God, I cry in the daytime, but You answer not; and by night I am not silent or find no rest.

³ But You are holy, O You Who dwell in [the holy place where] the praises of Israel [are offered].

⁴ Our fathers trusted in You; they trusted (leaned on, relied on You, and were confident) and You delivered them.

⁵ They cried to You and were delivered; they trusted in, leaned on, and confidently relied on You, and were not ashamed or confounded or disappointed.

⁶ But I am a worm, and no man; I am the scorn of men, and despised by the people.^(B)

⁷ All who see me laugh at me and mock me; they shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying,^(C)

⁸ He trusted and rolled himself on the Lord, that He would deliver him. Let Him deliver him, seeing that He delights in him!^(D)

⁹ Yet You are He Who took me out of the womb; You made me hope and trust when I was on my mother’s breasts.

¹⁰ I was cast upon You from my very birth; from my mother’s womb You have been my God.

¹¹ Be not far from me, for trouble is near and there is none to help.

¹² Many [foes like] bulls have surrounded me; strong bulls of Bashan have hedged me in.^(E)

¹³ Against me they opened their mouths wide, like a ravening and roaring lion.

¹⁴ I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint. My heart is like wax; it is softened [with anguish] and melted down within me.

¹⁵ My strength is dried up like a fragment of clay pottery; [with thirst] my tongue cleaves to my jaws; and You have brought me into the dust of death.^(F)

18 Then Bildad the Shuhite answered,

² How long will you lay snares for words and have to hunt for your argument? Do some clear thinking, and then we will reply.

³ Why are we counted as beasts [as if we had no sense]? Why are we unclean in your sight?

⁴ You who tear yourself in your anger, shall the earth be forsaken for you, or the rock be removed out of its place?

⁵ Yes, the light of the wicked shall be put out, and the flame of his fire shall not shine.^(A)

⁶ The light shall be dark in his dwelling, and his lamp beside him shall be put out.^(B)

⁷ The steps of his strength shall be shortened, and his own counsel and the plans in which he trusted shall bring about his downfall.

⁸ For the wicked is cast into a net by his own feet, and he walks upon a lattice-covered pit.

⁹ A trap will catch him by the heel, and a snare will lay hold on him.

¹⁰ A noose is hidden for him on the ground and a trap for him in the way.

¹¹ Terrors shall make him afraid on every side and shall chase him at his heels.

¹² The strength [of the wicked] shall be hunger-bitten, and calamity is ready at his side [if he halts].

¹³ By disease his strength and his skin shall be devoured; the firstborn of death [the worst of diseases] shall consume his limbs.

¹⁴ He shall be rooted out of his dwelling place in which he trusted, and he shall be brought to the king of terrors [death].

¹⁵ There shall dwell in his tent that which is none of his [family]; sulphur shall be scattered over his dwelling [to purify it after his going].

¹⁶ The roots [of the wicked] shall be dried up beneath, and above shall his branch be cut off and wither.

¹⁷ His remembrance shall perish from the earth, and he shall have no name in the street.

¹⁸ He shall be thrust from light into darkness and driven out of the world.

¹⁹ He shall neither have son nor grandson among his people, nor any remaining where he sojourned.

²⁰ They [of the west] that come after [the wicked man] shall be astonished and appalled at his day, as they [of the east] that went before were seized with horror.

²¹ Surely such are the dwellings of the ungodly, and such is the place of him who knows not (recognizes not and honors not) God.

4 Therefore, while the promise of entering His rest still holds and is offered [today], let us be afraid [^[a]to distrust it], lest any of you should ^[b]think he has come too late and has come short of [reaching] it.

² For indeed we have had the glad tidings [Gospel of God] proclaimed to us just as truly as they [the Israelites of old did when the good news of deliverance from bondage came to them]; but the message they heard did not benefit them, because it was not mixed with faith (with ^[c]the leaning of the entire personality on God in absolute trust and confidence in His power, wisdom, and goodness) by those who heard it; ^[d]neither were they united in faith with the ones [Joshua and Caleb] who heard (did believe).

³ For we who have believed (adhered to and trusted in and relied on God) do enter that rest, ^[e]in accordance with His declaration that those [who did not believe] should not enter when He said, As I swore in My wrath, They shall not enter My rest; and this He said although [His] works had been completed and prepared [and waiting for all who would believe] from the foundation of the world.^(A)

⁴ For in a certain place He has said this about the seventh day: And God rested on the seventh day from all His works.^(B)

⁵ And [they forfeited their part in it, for] in this [passage] He said, They shall not enter My rest.^(C)

⁶ Seeing then that the promise remains over [from past times] for some to enter that rest, and that those who formerly were given the good news about it and the opportunity, failed to appropriate it and did not enter because of disobedience,

⁷ Again He sets a definite day, [a new] Today, [and gives another opportunity of securing that rest] saying through David after so long a time in the words already quoted, Today, if you would hear His voice and when you hear it, do not harden your hearts.^(D)

⁸ [This mention of a rest was not a reference to their entering into Canaan.] For if Joshua had given them rest, He [God] would not speak afterward about another day.

⁹ So then, there is still awaiting a full and complete Sabbath-rest reserved for the [true] people of God;

¹⁰ For he who has once entered [God’s] rest also has ceased from [the weariness and pain] of human labors, just as God rested from those labors ^[f]peculiarly His own.^(E)

¹¹ Let us therefore be zealous and exert ourselves and strive diligently to enter that rest [of God, to know and experience it for ourselves], that no one may fall or perish by the same kind of unbelief and disobedience [into which those in the wilderness fell].