Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Psalm 104

¹ Bless (affectionately, gratefully praise) the Lord, O my soul! O Lord my God, You are very great! You are clothed with honor and majesty—

² [You are the One] Who covers Yourself with light as with a garment, Who stretches out the heavens like a curtain or a tent,

³ Who lays the beams of the upper room of His abode in the waters [above the firmament], Who makes the clouds His chariot, Who walks on the wings of the wind,

⁴ Who makes winds His messengers, flames of fire His ministers.^(A)

⁵ You laid the foundations of the earth, that it should not be moved forever.^(B)

⁶ You covered it with the deep as with a garment; the waters stood above the mountains.^(C)

⁷ At Your rebuke they fled; at the voice of Your thunder they hastened away.

⁸ The mountains rose, the valleys sank down to the place which You appointed for them.

⁹ You have set a boundary [for the waters] which they may not pass over, that they turn not again to deluge the earth.

²⁴ O Lord, how many and varied are Your works! In wisdom have You made them all; the earth is full of Your riches and Your creatures.

³⁵ Let sinners be consumed from the earth, and let the wicked be no more. Bless (affectionately, gratefully praise) the Lord, O my soul! Praise the Lord! (Hallelujah!)

36 Elihu proceeded and said,

² Bear with me and wait a little longer, and I will show you, for I have something still to say on God’s behalf.

³ I will bring my knowledge from afar and will ascribe righteousness to my Maker.

⁴ For truly my words shall not be false; He Who is perfect in knowledge is with you.

⁵ Behold! God is mighty, and yet despises no one nor regards anything as trivial; He is mighty in power of understanding and heart.

⁶ He does not prolong the life of the wicked, but gives the needy and afflicted their right.

⁷ He withdraws not His eyes from the righteous (the upright in right standing with God); but He sets them forever with kings upon the throne, and they are exalted.

⁸ And if they are bound in fetters [of adversity] and held by cords of affliction,^(A)

⁹ Then He shows to them [the true character of] their deeds and their transgressions, that they have acted arrogantly [with presumption and self-sufficiency].

¹⁰ He also opens their ears to instruction and discipline, and commands that they return from iniquity.

¹¹ If they obey and serve Him, they shall spend their days in prosperity and their years in pleasantness and joy.

¹² But if they obey not, they shall perish by the sword [of God’s destructive judgments], and they shall die in ignorance of true knowledge.

¹³ But the godless and profane in heart heap up anger [at the divine discipline]; they do not cry to Him when He binds them [with cords of affliction].^(B)

¹⁴ They die in youth, and their life perishes among the unclean (those who are sodomites).

¹⁵ He delivers the afflicted in their affliction and opens their ears [to His voice] in adversity.

¹⁶ Indeed, God would have allured you out of the mouth of distress into a broad place where there is no situation of perplexity or privation; and that which would be set on your table would be full of fatness.

⁷ Welcome and receive [to your hearts] one another, then, even as Christ has welcomed and received you, for the glory of God.

⁸ For I tell you that Christ (the Messiah) became a servant and a minister to the circumcised (the Jews) in order to show God’s truthfulness and honesty by confirming (verifying) the promises [given] to our fathers,

⁹ And [also in order] that the Gentiles (nations) might glorify God for His mercy [not covenanted] to them. As it is written, Therefore I will praise You among the Gentiles and sing praises to Your name.^(A)

¹⁰ Again it is said, Rejoice (exult), O Gentiles, along with His [own] people;^(B)

¹¹ And again, Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles, and let all the peoples praise Him!^(C)

¹² And further Isaiah says, There shall be a ^[a]Sprout from the Root of Jesse, He Who rises to rule over the Gentiles; in Him shall the Gentiles hope.^(D)

¹³ May the God of your hope so fill you with all joy and peace in believing [through the experience of your faith] that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound and be overflowing (bubbling over) with hope.