Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Psalm 75

To the Chief Musician; [set to the tune of] “Do Not Destroy.” A Psalm of Asaph. A song.

¹ We give praise and thanks to You, O God, we praise and give thanks; Your wondrous works declare that Your ^[a]Name is near and they who invoke Your Name rehearse Your wonders.

² When the proper time has come [for executing My judgments], I will judge uprightly [says the Lord].

³ When the earth totters, and all the inhabitants of it, it is I Who will poise and keep steady its pillars. Selah [pause, and calmly think of that]!

⁴ I said to the arrogant and boastful, Deal not arrogantly [do not boast]; and to the wicked, Lift not up the horn [of personal aggrandizement].

⁵ Lift not up your [aggressive] horn on high, speak not with a stiff neck and insolent arrogance.

⁶ For not from the east nor from the west nor from the south come promotion and lifting up.^(A)

⁷ But God is the Judge! He puts down one and lifts up another.

⁸ For in the hand of the Lord there is a cup [of His wrath], and the wine foams and is red, well mixed; and He pours out from it, and all the wicked of the earth must drain it and drink its dregs.^(B)

⁹ But I will declare and rejoice forever; I will sing praises to the God of Jacob.

¹⁰ All the horns of the ungodly also will I cut off [says the Lord], but the horns of the [uncompromisingly] righteous shall be exalted.

41 Can you draw out the leviathan (the crocodile) with a fishhook? Or press down his tongue with a cord?

² Can you put a rope into his nose? Or pierce his jaw through with a hook or a spike?

³ Will he make many supplications to you [begging to be spared]? Will he speak soft words to you [to coax you to treat him kindly]?

⁴ Will he make a covenant with you to take him for your servant forever?

⁵ Will you play with [the crocodile] as with a bird? Or will you put him on a leash for your maidens?

⁶ Will traders bargain over him? Will they divide him up among the merchants?

⁷ Can you fill his skin with harpoons? Or his head with fishing spears?

⁸ Lay your hand upon him! Remember your battle with him; you will not do [such an ill-advised thing] again!

⁹ Behold, the hope of [his assailant] is disappointed; one is cast down even at the sight of him!

¹⁰ No one is so fierce [and foolhardy] that he dares to stir up [the crocodile]; who then is he who can stand before Me [the beast’s Creator, or dares to contend with Me]?

¹¹ Who has first given to Me, that I should repay him? Whatever is under the whole heavens is Mine. [Therefore, who can have a claim against God, God Who made the unmastered crocodile?]^(A)

¹³ For when God made [His] promise to Abraham, He swore by Himself, since He had no one greater by whom to swear,

¹⁴ Saying, Blessing I certainly will bless you and multiplying I will multiply you.^(A)

¹⁵ And so it was that he [Abraham], having waited long and endured patiently, realized and obtained [in the birth of Isaac as a pledge of what was to come] what God had promised him.

¹⁶ Men indeed swear by a greater [than themselves], and with them in all disputes the oath taken for confirmation is final [ending strife].

¹⁷ Accordingly God also, in His desire to show more convincingly and beyond doubt to those who were to inherit the promise the unchangeableness of His purpose and plan, intervened (mediated) with an oath.

¹⁸ This was so that, by two unchangeable things [His promise and His oath] in which it is impossible for God ever to prove false or deceive us, we who have fled [to Him] for refuge might have mighty indwelling strength and strong encouragement to grasp and hold fast the hope appointed for us and set before [us].

¹⁹ [Now] we have this [hope] as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul [it cannot slip and it cannot ^[a]break down under whoever steps out upon it—a hope] that reaches ^[b]farther and enters into [the very certainty of the Presence] within the veil,^(B)

²⁰ Where Jesus has entered in for us [in advance], a Forerunner having become a High Priest forever after the order (with ^[c]the rank) of Melchizedek.^(C)