Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

A Psalm of David.

¹ ¶ Unto thee will I cry, O LORD my rock; be not silent unto me lest, if thou be silent unto me, I become like those that go down into the grave.

² Hear the voice of my supplications when I cry unto thee, when I lift up my hands toward the oracle of thy holiness.

³ Do not catch me away with the wicked, and with the workers of iniquity, who speak peace to their neighbours, but evil is in their hearts.

⁴ Give them according to their deeds and according to the wickedness of their endeavours: give them after the work of their hands; render unto them their desert.

⁵ Because they do not regard the works of the LORD nor the operation of his hands, he shall destroy them and not build them up.

⁶ ¶ Blessed be the LORD because he has heard the voice of my supplications.

⁷ The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusted in him, and I am helped; therefore my heart greatly rejoices; and with my song I will praise him.

⁸ The LORD is the strength of his people, and he is the saving strength of his anointed.

⁹ Save thy people and bless thine inheritance; feed them also and lift them up for ever.

⁹ ¶ Therefore judgment has withdrawn from us, and righteousness has never overtaken us: we wait for light, but behold obscurity; for brightness, but we walk in darkness.

¹⁰ We grope for the wall like the blind, and as if we had no eyes we walk by touch; we stumble at noonday as in the night; we are in graves as dead men.

¹¹ We all roar like bears and mourn sore like doves: we look for judgment, but there is none; for saving health, but it has withdrawn from us.

¹² For our rebellions are multiplied before thee, and our sins have testified against us; for our iniquities are with us; and we know our sins:

¹³ To rebel and to lie against the LORD, and to depart away from our God; the speaking of libel and rebellion, to conceive, and to speak from the heart words of falsehood,

¹⁴ and that which is right has departed, and righteousness withdrew afar off: for truth is fallen in the street, and equity could not enter.

¹⁵ And the truth was taken captive; and he that departed from evil was imprisoned: and the LORD saw it, and it was displeasing in his eyes because that which is right was lost.

¹⁶ ¶ And he saw that there was no man and wondered that there was no intercessor; therefore his arm brought salvation unto him, and his righteousness, it sustained him.

¹⁷ For he put on righteousness as a coat of mail, and a helmet of saving health upon his head; and he put on the garments of vengeance for clothing and was clad with zeal as a cloak,

¹⁸ so as to give payment, so as to repay the vengeance of his enemies, and repay his adversaries; to the islands he will give recompense.

¹⁹ So shall they fear the name of the LORD from the west, and his glory from the rising of the sun; for he shall come like a violent river impelled by the breath {Spirit} of the LORD.

2 ¶ Having therefore left all malice and all guile and hypocrisies and envies and all murmurings,

² as newborn babes, desire the rational milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby in health;

³ if so be ye have tasted that the Lord is benevolent;

⁴ ¶ coming unto whom (is the living Stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God, and precious),

⁵ ye also, as living stones, are built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, well pleasing to God by Jesus, the Christ.

⁶ Therefore, also it is contained in the scripture, Behold, I lay in Sion the chief corner stone, chosen, precious; and he that believes on him shall not be confounded.

⁷ Unto you, therefore, who believe he is precious; but unto those who are disobedient, the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner,

⁸ and a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense, even to those who stumble at the word, not obeying in that for which they were ordained.

⁹ But ye are the chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, an acquired people, that ye should show forth the virtues of him who has called you out of darkness into his marvellous light.

¹⁰ Ye who in the time past were not a people, but are now the people of God, who in the time past had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.