Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
Psalm 63
Comfort and Assurance in God’s Presence
A Psalm of David, when he was in the Wilderness of Judah.
1 O God, you are my God; I seek you;
my soul thirsts for you;
my flesh faints for you,
as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.(A)
2 So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary,
beholding your power and glory.(B)
3 Because your steadfast love is better than life,
my lips will praise you.(C)
4 So I will bless you as long as I live;
I will lift up my hands and call on your name.(D)
5 My soul is satisfied as with a rich feast,[a]
and my mouth praises you with joyful lips(E)
6 when I think of you on my bed
and meditate on you in the watches of the night,(F)
7 for you have been my help,
and in the shadow of your wings I sing for joy.(G)
8 My soul clings to you;
your right hand upholds me.(H)
The Song of the Unfruitful Vineyard
5 I will sing for my beloved
my love song concerning his vineyard:
My beloved had a vineyard
on a very fertile hill.(A)
2 He dug it and cleared it of stones
and planted it with choice vines;
he built a watchtower in the midst of it
and hewed out a wine vat in it;
he expected it to yield grapes,
but it yielded rotten grapes.(B)
3 And now, inhabitants of Jerusalem
and people of Judah,
judge between me
and my vineyard.(C)
4 What more was there to do for my vineyard
that I have not done in it?
When I expected it to yield grapes,
why did it yield rotten grapes?(D)
5 And now I will tell you
what I will do to my vineyard.
I will remove its hedge,
and it shall be devoured;
I will break down its wall,
and it shall be trampled down.(E)
6 I will make it a wasteland;
it shall not be pruned or hoed,
and it shall be overgrown with briers and thorns;
I will also command the clouds
that they rain no rain upon it.(F)
7 For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts
is the house of Israel,
and the people of Judah
are his cherished garden;
he expected justice
but saw bloodshed;
righteousness
but heard a cry!(G)
A Tree and Its Fruit
43 “No good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit;(A) 44 for each tree is known by its own fruit. For people do not gather figs from thorns, nor do they pick grapes from a bramble bush.(B) 45 The good person out of the good treasure of the heart produces good, and the evil person out of evil treasure produces evil, for it is out of the abundance of the heart that the mouth speaks.(C)
New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.