Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
Psalm 52[a]
Prayer for Help against Calumniators
1 For the director.[b] A maskil of David. 2 When Doeg the Edomite went and told Saul, “David has gone to the house of Ahimelech.”
3 Why do you boast of your evil deeds,
you champion of malice?[c]
All day long 4 you plot harm;
your tongue is like a sharpened razor,
you master of deceit.
5 [d]You love evil rather than good,
and lies rather than truthful speech. Selah
6 You wallow in destructive talk,
you tongue of deceit.
7 [e]This is the reason why God will crush you
and destroy you once and for all.
He will snatch you from your tent[f]
and uproot you from the land of the living. Selah
8 The righteous will see and be afraid;
they will mock him:
9 “This is the man
who refused to accept God as his refuge.
Rather, he placed his trust in his abundant riches
and gathered strength by his crimes.”
10 [g]But I am like a green olive tree[h]
in the house of God.
I place my trust forever and ever
in the kindness of God.
11 I will praise you forever
for what you have done,[i]
and in the presence of the saints
I will proclaim the goodness of your name.
18 Woe to those who long for the day of the Lord.
What will this day of the Lord mean to you?
It will mean darkness, not light,
19 as if someone fled from a lion
and was met by a bear,
or entered his house
and rested his hand against the wall
and was bitten by a snake.
20 Will not the day of the Lord
be darkness, not light,
day of gloom without any brightness?
I Despise Your Feasts
21 I loathe, I despise your festivals,
and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies.
22 Even though you bring me
your burnt offerings and your grain offerings,
I will not accept them.
Nor will I look favorably
upon your stall-fed peace offerings.
23 Spare me the noise of your chanting;
I will not listen to the melodies of your harps.
24 Rather, let justice flow like a river,
and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.
25 Did you bring me sacrifices and offerings
during those forty years in the desert,
O house of Israel?
26 You have lifted up Sakuth, your king,
and Kaiwan, your star god,
the images that you have made for yourselves.
27 Therefore, I will drive you into exile beyond Damascus,
says the Lord, whose name is the God of hosts.
14 Prayer for a Deeper Faith. This is the reason why I kneel in prayer before the Father, 15 from whom every family[a] in heaven and on earth takes its name. 16 I ask that from the riches of his glory he may grant through his Spirit that you be strengthened with power in your inner being 17 and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.
And I pray that, rooted and grounded in love, 18 you may have the power to comprehend with all the saints its breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and know Christ’s love even though it is beyond knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
20 To him who in all things is able
through the power
that is at work within us
to accomplish abundantly far more
than all we can ask or imagine,
21 to him be glory in the Church
and in Christ Jesus
through all generations,
forever and ever. Amen.
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