Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
Psalm 44[a]
Past Glory and Present Need of God’s People
1 For the director.[b] A maskil of the sons of Korah.
2 [c]O God, we have heard with our ears,
our ancestors have told us,
of the deeds you performed in their days,
in the days of old.
3 To establish them in the land,
you drove out the nations with your own hand;
you crushed the peoples
so that our ancestors could flourish.
4 It was not their own swords that won them the land,
nor did their own arms make them victorious;
rather, it was your right hand and your arm
and the light of your face,[d]
because you loved them.
5 You are my[e] King and my God,
who bestowed victories upon Jacob.
6 Through you we throw back our enemies;
through your name[f] we crush our assailants.
7 It is not in my bow that I trust,
nor can my sword ensure my victory.
8 It is you who saved us from our enemies;
you scattered in confusion those who hate us.
9 In God we boast the whole day long,
and we will praise your name forever. Selah
10 [g]But now you have rejected and humiliated us,
and you no longer accompany our armies.[h]
11 You have forced us to retreat[i] before the enemy;
those who hate us plunder us unceasingly.
12 You have handed us over like sheep to be slaughtered
and scattered us among the nations.
13 You have sold your people for nothing,
receiving no gain from their sale.
14 You have subjected us to the contempt of our neighbors,
to the mockery and scorn of all who are near.
15 You have made us a byword to the nations;
the peoples shake their heads[j] at us.
16 All day long I am confronted by my disgrace,
and my face is covered with shame
17 as I hear the shouts of taunting and abuse
and see the hateful enemy seeking revenge.
18 All this has happened to us
even though we have not forgotten you
or been false to your covenant.[k]
19 Our hearts[l] have not turned back,
nor have our feet wandered from your path.
20 Yet you have crushed us,
forced us to live among the jackals,[m]
and covered us with darkness.
21 If we had forgotten the name[n] of our God
or lifted up our hands to a foreign god,
22 would not God have discovered it,
he who knows the secrets of the heart?
23 For your sake we are put to death all day long;
we are treated like sheep destined to be slaughtered.[o]
24 Awake, O Lord. Why[p] do you sleep?
Rise up, and do not abandon us forever.
25 Why do you hide your face[q]
and continue to ignore our misery and our sufferings?
26 We have been brought down to the dust;
our bodies cling to the ground.[r]
27 Rise up and come to our aid;
redeem us for the sake of your kindness.[s]
Chapter 6
Steadfast Love Rather than Sacrifice Is What Pleases Me
1 [a]“Come, let us return to the Lord;
he has wounded us, but he will heal us;
he has struck us down, but he will bind up our wounds.
2 After two days he will revive us;
on the third day[b] he will raise us up
to live in his presence.
3 Let us know the Lord;
let us strive to know him.
His coming is as sure as the dawn;
he will come to us like a shower,
like the spring rains that water the earth.”
4 What can I do with you, Ephraim?
What can I do with you, Judah?
Your love is like a morning mist,
like the dew that quickly evaporates.
5 That is the reason why I cut them to pieces
by means of the prophets.
I have slaughtered them by the word of my mouth,
and my judgment goes forth like the dawn.
6 For steadfast love rather than sacrifice is what pleases me,
and knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.
Their Wicked Deeds Are Constantly before My Eyes
7 But in their land[c] they broke the covenant;
it was there that they were unfaithful to me.
8 Gilead[d] is a city of evildoers,
stained with bloody footprints.
9 Like robbers waiting in ambush,
priests are banded together.
They commit murder on the road to Shechem,
perpetrating monstrous crimes.
10 I have witnessed a horrible thing
in the house of Israel.
There Ephraim engages in prostitution
and Israel is defiled.
30 A Misguided Zeal. What then shall we say? That the Gentiles who did not strive for righteousness have achieved it, that is, righteousness based on faith, 31 but that Israel, who did strive for righteousness based on the Law, did not succeed in attaining it? 32 Why did this happen? Because they did not pursue it by faith but on the basis of works. They tripped over the stone that causes one to stumble, 33 as it is written:
“Behold, I am laying in Zion
a stone that will make people stumble
and a rock that will cause them to fall.
But the one who trusts in him
will never be put to shame.”[a]
Chapter 10
1 Brethren, my heart’s desire and my prayer to God for them is that they may be saved. 2 I can testify to the zeal that they have for God, but it is not based on knowledge. 3 For, being ignorant of the righteousness that comes from God, and thereby seeking to establish their own, they have not submitted themselves to God’s righteousness. 4 For Christ is the fulfillment of the Law for the justification of all who believe.
Copyright © 2019 by Catholic Book Publishing Corp. All rights reserved.