Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
Fifth Book—Psalms 107–150
Psalm 107[a]
God the Savior of Those in Distress
1 “Give thanks to the Lord for he is good,
his mercy endures forever!”(A)
2 Let that be the prayer of the Lord’s redeemed,
those redeemed from the hand of the foe,(B)
3 Those gathered from foreign lands,
from east and west, from north and south.(C)
I
4 Some had lost their way in a barren desert;
found no path toward a city to live in.
5 They were hungry and thirsty;
their life was ebbing away.(D)
6 In their distress they cried to the Lord,
who rescued them in their peril,
7 (E)Guided them by a direct path
so they reached a city to live in.(F)
8 Let them thank the Lord for his mercy,
such wondrous deeds for the children of Adam.
9 For he satisfied the thirsty,
filled the hungry with good things.(G)
43 Whoever is wise will take note of these things,(A)
and ponder the merciful deeds of the Lord.
Chapter 9
From Days of Celebration to Days of Punishment
1 Do not rejoice, Israel,
do not exult like the nations!
For you have prostituted yourself, abandoning your God,
loving a prostitute’s fee
upon every threshing floor.[a]
2 Threshing floor and wine press will not nourish them,
the new wine will fail them.
3 They will not dwell in the Lord’s land;
Ephraim will return to Egypt,
and in Assyria they will eat unclean food.
4 They will not pour libations of wine to the Lord,
and their sacrifices will not please him.
Their bread will be like mourners’ bread,[b](A)
that makes unclean all who eat of it;
Their food will be for their own appetites;
it cannot enter the house of the Lord.
5 What will you do on the festival day,
the day of the Lord’s feast?[c]
6 [d]When they flee from the devastation,
Egypt will gather them, Memphis will bury them.
Weeds will overgrow their silver treasures,
and thorns, their tents.
7 They have come, the days of punishment!
they have come, the days of recompense!
Let Israel know it!
“The prophet is a fool,(B)
the man of the spirit is mad!”
Because your iniquity is great,
great, too, is your hostility.
8 [e]The watchman of Ephraim, the people of my God, is the prophet;(C)
yet a fowler’s snare is on all his ways,
hostility in the house of his God.
9 They have sunk to the depths of corruption,
as in the days of Gibeah;[f](D)
God will remember their iniquity
and punish their sins.
From Former Glory to a History of Corruption
10 Like grapes in the desert,
I found Israel;
Like the first fruits of the fig tree, its first to ripen,(E)
I looked on your ancestors.
But when they came to Baal-peor[g](F)
and consecrated themselves to the Shameful One,
they became as abhorrent as the thing they loved.
11 Ephraim is like a bird:
their glory flies away—
no birth, no pregnancy, no conception.(G)
12 Even though they bring up their children,
I will make them childless, until no one is left.
Indeed, woe to them
when I turn away from them!
13 Ephraim, as I saw, was a tree
planted in a meadow;
But now Ephraim will bring out
his children to the slaughterer!
14 Give them, Lord!
give them what?
Give them a miscarrying womb,
and dry breasts!(H)
15 All their misfortune began in Gilgal;[h]
yes, there I rejected them.
Because of their wicked deeds
I will drive them out of my house.
I will love them no longer;
all their princes are rebels.
16 [i]Ephraim is stricken,
their root is dried up;(I)
they will bear no fruit.(J)
Were they to bear children,
I would slay the beloved of their womb.
17 My God will disown them
because they have not listened to him;
they will be wanderers among the nations.(K)
17 So I declare and testify in the Lord that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds;(A) 18 darkened in understanding, alienated from the life of God because of their ignorance, because of their hardness of heart,(B) 19 they have become callous and have handed themselves over to licentiousness for the practice of every kind of impurity to excess.(C) 20 That is not how you learned Christ, 21 assuming that you have heard of him and were taught in him, as truth is in Jesus, 22 that you should put away the old self of your former way of life, corrupted through deceitful desires,(D) 23 and be renewed in the spirit of your minds,(E) 24 and put on[a] the new self, created in God’s way in righteousness and holiness of truth.(F)
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