Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
Psalm 74
A maskil[a] of Asaph.
74 God, why have you abandoned us forever?
Why does your anger smolder
at the sheep of your own pasture?
2 Remember your congregation
that you took as your own long ago,
that you redeemed to be the tribe of your own possession—
remember Mount Zion, where you dwell.
3 March to the unending ruins,
to all that the enemy destroyed in the sanctuary.
4 Your enemies roared in your own meeting place;
they set up their own signs there!
5 It looked like axes raised
against a thicket of trees.[b]
6 And then all its carvings
they hacked down with hatchet and pick.
7 They set fire to your sanctuary, burned it to the ground;
they defiled the dwelling place of your name.
8 They said in their hearts, We’ll kill all of them together!
They burned all of God’s meeting places in the land.
9 We don’t see our own signs anymore.
No prophet is left.
And none of us know how long it will last.
10 How long, God, will foes insult you?
Are enemies going to abuse your name forever?
11 Why do you pull your hand back?
Why do you hold your strong hand close to your chest?
12 Yet God has been my king from ancient days—
God, who makes salvation happen in the heart of the earth!
13 You split the sea with your power.
You shattered the heads of the sea monsters on the water.
14 You crushed Leviathan’s heads.
You gave it to the desert dwellers for food!
15 You split open springs and streams;
you made strong-flowing rivers dry right up.
16 The day belongs to you! The night too!
You established both the moon and the sun.
17 You set all the boundaries of the earth in place.
Summer and winter? You made them!
18 So remember this, Lord:
how enemies have insulted you,
how unbelieving fools have abused your name.
19 Don’t deliver the life of your dove to wild animals!
Don’t forget the lives of your afflicted people forever!
20 Consider the covenant!
Because the land’s dark places are full of violence.
21 Don’t let the oppressed live in shame.
No, let the poor and needy praise your name!
22 God, rise up! Make your case!
Remember how unbelieving fools insult you all day long.
23 Don’t forget the voices of your enemies,
the racket of your adversaries that never quits.
Sayings of doom
8 Doom to those who acquire house after house,
who annex field to field until there is no more space left
and only you live alone in the land.
9 I heard the Lord of heavenly forces say this:[a]
Many houses will become total ruins,
large, fine houses, with no one living in them.
10 Ten acres of vineyard
will produce just one bath,[b]
and a homer of seed
will produce only an ephah.
11 Doom to those who wake up early in the morning to run after beer,
to those who stay up late, lit up by wine.
12 They party with lyre and harp, tambourine, flute, and wine;
but they ignore the Lord’s work;
they can’t see what God is doing.
13 Therefore, my people go into exile since they didn’t understand—
their officials are dying of hunger;
so many of them are dried up with thirst.
14 Therefore, the grave[c] opens wide its jaws,
opens its mouth beyond all bounds,
and the splendid multitudes will go down, with all their uproar and cheering.
15 Humanity will be humiliated;
each person laid low,
the eyes of the exalted laid low.
16 But the Lord of heavenly forces will be exalted in justice,
and the holy God will show himself holy in righteousness.
17 Lambs will graze as if in their pasture;
young goats[d] will feed among the ruins of the rich.[e]
18 Doom to those who drag guilt along with cords of fraud,
and haul sin as if with cart ropes,
19 who say, “God should hurry and work faster so we can see;
let the plan of Israel’s holy one come quickly, so we can understand it.”
20 Doom to those who call evil good and good evil,
who present darkness as light and light as darkness,
who make bitterness sweet and sweetness bitter.
21 Doom to those
who consider themselves wise,
who think of themselves as clever.
22 Doom to the wine-swigging warriors,
mighty at mixing drinks,
23 who spare the guilty for bribes,
and rob the innocent of their rights.
Testing the spirits
4 Dear friends, don’t believe every spirit. Test the spirits to see if they are from God because many false prophets have gone into the world. 2 This is how you know if a spirit comes from God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come as a human[a] is from God, 3 and every spirit that doesn’t confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and is now already in the world. 4 You are from God, little children, and you have defeated these people because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. 5 They are from the world. So they speak from the world’s point of view and the world listens to them. 6 We are from God. The person who knows God listens to us. Whoever is not from God doesn’t listen to us. This is how we recognize the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error.
Copyright © 2011 by Common English Bible