Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
Psalm 71(A)
1 In You, O Lord, I seek refuge;
may I never be put to shame.
2 Deliver me in Your righteousness and help me escape;
incline Your ear to me and save me.
3 Be my rock of refuge
to enter continually;
You have given commandment to save me;
for You are my rock and my stronghold.
4 Deliver me, O my God, out of the hand of the wicked,
out of the hand of the unjust and cruel man.
5 For You are my hope, O Lord God;
You are my confidence from my youth.
6 On You I have supported myself from the womb;
You took me out of my mother’s womb.
My praise will continually be about You.
Siege of Jerusalem
6 O sons of Benjamin, gather yourselves
to flee from the midst of Jerusalem,
and blow the trumpet in Tekoa,
and set up a sign of fire in Beth Hakkerem;
for disaster appears out of the north,
and great destruction.
2 I have likened the daughter of Zion
to a comely and delicate woman.
3 The shepherds with their flocks will come to her.
They will pitch their tents against her all around.
They will pasture each in his place.
4 “Prepare war against her;
arise, and let us go up at noon.”
“Woe to us, for the day declines,
for the shadows of the evening are stretched out.”
5 “Arise, and let us go by night
and let us destroy her palaces.”
6 For thus says the Lord of Hosts:
Hew down trees
and build a mound against Jerusalem.
This is the city to be punished.
She is full of oppression in her midst.
7 As a fountain casts out her waters,
so she casts out her wickedness.
Violence and devastation are heard in her;
before Me continually are grief and wounds.
8 Be instructed, O Jerusalem,
lest My soul depart from you;
lest I make you desolate,
a land not inhabited.
9 Thus says the Lord of Hosts:
They will thoroughly glean
the remnant of Israel as a vine.
Turn back your hand
as a grape gatherer into the baskets.
10 To whom shall I speak and give warning
that they may hear?
See, their ears are closed,
and they cannot listen.
Indeed, the word of the Lord is a reproach to them;
they have no delight in it.
11 Therefore I am full of the fury of the Lord;
I am weary with holding in.
I will pour it out upon the children in the street
and upon the assembly of young men together;
for even the husband with the wife shall be taken,
the aged with him who is full of days.
12 Their houses shall be turned to others,
with their fields and wives together;
for I will stretch out My hand
upon the inhabitants of the land,
says the Lord.
13 For from the least of them even to the greatest of them,
everyone is given to covetousness.
And from the prophet even to the priest,
everyone deals falsely.
14 They have healed also the brokenness
of the daughter of My people superficially,
saying, “Peace, peace,”
when there is no peace.
15 Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination?
They were not at all ashamed,
nor could they blush.
Therefore they shall fall among those who fall;
at the time that I punish them they shall be cast down,
says the Lord.
16 Thus says the Lord
Stand in the ways and see,
and ask for the old paths
where the good way is and walk in it,
and you shall find rest for your souls.
But they said, “We will not walk in it.”
17 Also I set watchmen over you, saying,
“Listen to the sound of the trumpet.”
But they said, “We will not listen.”
18 Therefore hear, O nations,
and know, O congregation,
what is among them.
19 Hear, O earth.
I will bring calamity on this people,
even the fruit of their thoughts,
because they have not listened to My words,
nor to My law, but rejected it.
3 For consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and your hearts give up.
4 You have not yet resisted to bloodshed while striving against sin. 5 And you have forgotten the exhortation addressed to you as sons:
“My son, do not despise the discipline from the Lord,
nor grow weary when you are rebuked by Him;
6 for whom the Lord loves He disciplines,
and scourges every son whom He receives.”[a]
7 Endure discipline; God is dealing with you as with sons. For what son is there whom a father does not discipline? 8 If you are without discipline, of which everyone has partaken, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. 9 Furthermore, we have had human fathers, and they corrected us, and we gave them reverence. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? 10 For they indeed disciplined us for a short time according to their own judgment, but He does so for our profit, that we may partake of His holiness. 11 Now no discipline seems to be joyful at the time, but grievous. Yet afterward it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness in those who have been trained by it.
12 Therefore lift up your tired hands, and strengthen your weak knees. 13 Make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame go out of joint, but rather be healed.
Warning Against Rejecting God’s Grace
14 Pursue peace with all men, and the holiness without which no one will see the Lord, 15 watching diligently so that no one falls short of the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness spring up to cause trouble, and many become defiled by it, 16 lest there be any sexually immoral or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of food sold his birthright. 17 For you know that afterward, when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected. For he found no place for repentance, though he sought it diligently with tears.
The Holy Bible, Modern English Version. Copyright © 2014 by Military Bible Association. Published and distributed by Charisma House.