Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
Psalm 142[a]
Prayer in Time of Abandonment
1 A maskil[b] of David. When he was in the cave. A prayer.
2 [c]I cry out to the Lord with my plea;
I entreat the Lord to grant me mercy.
3 Before him I pour out my complaint
and tell my troubles in his presence.
4 [d]No matter how faint my spirit is within me,
you are there to guide my steps.
Along the path on which I travel[e]
they have hidden a trap for me.
5 I look to my right,
but there is no friend who knows me.
There is no refuge available to me;
no one cares whether I live or perish.[f]
6 [g]I cry out to you, O Lord;
I say, “You are my refuge,
my portion in the land of the living.”[h]
7 Listen to my plea for help,
for I am in desperate straits.
Rescue me from those who seek to persecute me,
for they are too strong for me.[i]
8 Set me free from my prison,[j]
so that I may praise your name.
Then the righteous will assemble around me
because of your great generosity to me.
12 “Woe to the man who builds a city
by means of bloodshed
and founds a town on the basis of iniquity.
13 Is it not in the eternal design
of the Lord of hosts
that what the people labor for
is destined for the flames,
and that everything the nations
exhaust themselves to achieve
will come to naught.
14 However, the earth will be filled
with the knowledge of the Lord’s glory
just as the waters cover the sea.
15 [a]“Woe to you who encourage your neighbors to drink,
pouring it abundantly until they are drunk,
so that you can gaze upon their nakedness.
16 You will be filled with shame instead of glory
as you stagger in your drunkenness.
The cup in the Lord’s right hand
will be passed on to you,
and shame will overshadow your glory.
17 For the violence done to Lebanon will overwhelm you,
and the massacre of the animals will terrify you,
all as a result of the bloodshed and violence you inflicted
on cities and all who dwell in them.
18 “Of what use is an idol
after its maker has shaped it?
It is only a presentation, a source of lies.
And why should its sculptor place his faith in it,
a dumb idol that he has made?
19 Woe to anyone who says,
‘Wake up!’ to a block of wood,
‘Rouse yourself!’ to a lifeless stone.
Can such a thing offer guidance?
It may be overlaid with gold and silver,
but there is no breath of life within it.
20 However, the Lord is in his holy temple.
Let all the earth be silent before him.”
9 In my letter, I wrote to you not to associate with people who are leading immoral lives.[a] 10 Obviously, I was not referring to contact with people in the world who are immoral or with those who are greedy or thieves or worshipers of false gods, since to do this you would have to leave the world. 11 What I really meant to get across was that you should not associate with any brother or sister who is sexually immoral, greedy, an idolater, a slanderer, a drunkard or a robber. You should not even eat with such a person.
12 It is no concern of mine to judge those who are outside the fold.[b] It is your responsibility to judge those who are inside. 13 God will pass judgment on the outsiders. Banish the evil person from your midst.
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