Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
Psalm 142
A contemplative prayer[a] of David while he hid in a cave.
1 I call out loudly to the Eternal One;
I lift my voice to the Eternal begging for His favor.
2 I let everything that’s going wrong spill out of my mouth;
I spell out all my troubles to Him.
3 When my spirit buckled under the burdens I bear,
You knew my way.
They conspired to trip me up and trap me
on the path where I was walking.
4 Take a look around and see—to the right, to the left—
no one is there who cares for me.
There’s no way out of here;
no one cares about the state of my soul.
5 You are the One I called to, O Eternal One.
I said, “You’re the only safe place I know;
You’re all I’ve got in this world.
6 Oh, let me know that You hear my cry
because I’m languishing and desperate;
Rescue me from those who torment me
because there’s no way I can stand up to them;
they are much too strong for me.
7 Lift my captive soul from this dark prison
so I may render to You my gratitude;
Then Your righteous people will gather around me
because You will treat me with astounding goodness.”
3 This is the prayer that Habakkuk the prophet sang 2 to the Eternal One.
When Habakkuk looks around him, it seems the good suffer and the wicked prosper. The Babylonian Empire is threatening to destroy Judah, the Egyptian armies have abandoned their treaty with Jerusalem, and within Judah some of God’s own people are abandoning Him for personal gain. But when he asks God why the good suffer, God explains that in the long run, they don’t. God is in control of all of creation, and only He can see how current circumstances fit into His greater plan. With that knowledge, Habakkuk now praises God for answering the prophet’s questions, for being in control, and for eventually vindicating His faithful followers.
I have heard the reports about You,
and I am in awe when I consider all You have done.
O Eternal One, revive Your work in our lifetime;
reveal it among us in our times.
As You unleash Your wrath, remember Your compassion.
3 God is on the move from Teman in the south;
the Holy One is on His way from Mount Paran.
[pause][a]
His splendor overtakes the skies;
His praise fills every corner of the earth.
4 His radiance is like a bright light, rays stream down from His hand,
and there His power is hidden.
5 Pestilence marches before Him;
plagues follow in His steps.
6 He stands still and surveys the earth;
He looks their way, and the nations jump in fear.
Indeed, the eternal mountains crumble.
The ancient hills are humbled and bow down.
The paths He carved will last forever.
7 I see the tents of Cushan under attack by evil forces.
The tent curtains of Midian shake throughout that land.
8 Was Your rage directed at the rivers, O Eternal One?
Or Your anger at the rivers?
Or Your fury at the seas?
Is this why You drove your horses, Your chariots of deliverance?
9 Your bow was prepared for battle.
Your arrows waited for Your command.
[pause]
You split the earth with rivers.
10 The mountains saw You and trembled; heavy rains passed through.
The deep made its voice heard; it lifted its hands high.
11 The sun and the moon remained in their homes in the sky.
At the flash of Your arrows, they go out;
At the gleam of Your spear, they go away.
12 In fury You marched across the earth.
In anger You trampled the nations.
13 You went out to rescue Your people,
to rescue Your anointed one.
You shattered the head of the wicked empire;
You laid him bare from thigh to neck.
[pause]
14 Their warriors rushed in to scatter us,
thrilled to consume their poor victims in secret,
But You turned their weapons against them
and pierced the heads of their warriors with their own arrows.[b]
15 You marched on the sea with Your horses,
stirring up raging waters and overwhelming waves.
This victory poem is not unlike Exodus 15, the celebration of the Eternal’s victory over Egypt and the Red Sea.
16 I listened and began to feel sick with fear; my insides churned.
My lips quivered at the sound.
Decay crept into my bones;
I stood there shaking.
Now I wait quietly for the day of distress;
I sit and wait for the time when disaster strikes those who attacked my people.
5 You have heard the stories many times, and the Spirit has enlightened you about their meaning, but you still need to be reminded. Remember when the Lord saved our ancestors from the land in Egypt? He breathed life into their earthen lungs and took back the life from those who did not believe. 6 And God has kept the rebellious heavenly messengers bound and chained in utter darkness—shadowy gloom—until the time when His judgment arrives, because they failed to keep their rightful positions and abandoned their appointed realms. 7 Sodom and Gomorrah and all their neighbors were defeated by their own sexual perversions as they pursued the strange and unnatural impulses of the flesh. Let these who went their own way and are experiencing the eternal heat of God’s vengeance—a punishment by fire—be a warning to you.
8 These stories are examples to help you understand the fate of those dreamers who have slipped in and defiled your community, rejected those in charge, and insulted the glorious majesty of the heavenly messengers. 9 Even their chief, Michael, when disputing with the devil over Moses’ body, did not offer his own taunting judgment against him. Michael simply said, “May the Lord’s rebuke fall on you.”[a]
10 The deceivers among you despise what they do not understand; they live without reason like animals, reacting only with primal instincts; and their ways are corrupting them. 11 Woe to these deceivers! They are doomed! They have followed in the footsteps of their father Cain, sold their souls for profit into Balaam’s deceit, and suffered the devastation of Korah’s rebellion.
12 These men are cold stones on the warm hearth of your love feasts as they glut themselves without fear, thinking only of their own benefit. They are waterless clouds, carried away by the wind; autumn’s lonely and barren trees, twice dead, uprooted; 13 violent waves of the sea breaking over the bow, foaming with shame; lost and wandering stars destined to live forever in gloomy darkness.
14 During the seventh generation after Adam, the prophet Enoch said, “Look! The Lord came, and with Him tens of thousands of His holy messengers 15 to judge wicked men and convict the impious and ungodly for all they have said and all the hard things they have done against the Holy One.” 16 These men are complainers who look long and hard to find the faults of other men. They are led by their own lustful desires like fools down the path of destruction. They are arrogant liars who want only to get ahead of others.
17 But you, friends, remember the words of the emissaries[b] of our Lord Jesus the Anointed, the Liberating King: 18 “At the end of time, some will ridicule the faithful and follow their lusts to the grave.” 19 These are the men among you—those who divide friends, those concerned ultimately with this world, those without the Spirit. 20-21 You, however, should stand firm in the love of God, constructing a life within the holy faith, praying the Spirit’s prayer, as you wait eagerly for the mercy of our Lord Jesus the Anointed, which leads to eternal life.
The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.