Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
Joy in the Salvation of Yahweh
For the music director. A psalm of David.[a]
21 O Yahweh, the king will rejoice in your strength,
and how greatly he will delight in your help.[b]
2 You have given him the desire of his heart,
and have not withheld the request of his lips. Selah
3 For you meet him with blessings of good things.
You set on his head a crown of fine gold.
4 He asked life from you; you gave it to him—
length of days forever and ever.
5 His honor is great because of your help.[c]
Splendor and majesty you have bestowed upon him.
6 For you set on him blessings forever.
You make him glad with the joy of your presence.
7 Because the king trusts Yahweh,
and through the steadfast love[d] of the Most High
he shall not be moved.
8 Your hand will find all your enemies;
your right hand will find those who hate you.
9 You will make them like your fiery furnace
at the time of your appearance.
Yahweh will swallow them in his wrath
and fire will consume them.
10 You will destroy their offspring[e] from the earth,
and their descendants[f] from among the children of humankind.
11 Though they have plotted[g] evil against you,
though they have planned a scheme, they will not prevail.
12 For you will turn them to flight;[h]
you will aim arrows on your bowstrings at their faces.
13 Be exalted, O Yahweh, in your strength,
and we sing and praise your power.
The Judgment on the Earth
24 Look! Yahweh is about to lay the earth waste
and is about to devastate it,
and he will twist her surface,
and he will scatter her inhabitants.
2 And it shall be as with the people, so with the priest;
as with the slave, so with his master;
as with the female slave, so with her mistress;
as with the buyer, so with the seller;
as with the lender, so with the borrower;
as with the creditor, so with the one to whom he lends.
3 The earth shall be utterly laid waste,
and it shall be utterly plundered,
for Yahweh has spoken this word.
4 The earth dries up, it withers;
the world languishes, it withers.
The elevated of the people of the earth languish,
5 and the earth is defiled beneath its inhabitants.
For they have transgressed laws;
they have passed by statutes;[a]
they have broken the everlasting covenant.
6 Therefore a curse devours the earth,
and the inhabitants in it suffer for their guilt.
Therefore the inhabitants of the earth burn,
and few men are left.[b]
7 The new wine dries up;
the vine languishes.
All the merry of heart sigh;
8 the joy of the tambourine has stopped.
The noise of the jubilant has ceased;
the joy of the lyre has stopped.
9 They do not drink wine with song;
strong drink is bitter to those who drink it.
10 The city of emptiness is broken;
every house is shut so that no one can enter;[c]
11 there is an outcry over the wine in the streets.
All joy turns into darkness;[d]
the joy of the earth disappears.
12 Desolation is left in the city;
the gate is crushed into a state of ruin.
13 For it shall be like this in the midst of the earth,
among the nations,
like the beating of an olive tree,
like gleanings when a grape harvest is at an end.
14 They lift up their voices;[e] they sing for joy;
they shout out from the west over the majesty of Yahweh.
15 Therefore glorify Yahweh in the east,
the name of Yahweh the God of Israel in the coastlands of the sea.
16 We hear songs from the edge[f] of the earth:
“Glory to the righteous one!”
But I say, “Ruin to me!
Ruin to me! Woe to me!
The treacherous ones deal treacherously,
and the treacherous ones deal treacherously with treachery!”
Appeal for Continuing Sanctification
4 Finally therefore, brothers, we ask you and appeal to you in the Lord Jesus that, just as you have received from us how it is necessary for you to live and to please God, just as indeed you are living, that you progress even more. 2 For you know what commands we gave to you through the Lord Jesus. 3 For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; 4 that each of you know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, 5 not in lustful passion, just as also the Gentiles who do not know God; 6 not to transgress and to exploit his brother in the matter, because the Lord is the one who avenges concerning all these things, just as also we told you beforehand and testified solemnly. 7 For God did not call us to impurity, but in holiness. 8 Therefore the one who rejects this is not rejecting man, but God, who also gives his Holy Spirit to you.
Affirmation of Continuing Love
9 But concerning brotherly love, I do not have need to write to you, for you yourselves are taught by God to love one another, 10 for indeed you are practicing it toward all the brothers in all of Macedonia. But we urge you, brothers, to progress even more, 11 and to aspire to live a quiet life, and to attend to your own business,[a] and to work with your hands,[b] just as we commanded you, 12 so that you may live decently toward those outside, and may have need of nothing.
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