Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
Psalm 28
My Rock
Heading
By David.
Protect Me From the Wicked
1 O Lord, I keep calling to you.
My Rock, do not be deaf to me.
If you remain silent to me,
I will become like those who go down to the pit.
2 Hear the sound of my plea for mercy when I cry out to you,
when I lift up my hands toward your most holy sanctuary.
3 Do not drag me away with the wicked, with those evildoers.
They speak peace to their neighbors but hide evil in their hearts.
Punish the Wicked
4 Give to them what they have done to others.
According to their evil actions,
according to the deeds of their hands,
punish them.
Repay to them what they deserve.
5 Because they do not recognize the works of the Lord
or the deeds of his hands,
he will tear them down and not build them up.
Then I Will Praise You
6 Blessed be the Lord,
because he has heard the sound of my plea for mercy.
7 The Lord is my strength and my shield.
In him my heart trusts, and I am helped.
My heart also celebrates.
With my song I will give thanks to him.
8 The Lord is their strength.
He is a stronghold of salvation for his anointed king.
9 Save your people, and bless the people that belong to you.
Shepherd them, and carry them forever.
The Rejection of the Good Shepherd
4 This is what the Lord, my God, said.
Shepherd the flock which is to be slaughtered. 5 Those who buy them slaughter them and are not held accountable, and those who sell them say, “Bless the Lord! I have become rich!” Their own shepherds show them no compassion, 6 because I will no longer show compassion to the people of the land, declares the Lord.
Look, I will bring it about that each one of them will fall into the hand of his neighbor and into the hand of his king. They will crush the land, and I will rescue no one from their hands.
7 So I[a] shepherded the flock which is to be slaughtered, especially the most afflicted of the flock. I took two staffs for myself. One I called Favor and the other Union. Then I shepherded the flock. 8 I removed three shepherds in one month. I grew very impatient with the flock, and they really detested me. 9 So I said, “I will not shepherd you. Whatever is dying, let it die. Whatever is being destroyed, let it be destroyed. And let those who remain devour one another’s flesh.”
10 I took my staff, Favor, and I broke it in two, to cancel my covenant that I had made with all the peoples. 11 So it was cancelled on that day, and the most miserable of the flock, who were watching me, knew that this was the word of the Lord.
12 Then I said to them, “If it seems good to you, pay me my wages. But if it does not, withhold them.” So they weighed out thirty pieces of silver as my wages.
13 Then the Lord said to me, “Throw it to the potter, this magnificent price at which they valued me.” So I took the thirty pieces of silver, and I threw them into the House of the Lord, to the potter.
14 Then I broke my second staff, Union, to break the brotherhood between the house of Judah and the house of Israel.
A Foolish Shepherd
15 Then the Lord said to me:
Take up once again the equipment of a foolish shepherd.
16 Watch closely. I myself am going to raise up a shepherd in the land, one who will pay no attention to those who are being lost, who will not search for the scattered, who will not heal the injured, who will not nourish those who remain standing, but who nevertheless will devour the meat of the fat sheep and even tear off their hoofs.
17 Woe to my worthless shepherd,
the one who deserts the flock.
May the sword strike his arm and his right eye!
May his arm wither away to nothing,
and his right eye become completely blind.
The Church’s Victory
19 After these things I heard what seemed to be the loud sound of an immense crowd in heaven, saying:
Alleluia!
Salvation and glory and power belong to our God,
2 for his judgments are true and just,
because he has condemned the great prostitute who corrupted the earth with her immorality,
and he has avenged his servants’ blood that was shed by her hand.
3 A second time they said, “Alleluia! Her smoke goes up forever and ever.”
4 Then the twenty-four elders and the four living creatures bowed down and worshipped God, who sits on the throne, saying, “Amen! Alleluia!”
5 And from the throne came a voice that said, “Praise our God, all you his servants and you who fear him, small and great.”
The Wedding Supper of the Lamb
6 And I heard what seemed to be the roar of a large crowd or the roar of many waters or the sound of loud rumblings of thunder, saying:
Alleluia!
For the Lord our[a] God, the Almighty, reigns.
7 Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory,
because the wedding of the Lamb has come.
His bride has made herself ready,
8 and she was given bright, clean, fine linen to wear.
(In fact, the fine linen is the “not guilty” verdicts pronounced on the saints.)
9 The angel said to me, “Write: Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb.” He also said to me, “These are the true words of God.”
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.