Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
Psalm 55
For the music leader. With stringed instruments. A maskil[a] of David.
55 God, listen to my prayer;
don’t avoid my request!
2 Pay attention! Answer me!
I can’t sit still while complaining.
I’m beside myself
3 over the enemy’s noise,
at the wicked person’s racket,
because they bring disaster on me
and harass me furiously.
4 My heart pounds in my chest
because death’s terrors have reached me.
5 Fear and trembling have come upon me;
I’m shaking all over.
6 I say to myself,
I wish I had wings like a dove!
I’d fly away and rest.
7 I’d run so far away!
I’d live in the desert. Selah
8 I’d hurry to my hideout,
far from the rushing wind and storm.
9 Baffle them, my Lord!
Confuse their language
because I see violence and conflict in the city.
10 Day and night they make their rounds on its walls,
and evil and misery live inside it.
11 Disaster lives inside it;
oppression and fraud never leave the town square.
12 It’s not an enemy that is insulting me—
I could handle that.
It’s not someone who hates me
who is exalted over me—
I could hide from them.
13 No. It’s you, my equal,
my close companion, my good friend!
14 It was so pleasant when
together we entered God’s house with the crowd.
15 Let death devastate my enemies;
let them go to the grave[b] alive
because evil lives with them—
even inside them!
Zophar’s rebuke
11 Zophar from Naamah responded:
2 Should all these words go unanswered
or a wordy man be justified?
3 Will your idle talk silence everyone;
will you mock and not be put to shame?
4 You’ve said, “My teaching is pure,
and I’m clean in God’s[a] eyes.”
Divine secrecy
5 But oh, that God would speak,
open his lips against you
6 and tell you secrets of wisdom;
for sound insight has two sides.
Know that God lets some of your sin be forgotten.
7 Can you find the secret of God
or find the extent of the Almighty?
8 They are higher than the heavens—what can you do?
Deeper than the underworld[b]—what can you know?
9 Its measurement is longer than the earth
and broader than the sea.
10 If God passes by, imprisons someone, and calls a trial,
who can stop him?
11 He knows worthless people,
sees sin, and certainly[c] takes note.
12 A stupid person becomes intelligent
when a wild ass of a person is born tame.[d]
Abiding hope
13 If you make your mind resolute
and spread your palms to him,
14 if you throw out the sin in your hands
and don’t let injustice dwell in your tents,
15 then you will lift up your face without blemish;
you will be secure and not fear.
16 You will forget trouble;
you will remember it as water that flows past.
17 A life span will rise brighter than noon;
darkness will be like morning.
18 You will be secure, for there is hope;
you will look around and rest safely.
19 You will lie down without anyone to scare you;
many will beg for your favor.
20 The eyes of the wicked will grow faint;
flight has vanished from them;
their hope is a dying gasp.
10 I’m passing on the Lord’s command to those who are married: A wife shouldn’t leave her husband, 11 but if she does leave him, then she should stay single or be reconciled to her husband. And a man shouldn’t divorce his wife.
12 I’m telling everyone else (the Lord didn’t say this specifically): If a believer has a wife who doesn’t believe, and she agrees to live with him, then he shouldn’t divorce her. 13 If a woman has a husband who doesn’t believe and he agrees to live with her, then she shouldn’t divorce him. 14 The husband who doesn’t believe belongs to God because of his wife, and the wife who doesn’t believe belongs to God because of her husband. Otherwise, your children would be contaminated by the world, but now they are spiritually set apart. 15 But if a spouse who doesn’t believe chooses to leave, then let them leave. The brother or sister isn’t tied down in these circumstances. God has called you to peace. 16 How do you know as a wife if you will save your husband? Or how do you know as a husband if you will save your wife?
Copyright © 2011 by Common English Bible