Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
Make Me Know the Number of My Days
Psalm 39
1 For the music director, for Jeduthun, a psalm of David.
2 I said:
“I will guard my ways, so I will not sin with my tongue.
I will muzzle my mouth while the wicked are before me.”
3 So I became utterly speechless,
kept silent even from good,
but my anguish was stirred up.
4 My heart was hot within me,
while I was musing, the fire burned.
Then I spoke with my tongue:
5 “Let me know, Adonai, my end
and what the number of my days is.
Let me know how short-lived I am.
6 Behold, You made my days mere hand-breadths,
and my lifetime as nothing before You.
Surely all humanity is but vapor. Selah
7 Everyone goes about as a mere phantom.
Surely they are making an uproar in vain, heaping up stuff—
yet not knowing who will gather it.[a]
8 And now, my Lord, what do I wait for?
My hope is in You.
9 Deliver me from all my transgressions.
Do not make me the scorn of a fool.
10 I am speechless, not opening my mouth
—for You have done it.
11 Remove Your scourge from me.
I perish by the blow of Your hand.
12 With rebukes You chasten one for iniquity
and You consume like a moth what he finds pleasure in.
Surely all humanity is but a vapor. Selah
13 Hear my prayer, Adonai,
and listen to my cry—
do not keep silent at my tears.
For with You I am an outsider, a sojourner,
as all my fathers were.
14 Turn your gaze away from me, so I may smile again,
before I go, and am no more.”
Job: God is Awesome
26 Then Job responded and said:
2 “How you have helped the powerless!
How you have saved the arm without strength!
3 How you have counseled the one without wisdom
and revealed your abundant insights!
4 To whom have you uttered words?
Whose spirit has come from your mouth?
5 “The dead tremble—those beneath the water
and all that live in them.
6 Sheol is naked before Him;
Abaddon has no covering.[a]
7 He stretches out the north over the void;
He suspendsthe earth over nothing.
8 He wraps up the waters in His clouds,
yet the clouds do not burst under them.
9 He covers the face of the full moon,
spreading His clouds over it.
10 He marks out the horizon on the face of the waters,
for a boundary between light and dark.
11 The pillars of heaven tremble,
astounded at His rebuke!
12 By His power He churns up the sea;
by His understanding He smashed Rahab.
13 By His Ruach the heavens are clear;
His hand pierced the fleeing serpent.
14 Indeed, these are but glimpses of His ways; how faint the whisper, we hear of Him!
Who then can understand the thunder of His might?”
Countless Worshipers Before the Throne
9 After these things I looked, and behold, a vast multitude that no one could count—from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues—was standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were clothed in white robes, with palm branches[a] in their hands 10 and crying out with a loud voice, saying,
“Salvation belongs to our God,
who sits on the throne,
and to the Lamb!”
11 And all the angels were standing around the throne, along with the elders and the four living creatures; and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, 12 saying,
“Amen, blessing and glory
and wisdom and thanksgiving
and honor and power and might
belong to our God forever and ever. Amen!”
13 Then one of the elders answered, saying to me, “Who are these dressed in white robes, and where have they come from?”
I said to him, “Sir, you know.”
14 Then he said to me, “These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation.[b] They have washed their robes and made them white[c] in the blood of the Lamb. 15 For this reason, they are before the throne of God, and they serve Him day and night in His Temple. The One seated on the throne will shelter them. [d] 16 They shall never again go hungry, nor thirst anymore; the sun shall not beat down on them, nor any scorching heat. [e] 17 For the Lamb in the midst of the throne shall shepherd them and guide them to springs of living water, and God shall wipe away every tear from their eyes.”[f]
Tree of Life (TLV) Translation of the Bible. Copyright © 2015 by The Messianic Jewish Family Bible Society.