Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

63 A psalm of David when he was hiding in the wilderness of Judea.

O God, my God! How I search for you! How I thirst for you in this parched and weary land where there is no water. How I long to find you! ² How I wish I could go into your sanctuary to see your strength and glory, ³ for your love and kindness are better to me than life itself. How I praise you! ⁴ I will bless you as long as I live, lifting up my hands to you in prayer. ⁵ At last I shall be fully satisfied; I will praise you with great joy.

⁶ I lie awake at night thinking of you— ⁷ of how much you have helped me—and how I rejoice through the night beneath the protecting shadow of your wings. ⁸ I follow close behind you, protected by your strong right arm.

5 Now I will sing a song about his vineyard to the one I love. My Beloved has a vineyard on a very fertile hill. ² He plowed it and took out all the rocks and planted his vineyard with the choicest vines. He built a watchtower and cut a winepress in the rocks. Then he waited for the harvest, but the grapes that grew were wild and sour and not at all the sweet ones he expected.

³ Now, men of Jerusalem and Judah, you have heard the case! You be the judges! ⁴ What more could I have done? Why did my vineyard give me wild grapes instead of sweet? ⁵ I will tear down the fences and let my vineyard go to pasture to be trampled by cattle and sheep. ⁶ I won’t prune it or hoe it, but let it be overgrown with briars and thorns. I will command the clouds not to rain on it anymore.

⁷ I have given you the story of God’s people. They are the vineyard that I spoke about. Israel and Judah are his pleasant acreage! He expected them to yield a crop of justice, but found bloodshed instead. He expected righteousness, but the cries of deep oppression met his ears.^[a]

⁴³ “A tree from good stock doesn’t produce scrub fruit nor do trees from poor stock produce choice fruit. ⁴⁴ A tree is identified by the kind of fruit it produces. Figs never grow on thorns, or grapes on bramble bushes. ⁴⁵ A good man produces good deeds from a good heart. And an evil man produces evil deeds from his hidden wickedness. Whatever is in the heart overflows into speech.