Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
God Will Punish the Proud
For the director of music. A maskil of David. When Doeg the Edomite came to Saul and said to him, “David is in Ahimelech’s house.”
52 Mighty warrior, why do you brag about the evil you do?
God’s love will continue forever.
2 You think up evil plans.
Your tongue is like a sharp razor,
making up lies.
3 You love wrong more than right
and lies more than truth. Selah
4 You love words that bite
and tongues that lie.
5 But God will ruin you forever.
He will grab you and throw you out of your tent;
he will tear you away from the land of the living. Selah
6 Those who do right will see this and fear God.
They will laugh at you and say,
7 “Look what happened to the man
who did not depend on God
but depended on his money.
He grew strong by his evil plans.”
8 But I am like an olive tree
growing in God’s Temple.
I trust God’s love
forever and ever.
9 God, I will thank you forever for what you have done.
With those who worship you, I will trust you because you are good.
10 You hate those who speak in court against evil,
and you can’t stand those who tell the truth.
11 You walk on poor people,
forcing them to give you grain.
You have built fancy houses of cut stone,
but you will not live in them.
You have planted beautiful vineyards,
but you will not drink the wine from them.
12 I know your many crimes,
your terrible sins.
You hurt people who do right,
you take money to do wrong,
and you keep the poor from getting justice in court.
13 In such times the wise person will keep quiet,
because it is a bad time.
14 Try to do good, not evil,
so that you will live,
and the Lord God All-Powerful will be with you
just as you say he is.
15 Hate evil and love good;
be fair in the courts.
Maybe the Lord God All-Powerful will be kind
to the people of Joseph who are left alive.
16 This is what the Lord, the Lord God All-Powerful, says:
“People will be crying in all the streets;
they will be saying, ‘Oh, no!’ in the public places.
They will call the farmers to come and weep
and will pay people to cry out loud for them.
17 People will be crying in all the vineyards,
because I will pass among you to punish you,” says the Lord.
5 Every high priest is chosen from among other people. He is given the work of going before God for them to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins. 2 Since he himself is weak, he is able to be gentle with those who do not understand and who are doing wrong things. 3 Because he is weak, the high priest must offer sacrifices for his own sins and also for the sins of the people.
4 To be a high priest is an honor, but no one chooses himself for this work. He must be called by God as Aaron[a] was. 5 So also Christ did not choose himself to have the honor of being a high priest, but God chose him. God said to him,
“You are my Son.
Today I have become your Father.” Psalm 2:7
6 And in another Scripture God says,
“You are a priest forever,
a priest like Melchizedek.”[b] Psalm 110:4
The Holy Bible, New Century Version®. Copyright © 2005 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.