Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Psalm 80

To the Chief Musician; [set to the tune of] “Lilies, a Testimony.” A Psalm of Asaph.

¹ Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, You Who lead Joseph like a flock; You Who sit enthroned upon the cherubim [of the ark of the covenant], shine forth

² Before ^[a]Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh! Stir up Your might, and come to save us!

⁸ You brought a vine [Israel] out of Egypt; You drove out the [heathen] nations and planted it [in Canaan].

⁹ You prepared room before it, and it took deep root and it filled the land.

¹⁰ The mountains were covered with the shadow of it, and the boughs of it were like the great cedars [cedars of God].

¹¹ [Israel] sent out its boughs to the [Mediterranean] Sea and its branches to the [Euphrates] River.^(A)

¹² Why have You broken down its hedges and walls so that all who pass by pluck from its fruit?

¹³ The boar out of the wood wastes it and the wild beast of the field feeds on it.

¹⁴ Turn again, we beseech You, O God of hosts! Look down from heaven and see, visit, and have regard for this vine!

¹⁵ [Protect and maintain] the stock which Your right hand planted, and the branch (the son) that You have reared and made strong for Yourself.

¹⁶ They have burned it with fire, it is cut down; may they perish at the rebuke of Your countenance.

¹⁷ Let Your hand be upon the man of Your right hand, upon the son of man whom You have made strong for Yourself.

¹⁸ Then will we not depart from You; revive us (give us life) and we will call upon Your name.

¹⁹ Restore us, O Lord God of hosts; cause Your face to shine [in pleasure, approval, and favor on us], and we shall be saved!

3 For behold, the Lord, the Lord of hosts, is taking away from Jerusalem and from Judah the stay and the staff [every kind of prop], the whole stay of bread and the whole stay of water,

² The mighty man and the man of war, the judge and the [professional] prophet, the one who foretells by divination and the old man,

³ The captain of fifty and the man of rank, the counselor and the expert craftsman and the skillful enchanter.

⁴ And I will make boys their princes, and with childishness shall they rule over them [with outrage instead of justice].

⁵ And the people shall be oppressed, each one by another, and each one by his neighbor; the child shall behave himself proudly and with insolence against the old man, and the lowborn against the honorable [person of rank].

⁶ When a man shall take hold of his brother in the house of his father, saying, You have a robe, you shall be our judge and ruler, and this heap of ruins shall be under your control—

⁷ In that day he will answer, saying, I will not be a healer and one who binds up; ^[a]I am not a physician. For in my house is neither bread nor clothing; you shall not make me judge and ruler of the people.

⁸ For Jerusalem is ruined and Judah is fallen, because their speech and their deeds are against the Lord, to provoke the eyes of His glory and defy His glorious presence.

⁹ Their respecting of persons and showing of partiality witnesses against them; they proclaim their sin like Sodom; they do not hide it. Woe to them! For they have brought evil [as a reward upon themselves].

¹⁰ Say to the righteous that it shall be well with them, for they shall eat the fruit of their deeds.

¹¹ Woe to the wicked! It shall be ill with them, for what their hands have done shall be done to them.

¹² As for My people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them. O My people, your leaders cause you to err, and they confuse (destroy and swallow up) the course of your paths.

¹³ The Lord stands up to contend, and stands to judge the peoples and His people.

¹⁴ The Lord enters into judgment with the elders of His people and their princes: For [by your exactions and oppressions you have robbed the people and ruined the country] you have devoured the vineyard; the spoil of the poor is in your houses.

¹⁵ What do you mean by crushing My people and grinding the faces of the poor? says the Lord God of hosts.

¹⁶ Moreover, the Lord said, Because the daughters of Zion are haughty and walk with outstretched necks and with undisciplined (flirtatious and alluring) eyes, tripping along with mincing and affected gait, and making a tinkling noise with [the anklets on] their feet,

¹⁷ Therefore the Lord will smite with a scab the crown of the heads of the daughters of Zion [making them bald], and the Lord will cause them to be [taken as captives and to suffer the indignity of being] stripped naked.

³² But be ever mindful of the days gone by in which, after you were first spiritually enlightened, you endured a great and painful struggle,

³³ Sometimes being yourselves a gazingstock, publicly exposed to insults and abuse and distress, and sometimes claiming fellowship and making common cause with others who were so treated.

³⁴ For you did sympathize and suffer along with those who were imprisoned, and you bore cheerfully the plundering of your belongings and the confiscation of your property, in the knowledge and consciousness that you yourselves had a better and lasting possession.

³⁵ Do not, therefore, fling away your fearless confidence, for it carries a great and glorious compensation of reward.

³⁶ For you have need of steadfast patience and endurance, so that you may perform and fully accomplish the will of God, and thus receive and ^[a]carry away [and enjoy to the full] what is promised.

³⁷ For still a little while (a very little while), and the Coming One will come and He will not delay.

³⁸ But the just shall live by faith [My righteous servant shall live ^[b]by his conviction respecting man’s relationship to God and divine things, and holy fervor born of faith and conjoined with it]; and if he draws back and shrinks in fear, My soul has no delight or pleasure in him.^(A)

³⁹ But our way is not that of those who draw back to eternal misery (perdition) and are utterly destroyed, but we are of those who believe [who cleave to and trust in and rely on God through Jesus Christ, the Messiah] and by faith preserve the soul.