Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Psalm 94

¹ O Lord God, You to Whom vengeance belongs, O God, You to Whom vengeance belongs, shine forth!

² Rise up, O Judge of the earth; render to the proud a fit compensation!

³ Lord, how long shall the wicked, how long shall the wicked triumph and exult?

⁴ They pour out arrogant words, speaking hard things; all the evildoers boast loftily.^(A)

⁵ They crush Your people, O Lord, and afflict Your heritage.

⁶ They slay the widow and the transient stranger and murder the unprotected orphan.

⁷ Yet they say, The Lord does not see, neither does the God of Jacob notice it.

⁸ Consider and understand, you stupid ones among the people! And you [self-confident] fools, when will you become wise?

⁹ He Who planted the ear, shall He not hear? He Who formed the eye, shall He not see?

¹⁰ He Who disciplines and instructs the nations, shall He not punish, He Who teaches man knowledge?

¹¹ The Lord knows the thoughts of man, that they are vain (empty and futile—only a breath).^(B)

¹² Blessed (happy, fortunate, to be envied) is the man whom You discipline and instruct, O Lord, and teach out of Your law,

¹³ That You may give him power to keep himself calm in the days of adversity, until the [inevitable] pit of corruption is dug for the wicked.

¹⁴ For the Lord will not cast off nor spurn His people, neither will He abandon His heritage.

¹⁵ For justice will return to the [uncompromisingly] righteous, and all the upright in heart will follow it.

¹⁶ Who will rise up for me against the evildoers? Who will stand up for me against the workers of iniquity?

¹⁷ Unless the Lord had been my help, I would soon have dwelt in [the land where there is] silence.

¹⁸ When I said, My foot is slipping, Your mercy and loving-kindness, O Lord, held me up.

¹⁹ In the multitude of my [anxious] thoughts within me, Your comforts cheer and delight my soul!

²⁰ Shall the throne of iniquity have fellowship with You—they who frame and hide their unrighteous doings under [the sacred name of] law?

²¹ They band themselves together against the life of the [consistently] righteous and condemn the innocent to death.

²² But the Lord has become my High Tower and Defense, and my God the Rock of my refuge.

²³ And He will turn back upon them their own iniquity and will wipe them out by means of their own wickedness; the Lord our God will wipe them out.

¹⁸ But even in those days, says the Lord, I will not make a full and complete end of you.

¹⁹ And when your people say, Why has the Lord our God done all these things to us? then you shall answer them, As you have forsaken Me, says the Lord, and have served strange gods in your land, so shall you serve strangers (gods) in a land that is not yours.

²⁰ Declare this in the house of Jacob and publish it in Judah:

²¹ Hear now this, O foolish people without understanding or heart, who have eyes and see not, who have ears and hear not:^(A)

²² Do you not fear and reverence Me? says the Lord. Do you not tremble before Me? I placed the sand for the boundary of the sea, a perpetual barrier beyond which it cannot pass and by an everlasting ordinance beyond which it cannot go? And though the waves of the sea toss and shake themselves, yet they cannot prevail [against the feeble grains of sand which God has ordained by nature to be sufficient for His purpose]; though [the billows] roar, yet they cannot pass over that [barrier]. [Is not such a God to be reverently feared and worshiped?]

²³ But these people have hearts that draw back from God and wills that rebel against Him; they have revolted and quit His service and have gone away [into idolatry].

²⁴ Nor do they say in their hearts, Let us now reverently fear and worship the Lord our God, Who gives rain, both the autumn and the spring rain in its season, Who reserves and keeps for us the appointed weeks of the harvest.

²⁵ Your iniquities have turned these blessings away, and your sins have kept good [harvests] from you.

²⁶ For among My people are found wicked men; they watch like fowlers who lie in wait; they set a trap, they catch men.

²⁷ As a cage is full of birds, so are their houses full of deceit and treachery; therefore they have become great and grown rich,

²⁸ They have grown fat and sleek. Yes, they surpass in deeds of wickedness; they do not judge and plead with justice the cause of the fatherless, that they may prosper, and they do not defend the rights of the needy.

²⁹ Shall I not punish them for these things? says the Lord. Shall I not avenge Myself on such a nation as this?

³⁰ An appalling and horrible thing [bringing desolation and destruction] has come to pass in the land:

³¹ The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests exercise rule at their own hands and by means of the prophets. And My people love to have it so! But what will you do when the end comes?

⁸ Nevertheless, do not let this one fact escape you, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day.^(A)

⁹ The Lord does not delay and is not tardy or slow about what He promises, according to some people’s conception of slowness, but He is long-suffering (extraordinarily patient) toward you, not desiring that any should perish, but that all should turn to repentance.

¹⁰ But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will vanish (pass away) with a thunderous crash, and the [^[a]material] elements [of the universe] will be dissolved with fire, and the earth and the works that are upon it will be burned up.

¹¹ Since all these things are thus ^[b]in the process of being dissolved, what kind of person ought [each of] you to be [in the meanwhile] in consecrated and holy behavior and devout and godly qualities,

¹² While you wait and earnestly long for (expect and hasten) the coming of the day of God by reason of which the flaming heavens will be dissolved, and the [^[c]material] elements [of the universe] will flare and melt with fire?^(B)

¹³ But we look for new heavens and a new earth according to His promise, in which righteousness (uprightness, freedom from sin, and right standing with God) is to abide.^(C)