◀ All Reading Plans / Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary) / Psalm 63 (God is a rich feast); Joel 1:1-14 (Call to repentance); 1 Thessalonians 3:6-13 (Stand firm in the faith) (New English Translation)

Prev Day

November 10, 2020

Next Day

Use the calendar to view readings from this devotional.

November 2020
Su	Mo	Tu	We	Th	Fr	Sa
1	2	3	4	5	6	7
8	9	10	11	12	13	14
15	16	17	18	19	20	21
22	23	24	25	26	27	28
29	30

Return to today's reading

Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Daily Bible readings that follow the church liturgical year, with thematically matched Old and New Testament readings.

Duration: 1245 days

Psalm 63

Psalm 63^[a]

A psalm of David, written when he was in the Judean wilderness.^[b]

63 O God, you are my God. I long for you.^[c]
My soul thirsts^[d] for you,
my flesh yearns for you,
in a dry and parched^[e] land where there is no water.
²Yes,^[f] in the sanctuary I have seen you,^[g]
and witnessed^[h] your power and splendor.
³Because^[i] experiencing^[j] your loyal love is better than life itself,
my lips will praise you.
⁴For this reason^[k] I will praise you while I live;
in your name I will lift up my hands.^[l]
⁵As with choice meat^[m] you satisfy my soul.^[n]
My mouth joyfully praises you,^[o]
⁶whenever^[p] I remember you on my bed,
and think about you during the nighttime hours.
⁷For you are my deliverer;^[q]
under your wings^[r] I rejoice.
⁸My soul^[s] pursues you;^[t]
your right hand upholds me.
⁹Enemies seek to destroy my life,^[u]
but they will descend into the depths of the earth.^[v]
¹⁰Each one will be handed over to the sword;^[w]
their corpses will be eaten by jackals.^[x]
¹¹But the king^[y] will rejoice in God;
everyone who takes oaths in his name^[z] will boast,
for the mouths of those who speak lies will be shut up.^[aa]

Footnotes

Psalm 63:1 sn Psalm 63. The psalmist expresses his intense desire to be in God’s presence and confidently affirms that God will judge his enemies.
Psalm 63:1 sn According to the psalm superscription David wrote the psalm while in the “wilderness of Judah.” Perhaps this refers to the period described in 1 Sam 23-24 or to the incident mentioned in 2 Sam 15:23.
Psalm 63:1 tn Or “I will seek you.”
Psalm 63:1 tn Or “I thirst.”
Psalm 63:1 tn Heb “faint” or “weary.” This may picture the land as “faint” or “weary,” or it may allude to the effect this dry desert has on those who are forced to live in it.
Psalm 63:2 tn The Hebrew particle כֵּן (ken) is used here to stress the following affirmation (see Josh 2:4).
Psalm 63:2 tn The perfect verbal form is understood here as referring to a past experience which the psalmist desires to be repeated. Another option is to take the perfect as indicating the psalmist’s certitude that he will again stand in God’s presence in the sanctuary. In this case one can translate, “I will see you.”
Psalm 63:2 tn Heb “seeing.” The preposition with the infinitive construct here indicates an accompanying circumstance.
Psalm 63:3 tn This line is understood as giving the basis for the praise promised in the following line. Another option is to take the Hebrew particle כִּי (ki) as asseverative/emphasizing, “Indeed, your loyal love is better” (cf. NEB, which leaves the particle untranslated).
Psalm 63:3 tn The word “experiencing” is supplied in the translation for clarification. The psalmist does not speak here of divine loyal love in some abstract sense, but of loyal love revealed and experienced.
Psalm 63:4 tn Or perhaps “then.”
Psalm 63:4 sn I will lift up my hands. Lifting up one’s hands toward God was a gesture of prayer (see Ps 28:2; Lam 2:19) or respect (Ps 119:48).
Psalm 63:5 tn Heb “like fat and fatness.”
Psalm 63:5 tn Or “me.”
Psalm 63:5 tn Heb “and [with] lips of joy my mouth praises.”
Psalm 63:6 tn The Hebrew term אִם (ʾim) is used here in the sense of “when; whenever,” as in Ps 78:34.
Psalm 63:7 tn Or “[source of] help.”
Psalm 63:7 tn Heb “in the shadow of your wings.”
Psalm 63:8 tn Or “I.” The Hebrew term נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh) with a pronominal suffix is often equivalent to a pronoun, especially in poetry (see BDB 660 s.v. נֶפֶשׁ 4.a).
Psalm 63:8 tn Heb “clings after.” The expression means “to pursue with determination” (see Judg 20:45; 1 Sam 14:22; 1 Chr 10:2; Jer 42:16).
Psalm 63:9 tn Heb “but they for destruction seek my life.” The pronoun “they” must refer here to the psalmist’s enemies, referred to at this point for the first time in the psalm.
Psalm 63:9 sn The depths of the earth refers here to the underworld dwelling place of the dead (see Ezek 26:20; 31:14, 16, 18; 32:18, 24). See L. I. J. Stadelmann, The Hebrew Conception of the World, 167.
Psalm 63:10 tn Heb “they will deliver him over to the sword.” The third masculine plural subject must be indefinite (see GKC 460 §144.f) and the singular pronominal suffix either representative or distributive (emphasizing that each one will be so treated). Active verbs with indefinite subjects may be translated as passives with the object (in the Hebrew text) as subject (in the translation).
Psalm 63:10 tn Heb “they will be [the] portion of jackals”; traditionally, “of foxes.”
Psalm 63:11 sn The psalmist probably refers to himself in the third person here.
Psalm 63:11 tn Heb “who swears [an oath] by him.”
Psalm 63:11 tn The Niphal of this verb occurs only here and in Gen 8:2, where it is used of God “stopping” or “damming up” the great deep as he brought the flood to an end.

Joel 1:1-14

Introduction

1 This^[a] is the Lord’s message that came to Joel^[b] the son of Pethuel:

A Locust Plague Foreshadows the Day of the Lord

²Listen to this, you elders;^[c]
pay attention,^[d] all inhabitants of the land.
Has anything like this ever happened in your whole life^[e]
or in the lifetime^[f] of your ancestors?^[g]
³Tell your children^[h] about it,
have your children tell their children,
and their children the following generation.^[i]
⁴What the gazam-locust left the ‘arbeh-locust consumed,^[j]
what the ‘arbeh-locust left the yeleq-locust consumed,
and what the yeleq-locust left the hasil-locust consumed.^[k]
⁵Wake up, you drunkards,^[l] and weep!

Wail, all you wine drinkers,^[m]
because the sweet wine^[n] has been taken away^[o] from you.^[p]
⁶For a nation^[q] has invaded^[r] my land,
mighty and without number.
Their teeth are lion’s teeth;
they have the fangs of a lioness.^[s]
⁷They^[t] have destroyed my vines;^[u]
they have turned my fig trees into mere splinters.
They have completely stripped off the bark^[v] and thrown it aside;
the twigs are stripped bare.^[w]

A Call to Lament

⁸Wail^[x] like a young virgin^[y] clothed in sackcloth,
lamenting the death of^[z] her husband to be.^[aa]
⁹No one brings grain offerings or drink offerings
to the temple^[ab] of the Lord anymore.^[ac]
So the priests, those who serve the Lord, are in mourning.
¹⁰The crops of the fields^[ad] have been destroyed.^[ae]
The ground is in mourning because the grain has perished.
The fresh wine has dried up;
the olive oil languishes.
¹¹Be distressed,^[af] farmers;
wail, vinedressers, over the wheat and the barley.
For the harvest of the field has perished.
¹²The vine has dried up;
the fig tree languishes—
the pomegranate, date, and apple^[ag] as well.
In fact,^[ah] all the trees of the field have dried up.
Indeed, the joy of the people^[ai] has dried up!
¹³Get dressed^[aj] and lament, you priests.

Wail, you who minister at the altar.
Come, spend the night in sackcloth, you servants of my God,
because no one brings grain offerings or drink offerings
to the temple of your God anymore.^[ak]
¹⁴Announce a holy fast;^[al]
proclaim a sacred assembly.
Gather the elders and^[am] all the inhabitants of the land
to the temple of the Lord your God,
and cry out to the Lord.

Footnotes

Joel 1:1 sn The dating of the book of Joel is a matter of dispute. Some scholars date the book as early as the ninth century b.c., during the reign of the boy-king Joash. This view is largely based on the following factors: an argument from silence (e.g., the book of Joel does not mention a king, perhaps because other officials de facto carried out his responsibilities, and there is no direct mention in the book of such later Israelite enemies as the Assyrians, Babylonians, and Persians); inconclusive literary assumptions (e.g., the eighth-century prophet Amos in Amos 9:13 alludes to Joel 3:18); the canonical position of the book (i.e., it is the second book of the Minor Prophets); and literary style (i.e., the book is thought to differ in style from the postexilic prophetic writings). While such an early date for the book is not impossible, none of the arguments used to support it is compelling. Later dates for the book that have been defended by various scholars are, for example, the late seventh century or early sixth century or sometime in the postexilic period (anytime from late sixth century to late fourth century). Most modern scholars seem to date the book of Joel sometime between 400 and 350 b.c. For a helpful discussion of date see J. A. Thompson, “The Date of the Book of Joel,” A Light unto My Path, 453-64. Related to the question of date is a major exegetical issue: Is the army of chapter two to be understood figuratively as describing the locust invasion of chapter one, or is the topic of chapter two an invasion of human armies, either the Babylonians or an eschatological foe? If the enemy could be conclusively identified as the Babylonians, for example, this would support a sixth-century date for the book.
Joel 1:1 sn The name Joel means in Hebrew “the Lord is God.”
Joel 1:2 sn Elders here refers not necessarily to men advanced in years but to leaders within the community.
Joel 1:2 tn Heb “give ear.”
Joel 1:2 tn Heb “days.” The term “days” functions here as a synecdoche for one’s lifespan.
Joel 1:2 tn Heb “days.”
Joel 1:2 tn Heb “fathers.”
Joel 1:3 tn Heb “sons.” This word occurs several times in this verse.
Joel 1:3 sn The circumstances that precipitated the book of Joel surrounded a locust invasion in Palestine that was of unprecedented proportions. The locusts had devastated the country’s agrarian economy, with the unwelcome consequences extending to every important aspect of commercial, religious, and national life. To further complicate matters, a severe drought had exhausted water supplies, causing life-threatening shortages for animal and human life (see v. 20). Locust invasions occasionally present significant problems in Palestine in modern times. The year 1865 was commonly known among Arabic-speaking peoples of the Near East as sent el jarad, “year of the locust.” The years 1892, 1899, and 1904 witnessed significant locust invasions in Palestine. But in modern times there has been nothing equal in magnitude to the great locust invasion that began in Palestine in February of 1915. This modern parallel provides valuable insight into the locust plague the prophet Joel points to as a foreshadowing of the day of the Lord. For an eyewitness account of the 1915 locust invasion of Palestine see J. D. Whiting, “Jerusalem’s Locust Plague,” National Geographic 28 (December 1915): 511-50.
Joel 1:4 tn Or “has eaten.” This verb is repeated three times in v. 4 to emphasize the total devastation of the crops by this locust invasion.
Joel 1:4 tn The four Hebrew terms used in this verse are of uncertain meaning. English translations show a great deal of variation in dealing with these: (1) For גָּזָם (gazam) KJV has “palmerworm,” NEB “locust,” NAB “cutter,” NASB “gnawing locust,” NIV “locust swarm,” NKJV “chewing locust,” NRSV and NLT “cutting locust(s),”and NIrV “giant locusts”; (2) for אַרְבֶּה (ʾarbeh) KJV has “locust”; NEB “swarm”; NAB “locust swarm”; NASB, NKJV, NRSV, and NLT “swarming locust(s); NIV “great locusts”; and NIrV “common locusts”; (3) for יֶלֶק (yeleq) KJV has “cankerworm,” NEB “hopper,” NAB “grasshopper,” NASB “creeping locust,” NIV and NIrV “young locusts,” NKJV “crawling locust,” and NRSV and NLT “hopping locust(s)”; and (4) for חָסִיל (khasil) KJV has “caterpillar,” NEB “grub,” NAB “devourer,” NASB and NLT “stripping locust(s),” NIV and NIrV “other locusts,” NKJV “consuming locust,” and NRSV “destroying locust.” It is debated whether the Hebrew terms describe different species of locusts or similar insects, describe different developmental stages of the same species, or are virtual synonyms. While the last seems more likely, given the uncertainty over their exact meaning the present translation has transliterated the Hebrew terms in combination with the word “locust.”sn Four different words for “locust” are used in this verse. It is uncertain whether these words represent different life-stages of the locusts, or whether virtual synonyms are being used to underscore the severity of damage caused by the relentless waves of locust invasion. The latter seems more likely. Many interpreters have understood the locust plagues described here to be symbolic of invading armies that will devastate the land, but the symbolism could also work the other way, with real plagues of locusts described in the following verses as an invading army.
Joel 1:5 sn The word drunkards has a double edge here. Those accustomed to drinking too much must now lament the unavailability of wine. It also may hint that the people in general have become religiously inebriated and are unresponsive to the Lord. They are, as it were, drunkards from a spiritual standpoint.
Joel 1:5 sn Joel addresses the first of three groups particularly affected by the locust plague. In v. 5 he describes the effects on the drunkards, who no longer have a ready supply of intoxicating wine; in vv. 11-12 he describes the effects on the farmers, who have watched their labors come to naught because of the insect infestation; and in vv. 13-14 he describes the effects on the priests, who are no longer able to offer grain sacrifices and libations in the temple.
Joel 1:5 tn Heb “over the sweet wine, because it.” Cf. KJV, NIV, TEV, NLT “new wine.”
Joel 1:5 tn Heb “cut off” (so KJV, ASV, NASB, NRSV); cf. NAB “will be withheld.”
Joel 1:5 tn Heb “your mouth.” This is a synecdoche of part (the mouth) for whole (the person).
Joel 1:6 sn As becomes increasingly clear in what follows, this nation is to be understood figuratively. It refers to the locust invasion as viewed from the standpoint of its methodical, destructive advance across the land (BDB 156 s.v. גּוֹי 2). This term is used figuratively to refer to animals one other time (Zeph 2:14).
Joel 1:6 tn Heb “has come up against.”
Joel 1:6 tn Heb “its incisors are those of a lioness.” The sharp, cutting teeth are metonymical for the action of tearing apart and eating prey. The language is clearly hyperbolic. Neither locusts nor human invaders literally have teeth of this size. The prophet is using exaggerated and picturesque language to portray in vivid terms the enormity of the calamity. English versions vary greatly on the specifics. KJV has, “cheek teeth”; ASV, “jaw-teeth”; NAB, “molars”; and NASB, NIV, and NRSV, “fangs.”
Joel 1:7 tn Heb “it.” The Hebrew describes the locust swarm as a collective singular throughout vv. 6-7. The translation opts for plural forms envisioning the many locusts at work in order to better fit the descriptions from an English point of view.
Joel 1:7 tn Both “vines” and “fig trees” are singular in the Hebrew text, but are regarded as collective singulars. Either the prophet speaks in the first person singular about his own vine in order to personalize the description, or we hear the voice of God speaking, and “my vine” and “my fig tree” do double duty to both represent the foliage being destroyed as well as the nation.
Joel 1:7 tn Heb “it has completely stripped it bare.”
Joel 1:7 tn Heb “grow white.”sn Once choice leafy vegetation is no longer available to them, locusts have been known to consume the bark of small tree limbs, leaving them in an exposed and vulnerable condition. It is apparently this whitened condition of limbs that Joel is referring to here.
Joel 1:8 sn The verb is feminine singular, raising a question concerning its intended antecedent. A plural verb would be expected here, the idea being that all the inhabitants of the land should grieve. Perhaps Joel is thinking specifically of the city of Jerusalem, albeit in a representative sense. The choice of the feminine singular verb form has probably been influenced to some extent by the allusion to the young widow in the simile of v. 8.
Joel 1:8 tn Or “a young woman” (TEV, CEV). See the note on the phrase “husband to be” in the next line. The word בְּתוּלָה (b^etulah) can be used as a technical term for “virgin” but often just refers to a young woman, perhaps to a woman who has not had children.
Joel 1:8 tn Heb “over the husband of her youth.” The death of the husband is implied by the wailing.
Joel 1:8 sn Heb “the husband of her youth.” The woman described here may already be married, so the reference is to the death of a husband rather than a fiancé (a husband-to-be). Either way, the simile describes a painful and unexpected loss to which the national tragedy Joel is describing may be compared.
Joel 1:9 tn Heb “house.” So also in vv. 13, 14, 16.
Joel 1:9 tn Heb “grain offering and drink offering are cut off from the house of the Lord.”
Joel 1:10 tn Heb “the field has been utterly destroyed.” The term “field,” a collective singular for “fields,” is a metonymy for crops produced by the fields.
Joel 1:10 tn Joel uses intentionally alliterative language in the phrases שֻׁדַּד שָׂדֶה (shuddad sadeh, “the field is destroyed”) and אֲבְלָה אֲדָמָה (ʾav^elah ʾadamah, “the ground is in mourning”).
Joel 1:11 tn Heb “embarrassed”; or “be ashamed.”
Joel 1:12 tn This Hebrew word וְתַפּוּחַ (v^etappuakh) probably refers to the apple tree (so most English versions), but other suggestions that scholars have offered include the apricot, citron, or quince.
Joel 1:12 tn These words are not in the Hebrew text but are supplied in the translation for clarity.
Joel 1:12 tn Heb “the sons of man.”
Joel 1:13 tn Heb “put on.” There is no object present in the Hebrew text, but many translations assume “sackcloth” to be the understood object of the verb “put on.” Its absence in the Hebrew text of v. 13 is probably due to metrical considerations. The meter here is 3 + 3, and that has probably influenced the prophet’s choice of words.
Joel 1:13 tn Heb “for grain offering and drink offering are withheld from the house of your God.”
Joel 1:14 tn Heb “consecrate a fast” (so NASB).
Joel 1:14 tc The conjunction “and” does not appear in MT or LXX but does appear in some Qumran texts (4QXII^c and 4QXII^g).

1 Thessalonians 3:6-13

⁶But now Timothy has come^[a] to us from you and given us the good news of your faith and love and that you always think of us with affection^[b] and long to see us just as we also long to see you!^[c] ⁷So^[d] in all our distress and affliction, we were reassured about you, brothers and sisters,^[e] through your faith. ⁸For now we are alive again,^[f] if you stand firm in the Lord. ⁹For how can we thank God enough for you,^[g] for all the joy we feel^[h] because of you before our God? ¹⁰We pray earnestly night and day to see you in person^[i] and make up what may be lacking in your faith.

¹¹Now may God our Father himself and our Lord Jesus direct our way to you. ¹²And may the Lord cause you to increase and abound in love for one another and for all, just as we do for you, ¹³so that your hearts are strengthened in holiness to be blameless before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.^[j]

New English Translation (NET)

Prev Day

Top

Next Day

Use the calendar to view readings from this devotional.

Log in to read this devotional and:

Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Psalm 63[a]

A psalm of David, written when he was in the Judean wilderness.[b]

Footnotes

Introduction

A Locust Plague Foreshadows the Day of the Lord

A Call to Lament

Footnotes

Footnotes

Psalm 63^[a]

A psalm of David, written when he was in the Judean wilderness.^[b]