Psalm 79-80

Contemporary English Version

(A psalm by Asaph.)

Have Pity on Jerusalem

¹^(A) Our God, foreign nations
    have taken your land,
    disgraced your temple,
    and left Jerusalem in ruins.
²They have fed the bodies
of your servants
    to flesh-eating birds;
your loyal people are food
    for savage animals.
³All Jerusalem is covered
    with their blood,
and there is no one left
    to bury them.
⁴Every nation around us
    sneers and makes fun.

⁵Our Lord, will you keep on
    being angry?
Will your angry feelings
    keep flaming up like fire?
⁶Get angry with those nations
that don't know you
    and won't worship you!
⁷They have gobbled up
Jacob's descendants
    and left the land in ruins.

⁸^(B) Don't make us pay for the sins
    of our ancestors.
Have pity and come quickly!
    We are completely helpless.
⁹Our God, you keep us safe.
    Now help us! Rescue us.
Forgive our sins
    and bring honor to yourself.

¹⁰Why should nations ask us,
    “Where is your God?”
Let us and the other nations
    see you take revenge
for your servants who died
    a violent death.

¹¹Listen to the prisoners groan!
Let your mighty power save all
    who are sentenced to die.
¹²Each of those nations sneered
    at you, our Lord.
Now let others sneer at them,
    seven times as much.
¹³Then we, your people,
    will always thank you.
We are like sheep
    with you as our shepherd,
and all generations
    will hear us praise you.

(A psalm by Asaph for the music leader. To the tune “Lilies of the Agreement.”)

Help Our Nation

¹^(C) Shepherd of Israel, you lead
    the descendants of Joseph,
and you sit on your throne
    above the winged creatures.^[a]
Listen to our prayer
    and let your light shine
²for the tribes of Ephraim,
Benjamin, and Manasseh.
    Save us by your power.

³Our God, make us strong again!
Smile on us and save us.

⁴Lord God All-Powerful,
    how much longer
will the prayers of your people
    make you angry?
⁵You gave us tears for food,
and you made us drink them
    by the bowlful.
⁶Because of you,
our enemies who live nearby
    laugh and joke about us.
⁷Our God, make us strong again!
    Smile on us and save us.

⁸We were like a grapevine
    you brought out of Egypt.
You chased other nations away
    and planted us here.
⁹Then you cleared the ground,
and we put our roots deep,
    spreading over the land.
¹⁰Shade from this vine covered
    the mountains.
Its branches climbed
the mighty cedars
¹¹    and stretched to the sea;
its new growth reached
    to the river.^[b]

¹²Our Lord, why have you
torn down the wall
    from around the vineyard?
You let everyone who walks by
    pick the grapes.
¹³Now the vine is gobbled up
by pigs from the forest
    and other wild animals.

¹⁴God All-Powerful,
    please do something!
Look down from heaven
and see what's happening
    to this vine.
¹⁵With your own hands
    you planted its roots,
and you raised it
    as your very own.

¹⁶Enemies chopped the vine down
    and set it on fire.
Now show your anger
    and destroy them.
¹⁷But help the one who sits
    at your right side,^[c]
the one you raised
    to be your very own.
¹⁸Then we will never turn away.
Put new life into us,
    and we will worship you.

¹⁹Lord God All-Powerful,
make us strong again!
Smile on us and save us.

Footnotes

80.1 winged creatures: Two winged creatures made of gold were on the top of the sacred chest and were symbols of the Lord's throne on earth (see Exodus 25.18).
80.11 the sea … the river: The Mediterranean Sea and the Euphrates River were part of the ideal boundaries for Israel.
80.17 right side: See the note at 16.11.

Romans 11:1-18

Contemporary English Version

God Has Not Rejected His People

11 ^(A) Am I saying that God has turned his back on his people? Certainly not! I am one of the people of Israel, and I myself am a descendant of Abraham from the tribe of Benjamin. ²God did not turn his back on his chosen people. Don't you remember reading in the Scriptures how Elijah complained to God about the people of Israel? ³^(B) He said, “Lord, they killed your prophets and destroyed your altars. I am the only one left, and now they want to kill me.”

⁴^(C) But the Lord told Elijah, “I still have 7,000 followers who have not worshiped Baal.” ⁵It is the same way now. God treated the people of Israel with undeserved grace, and so a few of them are still his followers. ⁶This happened because of God's undeserved kindness and not because of anything they have done. It could not have happened except for God's gift of undeserved grace.

⁷This means that only a chosen few of the people of Israel found what all of them were searching for. And the rest of them were stubborn, ⁸^(D) just as the Scriptures say,

“God made them so stupid
that their eyes are blind,
and their ears
are still deaf.”

⁹^(E) Then David said,

“Turn their meals
    into bait for a trap,
so that they will stumble
and be given
    what they deserve.
¹⁰Blindfold their eyes!
    Don't let them see.
Bend their backs
beneath a burden
    that will never be lifted.”

Gentiles Will Be Saved

¹¹Do I mean that the people of Israel fell, never to get up again? Certainly not! Their failure made it possible for the Gentiles to be saved, and this will make the people of Israel jealous. ¹²But if the rest of the world's people were helped so much by their sin and loss, they will be helped even more by their full return.

¹³I am now speaking to you Gentiles, and as long as I am an apostle to you, I will take pride in my work. ¹⁴I hope in this way to make some of my own people jealous enough to be saved. ¹⁵When Israel rejected God,^[a] the rest of the people in the world were able to turn to him. So when God makes friends with Israel, it will be like bringing the dead back to life. ¹⁶If part of a batch of dough is made holy by being offered to God, then all of the dough is holy. If the roots of a tree are holy, the rest of the tree is holy too.

¹⁷You Gentiles are like branches of a wild olive tree made to be part of a cultivated olive tree. You have taken the place of some branches that were cut away from it. And because of this, you enjoy the blessings that come from being part of that cultivated tree. ¹⁸But don't think you are better than the branches that were cut away. Just remember you are not supporting the roots of this tree. Its roots are supporting you.

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