Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Prayer of a Good Man

26 O Lord, stand by me for I have lived my life without blame. I have trusted in the Lord without changing. ² Test me and try me, O Lord. Test my mind and my heart. ³ For Your loving-kindness is always in front of my eyes. And I have walked in Your truth. ⁴ I do not sit with men who lie about the truth. I would not be seen with those who pretend to be someone they are not. ⁵ I hate the meeting of sinners, and will not sit with the sinful. ⁶ I will wash my hands of any guilt. And I will go around Your altar, O Lord. ⁷ I will speak with the voice of thanks, and tell of all Your great works.

⁸ O Lord, I love the house where You live, the place where Your shining-greatness lives.

¹³ Then I said, “O Lord God, the ones who speak in Your name are telling them, ‘You will not see the sword and you will not go hungry. But I will give you lasting peace in this place.’” ¹⁴ Then the Lord said to me, “Those men are speaking lies in My name. I have not sent them, or told them, or spoken to them. They are telling you a false dream of a false future that means nothing. They are speaking the lies of their own hearts. ¹⁵ So this is what the Lord says about those men who tell what is going to happen in the future using My name. I did not send them, yet they keep saying, ‘There will be no sword or hunger in this land.’ So by the sword and by hunger those false teachers will be destroyed! ¹⁶ And the people they tell these things to will be thrown out into the streets of Jerusalem because of hunger and the sword. There will be no one to bury them, or their wives, or their sons, or their daughters. For I will pour out their own sin upon them. ¹⁷ You will say to them, ‘Let my eyes flow with tears without stopping night and day. For my people have been crushed with a very hard beating. ¹⁸ If I go out to the country, I see those killed by the sword! Or if I go into the city, I see diseases because of hunger! For both the man who speaks for God and the religious leader have gone around and around in the land they do not know.’”

5 Do as God would do. Much-loved children want to do as their fathers do. ² Live with love as Christ loved you. He gave Himself for us, a gift on the altar to God which was as a sweet smell to God.

³ Do not let sex sins or anything sinful be even talked about among those who belong to Christ. Do not always want everything. ⁴ Do not be guilty of telling bad stories and of foolish talk. These things are not for you to do. Instead, you are to give thanks for what God has done for you. ⁵ Be sure of this! No person who does sex sins or who is not pure will have any part in the holy nation of Christ and of God. The same is true for the person who always wants what other people have. This becomes a god to him. ⁶ Do not let anyone lead you in the wrong way with foolish talk. The anger of God comes on such people because they choose to not obey Him.