Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
It Is Better to Confess Sin
A maskil of David.
32 Happy is the person
whose sins are forgiven,
whose wrongs are pardoned.
2 Happy is the person
whom the Lord does not consider guilty
and in whom there is nothing false.
3 When I kept things to myself,
I felt weak deep inside me.
I moaned all day long.
4 Day and night you punished me.
My strength was gone as in the summer heat. Selah
5 Then I confessed my sins to you
and didn’t hide my guilt.
I said, “I will confess my sins to the Lord,”
and you forgave my guilt. Selah
6 For this reason, all who obey you
should pray to you while they still can.
When troubles rise like a flood,
they will not reach them.
7 You are my hiding place.
You protect me from my troubles
and fill me with songs of salvation. Selah
8 The Lord says, “I will make you wise and show you where to go.
I will guide you and watch over you.
9 So don’t be like a horse or donkey,
that doesn’t understand.
They must be led with bits and reins,
or they will not come near you.”
10 Wicked people have many troubles,
but the Lord’s love surrounds those who trust him.
11 Good people, rejoice and be happy in the Lord.
Sing all you whose hearts are right.
Judgment on the Nations
15 The Lord, the God of Israel, said this to me: “My anger is like the wine in a cup. Take it from my hand and make all the nations, to whom I am sending you, drink all of my anger from this cup. 16 They will drink my anger and stumble about and act like madmen because of the war I am going to send among them.”
17 So I took the cup from the Lord’s hand and went to those nations and made them drink from it. 18 I served this wine to the people of Jerusalem and the towns of Judah, and the kings and officers of Judah, so they would become a ruin. Then people would be shocked and would insult them and speak evil of them. And so it has been to this day. 19 I also made these people drink of the Lord’s anger: the king of Egypt, his servants, his officers, all his people, 20 and all the foreigners there; all the kings of the land of Uz; all the kings of the Philistines (the kings of the cities of Ashkelon, Gaza, Ekron, and the people left at Ashdod); 21 the people of Edom, Moab, and Ammon; 22 all the kings of Tyre and Sidon; all the kings of the coastal countries to the west; 23 the people of Dedan and Tema and Buz; all who cut their hair short; 24 all the kings of Arabia; and the kings of the people who live in the desert; 25 all the kings of Zimri, Elam, and Media; 26 and all the kings of the north, near and far, one after the other. I made all the kingdoms on earth drink from the cup of the Lord’s anger, but the king of Babylon will drink from this cup after all the others.
27 “Then say to them, ‘This is what the Lord All-Powerful, the God of Israel, says: Drink this cup of my anger. Get drunk from it and vomit. Fall down and don’t get up because of the war I am sending among you!’
28 “If they refuse to take the cup from your hand and drink, say to them, ‘The Lord All-Powerful says this: You must drink from this cup. 29 Look! I am already bringing disaster on Jerusalem, the city that is called by my name. Do you think you will not be punished? You will be punished! I am sending war on all the people of the earth, says the Lord All-Powerful.’
44 “The Holy Tent where God spoke to our ancestors was with them in the desert. God told Moses how to make this Tent, and he made it like the plan God showed him. 45 Later, Joshua led our ancestors to capture the lands of the other nations. Our people went in, and God forced the other people out. When our people went into this new land, they took with them this same Tent they had received from their ancestors. They kept it until the time of David, 46 who pleased God and asked God to let him build a house for him, the God of Jacob.[a] 47 But Solomon was the one who built the Temple.
48 “But the Most High does not live in houses that people build with their hands. As the prophet says:
49 ‘Heaven is my throne,
and the earth is my footstool.
So do you think you can build a house for me? says the Lord.
Do I need a place to rest?
50 Remember, my hand made all these things!’” Isaiah 66:1–2
51 Stephen continued speaking: “You stubborn people! You have not given your hearts to God, nor will you listen to him! You are always against what the Holy Spirit is trying to tell you, just as your ancestors were. 52 Your ancestors tried to hurt every prophet who ever lived. Those prophets said long ago that the One who is good would come, but your ancestors killed them. And now you have turned against and killed the One who is good. 53 You received the law of Moses, which God gave you through his angels, but you haven’t obeyed it.”
The Holy Bible, New Century Version®. Copyright © 2005 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.