Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Prayer for Help

5 Hear my words, O Lord. Think about my crying. ² Listen to my cry for help, my King and my God. For I pray to you. ³ In the morning, O Lord, You will hear my voice. In the morning I will lay my prayers before You and will look up.

⁴ You are not a God Who is pleased with what is bad. The sinful cannot be with You. ⁵ The proud cannot stand before You. You hate all who do wrong. ⁶ You destroy those who tell lies. The Lord hates liars and men who kill other people.

⁷ But as for me, by Your great loving-kindness, I will come into Your house. At Your holy house I will put my face to the ground before You in love and fear. ⁸ O Lord, lead me in what is right and good, because of the ones who hate me. Make Your way straight in front of me.

⁹ For in their talk there is no truth. Their hearts destroy. Their mouths are like an open grave. With their tongues, they say sweet-sounding words that are not true. ¹⁰ Hold them guilty, O God! Let them fall by their own plans. Throw them out because of their many sins. For they have fought against You. ¹¹ But let all who put their trust in You be glad. Let them sing with joy forever. You make a covering for them, that all who love Your name may be glad in You. ¹² For You will make those happy who do what is right, O Lord. You will cover them all around with Your favor.

¹⁸ “Yet even in those days I will not make a complete end of you,” says the Lord. ¹⁹ “When your people say, ‘Why has the Lord our God done all these things to us?’ then you will say to them, ‘As you have left Me and served strange gods in your land, so you will serve strangers in a land that is not yours.’

²⁰ “Make this known in the family of Jacob and in Judah, saying, ²¹ ‘Hear this, O foolish people without understanding, who have eyes but do not see, who have ears but do not hear. ²² Do you not fear Me?’ says the Lord. ‘Do you not shake in fear before Me? For I have placed the sand to be on one side of the sea, a lasting wall that it cannot cross. Even if there are waves, they cannot pass. Even if they make much noise, they cannot cross over it. ²³ But these people have a strong-will and a heart that has turned against Me. They have turned aside and gone away. ²⁴ They do not say in their heart, “Let us fear the Lord our God, Who gives rain in its time, both the fall rain and the spring rain, Who keeps for us the weeks for gathering food.” ²⁵ Your wrong-doing has kept these good things away. Your sins have kept good from you. ²⁶ For sinful men are found among My people. They watch like men lying in wait watching for birds. They set a trap, and they catch men. ²⁷ Like a basket full of birds, their houses are full of lies and false ways. So they have become important and rich. ²⁸ They are fat and smooth, and have done many sinful acts. They do not do what is right for those whose parents have died so that they may do well. And they do not help fight for the rights of the poor. ²⁹ “Should I not punish these people?” says the Lord. “Should I not punish a nation such as this?”

³⁰ A very bad and surprising thing has happened in the land. ³¹ The men of God say things that are not true, and the religious leaders rule by their own thoughts. And My people love to have it this way! But what will you do in the end?

¹³ We always thank God that when you heard the Word of God from us, you believed it. You did not receive it as from men, but you received it as the Word of God. That is what it is. It is at work in the lives of you who believe. ¹⁴ Christian brothers, you became just like the churches in the country of Judea. You had to suffer from the men in your country as those churches had to suffer from the Jews. ¹⁵ It was the Jews who killed the Lord Jesus and the early preachers. The Jews made it hard for us and made us leave. They do not please God and are working against all men. ¹⁶ They tried to keep us from preaching the Good News to the people who are not Jews. The Jews do not want them saved from the punishment of sin. The lives of the Jews are full of more sin all the time. But now God’s anger has come to them at last.

¹⁷ Christian brothers, because we have not been able to be with you, our hearts have been with you. We have wanted very much to see you. ¹⁸ We wanted to come to you. I, Paul, have tried to come to you more than once but Satan kept us from coming. ¹⁹ Who is our hope or joy or crown of happiness? It is you, when you stand before our Lord Jesus Christ when He comes again. ²⁰ You are our pride and joy.