Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
Psalm 123
A song for those journeying to worship.
1 I raise my eyes to fix my gaze on You,
for Your throne resides in the heavens.
2 Just as the eyes of servants
closely watch the hand of their masters,
Just as a maid carefully observes
the slightest gesture of her mistress,
In the same way we look to You, Eternal One,
waiting for our God to pour out His mercy upon us.
3 O Eternal One, show us Your mercy. We beg You.
We are not strangers to contempt and pain.
4 We have suffered more than our share
of ridicule and contempt from self-appointed critics who live easy lives
and pompously display their own importance.
7 The word of the Eternal came to Jeremiah.
Eternal One: 2 Go now and take a stand for Me at the entrance to My temple. Proclaim there My message. Tell all the people of Judah who enter these gates to worship the Eternal to stop and listen to the word of the Eternal. 3 Tell them this is what I, the Eternal, Commander of heavenly armies and God of Israel, have to say:
“Change your ways and stop what you are doing, and I will let you live in this land. 4 Do not rely on the misguided words, ‘The temple of the Eternal, the temple of the Eternal, the temple of the Eternal,’ as if the temple’s presence alone will protect you. 5 But if you genuinely change your ways and stop what you are doing; if you deal with each other fairly; 6 if you don’t oppress foreigners, orphans, and widows; if you don’t shed the blood of the innocent in this land; and if you don’t practice the self-destructive worship of other gods; 7 then I will let you live forever in this land I promised your ancestors long ago.
One of the most important and difficult messages Jeremiah ever delivers is given at the entrance to the temple. In the seventh century, the problem isn’t that people are refusing to worship, for the crowds continue to form at the temple in Jerusalem, but that they are embracing a superficial form of worship. They are acting as if their motives do not matter; their immoral behavior seems to be of little or no concern. As long as they have the temple—with its rituals and rich history—they believe they are immune to anything. As long as they have the building in their midst, they seem to think they have God—as if He could be contained in this beautiful and storied structure.
Imagine the scene as this bold prophet speaks to the crowds streaming into the temple area. Imagine how startling these words sound to people who think religious activity and merely showing up at the temple will protect them. Listen now as Jeremiah preaches strong words about the dangers of worship gone bad.
8 “But instead, you are clinging to lies and illusions that are worthless. 9 Do you think you can steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, make offerings to Baal, and chase after other gods and still expect Me to protect you? 10 Do you think all it takes is for you to run back to Me in this house, which is called by My name, and say, ‘We’re safe now’? Does this somehow make it all right to do these vile things in front of Me? 11 Do you think this house, which is called by My name, is a den of thieves?[a] I see what you’re doing.
12 “Go and take notice of what happened in Shiloh, the place where I first met your ancestors in the tabernacle that bore My name. See what I did in response to the wickedness of My people, Israel. 13 Now, because of all the evil you have done, and because when I spoke to you time and again you never listened, and because when I called your name you never answered, 14 watch what I will do to this house which bears My name, this sacred place I gave to you and your fathers. I will do to this temple, where you have put your trust, what I did to Shiloh all those years ago. 15 I will throw you from My presence, just as I did to all your kinsmen in the Northern Kingdom, the descendants of Ephraim.”
8 Now let’s see if I have it straight. You suppose that you already have all you need. You already are rich and prosperous. And without us you’ve already begun to reign like kings. To be honest, I wish you did reign so that we could reign with you 9 because it seems to me that God has put His emissaries[a] at the end of the line, like convicts in their final walk to certain death. We have become a spectacle to the rest of the world—to all people and heaven’s messengers. 10 We are nothing but fools for the cause of the Anointed One while you are wise in Him. Am I right? We are feeble and tired while you are mighty and full of life. You are well respected by others while we’re treated as contemptuous creatures by pretty much everyone everywhere. 11 Up to this very minute, we are famished, we are thirsty, and our clothes are shabby, practically rotted to pieces. We are homeless, hapless wanderers. 12 But still we labor, working with our hands to meet our needs because, despite all of this, when a fist is raised against us, we respond with a blessing; when we face violence and persecution, we stay on mission; and 13 when others choose taunts and slander against us, we speak words of encouragement and reconciliation. We’re treated as the scum of the earth—and I am not talking in the past tense; I mean today! We’re the scraps of society, nothing more than the foulest human rubbish.
The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.