Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
The Lord Takes Care of His People
A miktam of David.
16 Protect me, God,
because I trust in you.
2 I said to the Lord, “You are my Lord.
Every good thing I have comes from you.”
3 There are godly people in the world.
I enjoy them.
4 But those who turn to idols will have much pain.
I will not offer blood to those idols.
I won’t even speak their names.
5 No, the Lord is all I need.
He takes care of me.
6 My share in life has been pleasant.
My part has been beautiful.
7 I praise the Lord because he guides me.
Even at night, I feel his leading.
8 I keep the Lord before me always.
Because he is close by my side
I will not be hurt.
9 So I rejoice, and I am glad.
Even my body has hope.
10 This is because you will not leave me in the grave.
You will not let your holy one rot.
11 You will teach me God’s way to live.
Being with you will fill me with joy.
At your right hand I will find pleasure forever.
15 Israel grew fat and kicked.
They were fat and full and firm.
They left the God who made them.
They rejected the Rock who saved them.
16 They made God jealous with foreign gods.
They made him angry with hated idols.
17 They made sacrifices to demons, not God.
They were gods they had never known.
They were new gods from nearby.
Your ancestors did not fear them.
18 You left God who is the Rock, your Father.
You forgot the God who gave you birth.
19 The Lord saw this and rejected them.
His sons and daughters had made him angry.
20 He said, “I will turn away from them.
I will see what will happen to them.
They are evil people.
They are unfaithful children.
21 They used things that are not gods to make me jealous.
They used worthless idols to make me angry.
So I will use those who are not a nation to make them jealous.
I will use a nation that does not understand to make them angry.
22 My anger has started a fire.
It burns down to where the dead are.
It will burn up the ground and its crops.
And it will set fire to the mountains.
23 “I will pile troubles upon them.
I will shoot my arrows at them.
24 They will be starved and sick.
They will be destroyed by terrible diseases.
I will send them vicious animals
and gliding, poisonous snakes.
25 In the streets the sword will kill.
In their homes there will be terror.
Young men and women will die.
So will babies and gray-haired men.
26 I will scatter them as I said.
And no one will remember them.
27 But I didn’t want their enemy to brag.
Their enemy might misunderstand.
They might say, ‘We have won!
The Lord has done none of this.’”
39 “Now you will see that I am the one God!
There is no god but me.
I send life and death.
I can hurt, and I can heal.
No one can escape from me.
40 I raise my hand toward heaven and make this promise:
As surely as I live forever,
41 I will sharpen my flashing sword.
And I will take it in my hand to judge.
I will punish my enemies.
I will pay back those who hate me.
42 My arrows will be covered with their blood.
My sword will eat their flesh.
The blood will flow from those who are killed and the captives.
The heads of the enemy leaders will be cut off.”
43 Be happy, nations, with his people.
He will repay you for the blood of his servants.
He will punish his enemies.
And he will remove the sin of his land and people.
21 Jesus warned them not to tell anyone. Then he said, 22 “The Son of Man must suffer many things. He will be rejected by the Jewish elders, the leading priests, and the teachers of the law. The Son of Man will be killed. But after three days he will be raised from death.”
23 Jesus went on to say to all of them, “If anyone wants to follow me, he must say ‘no’ to the things he wants. Every day he must be willing even to die on a cross, and he must follow me. 24 Whoever wants to save his life will lose it. And whoever gives his life for me will save it. 25 It is worth nothing for a man to have the whole world, if he himself is destroyed or lost. 26 If anyone is ashamed of me and my teaching, then I[a] will be ashamed of him. I will be ashamed of him at the time I come with my glory and with the glory of the Father and the holy angels. 27 I tell you the truth. Some of you people standing here will see the kingdom of God before you die.”
The Holy Bible, International Children’s Bible® Copyright© 1986, 1988, 1999, 2015 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission.