Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

David wrote this psalm for the music leader.

It was when the prophet Nathan came to him, after David had sex with Bathsheba.

Please forgive me, Lord^[a]

⁶ Noah was 600 years old when the deep water covered the earth. ⁷ Noah and his wife went into the ship. His sons and their wives also went in. They all went into the ship to be safe from the deep water. ⁸ Pairs of clean animals and unclean animals came to Noah in the ship.^[a] Also, pairs of birds and pairs of all the living things that move across the ground came to him. ⁹ Each pair was one male and one female. They all came to Noah in the ship. Everything happened as God had said to Noah. ¹⁰ After seven days had passed, God sent the deep water to cover the earth.

The deep water goes away

8 Then God thought of Noah, and all the wild animals and the farm animals that were with him in the ship. He caused a wind to blow over the earth. As a result, the water began to go down. ² Streams of water stopped coming up from below the earth. Rain stopped coming down from the sky. ³ The deep water continued to go down for 150 days. ⁴ On the 17th day of the seventh month, the ship stopped on the ground. It was sitting on the top of Ararat mountains. ⁵ The water continued to go down until the tenth month. On the first day of the tenth month, the tops of the mountains appeared above the water.

God will punish false teachers

2 Many years ago, there were false prophets among God's people. They did not speak God's true messages. In the same way, there will also be false teachers among you. They will come among you and they will teach you things that are not true. Their wrong ideas will deceive people. Those false teachers will even speak against the Master, who paid the price for their sins. As a result, they will bring trouble on themselves that quickly destroys them. ² Many people will believe these false teachers. They will live in a bad way, like the false teachers. As a result, other people will say bad things against God's true way to live.

³ The false teachers want you to give them money. So they will teach things that are not true. A long time ago, God already decided that he must punish them. God is ready to do that now. Certainly, he will soon destroy them.

⁴ God even punished the angels who refused to obey him. He threw them down into the deep hole of hell. He tied them up and he kept them in that completely dark place. They will remain there until the day when God will judge them.^[a]

⁵ Also, a long time ago, God punished all the bad people who lived in the world. He sent water to cover over all the earth. All the people who had turned away from him drowned in the water. But God kept Noah safe. Noah had told people God's message that they should do right things. So God saved Noah, and seven other people, from the water.^[b]

⁶ Later, God punished the people who lived in the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. Because they did bad things, God decided to destroy them. He burned those cities completely, so that only ashes remained. When God did that, he showed what will happen to all people who refuse to obey him. ⁷ But God saved Lot from danger. Lot was a good man. He was very sad because the people in Sodom did not obey God's laws. They lived in a very bad way. ⁸ Lot lived among those bad people. Every day, he saw the bad things that they did. Every day, he heard the bad things that they said. As a result, Lot had much trouble in his mind, because he was a good man.^[c]

⁹ We know that the Lord God has done all these things in past times. He knows how to save people who respect him from their troubles. But he will continue to punish the people who refuse to obey him. He will keep them until the day when he will judge them. ¹⁰ God will certainly punish those people who want bad things for themselves. They do the wrong things that their bodies want to do. They do not want to obey anyone's authority.

These false teachers are not afraid of what other people think about them. They think that they themselves are very important. They are not afraid to say many bad things against the great angels in heaven.^[d]