Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

73 How good God is to Israel—to those whose hearts are pure. ² But as for me, I came so close to the edge of the cliff! My feet were slipping and I was almost gone. ³ For I was envious of the prosperity of the proud and wicked. ⁴ Yes, all through life their road is smooth!^[a] They grow sleek and fat. ⁵ They aren’t always in trouble and plagued with problems like everyone else, ⁶ so their pride sparkles like a jeweled necklace, and their clothing is woven of cruelty! ⁷ These fat cats have everything their hearts could ever wish for! ⁸ They scoff at God and threaten his people. How proudly they speak! ⁹ They boast against the very heavens, and their words strut through the earth.

¹⁰ And so God’s people are dismayed and confused and drink it all in. ¹¹ “Does God realize what is going on?” they ask. ¹² “Look at these men of arrogance; they never have to lift a finger—theirs is a life of ease; and all the time their riches multiply.”

¹³ Have I been wasting my time? Why take the trouble to be pure? ¹⁴ All I get out of it is trouble and woe—every day and all day long! ¹⁵ If I had really said that, I would have been a traitor to your people. ¹⁶ Yet it is so hard to explain it—this prosperity of those who hate the Lord. ¹⁷ Then one day I went into God’s sanctuary to meditate and thought about the future of these evil men. ¹⁸ What a slippery path they are on—suddenly God will send them sliding over the edge of the cliff and down to their destruction: ¹⁹ an instant end to all their happiness, an eternity of terror. ²⁰ Their present life is only a dream! They will awaken to the truth as one awakens from a dream of things that never really were!

²¹ When I saw this, what turmoil filled my heart! ²² I saw myself so stupid and so ignorant; I must seem like an animal to you, O God. ²³ But even so, you love me! You are holding my right hand! ²⁴ You will keep on guiding me all my life with your wisdom and counsel, and afterwards receive me into the glories of heaven!^{[b] 25} Whom have I in heaven but you? And I desire no one on earth as much as you! ²⁶ My health fails; my spirits droop, yet God remains! He is the strength of my heart; he is mine forever!

²⁷ But those refusing to worship God will perish, for he destroys those serving other gods.

²⁸ But as for me, I get as close to him as I can! I have chosen him, and I will tell everyone about the wonderful ways he rescues me.

7 This is what the Lord God showed me in a vision: He was preparing a vast swarm of locusts to destroy all the main crop that sprang up after the first mowing, which went as taxes to the king. ² They ate everything in sight. Then I said, “O Lord God, please forgive your people! Don’t send them this plague! If you turn against Israel, what hope is there? For Israel is so small!”

³ So the Lord relented and did not fulfill the vision. “I won’t do it,” he told me.

⁴ Then the Lord God showed me a great fire he had prepared to punish them; it had burned up the waters and was devouring the entire land.

⁵ Then I said, “O Lord God, please don’t do it. If you turn against them, what hope is there? For Israel is so small!”

⁶ Then the Lord turned from this plan too, and said, “I won’t do that either.”

¹⁸ Now, Timothy, my son, here is my command to you: Fight well in the Lord’s battles, just as the Lord told us through his prophets that you would. ¹⁹ Cling tightly to your faith in Christ and always keep your conscience clear, doing what you know is right. For some people have disobeyed their consciences and have deliberately done what they knew was wrong. It isn’t surprising that soon they lost their faith in Christ after defying God like that. ²⁰ Hymenaeus and Alexander are two examples of this. I had to give them over to Satan to punish them until they could learn not to bring shame to the name of Christ.