Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
Hallelujah, God helps weak people[a]
113 Hallelujah! Praise the Lord!
Servants of the Lord, praise him!
Praise the name of the Lord!
2 Everyone should praise the Lord
now and for ever!
3 The Lord deserves that people praise him,
from where the sun rises in the east,
to where it goes down in the west.
4 The Lord rules over all nations.
His glory is great
higher than the heavens!
5 There is nobody like the Lord our God.
He sits on his throne high above us.
6 He bends down to look below,
at the sky and the earth.
7 He lifts poor people out of the dirt.
And he lifts up weak people from the ashes.
8 He gives them a seat with princes,
the princes who rule his own people.
9 He makes the wife who cannot give birth
into a happy mother of children.
Hallelujah! Praise the Lord!
17 The Lord gave this message to me: 18 ‘Son of man, Israel's people have become like dirt to me. They are like useless bits of metal that remain after silver is made pure in a hot oven. 19 So this is what the Lord God says: All of you have become like useless dirt. So listen to me! I will bring you all together into the middle of Jerusalem. 20 It will be like a hot oven that I put you in. It will be like an oven where men cause different metals to melt to make them pure. Because I am very angry with you, I will bring you into the city to punish you there. 21 I will put you in my oven, Jerusalem. And I will burn you with my hot anger. 22 My great anger will cause you to melt, like men cause silver to melt in a hot oven. Then you will know that I am the Lord. And you will know that I have punished you with my anger.’
23 The Lord gave this message to me: 24 ‘Son of man, say to the land of Israel, “I am angry with you. Because of that, you will receive no rain to make you clean.”
25 The rulers in the land hurt people, like strong lions that tear animals in pieces. They use their power to destroy people. They take for themselves riches and valuable things that belong to other people. They have killed many men so that there are now many widows in the land.
26 The priests in the land do not obey my law. They do not respect my holy things. They do not think that holy things are different from ordinary things. They say that unclean things and clean things are the same.[a] They refuse to make my Sabbath days special. Because of this, people do not give me any honour.
27 The officers in the land are like wolves that catch other animals and tear them into pieces. They use their power to murder people so that they can take their money for themselves.
28 The prophets in the land give false messages. They say that bad things are good. They see false visions. They tell lies about what will happen. They say, “This is what the Almighty Lord says.” But I, the Lord, have not spoken to them.
29 The people in the land make people give them money. They rob people. They are cruel to poor people and to weak people. They cheat foreign people who live among them. They do not allow them to have justice.
30 I looked among the people for a man who would make the land safe. He would make it a good, strong place again, with nothing bad in it. Then I would not destroy it. But I could not find anyone like that. 31 So I will certainly destroy them. I will punish them with my great anger, like a fire that burns them completely. I will now punish them as they deserve for their sins. That is what the Almighty Lord says.’
God loves us very much
31 So, because of all the things that God does for us, we can say this: If God is working on our behalf, nobody can really do anything against us. 32 God did not even keep his own Son safe. Instead, he gave his Son to die on behalf of all of us. So certainly, God will continue to be kind to us. As well as his Son, he will give to us all things that we need. 33 Nobody can say that God's people are guilty. God himself has accepted us as right with him. 34 So nobody can say that God should still punish us. Nobody can say that, because Christ Jesus himself died on our behalf. And God raised him so that he became alive again after his death. Now Christ is sitting at God's right side in heaven.[a] He himself is praying to God on our behalf.
35 Christ will always continue to love us. Nothing can stop that! We may have troubles. Things may make us sad or afraid. People may do bad things to us. We may have no food or no clothes. There may be great danger. People may even try to kill us. But none of these things can stop Christ from loving us. 36 As it says in the Bible:
‘Because we are your people, God,
people try to kill us all the time.
They think that we are like sheep,
and we are ready to be killed.’[b]
37 Because God loves us, none of these troubles can ever beat us. He makes us win against them. 38-39 I am sure of this. Nothing can stop God from loving us. Death cannot do that. Life cannot do that. Angels cannot do that, nor can demons do that. Nothing that happens to us now, or that will happen in a future time can do that. No powerful spirits can do that. Nothing that is high above the world can do that, nor anything that is deep down below the ground. Nothing else in the whole universe can stop God from loving us. Because of our Lord Christ Jesus, we know how much God loves us.
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