Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
Asaph wrote this psalm.
God is our judge[a]
50 God, the great God, the Lord, is speaking.
He is calling everybody on the earth,
from where the sun rises in the east,
to where it goes down in the west.
2 God is shining out from Zion,
that most beautiful place.
3 Our God is coming,
and he does not come quietly!
A fire burns up everything that is in front of him.
There is a great storm all round him.
4 He calls to the skies above,
and to the earth below.
They must watch while he judges his people.
5 He says, ‘Bring my people to me.
They are the people who offered sacrifices to me,
to agree our covenant.’
6 The skies above show that God is righteous,
and God himself is the judge.
Selah.
7 He says, ‘Listen to me, my people,
and I will speak to you.
I have something to say against you, Israel.
I am God, your God.
8 You offer sacrifices and burnt offerings to me all the time
but that is not why I speak against you.
9 I do not need a bull from your farm,
or goats from your fields.
10 All the wild animals of the forest belong to me!
All the cows on a thousand hills belong to me!
11 I know every bird in the mountains,
as well as all the insects.
12 Even if I did become hungry,
I would not tell you.
All the world belongs to me,
and everything that is in it.
13 Do I eat the meat of bulls? No!
Do I drink the blood of goats? No!
14 Say “thank you” to me as your offering.
Do whatever you have promised to do for me,
the Most High God.
15 Pray to me when you are in trouble.
Then I will rescue you,
and you will praise me.’[b]
16 But God says this to the wicked people:
‘It is useless for you to speak about my commands,
or about my covenant.
17 For you hate my teaching,
and you refuse to accept my message.
18 If you see a robber,
you run to help him!
You become friends with adulterers.
19 You speak about evil things,
and you are always telling lies.
20 You say bad things about your own brother,
and you speak against your own family!
21 You did all these things,
and I said nothing.
So you thought that I was as bad as you are.
But now I am warning you!
I will tell you clearly
what you have done wrong.
22 So think carefully about this,
all you people who have turned away from me.
If not, I will tear you into pieces,
and nobody will be able to save you.
23 If anyone wants to praise me,
they should say “thank you” to me as their offering.
If anyone obeys my commands,
I will show them my power to save people.’
Nehemiah tells people to obey God's Law
13 On that day, we read the book of Moses aloud to the people. One of the laws said that no descendant of Ammon or Moab should ever join with God's people when they met together. 2 This was because they had not given the Israelites food and water. Instead, they had paid Balaam to curse the Israelites. But God did not agree to curse them. He blessed them instead.[a]
3 When the Israelite people heard this law, they sent away all the people who had foreign ancestors.
23 Also at that time, I discovered that men from Judah had married foreign women.[a] They were women who came from Ashdod, Ammon and Moab. 24 Half of their children spoke the language of Ashdod, or a language of the other foreign nations. They did not know how to speak the language of Judah.
25 I was angry with them. I asked God to curse them. I hit some of the men. I pulled out the hair of some of them. I told them to make a promise in God's name. I said to them, ‘You must not let your daughters marry the sons of those foreign people. You must not let their daughters marry your sons. You yourselves must not marry foreign women either. 26 Solomon, king of Israel, did a bad thing when he married foreign women. There was no other king as great as him in any other nation. God loved him. God chose him to be king over all Israel. But Solomon's foreign wives caused him to do bad things, even though he was so great.
27 We can never agree to all the evil things that you have done. If we all married foreign women, we would not be faithful to our God.’
28 Joiada was the son of Eliashib, the leader of the priests. One of Joiada's sons had married a daughter of Sanballat, who came from Horon. I sent Joiada's son away from Jerusalem.
29 My God, remember what these people have done. They have not been faithful to you as your priests. They have spoiled the covenant that you made with the priests and the other descendants of Levi.
30 After that, I made the priests and the Levites clean to serve God. I made them become separate from any foreign thing. I told each of them which job they should do. 31 I also made sure that people brought wood to the temple for sacrifices on the altar. I made them bring the first crops and fruits from their fields for the offerings.
My God, please remember to bless me.
9 I already wrote a letter to you. I told you that you must not be friends with people who have sex in wrong ways. 10 But I was not talking about people who do not know God. Those people have sex in wrong ways. They want many things to please themselves. They deceive people and they rob them. They worship idols. You could not keep away from all people like that, unless you left this world!
11 Now I am telling you this: I was talking about people who say that they are believers. If they say that, but they have sex in a wrong way, do not be friends with them. It is the same if they want many things for themselves. They may worship idols. They may insult people. They may often get drunk. They may deceive people and rob them. If one of your own group does things like that, do not even agree to eat a meal with them. 12-13 It is not right for me to decide about people who do not belong to the church group. God will judge those people. But you should decide what is right for the people who do belong to your group. Do what the Bible says:
‘Send the bad person away from among yourselves.’[a]
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