Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
11 Lord, teach me how I should live.
Then I will obey your truth.
Teach me to serve you with all that I am,
so that I respect you with fear.
12 My Lord and my God,
I will thank you with all my strength.
I will praise your name for ever!
13 I know that you love me very much
with your faithful love.
You will continue to keep my life safe,
so that I do not go down into the deep hole of death.
14 God, proud people are attacking me.
Cruel men have joined together to kill me.
They do not respect you at all.
15 But you, my Lord, are a kind God
who forgives people.
You do not quickly become angry,
and your faithful love is very great.
We can always trust you
to do what you have promised.
16 Turn to me and be kind to me.
I am your servant, so make me strong.
Please rescue your slave!
17 Help me, so that I know you are pleased with me.
Then my enemies will see it,
and they will be ashamed.
They will know that you, Lord,
have helped me and comforted me.
False gods have no power
21 The Lord, Israel's King, says,
‘Come and show me what you can do!
Tell me clearly what power you have!
22 Bring your idols into court.
Let them tell us what will happen in future years.
Let them tell us what happened in the past.
Then we can think about those things.
We will understand what happened in the end.
Or ask them to tell us about future events!
23 If they can tell us what will happen in future years,
we will know that they really are gods.
Tell them to do something,
a good thing or a bad thing.
That would really surprise us,
or even frighten us!
24 But no! Your idols are useless.
There is nothing that they can do.
Anybody who chooses to worship them
has turned against God!
25 I have woken up a ruler,
who is coming with his army from the north.
He comes from a land in the east, where the sun rises,
and he will use my name to call to me.
He will walk over rulers of other nations
as if they are mud.
He will push them down with his feet,
like a potter who prepares his clay.
26 Tell me, who decided in the beginning,
that all these things must happen?
Who told us about them before they happened?
Then we could say, “He was right!”
None of your idols said anything about it!
Nobody heard them say a word!
27 I, the Lord, was the first person
to tell the good news to Zion.
I sent someone to Jerusalem to say,
“Look, they have arrived!”
28 I looked among your idols,
to see who might be a good advisor.
But none of them could help.
None of them could answer my questions.
29 Look! All the idols are useless.
They can do nothing.
Their images are as weak as a breath of wind.’
Do not turn away from God's message
2 So we must be very careful. We must continue to remember the message that we have heard about God's Son. Then we will not go in the wrong direction, and turn away from God. 2 The message that God spoke by angels was certainly powerful.[a] God punished people when they did not obey the Law that he gave to Moses. In a completely right way he punished people who did anything wrong.
3 As for us, God has shown us the way that he will save us from our sins. So we must not forget God's message about his great way to save us. If we do, he will certainly punish us. The Lord Jesus himself first spoke that message about how God would save people. Then the people who heard Jesus told the message to us.[b] That is how we know that it is true. 4 God himself also showed clearly that what these people said is true. He did many miracles and powerful things which showed that he was with them. He also helped them with gifts from the Holy Spirit, in the way that he wanted.
Jesus became human like us, to save us
5 We are speaking about the new world that will come. God did not choose angels to rule over that world. 6 No! Instead, someone wrote this somewhere in the Bible:
‘Lord God, why do you even think about people?
You take care of men and women,
even though they seem to be so small.
7 For a short time, you made them less important than the angels
But then you made them great and powerful, like kings.
8 You caused them to rule over everything.’[c]
It says that God has caused people to rule over everything. That means that there is nothing that people do not have authority over. But at this time, we do not yet see that people rule over everything. 9 But we do see Jesus![d] God made him less important than the angels for a short time. And now God has made him the great and powerful king. God did this because Jesus died as a sacrifice on behalf of all people. His death showed that God is very kind.
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