Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
Asaph wrote this song for the music leader. He should use special music.
God judges people fairly
75 God, we thank you!
Yes, we thank you!
You are very near to us.
People everywhere say what great things you have done.
2 God says, ‘I choose the time when I will judge people,
and I will be a fair judge.
3 When the earth shakes and the people in it are afraid,
I will keep its foundations strong.’
Selah.
4 I say to people who are proud,
‘Do not be proud.’
I say to wicked people,
‘Do not boast about your power.
5 Do not boast against God.
Do not speak with such proud words.’
6 Who has the power to judge people?
Nobody from the east, or from the west,
or from the desert can be judge.
7 God is the one who judges people.
He decides who to bring down
and who to lift up.[a]
8 The Lord holds a cup of punishment in his hand.[b]
It is full of wine, with spices in it.
The Lord pours out his anger from this cup.
All the wicked people in the world will have to drink it.
They will drink all of it, so that none remains.
9 But as for me, I will always thank you, God.
I will sing to praise you,
the God of Jacob.
10 You say, ‘I will destroy the power of wicked people.
I will give strength to my righteous people.’
The Lord will punish Jerusalem
3 It will be very bad for the city!
It is like something that is dirty.
Its people will not obey me. They like to fight weak people. They also like to do bad things.
2 They do not listen to anyone's voice.
Nobody can warn them that they are doing wrong things.
They do not trust in the Lord.
They do not come near to their God.
3 The rulers of the city make a very loud noise with their voices like big wild animals.
Its judges are like hungry wolves.
They are like wolves that have even eaten all an animal's bones before morning.
4 Its prophets do not know what to think.
People cannot trust them.
Its priests have done wrong things,
even in God's holy house.
They have also made changes to God's rules.
They have made changes that they want.
5 But the Lord is among all the people in the city.[a]
He will do what is right.
He is always the honest judge.
He never fails.
But the bad people do not know how to be ashamed.
6 ‘I have destroyed nations,’ the Lord says.
‘There is nobody in their strong towers now.
I have made their streets empty, so no people are there.
I have destroyed their cities.
So nobody lives in them now.
7 I said, “Now people in the city will respect me!
Now they will agree when people warn them.”
The people would have been safe if they had accepted it.
Then I would not have to destroy them.
But it did not happen. I had to punish them.
Still, the people got up early to do bad things.
8 So wait for me,
I will stand up and I will punish the nations.
I have decided to bring together the nations and the people that kings rule over.
Then I will punish them very, very much.
They will see how angry I am.
They will see it because, on that day, I will burn all the earth.’
That is what the Lord says.
The Lord will make the people pure
9 ‘Then I will give to people lips that I have made pure.
With those lips, they will call me Lord.[b]
And then, all the people will agree to work together for me.’
10 ‘Some people live a long way beyond the rivers of Cush.
Yes, my people who pray went away to many other countries.
They will return and they will carry their gifts to me.
11 At that time, you will not have to be ashamed
of the wrong things that you have done against me.
But I will take away those who do not see anything wrong in themselves.
Those people will not call each other
“the people who live on God's holy mountain”.
12 But I will let the poor people remain there.
These are the people who have had bad times.
These are the people who will trust me. And they will call me Lord.
13 I will let those people stay there.
They will not do any bad things.
They will only say things that are true.
They will say honest things.
They will eat well and they will sleep well.
Nobody will make them afraid.’
A picture of Hagar and Sarah
21 I say this to you people who want God's Law to have authority over you. Think carefully about what that Law really says. 22 The Bible says that Abraham had two sons. The mother of one of them was a slave. The mother of the other son was a free woman. 23 Hagar was a slave. Her son was born as a result of what Abraham himself decided. But Abraham's wife, Sarah, gave birth to the other son. That son was born as a result of what God had promised to Abraham.[a]
24 These two women are like pictures of two agreements that God made with his people. Hagar is like the agreement that God made on Sinai mountain.[b] That agreement causes people to become slaves. 25 Hagar is like a picture of Sinai mountain in Arabia.[c] Also, she is like the city of Jerusalem here on earth now, because that city and its people are slaves under the authority of God's Law.
26 But Abraham's wife, Sarah, is a picture of the new Jerusalem that is above. Sarah was a free person, not a slave, and she is like our mother. 27 It says in the Bible:
‘Be happy, you woman who could not have any children!
You have never known the pain of a child's birth.
But now shout loudly because you are so happy!
Yes, be happy, because the lonely woman now has more children
than the woman who has a husband.’[d]
28 You, my Christian friends, are like Sarah's son, Isaac. Like him, you became God's children as a result of God's promise. 29 Isaac was born because of God's Spirit. The son who was born in the human way gave much trouble to Isaac at that time. You who are believers receive the same kind of trouble now. 30 But this is what it says in the Bible: ‘Send away the woman who is a slave and her son. That woman's son will never receive anything from his father. The son of the free woman will receive all those good things.’[e] 31 So then, my Christian friends, we are not children of the woman who is a slave. No, we are children of the free woman.
We should live as free people
5 Christ has made us free so that we can be really free! So be strong and do not turn back. Do not let yourselves become slaves to the Jewish rules again.
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