Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

126 When Jehovah brought back his exiles to Jerusalem, it was like a dream! ² How we laughed and sang for joy. And the other nations said, “What amazing things the Lord has done for them.”

³ Yes, glorious things! What wonder! What joy! ⁴ May we be refreshed^[a] as by streams in the desert.

⁵ Those who sow tears shall reap joy. ⁶ Yes, they go out weeping, carrying seed for sowing, and return singing, carrying their sheaves.

2 I will climb my watchtower now and wait to see what answer God will give to my complaint.

² And the Lord said to me, “Write my answer on a billboard,^[a] large and clear, so that anyone can read it at a glance and rush to tell the others. ³ But these things I plan won’t happen right away. Slowly, steadily, surely, the time approaches when the vision will be fulfilled. If it seems slow,^[b] do not despair, for these things will surely come to pass. Just be patient! They will not be overdue a single day!

⁴ “Note this: Wicked men trust themselves alone as these Chaldeans do,^[c] and fail; but the righteous man trusts in me and lives! ⁵ What’s more, these arrogant Chaldeans are betrayed by all their wine, for it is treacherous. In their greed they have collected many nations, but like death and hell, they are never satisfied.

⁷ But all these things that I once thought very worthwhile—now I’ve thrown them all away so that I can put my trust and hope in Christ alone. ⁸ Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the priceless gain of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. I have put aside all else, counting it worth less than nothing, in order that I can have Christ, ⁹ and become one with him, no longer counting on being saved by being good enough or by obeying God’s laws, but by trusting Christ to save me; for God’s way of making us right with himself depends on faith—counting on Christ alone. ¹⁰ Now I have given up everything else—I have found it to be the only way to really know Christ and to experience the mighty power that brought him back to life again, and to find out what it means to suffer and to die with him. ¹¹ So whatever it takes, I will be one who lives in the fresh newness of life of those who are alive from the dead.