Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
David wrote this song to ask God not to forget him.
Lord, please remember me[a]
38 Lord, when you are angry,
please do not punish me.
2 You have shot your arrows deep into me.
Your hand has pushed me down to the ground.[b]
3 Your punishment has made my whole body ill.
My health has gone, because of my sin.
4 My sin is too much for me!
It is like a heavy weight,
that I cannot carry.
5 My wounds make a bad smell,
and they get worse.
This is because I have done stupid things.
6 My body is bent down to the ground.
Every day I weep because I am so sad.
7 My body is hot with fever.[c]
I am very ill.
8 The pain has made me tired and weak.
I am so upset that I cry aloud.
9 My Lord, you already know what I want most.
You hear me when I cry with pain.
10 My heart beats very fast,
and my strength is leaving me.
Even my eyes can no longer see properly.
11 My family and my friends stay away from me,
because of my illness.
They do not come near to me.
12 My enemies prepare traps,
because they want to kill me.
They talk about ways to destroy me.
They want to hurt me,
so they talk about that all through the day.
13 But I am like a deaf man who hears nothing.
I am like a dumb man who says nothing.
14 So I live like a man who cannot hear what people say.
I refuse to argue against them.
15 Yes, Lord, I wait for you to help me!
I believe that you will answer me, my Lord and my God.
16 I have prayed that my enemies will not laugh at me.
If I slip and fall down,
they will be very happy!
17 I will soon fall down to the ground.
I have nothing but pain all the time.
18 But I agree that I have done wrong things.
I am sorry about my sins.
19 I have many enemies and they are strong.
They have no reason to hate me.
20 When I do good things,
they do evil things to me in return!
I try to do what is right,
but they turn against me.
21 Lord, please do not leave me alone.
Do not stay far away from me, my God!
22 My Lord, you are the one who can save me,
so come quickly to help me!
A prayer[a]
5 Lord, please remember the trouble that has happened to us.
Look at us, because we are ashamed.
2 Strangers have taken the land that our ancestors gave to us.
Foreign people live in our homes.
3 We are children whose fathers have died.
Our mothers no longer have husbands.
4 We must pay money for the water that we drink.
We must buy wood for our fires.
5 Our enemies cause us to work like animals.
But the work is too difficult
and they will not let us rest.
6 We gave ourselves to the Egyptians and to the Assyrians,
so that we could get food to eat.
7 Our ancestors sinned, but they are dead.
Now we have the troubles that you caused because of them.
You punished us because of their sin.[b]
8 Slaves now rule us.
And there is nobody to save us from their power.
9 We meet danger when we work in the fields.[c]
Enemies are everywhere and they want to kill us.
10 Our skin feels as if we are burning.
We are so hungry that we are ill.
11 Enemies do what they want with the women in Zion.
They are cruel to the young women in Judah's cities.
12 They hang our leaders by their hands.
And they are cruel to our old men too.
13 They took the young men to make flour for them, like slaves.
Our boys have to carry heavy bags of wood.
14 Our enemies no longer let our old men decide things.[d]
The old men cannot say what is right or fair for us.
And the young men have stopped their music.
15 We are not happy any longer.
Instead, we are very sad,
so we do not dance any longer.
16 And we have no king in Jerusalem any longer.
We have sinned, so it will be very bad for us.
17 So our bodies feel ill and we feel ill deep inside us.
Our eyes are very tired and we cannot hope for good things any longer.
18 We are so sad because they destroyed Zion's walls and buildings.
Wild animals walk on them now.
19 But you, Lord, will be king for ever.
You will always rule us.
20 Tell us why you have forgotten us.
Tell us why you have left us alone for so long.
21 Help us to come back to you, Lord.
Let us be great again, like we were long ago.
22 Please do that, unless you have turned away from us completely.
Do not continue to be angry with us more than we can take.[e]
19 Jesus answered them, ‘I tell you this: The Son can do nothing by himself. He sees what the Father does, and he can do only those same things. What the Father does, the Son also does. 20 The Father loves the Son. He shows the Son all the things that he himself does. And the Father will show the Son even greater things to do than these. Those greater things will surprise you even more than what you have already seen. 21 The Father raises dead people to make them alive again. In the same way, the Son gives life to whoever he chooses. 22 More than that, the Father does not judge anyone. He has given authority to the Son, so that the Son will judge all people. 23 Then all people will respect the Son as a great person. They will respect him in the way that they respect the Father. The Father sent the Son. So if people refuse to respect the Son, it shows that they do not respect the Father either.
24 I tell you this: Everyone who hears my message should believe in the Father who sent me. If they believe in me, they will have life for ever with God. God will not say that they are guilty. They are no longer under the power of death. Instead, they have life with God.
25 I tell you this: A time will soon come when those who are dead in their spirits will hear the voice of the Son of God. Yes, it is that time already. Those people who hear that message will receive true life. 26 The Father himself can give people life. In the same way, he has given authority to the Son to give people life. 27 The Father has also given authority to the Son to judge people. That is because I am the Son of Man. 28 Do not be surprised by this. There will be a time when all the dead people will hear the Son's voice. 29 They will come out from under the ground. Those people who have done good things will rise from death and they will live with God. Those people who have done evil things will also rise from death. But they will rise so that God can punish them as guilty people.’
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