Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

130 O Lord, from the depths of despair I cry for your help: ² “Hear me! Answer! Help me!”

^3-4 Lord, if you keep in mind our sins, then who can ever get an answer to his prayers? But you forgive! What an awesome thing this is! ⁵ That is why I wait expectantly, trusting God to help, for he has promised. ⁶ I long for him more than sentinels long for the dawn.

⁷ O Israel, hope in the Lord; for he is loving and kind and comes to us with armloads of salvation. ⁸ He himself shall ransom Israel from her slavery to sin.

⁹ “Who does Isaiah think he is,” the people say, “to speak to us like this! Are we little children, barely old enough to talk? ¹⁰ He tells us everything over and over again, a line at a time and in such simple words!”

¹¹ But they won’t listen; the only language they can understand is punishment! So God will punish them by sending against them foreigners who speak strange gibberish! Only then will they listen to him! ¹² They could have rest in their own land if they would obey him, if they were kind and good. He told them that, but they wouldn’t listen to him. ¹³ So the Lord will spell it out for them again, repeating it over and over in simple words whenever he can; yet over this simple, straightforward message they will stumble and fall and be broken, trapped and captured.

⁷ The end of the world is coming soon. Therefore be earnest, thoughtful men of prayer. ⁸ Most important of all, continue to show deep love for each other, for love makes up for many of your faults.^{[a] 9} Cheerfully share your home with those who need a meal or a place to stay for the night.

¹⁰ God has given each of you some special abilities; be sure to use them to help each other, passing on to others God’s many kinds of blessings. ¹¹ Are you called to preach? Then preach as though God himself were speaking through you. Are you called to help others? Do it with all the strength and energy that God supplies so that God will be glorified through Jesus Christ—to him be glory and power forever and ever. Amen.

¹² Dear friends, don’t be bewildered or surprised when you go through the fiery trials ahead, for this is no strange, unusual thing that is going to happen to you. ¹³ Instead, be really glad—because these trials will make you partners with Christ in his suffering, and afterwards you will have the wonderful joy of sharing his glory in that coming day when it will be displayed.

¹⁴ Be happy if you are cursed and insulted for being a Christian, for when that happens the Spirit of God will come upon you with great glory.^{[b] 15} Don’t let me hear of your suffering for murdering or stealing or making trouble or being a busybody and prying into other people’s affairs. ¹⁶ But it is no shame to suffer for being a Christian. Praise God for the privilege of being in Christ’s family and being called by his wonderful name! ¹⁷ For the time has come for judgment, and it must begin first among God’s own children. And if even we who are Christians must be judged, what terrible fate awaits those who have never believed in the Lord? ¹⁸ If the righteous are barely saved, what chance will the godless have?

¹⁹ So if you are suffering according to God’s will, keep on doing what is right and trust yourself to the God who made you, for he will never fail you.