Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
A Prayer for National Deliverance[a]
74 Why have you abandoned us like this, O God?
Will you be angry with your own people forever?
2 Remember your people, whom you chose for yourself long ago,
whom you brought out of slavery to be your own tribe.
Remember Mount Zion, where once you lived.
3 Walk over these total ruins;
our enemies have destroyed everything in the Temple.
4 Your enemies have shouted in triumph in your Temple;
they have placed their flags there as signs of victory.
5 They looked like woodsmen
cutting down trees with their axes.[b]
6 They smashed all the wooden panels
with their axes and sledge hammers.
7 They wrecked your Temple and set it on fire;
they desecrated the place where you are worshiped.
8 They wanted to crush us completely;
they burned down every holy place in the land.
9 All our sacred symbols are gone;
there are no prophets left,
and no one knows how long this will last.
10 How long, O God, will our enemies laugh at you?
Will they insult your name forever?
11 Why have you refused to help us?
Why do you keep your hands behind you?[c]
12 But you have been our king from the beginning, O God;
you have saved us many times.
13 (A)With your mighty strength you divided the sea
and smashed the heads of the sea monsters;
14 (B)you crushed the heads of the monster Leviathan[d]
and fed his body to desert animals.[e]
15 You made springs and fountains flow;
you dried up large rivers.
16 You created the day and the night;
you set the sun and the moon in their places;
17 you set the limits of the earth;
you made summer and winter.
18 But remember, O Lord, that your enemies laugh at you,
that they are godless and despise you.
19 Don't abandon your helpless people to their cruel enemies;
don't forget your persecuted people!
20 Remember the covenant you made with us.
There is violence in every dark corner of the land.
21 Don't let the oppressed be put to shame;
let those poor and needy people praise you.
22 Rouse yourself, God, and defend your cause!
Remember that godless people laugh at you all day long.
23 Don't forget the angry shouts of your enemies,
the continuous noise made by your foes.
16 You punished your people, Lord,
and in anguish they prayed to you.[a]
17 You, Lord, have made us cry out,
as a woman in labor cries out in pain.
18 We were in pain and agony,
but we gave birth to nothing.
We have won no victory for our land;
we have accomplished nothing.[b]
19 Those of our people who have died will live again!
Their bodies will come back to life.
All those sleeping in their graves
will wake up and sing for joy.
As the sparkling dew refreshes the earth,
so the Lord will revive those who have long been dead.
Judgment and Restoration
20 Go into your houses, my people, and shut the door behind you. Hide yourselves for a little while until God's anger is over. 21 The Lord is coming from his heavenly dwelling place to punish the people of the earth for their sins. The murders that were secretly committed on the earth will be revealed, and the ground will no longer hide those who have been killed.
27 (A)On that day the Lord will use his powerful and deadly sword to punish Leviathan, that wriggling, twisting dragon, and to kill the monster[c] that lives in the sea.
Jesus and Beelzebul(A)
14 Jesus was driving out a demon that could not talk; and when the demon went out, the man began to talk. The crowds were amazed, 15 (B)but some of the people said, “It is Beelzebul, the chief of the demons, who gives him the power to drive them out.”
16 (C)Others wanted to trap Jesus, so they asked him to perform a miracle to show that God approved of him. 17 But Jesus knew what they were thinking, so he said to them, “Any country that divides itself into groups which fight each other will not last very long; a family divided against itself falls apart. 18 So if Satan's kingdom has groups fighting each other, how can it last? You say that I drive out demons because Beelzebul gives me the power to do so. 19 If this is how I drive them out, how do your followers drive them out? Your own followers prove that you are wrong! 20 No, it is rather by means of God's power that I drive out demons, and this proves that the Kingdom of God has already come to you.
21 “When a strong man, with all his weapons ready, guards his own house, all his belongings are safe. 22 But when a stronger man attacks him and defeats him, he carries away all the weapons the owner was depending on and divides up what he stole.
23 (D)“Anyone who is not for me is really against me; anyone who does not help me gather is really scattering.
The Return of the Evil Spirit(E)
24 “When an evil spirit goes out of a person, it travels over dry country looking for a place to rest. If it can't find one, it says to itself, ‘I will go back to my house.’ 25 So it goes back and finds the house clean and all fixed up. 26 Then it goes out and brings seven other spirits even worse than itself, and they come and live there. So when it is all over, that person is in worse shape than at the beginning.”
True Happiness
27 When Jesus had said this, a woman spoke up from the crowd and said to him, “How happy is the woman who bore you and nursed you!”
28 But Jesus answered, “Rather, how happy are those who hear the word of God and obey it!”
Good News Translation® (Today’s English Version, Second Edition) © 1992 American Bible Society. All rights reserved. For more information about GNT, visit www.bibles.com and www.gnt.bible.