Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
Psalm 123
The Eyes of a Servant
Heading
A song of the ascents.
The Eyes of a Servant
1 To you I lift up my eyes,
to you who are seated in heaven.
2 Indeed, as the eyes of slaves look to the hand of their master,
as the eyes of a maid look to the hand of her mistress,
so our eyes look to the Lord our God, until he shows us his grace.
3 Show grace to us, O Lord.
Show grace to us,
for we have had our fill of contempt.
4 Our souls have had their fill of the scorn of the smug
and of the contempt of the arrogant.
Do Not Pray for This People
16 As for you, Jeremiah, do not pray for this people or lift up a cry or a request for them, and do not plead with me. I will not listen to you. 17 Do you not see what they are doing in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? 18 The children gather wood, the fathers light a fire, and their wives knead dough to make cakes for the Queen of Heaven. They pour out drink offerings to other gods to make me angry. 19 Am I the one they are frustrating? declares the Lord. No, they are frustrating themselves, to their own shame.
20 Therefore this is what the Lord God says. You may be sure that my burning anger will be poured out on this place, on man and beast, on the trees of the field, and on the fruit of the land. It will burn and not be put out.
Their Sacrifices Are Useless
21 This is what the Lord of Armies, the God of Israel, says. Go ahead. Grab your burnt offerings, along with your other sacrifices, and eat the meat yourselves! 22 When I brought your fathers out of Egypt, I said nothing to them about burnt offerings and sacrifices. 23 I gave them only this command: “Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and you will be my people. Walk entirely in the way I commanded you to walk, so that it may go well with you.” 24 But they did not obey me or listen to me. They followed their own advice and the stubbornness of their evil hearts. They went backward and not forward. 25 From the time your fathers left Egypt until today, I have sent all my servants, the prophets, to them again and again. 26 But they did not obey me or listen to me. They were stiff-necked and did more evil than their fathers.
7 You are looking at things only according to the outward appearance. If anyone has convinced himself that he belongs to Christ, let him consider this about himself: We belong to Christ just as much as he does. 8 Indeed, even if I may boast some more about our authority, which the Lord has given for building you up and not for tearing you down, I will not be put to shame. 9 My purpose is not to seem as if I am trying to frighten you by my letters. 10 For some say, “His letters are weighty and strong, but his physical presence is weak, and his speech amounts to nothing.” 11 Let such a person consider this: What we are, by our word through letters when we are away, is just what we will be in our work when we are present.
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.