Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
David wrote this song for the music leader.
God will keep us safe[a]
64 God, please listen to me
as I tell you about my troubles.
Keep me safe from my enemies
when they attack me.
2 When evil men think of ways to hurt me,
hide me in a safe place.
Those people work together as a group
to do wicked things.
3 Their tongues are like
sharp swords that hurt people.
Their cruel words are like
arrows that they shoot at people.
4 They hide in secret places,
and they quickly shoot lies at good people.
They are not afraid that anyone will punish them.
5 They help each other to do evil things.
They decide where they will hide their traps,
and they say, ‘Nobody will see them!’
6 They think of wicked ideas to hurt people.
They say, ‘That is a great idea!’[b]
Nobody really understands what people think
deep inside themselves.
7 But God will punish them!
He will suddenly shoot an arrow at them
and it will hurt them a lot.[c]
8 Their own evil words will turn against them
and make them fall.
Everyone who sees them will shake their heads.
9 People will be afraid.
They will say, ‘Look at what God has done!’
They will think carefully about it all.
10 But people who serve the Lord should be happy
because of what he has done.
They should trust him to keep them safe.
Good, honest people should praise God,
because he is great!
Job replies to Bildad[a]
19 Then Job replied. This is what he said:
2 ‘Please stop speaking to me like that!
Your words continue to make me suffer.
3 You have insulted me many, many times.
You should be ashamed to attack me like that.
4 I might have done things that are wrong.
But even if that might be true,
those wrong things have not hurt you.
5 You think that you are better people than I am.
Because I have all these troubles,
you say that I must be guilty.
6 But you should realize that God has caused all my troubles.
He is the one who has caught me in his trap.
7 If I shout, “Help me, I am in trouble!”
nobody answers me.
I shout to get help,
but nobody comes to give me justice.
8 God has stopped me
so that I cannot move forward.
He has made my path dark
so that I cannot see the way to go.
9 He has taken away my honour
so that nobody respects me.
10 Everywhere that I go, God is there to attack me.
He is ready to destroy me.
He has taken away my hope,
as if he has dug a tree out of the ground.
11 He is very angry against me.
He attacks me as if I am his enemy.
12 His whole army is coming to attack me!
They build a road so that they can reach me.
They are all around me.
13 God has caused my brothers to stay away from me.
My friends do not want to meet me.
14 My relatives have left me.
My best friends have forgotten me.
15 Visitors who stayed in my house
now think that I am a stranger.
Even my servants think that I am a foreigner.
16 I tell my servant to come to me
but he does not come.
I ask him to help me,
but he does nothing.
17 My wife moves away from the smell of my breath.
My brothers stay away from me.
18 Even young children insult me.
When I stand up, they laugh at me.
19 My best friends hate me.
People that I love have turned against me.
20 My body is now only skin and bones.
I still breathe but I am only just alive.
21 Please be kind to me, my friends.
God has caused me to suffer,
so please be kind to me.
22 Do not punish me as God is punishing me.
You have already caused me to suffer enough.
Christ has brought Jews and Gentiles together
11 So you who were born as Gentiles should remember what you were like before. Jews insulted you because nobody has circumcised you. They themselves are proud that men have circumcised them as God's people. 12 At that time, you did not know about Christ, God's special Messiah. You did not belong to the nation of Israel's people. You did not know about the good things that God had promised to his people. You were living in this world with nothing good to hope for. You were living without God's help. 13 You were far away from God. But now, God has brought you near to himself, because you belong to Christ Jesus. That is possible because of Christ's death on the cross as a sacrifice.
14 It is Christ himself who has brought peace between Jews and Gentiles. He has brought those two groups together, to be one group. He has destroyed the things that made them separate. As a result, they are no longer enemies. 15 When his body died on the cross, Christ took away the power of the Jewish laws and rules. In that way, he made the two groups join together as one new group of people. As a result, he caused them to have peace. 16 As a single group, Christ brought Jews and Gentiles back to God. He stopped them from hating each other. He did this by his death on the cross.
17 When Christ came, he told people God's good news about peace. He told that message to you Gentiles, who were far away from God. He also told it to us Jews, who were near to God.[a] 18 Now we all have received the same Holy Spirit, because of what Christ has done for us. As a result, we can all come near to God the Father.
19 So now, you Gentiles are not strangers among God's people any more. You belong to the group of God's people that he rules. You belong to God's family, as all God's people do. 20 You are like a house that God is building for himself. God's apostles and his prophets are like the foundation under the house. Jesus Christ is like the most important stone in the house. 21 He makes the whole building stand together strongly. In that way, all God's people together become like a special house that belongs to the Lord. 22 Because you belong to Christ, God is building you all together to become his house. That is where God lives by his Spirit.
EasyEnglish Bible Copyright © MissionAssist 2019 - Charitable Incorporated Organisation 1162807. Used by permission. All rights reserved.