Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
Psalm 66
How Awesome Are Your Deeds!
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For the choir director. A song. A psalm.
Introduction: The Praise of the World
1 Shout praise to God, all the earth!
2 Make music to the glory of his name!
Make his praise glorious!
3 Say to God, “How awesome[a] are your deeds!”
Because of your great power your enemies must cower before you.
4 All the earth bows down to you.
They make music to you.
They make music to your name. Interlude
God’s Awesome Deeds Deliver His People
5 Come and see the works of God.
How awesome his deeds for all people!
6 He turned the sea into dry land.
They crossed through the river on foot.
Let us rejoice in him there.
7 He rules by his power forever.
His eyes watch the nations. Interlude
Do not let the rebellious rise up against him.
8 Bless our God, you peoples.
Let the sound of his praise be heard.
9 He is the one who has preserved our lives.
He did not let our feet slip.
Manasseh Son of Hezekiah, King of Judah
21 Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king, and he reigned for fifty-five years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hephzibah.
2 He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, following the disgusting practices of the nations which the Lord had driven out before the people of Israel. 3 He rebuilt the high places which his father Hezekiah had destroyed. He erected altars to Baal and made an Asherah pole, just as Ahab king of Israel had done. He bowed down to the whole army of the heavens,[a] and he served them. 4 He built altars in the House of the Lord, about which the Lord had said, “In Jerusalem I will put my name.” 5 He built altars to all the army of the heavens in the two courtyards of the House of the Lord.
6 He made his son pass through the fire. He practiced fortune telling and sought omens and dealt with mediums and spiritists. He greatly increased the evil he did in the eyes of the Lord and provoked him to anger.
7 He put an image of Asherah, which he had made, into the house about which the Lord said to David and to his son Solomon, “In this house and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen from all the tribes of Israel, I will put my Name forever. 8 I will not make the feet of Israel wander again from the land which I gave to their fathers, if they will just be careful to do whatever I commanded them and to observe the whole law which my servant Moses commanded them.” 9 But they did not listen. Manasseh led them astray so that they did more evil than the nations whom the Lord exterminated before the people of Israel.
God’s Judgment on Manasseh
10 Then the Lord said through his prophets:
11 Because Manasseh king of Judah has engaged in these disgusting practices and has done more evil than all that which the Amorites who had gone before him had done, and he has caused Judah to sin with his filthy idols, 12 therefore, this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says. Pay attention! I am bringing such disaster on Jerusalem and Judah that the ears of all who hear of it will tingle. 13 I will stretch out over Israel the plumb line that was stretched out over Samaria and the level used on the house of Ahab. I will wipe away Jerusalem just as someone wipes a bowl clean and turns it upside down. 14 I will hand over the remnant of my possession and give them into the hand of their enemies, so that they become plunder and spoils for all their enemies, 15 because they have done what is evil in my eyes and have provoked me to anger from the day when their fathers came out of Egypt until today.
My Constant Struggle With My Sinful Nature
14 Certainly we know that the law is spiritual, but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. 15 For I do not understand what I am doing, because I do not keep doing what I want. Instead, I do what I hate. 16 And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. 17 But now it is no longer I who am doing it, but it is sin living in me. 18 Indeed, I know that good does not live in me, that is, in my sinful flesh. The desire to do good is present with me, but I am not able to carry it out. 19 So I fail to do the good I want to do. Instead, the evil I do not want to do, that is what I keep doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who am doing it, but it is sin living in me.
21 So I find this law[a] at work: When I want to do good, evil is present with me. 22 I certainly delight in God’s law according to my inner self, 23 but I see a different law at work in my members, waging war against the law of my mind and taking me captive to the law of sin, which is present in my members. 24 What a miserable wretch I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? 25 I thank God[b] through Jesus Christ our Lord!
So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my sinful flesh I serve the law of sin.
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.