Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
A Prayer for Help
For the director of music. A maskil of the sons of Korah.
44 God, we have heard about you.
Our ancestors told us
what you did in their days,
in days long ago.
2 With your power you forced the nations out of the land.
You placed our ancestors here.
You destroyed those other nations.
But you made our ancestors grow strong.
3 It wasn’t their swords that took the land.
It wasn’t their power that gave them victory.
But it was your great power and strength.
You were with them because you loved them.
4 My God, you are my King.
Your commands led Jacob’s people to victory.
5 With your help we pushed back our enemies.
In your name we walked on those who came against us.
6 I don’t trust my bow to help me.
My sword can’t save me.
7 You saved us from Egypt.
You made our enemies ashamed.
8 We will praise God every day.
We will praise your name forever. Selah
9 But you have rejected us and shamed us.
You don’t march with our armies anymore.
10 You let our enemies push us back.
Our enemies have taken our wealth.
11 You gave us away like sheep to be eaten.
You scattered us among the nations.
12 You sold your people for nothing.
You made no profit on the sale.
13 You made us a joke to our neighbors.
The community laughs and makes fun of us.
14 You made us a joke to the other nations.
People shake their heads.
15 I am always in disgrace.
I am covered with shame.
16 My enemy is getting even
with insults and curses.
17 All these things have happened to us,
but we have not forgotten you.
We have kept our agreement with you.
18 Our hearts haven’t turned away from you.
We haven’t stopped following you.
19 But you crushed us in this place where wild dogs live.
You covered us with deep darkness.
20 We did not forget our God.
We did not lift our hands in prayer to foreign gods.
21 God would have known if we had.
He knows what is in our hearts.
22 But for you we are in danger of death all the time.
People think we are worth no more than sheep to be killed.
23 Wake up, Lord! Why are you sleeping?
Get up! Don’t reject us forever.
24 Why are you hidden from us?
Have you forgotten our pain and troubles?
25 We have been pushed down into the dirt.
We are flat on the ground.
26 Get up and help us.
Because of your love, save us.
The People Are Not Faithful
6 You people say,
“Come, let’s go back to the Lord.
He has hurt us, but he will heal us.
He has wounded us, but he will bandage our wounds.
2 In a short while he will put new life in us.
We will not have to wait long for him to raise us up.
Then we may live in his presence.
3 Let’s learn about the Lord.
Let’s try hard to know who he is.
He will come to us
as surely as the dawn comes.
The Lord will come to us like the rain,
like the spring rain that waters the ground.”
4 The Lord says, “Israel, what should I do with you?
Judah, what should I do with you?
Your faithfulness is like a morning mist.
It lasts only as long as the dew in the morning.
5 I have warned you by my prophets
that I will kill you and destroy you.
My judgments will flash forth like lightning against you.
6 I want faithful love
more than I want animal sacrifices.
I want people to know me
more than I want burnt offerings.
7 But you have broken the agreement as Adam did.
You have been unfaithful to me.
8 Gilead is full of people who do evil.
It is covered with bloody footprints.
9 Some of the priests are like
robbers waiting in ambush.
They murder people on the way to Shechem.[a]
They do wicked crimes.
10 I have seen horrible things in Israel.
The people are unfaithful to God,
and Israel has become unclean.
30 So what does all this mean? It means this: the non-Jews were not trying to make themselves right with God. But they were made right with God because of their faith. 31 And the people of Israel tried to follow a law to make themselves right with God. But they did not succeed, 32 because they tried to make themselves right by the things they did. They did not trust in God to make them right. They fell over the stone that causes people to fall. 33 As it is written in the Scripture:
“I will put in Jerusalem a stone that causes people to stumble.
It is a rock that makes them fall.
Anyone who trusts in him will not be disappointed.” Isaiah 8:14; 28:16
10 Brothers, the thing I want most is for all the Jews to be saved. That is my prayer to God. 2 I can say this about them: They really try to follow God. But they do not know the right way. 3 They did not know the way that God makes people right with him. And they tried to make themselves right in their own way. So they did not accept God’s way of making people right. 4 Christ ended the law, so that everyone who believes in him may be right with God.
The Holy Bible, International Children’s Bible® Copyright© 1986, 1988, 1999, 2015 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission.