Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

38 O Lord, don’t punish me while you are angry! ² Your arrows have struck deep; your blows are crushing me. ^3-4 Because of your anger, my body is sick, my health is broken beneath my sins. They are like a flood, higher than my head; they are a burden too heavy to bear. ^5-6 My wounds are festering and full of pus. Because of my sins, I am bent and racked with pain. My days are filled with anguish. ⁷ My loins burn with inflammation,^[a] and my whole body is diseased. ⁸ I am exhausted and crushed; I groan in despair.^[b]

⁹ Lord, you know how I long for my health once more. You hear my every sigh. ¹⁰ My heart beats wildly, my strength fails, and I am going blind. ¹¹ My loved ones and friends stay away, fearing my disease. Even my own family stands at a distance.

¹² Meanwhile my enemies are trying to kill me. They plot my ruin and spend all their waking hours planning treachery. ^13-14 But I am deaf to all their threats; I am silent before them as a man who cannot speak. I have nothing to say. ¹⁵ For I am waiting for you, O Lord my God. Come and protect me. ¹⁶ Put an end to their arrogance, these who gloat when I am cast down!

¹⁷ How constantly I find myself upon the verge of sin;^[c] this source of sorrow always stares me in the face. ¹⁸ I confess my sins; I am sorry for what I have done. ¹⁹ But my enemies persecute with vigor and continue to hate me—though I have done nothing against them to deserve it. ²⁰ They repay me evil for good and hate me for standing for the right.

²¹ Don’t leave me, Lord; don’t go away! ²² Come quickly! Help me, O my Savior.

4 But in the last days Mount Zion will be the most renowned of all the mountains of the world, praised by all nations; people from all over the world will make pilgrimages there.

² “Come,” they will say to one another, “let us visit the mountain of the Lord, and see the Temple of the God of Israel; he will tell us what to do, and we will do it.” For in those days the whole world will be ruled by the Lord from Jerusalem! He will issue his laws and announce his decrees from there.

³ He will arbitrate among the nations and dictate to strong nations far away. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks; nations shall no longer fight each other, for all war will end. There will be universal peace, and all the military academies and training camps will be closed down.

⁴ Everyone will live quietly in his own home in peace and prosperity, for there will be nothing to fear. The Lord himself has promised this. ⁵ (Therefore we will follow the Lord our God forever and ever, even though all the nations around us worship idols!)

⁶ In that coming day, the Lord says that he will bring back his punished people—sick and lame and dispossessed— ⁷ and make them strong again in their own land, a mighty nation, and the Lord himself shall be their King from Mount Zion forever.

1 Dear friends: This letter is from me, Paul, appointed by God to be Jesus Christ’s messenger; and from our dear brother Timothy. We are writing to all of you Christians there in Corinth and throughout Greece.^{[a] 2} May God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ mightily bless each one of you and give you peace.

^3-4 What a wonderful God we have—he is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the source of every mercy, and the one who so wonderfully comforts and strengthens us in our hardships and trials. And why does he do this? So that when others are troubled, needing our sympathy and encouragement, we can pass on to them this same help and comfort God has given us. ⁵ You can be sure that the more we undergo sufferings for Christ, the more he will shower us with his comfort and encouragement. ^6-7 We are in deep trouble for bringing you God’s comfort and salvation. But in our trouble God has comforted us—and this, too, to help you: to show you from our personal experience how God will tenderly comfort you when you undergo these same sufferings. He will give you the strength to endure.

⁸ I think you ought to know, dear brothers, about the hard time we went through in Asia. We were really crushed and overwhelmed, and feared we would never live through it. ⁹ We felt we were doomed to die and saw how powerless we were to help ourselves; but that was good, for then we put everything into the hands of God, who alone could save us, for he can even raise the dead. ¹⁰ And he did help us and saved us from a terrible death; yes, and we expect him to do it again and again. ¹¹ But you must help us too by praying for us. For much thanks and praise will go to God from you who see his wonderful answers to your prayers for our safety!