Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
This psalm is a song that David wrote for the music leader.
God will win![a]
68 God will rise up
and he will chase his enemies away!
The people who hate him
will quickly run away from him![b]
2 God, blow them away,
as wind blows smoke away.
Destroy those wicked people,
as wax melts near a fire!
3 But righteous people will be happy,
when they come near to you.
They will shout with joy,
because they are so happy!
4 Sing songs to God!
Sing to praise his name!
He is the one who rides on the clouds,
so praise him aloud!
His name is the Lord!
Shout with joy to worship him!
5 God is a father for those who have no father.
He takes care of widows.
He rules from his holy home.
6 God gives homes and a family to lonely people.
He makes prisoners go free
so that they are happy.
But people who turn against him
have to live in a hot, dry land.[c]
7 God, you led your people out.
You took them across the desert.
Selah.
8 Then the ground shook,
and rain poured down from the sky.
You showed your power at Sinai mountain.
You are the God who rules at Sinai.[d]
You are the God that Israel's people serve.
9 God, you caused much rain to fall
on your special land.
You made it fresh again
when it had been dry.[e]
10 Your own people came to live in it.
God, because you are kind,
you gave many good things to poor people.
19 Praise the Lord, as he deserves!
Every day he helps us with our troubles.
He is the God who keeps us safe!
Selah.
20 Our God is the God who rescues people.
The Almighty Lord saves us from death.
Eliphaz speaks to Job a third time[a]
22 Then Eliphaz, the man from Teman, replied. This is what he said:
2 ‘Nothing that a man can do will help God.
Even a wise man cannot help God.
3 If you are a righteous person,
it does nothing to help Almighty God.
If you live a completely good life,
it still does not help him.
4 It is not because you respect and obey God
that he punishes you.
It is not because you are a good person
that he accuses you.
5 No! It is because you are a very wicked person.
You have done too many evil things for anyone to count them.
That is why he is punishing you.
6 You took things from your friends when you lent money to them.
You had no reason to do that.
You even took away the only clothes that poor people were wearing.[b]
7 When you met people who were weak and tired,
you did not give them any water to drink.
You refused to feed hungry people.
8 You were a powerful man,
with land that belonged to you.
People respected you.
Your land gave you a good life.
9 But you refused to help widows.
You were cruel to children who have no family.
10 That is why you have so many troubles.
That is why you shake with fear.
11 It seems to you that you are in the dark
and you cannot see.
You feel as if a flood of deep water covers you.
12 God lives high above us in heaven.
Look up at the stars and see how high they are!
13 So you say, “God does not know about us.
He cannot judge us,
because darkness hides us from him.
14 Thick clouds cover him,
so that he does not see us.
He moves around high above the sky.”
15 Job, you must not continue to turn against God.
That is the way that evil people lived long ago.
16 Those people died before they should have done.
A great flood of water took them away.
They had no safe place to stand.[c]
17 They said to God, “Leave us alone!”
They thought that Almighty God could not hurt them.
18 But it was God who gave them many good things to enjoy.
So I cannot accept the ideas of wicked people.
19 God punishes wicked people.
When righteous people see that happen,
they are happy.
Good people then laugh at wicked people.
20 They say, “God has destroyed our enemies.
He has burned all their valuable things in a fire.”
The apostles in Jerusalem accept Paul
2 14 years later, I went to Jerusalem again. This time I went with Barnabas, and I also took Titus with me. 2 I went there because God had shown me that I should go. I talked to the Christian leaders there. I explained to them the good news that I teach to the Gentiles. But I talked only to those men who seemed to be the leaders. I wanted to be sure that they agreed with the message that I taught. I did not want my work, both in past times and now, to be worth nothing. 3 Titus was with me then. He is a Greek person and nobody had circumcised him. But the leaders in Jerusalem did not say that we must circumcise him.[a]
4 But some men did want us to obey all the Jewish rules. Those men came secretly among our group. They said that they were believers, but they were not really true believers. They wanted to see how we lived as believers. They wanted to know how Christ Jesus has made us free from the Jewish rules. They wanted to make us slaves to those rules. 5 But we did not allow them to do this to us. They wanted to spoil the true good news that you have believed. We kept the good news safe for you.
6 The church leaders in Jerusalem did not argue with me. (They were the people who seemed to be the leaders. It does not matter to me whether they were really important people or not. God does not respect some people more than others.) Those leaders did not tell me to change the message that I teach. 7 Instead they saw that God had given a special job to me. God wanted me to tell the good news about Christ to the Gentiles. In the same way, he had told Peter to tell the good news to the Jews. 8 God gave Peter the authority to be his apostle to the Jews. God also gave me the authority to be his apostle to the Gentiles.
9 James, Peter and John understood that God had given this special job to me. They are the leaders that the church in Jerusalem respects. And they were happy to accept Barnabas and me as their friends. They agreed that we should teach God's message to the Gentiles. They themselves would continue to teach the Jews. 10 They only asked us to do this: We should remember to help the poor people among their group. That is something that I myself wanted very much to do.
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