Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
The leader must use the music called ‘The Deer of the Dawn.’
This is a song that David wrote.
Please help me, God!
22 My God!
My God, why have you left me alone?
Why is my help far away?
I am crying out in great pain!
2 My God!
I call aloud to you for help every day,
all day and all night!
But you do not answer my prayers,
so I cannot sleep.
3 I know that you are the Holy God.
You sit on your throne as king,
and Israel's people praise you.
4 Our ancestors trusted in you.
When they trusted you, you saved them.
5 They called aloud to you and you saved them.
They trusted in you,
and you did not disappoint them.[a]
6 People insult me.
They think that I am worth nothing.
It seems that I am only a worm,
and I am not really a man.
7 Everyone that sees me laughs at me.
They laugh and they shake their heads.
8 They say, ‘He should trust in the Lord!
The Lord should save him.
If the Lord is really happy with him,
the Lord should rescue him.’
9 Lord, you brought me safely to birth.
You took care of me at my mother's breasts.
10 From the day that I was born,
I have always been in your care.
You have been my God since my mother gave birth to me.
11 So do not stay far from me now.
Trouble is near to me,
and there is nobody to help me.
12 There is danger all round me,
like the strong bulls of Bashan.[b]
I cannot move
because my enemies are very near, all around me.
13 They open their mouths like lions!
They are ready to eat me!
They are like lions that tear their food into pieces.
14 My strength has gone,
like water that is poured away.
My bones do not join together properly.
I feel weak inside
and hope has disappeared.
15 My mouth has become dry like a piece of a broken pot.
My tongue sticks to my mouth.
You have left me down in the dirt,
as good as dead!
Job continues to speak
17 I am very weak and I will soon die.
Then my friends will bury me in my grave.
2 All around me, people are laughing at me.
I have to watch them as they insult me.
3 God, please help me to become free again.
Nobody else will pay the price to do that for me.
4 You have stopped my friends from thinking properly.
So do not allow them to win the argument.
5 People may turn against their friends
to get things for themselves.
If they do that, their children should become blind.
6 You have caused people to insult me,
like that proverb says.
People even spit at my face.
7 I have cried so much that my eyes have become weak.
My body is so thin that I am like a shadow.
8 Good people are upset,
when they see what is happening to me.
They are angry with those who turn away from you.
9 Righteous people continue to do things that are right.
People who do good things become stronger.
10 But you, my friends, come here!
Try again to help me, all of you!
I will not find a wise man among you.
11 I will not live for many more days.
I will never do the things that I wanted to do.
12 My friends say, “It is day”,
when it is still night.
They do not know the difference between light and dark.
13 The only home that I hope to go to is my grave.
I will lie down to sleep there in the dark.
14 I will say to the grave,
“You are my father.”
I will say to the worms that eat me,
“Hello, my mother. Hello, my sister.”
15 I can hope for nothing that is better than that.
No one can find anything better for me.
16 When I go to the world of dead people,
all my hope will have finished.
Everything that I had hoped for will lie with me in the dust.’
A place where God's people can rest
7 God's Holy Spirit says this:
‘You must listen when you hear God speak today.
8 Do not refuse to obey him.
Do not be like God's people many years ago.
When they travelled in the wilderness, they turned against me.
They wanted to see if I would punish them.
9 For 40 years your ancestors saw the great things that I did.
But still they did not obey me.
10 That is why I became angry with them.
I said, “They always want to do what is wrong.
They refuse to understand my message.”
11 Because of that, I promised to punish them.
Because I was angry with them, I said,
“They will never arrive in my special place of rest.” ’[a]
12 So be careful, my Christian friends. Do not refuse to trust God. That would be a very bad thing to do. Do not turn away from the God who lives for ever. 13 Instead, help each other to be strong every day. Today, you can still hear God's message. While that is still true, do not refuse to obey God. Do not think that sin will not hurt you. That is a lie. 14 We must continue to trust Christ very well, as we did when we first believed in him. We must continue to trust him until the end of our lives. Then we will share in everything that is his. 15 We have seen what the Bible says:
‘You must listen when you hear God speak today.
Do not refuse to obey him.
Do not be like God's people many years ago,
when they turned against God.’
16 Who were those people who heard God speak? All of them were the people that Moses led away from Egypt. They heard God's message, but they refused to obey him. 17 Who was God angry with for 40 years? He was angry with those same people. They did what was wrong. So they died and their bodies remained in the wilderness. 18 God promised to punish them, because they refused to obey him. He said, ‘They will never arrive in my special place of rest.’
19 So we must be careful ourselves! Those people did not trust God. As a result, they never arrived in God's special place.
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