Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

The Prayer of a Man in Trouble

102 Hear my prayer, O Lord! Let my cry for help come to You. ² Do not hide Your face from me in the day of my trouble. Turn Your ear to me. Hurry to answer me in the day when I call. ³ For my days go up in smoke. And my bones are burned as with fire. ⁴ My heart is crushed and dried like grass. And I forget to eat my food. ⁵ I am nothing but skin and bones because of my loud cries. ⁶ I am like a pelican in the desert. I am like an owl of the waste places. ⁷ I lie awake. And I feel like a bird alone on the roof.

⁸ Those who hate me have made it hard for me all day long. Those who are angry with me curse my name. ⁹ For I have eaten ashes like bread and have mixed my drink with tears, ¹⁰ because of Your great anger. For You have lifted me up and thrown me away. ¹¹ My days are like the evening shadow. I dried up like grass.

¹² But You and Your name, O Lord, will always be forever and to all people for all time. ¹³ You will rise up and have loving-pity on Zion. For it is time to show favor to her. The set time has come. ¹⁴ For Your servants respect her stones and show pity for her dust. ¹⁵ The nations will fear the name of the Lord. All the kings of the earth will fear Your shining-greatness. ¹⁶ For the Lord has built up Zion. He will come in His shining-greatness. ¹⁷ He will answer the prayer of those in need. He will not turn from their prayer.

⁸ For the Lord of All, the God of Israel, says, ‘Do not let the people among you who tell what is going to happen in the future and those who use their secret ways fool you. Do not listen to their dreams. ⁹ For they speak false words to you in My name. I have not sent them,’ says the Lord.

¹⁰ “For the Lord says, ‘When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you and keep My promise to you. I will bring you back to this place. ¹¹ For I know the plans I have for you,’ says the Lord, ‘plans for well-being and not for trouble, to give you a future and a hope. ¹² Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. ¹³ You will look for Me and find Me, when you look for Me with all your heart. ¹⁴ I will be found by you,’ says the Lord. ‘And I will bring you back and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have made you go,’ says the Lord. ‘I will bring you back to the place from where I sent you away.’

¹⁵ “You have said that the Lord has given men who speak for Him in Babylon. ¹⁶ This is what the Lord says about the king who sits on the throne of David, and about all the people who live in this city, your brothers who were not taken with you to Babylon. ¹⁷ The Lord of All says, ‘I am sending the sword, hunger, and disease upon them. I will make them like bad figs which are so bad they cannot be eaten. ¹⁸ I will go after them with the sword, hunger, and disease, and will make them a cause of trouble to all the nations of the earth. They will be a curse, an object of much shame and hate among all the nations where I have made them go. ¹⁹ This is because they have not listened to My words,’ says the Lord, ‘which I sent to them again and again by My servants who spoke for Me. And you did not listen,’ says the Lord. ²⁰ So hear the Word of the Lord, all you people who have been sent away from Jerusalem to Babylon.

²¹ “This is what the Lord of All, the God of Israel, says about Ahab the son of Kolaiah and about Zedekiah the son of Maaseiah, who are speaking false words to you in My name: ‘See, I will give them over to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. And he will kill them in front of your eyes. ²² Because of them a curse will be used by all the people who are from Judah but are in Babylon: “May the Lord make you like Zedekiah and like Ahab, whom the king of Babylon burned in the fire.” ²³ This is because they have done what is foolish in Israel. They have done sex sins with their neighbors’ wives. And they have spoken false words in My name, which I did not tell them to speak. I am He Who knows, and I see what they have done,’ says the Lord.”

²⁴ As Paul was speaking for himself, Festus cried out in a loud voice, “Paul, you are crazy! All your learning keeps you from thinking right!” ²⁵ Paul said, “Most respected Festus, I am not crazy. I am speaking the truth! ²⁶ The king knows about all this. I am free to speak to him in plain words. Nothing I have said is new to him. These things happened where everyone saw them. ²⁷ King Agrippa, do you believe the writings of the early preachers? I know that you believe them.”

²⁸ Then Agrippa said to Paul, “In this short time you have almost proven to me that I should become a Christian!” ²⁹ Paul said, “My prayer to God is that you and all who hear me today would be a Christian as I am, only not have these chains!”