Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

A Song of Thanks

12 You will say on that day, “I will give thanks to You, O Lord. Even though You were angry with me, Your anger is turned away and You comfort me. ² See, God saves me. I will trust and not be afraid. For the Lord God is my strength and song. And He has become the One Who saves me.” ³ As water from a well brings joy to the thirsty, so people have joy when He saves them. ⁴ In that day you will say, “Give thanks to the Lord. Call on His name. Make known His works among the people. Help them remember that His name is honored.” ⁵ Sing praises to the Lord, for He has done great things. Let this be known in all the earth. ⁶ Call out and sing for joy, O people of Zion. For the Holy One of Israel is great among you.

Sin Keeps One from God

59 See, the Lord’s hand is not so short that it cannot save, and His ear is not closed that it cannot hear. ² But your wrong-doings have kept you away from your God. Your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He does not hear. ³ For your hands are sinful with blood, your fingers with wrong-doing, your lips have lied, and your tongue talks about sin. ⁴ No one wants what is right and fair in court. And no one argues his cause with the truth. They trust in what is false, and speak lies. They plan to make trouble and do what is sinful. ⁵ They bring young ones from the eggs of deadly snakes and make traps as a spider does. He who eats of their eggs dies, and a snake comes out of the egg that is crushed. ⁶ Clothing cannot be made from the work of the spider, so they cannot cover themselves with what they make. Their works are works of sin. They hurt others with their hands. ⁷ And they are quick to sin and to kill people who are not guilty. Their thoughts are thoughts of sin. Wherever they go, they destroy and cause suffering. ⁸ They know nothing about peace, and there is nothing fair in their paths. Their roads are not straight. Whoever walks on them does not know peace.

⁹ So what is right and fair is far from us. What is right and good does not come to us. We hope for light, but see darkness. We hope for bright light, but we walk in the dark. ¹⁰ We feel for the wall like blind men. We feel our way like those who have no eyes. We trip at noon as in the night. Among those who are strong, we are like dead men. ¹¹ All of us make noise like bears, and cry inside ourselves like doves. We hope for what is right and fair, but it is not there. We hope to be saved, but it is far from us. ¹² For we have done much wrong before You, and our sins speak against us. Our wrong-doing is with us, and we know our sins. ¹³ We have gone against the Lord and have acted as if we do not know Him. We have turned away from our God. We have made it hard for others. We have thought and spoken lying words from the heart. ¹⁴ What is right and fair is turned back. What is right and good stands far away. Truth has fallen in the street, and what is right cannot come in. ¹⁵ Yes, truth is not there. And he who turns away from sin comes under the anger of sinners.

Now the Lord saw this, and it did not please Him to see that what is right and fair was not being done.

³ We must give thanks to God for you always, Christian brothers. It is the right thing to do because your faith is growing so much. Your love for each other is stronger all the time. ⁴ We are proud of you and tell the other churches about you. We tell them how your faith stays so strong even when people make it hard for you and make you suffer. ⁵ God wants you to prove yourselves to be worth being in His holy nation by suffering for Him. ⁶ He does what is right and will allow trouble to come to those who are making it hard for you. ⁷ He will help you and us who are suffering. This will happen when the Lord Jesus comes down from heaven with His powerful angels in a bright fire. ⁸ He will punish those who do not know God and those who do not obey the Good News of our Lord Jesus Christ. ⁹ They will be punished forever and taken away from the Lord and from the shining-greatness of His power. ¹⁰ On the day He comes, His shining-greatness will be seen in those who belong to Him. On that day, He will receive honor from all those who put their trust in Him. You believed what we had to say to you. ¹¹ For this reason, we always pray for you. We pray that our God will make you worth being chosen. We pray that His power will help you do the good things you want to do. We pray that your work of faith will be complete. ¹² In this way, the name of the Lord Jesus Christ will be honored by you and you will be honored by Him. It is through the loving-favor of our God and of the Lord Jesus Christ.