Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

⁶ You have not wanted gifts given on the altar in worship. You have opened my ears. You have not wanted burnt gifts or gifts to cover sins. ⁷ Then I said, “Look, I have come. It is written about me in the book. ⁸ I am happy to do Your will, O my God. Your Law is within my heart.”

⁹ I have told the good news about what is right and good in the big meeting with many people. You know I will not close my lips, O Lord. ¹⁰ I have not hidden what is right and good with You in my heart. I have spoken about how faithful You are and about Your saving power. I have not hidden Your loving-kindness and Your truth from the big meeting.

¹¹ O Lord, You will not keep Your loving-pity from me. Your loving-kindness and Your truth will always keep me safe. ¹² Too many troubles gather around me. My sins have taken such a hold on me that I am not able to see. There are more of them than there are hairs on my head. And the strength of my heart has left me.

¹³ Be pleased to save me, O Lord. Hurry, O Lord, to help me. ¹⁴ Let all who want to destroy my life be ashamed and troubled. Let those who want to hurt me be turned away without honor. ¹⁵ Let those who say to me, “O! O!” be filled with fear because of their shame. ¹⁶ But let all who look for You have joy and be glad in You. Let those who love Your saving power always say, “The Lord be honored!” ¹⁷ Because I suffer and am in need, let the Lord think of me. You are my help and the One Who sets me free. O my God, do not wait.

God Will Take Israel Out of Trouble

¹² “Listen to Me, O Jacob, and Israel whom I called. I am He. I am the first, and I am the last. ¹³ My hand put the earth in its place. And My right hand spread out the heavens. When I call to them, they stand together. ¹⁴ Gather together, all of you, and listen! Who among them has made these things known? The Lord loves him. He will do to Babylon what pleases him, and his arm will be against the Babylonians. ¹⁵ I, even I, have spoken. Yes, I have called him, I have brought him, and he will do well. ¹⁶ Come near to Me and listen to this: From the beginning I have not spoken in secret. From the time it came to be, I was there. And now the Lord God has sent me and His Spirit.”

¹⁷ The Lord Who bought you and saves you, the Holy One of Israel, says, “I am the Lord your God, Who teaches you to do well, Who leads you in the way you should go. ¹⁸ If only you had listened to My Laws! Then your peace would have been like a river and your right-standing with God would have been like the waves of the sea. ¹⁹ Your children’s children would have been like the sand. Those born to you would have been like the sand. Their name would never be cut off or destroyed from before Me.”

²⁰ Go out from Babylon! Run from the Babylonians! Call out for joy and let this be known to the end of the earth, saying, “The Lord has bought and set free His servant Jacob!” ²¹ They were not thirsty when He led them through the deserts. He made water flow out of the rock for them. He broke the rock, and the water flowed out.

Jesus Teaches about Going without Food So You Can Pray Better ^(A)

¹⁴ Then the followers of John the Baptist came to Jesus. They asked, “Why do we and the proud religious law-keepers many times go without food so we can pray better? But Your followers never go without food so they can pray better.” ¹⁵ Jesus said, “Can the friends at a wedding be sorry when the man just married is with them? But the days will come when the man just married will be taken from them. Then they will not eat food so they can pray better.

¹⁶ “No one sews a piece of new cloth on an old coat, because if the new piece pulls away, it makes the hole bigger. ¹⁷ Men do not put new wine into old skin bags. If they did, the skins would break and the wine would run out. The bags would be no good. They put new wine into new skin bags and both can be used.”