Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Prayer for Help in Time of Trouble

13 How long, O Lord? Will You forget me forever? How long will You hide Your face from me? ² How long must I plan what to do in my soul, and have sorrow in my heart all the day? How long will those who hate me rise above me?

³ Look on me and answer, O Lord, my God. Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep the sleep of death. ⁴ Or the one who hates me will say, “I have power over him.” And those who hate me will be happy when I am shaken.

⁵ But I have trusted in Your loving-kindness. My heart will be full of joy because You will save me. ⁶ I will sing to the Lord, because He has been good to me.

⁵ Jehoshaphat stood among the people of Judah and Jerusalem, in the house of the Lord, in front of the new open space. ⁶ Then he said, “O Lord, the God of our fathers, are You not God in heaven? Do You not rule over all the nations? Power and strength are in Your hand, so that no one is able to stand against You. ⁷ O our God, did You not make the people of this land leave so that Your people Israel could have it and give it to the children of Your friend Abraham forever? ⁸ And they have lived in it. They have built You a holy place in it for Your name, saying, ⁹ ‘If what is bad comes upon us, fighting, hard times, disease, or no food, we will stand in front of this house. And we will stand before You, (for Your name is in this house). We will cry to You in our trouble. And You will hear and take us out of trouble.’ ¹⁰ Now see the men of Ammon and Moab and Mount Seir, whom You did not let Israel fight when they came from the land of Egypt. (They turned aside from them and did not destroy them.) ¹¹ Look how they are paying us back. They are coming to make us leave Your land which You have given to us. ¹² O our God, will You not punish them? For we have no power against all these men who are coming against us. We do not know what to do. But our eyes look to You.”

⁷ You were doing well. Who stopped you from obeying the truth? ⁸ Whatever he used did not come from the One Who chose you to have life. ⁹ It only takes a little yeast to make the whole loaf of bread rise. ¹⁰ I feel I can trust you because of what the Lord has done in your life. I believe you will not follow another way. Whoever is trying to lead you in the wrong way will suffer for it. ¹¹ Christian brothers, if I would still preach that people must go through the religious act of becoming a Jew to be a Christian, I would not be suffering from those who are making it hard for me. If I preached like that, the Jews would have no reason to be against the cross of Christ. ¹² I wish those who are so willing to cut your bodies would complete the job by cutting themselves off from you.