Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
A song to sing as we climb.
Servants of the Lord
123 I look up to you, God,
as you rule from your throne in heaven.
2 Yes, our eyes look up to the Lord our God.
We want him to be kind to us, so we wait for his help.
We wait like servants who want help from their master.
3 Please be kind to us, Lord. Please forgive us.
People have insulted us more and more!
4 We have had too much!
Proud people laugh at us,
and they do not respect us.
Please stop them!
Deborah's song
5 On that day Deborah sang this song, with Abinoam's son Barak:
2 ‘The leaders of Israel led their people out.
The people were happy to follow them to the battle.
Praise the Lord!
3 Hear this, you kings! Listen, you rulers!
I will sing to worship the Lord.
Yes, I will praise him with a song.
He is the Lord, Israel's God.
4 Lord, you came from Seir mountains.
Yes, you marched from the land of Edom.[a]
As you came, the earth shook.
Rain poured down from the clouds in the sky.
5 The mountains shook when you appeared,
as they shook at Sinai mountain when you showed your power.
You are the Lord, the God of Israel.
6 When Anath's son Shamgar ruled the land,
nobody travelled on the roads.
When Jael ruled, people walked on secret paths,
because they were afraid.
7 Nobody lived in the small villages.
Then I, Deborah, became their leader.
I became like a mother for Israel's people,
to keep them safe.
8 When the Israelites chose new gods to worship,
enemies attacked their cities.
No one in Israel was ready to fight.
Not one of their 40,000 soldiers had a shield or a spear.
9 I thank God for Israel's leaders,
and the people who are ready to fight our enemies.
Praise the Lord!
10 Listen to me, you rich people who ride on white donkeys,
with beautiful cloths to sit on.
And you people who walk along the road,
you should listen too!
11 Listen to the voices of the singers near the wells of water.
They sing about the great things that the Lord has done.
They tell how Israel's soldiers have won against their enemies.
Then the Lord's people marched down to the city gates.
12 “Wake up, Deborah! Wake up and sing a song!
Get up, Barak, son of Abinoam!
Take your enemies away as your prisoners.”
43 Jesus then said, ‘When a bad spirit leaves a person, it travels through dry places. It looks for a new place to live. But maybe it does not find anywhere. 44 So it says to itself, “I will return to the place where I lived before.” Then it goes back to that person. It finds that the place is empty. Everything there is now good and clean. 45 So the bad spirit goes out and it brings back seven other spirits. They are even worse than itself. They all go into the person and they live there. Now the person's life is even worse than it was before. The same thing will happen to you bad people who are alive today.’[a]
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