Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Psalm 80

For the worship leader. A song of Asaph to the tune “The Lilies.”^[a]

14 Pay attention. The day for the Eternal is coming, a day of judgment when your enemies will plunder your goods and divide them right in front of you. ² For I am going to incite all the nations to battle against Jerusalem. The city will be surrounded and taken. The houses will be ransacked; all of your treasured possessions will be looted. Your wives and daughters will be raped. Half of the city will be forced into exile. The other half will remain in the city to pick up the pieces. ³ The Eternal One will join in the battle and fight against those enemy nations as your champion as He would on any day of any battle. ⁴ When that day comes, His feet will stand securely on the Mount of Olives, which sits east of Jerusalem. The mountain will quake under His weight and split in two, divided by a wide valley that runs east to west. Half of the mountain will retreat to the north, the other half to the south. ⁵ That valley will become your escape route because the valley of My mountains will lead as far as Azel, and you shall run as you ran from the earthquake that hit during the reign of King Uzziah of Judah. Once you are safe, the Eternal my God will come to you with all His holy ones.

⁶ On that day, there will be no light, no cold or biting frost. ⁷ There will be a single, continuous day—a unique kind of day known only to the Eternal One—when night does not eclipse the day and when light shines through the evening. ⁸ On that day, living waters will stream out of Jerusalem. Half of them will flow to the eastern Dead Sea; the other half will descend the hills and cross the plains to join the western Mediterranean Sea. These waters will flow throughout the dry summer as they do in the wet winter. ⁹ And the Eternal will be crowned as King over all the earth. On that day, the Eternal will be one and His name will be one.

4 So finally, brothers and sisters, in the name of our Lord Jesus, we ask you, we beg you to remember what we have taught you: live a life that is pleasing to God as you are already doing. Yes, we urge you to keep living and thriving in that life! ² For you know the instructions we gave you, instructions that came through the Lord Jesus. ³ Now this is God’s will for you: set yourselves apart and live holy lives; avoid polluting yourselves with sexual defilement. ⁴ Learn how to take charge over your own body, maintaining purity and honor. ⁵ Don’t let the swells of lustful passion run your life as they do the outsiders who don’t know God. ⁶ Don’t violate or take advantage of a fellow believer in such matters. As we told you before and warned you: the Lord will settle the score with anyone who does these things. ⁷ Here’s why: God does not call us to live impure, adulterous, scandalous lives, but to seek holiness and purity. ⁸ If you ignore this message, then you’re not only rejecting us but you’re rejecting God, the One who has given His Holy Spirit to live in you.

⁹ Now there’s no need for us to send you instructions on caring for your faith family because God Himself has already taught you how to love outside yourselves. ¹⁰ And it’s evident you learned that lesson well by the way you love all the people of Macedonia. Brothers and sisters, we urge you to love even more ¹¹ and make it your goal to lead a peaceful life, mind your own business, and keep your hands busy in your work, as we have instructed you. ¹² That way you will live peacefully with those on the outside, and all your needs will be met without depending on others.

¹³ Brothers and sisters, we want you to be fully informed about those who have fallen asleep in death so that you will not be overwhelmed with grief like those who live outside of the true hope. ¹⁴ Here’s what we believe: since Jesus died and rose again, in the same way, God will bring with Jesus all who have died through Him. ¹⁵ For we can say all this to you confidently because it is the word of the Lord: we who are still alive and left behind when the Lord comes will not precede those who have fallen asleep in death. ¹⁶ On that day, with a command that thunders into the world, with a voice of a chief heavenly messenger, and with a blast of God’s trumpet, the Lord Himself will descend from heaven; and all those who died in the Anointed One, our Liberating King, will rise from the dead first. ¹⁷ Then we who are alive and left behind will be snatched up together with them into the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. This is how we, the resurrected and the living, will be with Him forever. ¹⁸ So comfort one another with this hope, and encourage one another with these words.