Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

107 Say thank you to the Lord for being so good, for always being so loving and kind. ² Has the Lord redeemed you? Then speak out! Tell others he has saved you from your enemies.

³ He brought the exiles back from the farthest corners of the earth.

¹⁷ Others, the fools, were ill because of their sinful ways. ¹⁸ Their appetites were gone, and death was near. ¹⁹ Then they cried to the Lord in their troubles, and he helped them and delivered them. ²⁰ He spoke, and they were healed—snatched from the door of death. ²¹ Oh, that these men would praise the Lord for his loving-kindness and for all of his wonderful deeds! ²² Let them tell him thank you as their sacrifice and sing about his glorious deeds.

⁵ Then I, Daniel, looked and saw two men^[a] on each bank of a river. ⁶ And one of them asked the man in linen robes who was standing now above the river, “How long will it be until all these terrors end?”

⁷ He replied, with both hands lifted to heaven, taking oath by him who lives forever and ever, that they will not end until three and a half years after the power of God’s people has been crushed.^[b]

⁸ I heard what he said, but I didn’t understand what he meant. So I said, “Sir, how will all this finally end?”

⁹ But he said, “Go now, Daniel, for what I have said is not to be understood until the time of the end. ¹⁰ Many shall be purified by great trials and persecutions. But the wicked shall continue in their wickedness, and none of them will understand. Only those who are willing to learn will know what it means.

¹¹ “From the time the daily sacrifice is taken away and the Horrible Thing is set up to be worshiped, there will be 1,290 days.^{[c] 12} And blessed are those who wait and remain until the 1,335th day!

¹³ “But go on now to the end of your life and your rest; for you will rise again and have your full share of those last days.”^[d]

⁷ So overflowing is his kindness toward us that he took away all our sins through the blood of his Son, by whom we are saved; ⁸ and he has showered down upon us the richness of his grace—for how well he understands us and knows what is best for us at all times.

⁹ God has told us his secret reason for sending Christ, a plan he decided on in mercy long ago; ¹⁰ and this was his purpose: that when the time is ripe he will gather us all together from wherever we are—in heaven or on earth—to be with him in Christ forever. ¹¹ Moreover, because of what Christ has done, we have become gifts to God that he delights in, for as part of God’s sovereign plan we were chosen from the beginning to be his, and all things happen just as he decided long ago. ¹² God’s purpose in this was that we should praise God and give glory to him for doing these mighty things for us, who were the first to trust in Christ.

¹³ And because of what Christ did, all you others too, who heard the Good News about how to be saved, and trusted Christ, were marked as belonging to Christ by the Holy Spirit, who long ago had been promised to all of us Christians. ¹⁴ His presence within us is God’s guarantee that he really will give us all that he promised; and the Spirit’s seal upon us means that God has already purchased us and that he guarantees to bring us to himself. This is just one more reason for us to praise our glorious God.