Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

To the director: A song of David written when Nathan the prophet came to him after David’s sin with Bathsheba.

¹⁵ The Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, says, “If you come back to me you will be saved. Only by remaining calm and trusting in me can you be strong.”

But you don’t want to do that. ¹⁶ You say, “No, we need fast horses for battle.” That is true—you will need fast horses, but only to run away because your enemy will be faster than your horses. ¹⁷ One enemy soldier will make threats, and a thousand of your men will run away. And when five of them make threats, all of you will run away. The only thing that will be left of your army will be a flagpole on a hill.

God Will Help His People

¹⁸ So the Lord is waiting to show his mercy to you. He wants to rise and comfort you. The Lord is the God who does the right thing, so he will bless everyone who waits for his help.

4 And we still have the promise that God gave those people. That promise is that we can enter his place of rest. So we should be very careful that none of you fails to get that promise. ² Yes, the good news about it was told to us just as it was to them. But the message they heard did not help them. They heard it but did not accept it with faith. ³ Only we who believe it are able to enter God’s place of rest. As God said,

But God’s work was finished from the time he made the world. ⁴ Yes, somewhere in the Scriptures he talked about the seventh day of the week. He said, “So on the seventh day God rested from all his work.”^{[a] 5} But in the Scripture above God said, “They will never enter my place of rest.”

⁶ So the opportunity is still there for some to enter and enjoy God’s rest. But those who first heard the good news about it did not enter, because they did not obey. ⁷ So God planned another special day. It is called “today.” He spoke about that day through David a long time later using the words we quoted before:

⁸ We know that Joshua did not lead the people into the place of rest that God promised. We know this because God spoke later about another day for rest. ⁹ This shows that the seventh-day rest^[b] for God’s people is still to come. ¹⁰ God rested after he finished his work. So everyone who enters God’s place of rest will also have rest from their own work just as God did. ¹¹ So let us try as hard as we can to enter God’s place of rest. We must try hard so that none of us will be lost by following the example of those who refused to obey God.

¹² God’s word^[c] is alive and working. It is sharper than the sharpest sword and cuts all the way into us. It cuts deep to the place where the soul and the spirit are joined. God’s word cuts to the center of our joints and our bones. It judges the thoughts and feelings in our hearts. ¹³ Nothing in all the world can be hidden from God. He can clearly see all things. Everything is open before him. And to him we must explain the way we have lived.