Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
A Prayer About a False Friend
For the director of music. With stringed instruments. A maskil of David.
55 God, listen to my prayer
and do not ignore my cry for help.
2 Pay attention to me and answer me.
I am troubled and upset
3 by what the enemy says
and how the wicked look at me.
They bring troubles down on me,
and in anger they attack me.
4 I am frightened inside;
the terror of death has attacked me.
5 I am scared and shaking,
and terror grips me.
6 I said, “I wish I had wings like a dove.
Then I would fly away and rest.
7 I would wander far away
and stay in the desert. Selah
8 I would hurry to my place of escape,
far away from the wind and storm.”
9 Lord, destroy and confuse their words,
because I see violence and fighting in the city.
10 Day and night they are all around its walls,
and evil and trouble are everywhere inside.
11 Destruction is everywhere in the city;
trouble and lying never leave its streets.
12 It was not an enemy insulting me.
I could stand that.
It was not someone who hated me.
I could hide from him.
13 But it is you, a person like me,
my companion and good friend.
14 We had a good friendship
and walked together to God’s Temple.
15 Let death take away my enemies.
Let them die while they are still young
because evil lives with them.
Bildad Speaks to Job
8 Then Bildad the Shuhite answered:
2 “How long will you say such things?
Your words are no more than wind.
3 God does not twist justice;
the Almighty does not make wrong what is right.
4 Your children sinned against God,
and he punished them for their sins.
5 But you should ask God for help
and pray to the Almighty for mercy.
6 If you are good and honest,
he will stand up for you
and bring you back where you belong.
7 Where you began will seem unimportant,
because your future will be so successful.
8 “Ask old people;
find out what their ancestors learned,
9 because we were only born yesterday and know nothing.
Our days on earth are only a shadow.
10 Those people will teach you and tell you
and speak about what they know.
11 Papyrus plants cannot grow where there is no swamp,
and reeds cannot grow tall without water.
12 While they are still growing and not yet cut,
they will dry up quicker than grass.
13 That is what will happen to those who forget God;
the hope of the wicked will be gone.
14 What they hope in is easily broken;
what they trust is like a spider’s web.
15 They lean on the spider’s web, but it breaks.
They grab it, but it does not hold up.
16 They are like well-watered plants in the sunshine
that spread their roots all through the garden.
17 They wrap their roots around a pile of rocks
and look for a place among the stones.
18 But if a plant is torn from its place,
then that place rejects it and says, ‘I never saw you.’
19 Now joy has gone away;
other plants grow up from the same dirt.
20 “Surely God does not reject the innocent
or give strength to those who do evil.
21 God will yet fill your mouth with laughter
and your lips with shouts of joy.
22 Your enemies will be covered with shame,
and the tents of the wicked will be gone.”
About Marriage
7 Now I will discuss the things you wrote me about. It is good for a man not to have sexual relations with a woman. 2 But because sexual sin is a danger, each man should have his own wife, and each woman should have her own husband. 3 The husband should give his wife all that he owes her as his wife. And the wife should give her husband all that she owes him as her husband. 4 The wife does not have full rights over her own body; her husband shares them. And the husband does not have full rights over his own body; his wife shares them. 5 Do not refuse to give your bodies to each other, unless you both agree to stay away from sexual relations for a time so you can give your time to prayer. Then come together again so Satan cannot tempt you because of a lack of self-control. 6 I say this to give you permission to stay away from sexual relations for a time. It is not a command to do so. 7 I wish that everyone were like me, but each person has his own gift from God. One has one gift, another has another gift.
8 Now for those who are not married and for the widows I say this: It is good for them to stay unmarried as I am. 9 But if they cannot control themselves, they should marry. It is better to marry than to burn with sexual desire.
The Holy Bible, New Century Version®. Copyright © 2005 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.