Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
Prayer for the Restoration of God’s Favor
To the choirmaster. A Psalm of the Sons of Korah.
85 Lord, thou wast favorable to thy land;
thou didst restore the fortunes of Jacob.
2 Thou didst forgive the iniquity of thy people;
thou didst pardon all their sin. Selah
3 Thou didst withdraw all thy wrath;
thou didst turn from thy hot anger.
4 Restore us again, O God of our salvation,
and put away thy indignation toward us!
5 Wilt thou be angry with us for ever?
Wilt thou prolong thy anger to all generations?
6 Wilt thou not revive us again,
that thy people may rejoice in thee?
7 Show us thy steadfast love, O Lord,
and grant us thy salvation.
8 Let me hear what God the Lord will speak,
for he will speak peace to his people,
to his saints, to those who turn to him in their hearts.[a]
9 Surely his salvation is at hand for those who fear him,
that glory may dwell in our land.
10 Steadfast love and faithfulness will meet;
righteousness and peace will kiss each other.
11 Faithfulness will spring up from the ground,
and righteousness will look down from the sky.
12 Yea, the Lord will give what is good,
and our land will yield its increase.
13 Righteousness will go before him,
and make his footsteps a way.
Impending Judgment on Israel and Judah
5 Hear this, O priests!
Give heed, O house of Israel!
Hearken, O house of the king!
For the judgment pertains to you;
for you have been a snare at Mizpah,
and a net spread upon Tabor.
2 And they have made deep the pit of Shittim;[a]
but I will chastise all of them.
3 I know E′phraim,
and Israel is not hid from me;
for now, O E′phraim, you have played the harlot,
Israel is defiled.
4 Their deeds do not permit them
to return to their God.
For the spirit of harlotry is within them,
and they know not the Lord.
5 The pride of Israel testifies to his face;
E′phraim [b] shall stumble in his guilt;
Judah also shall stumble with them.
6 With their flocks and herds they shall go
to seek the Lord,
but they will not find him;
he has withdrawn from them.
7 They have dealt faithlessly with the Lord;
for they have borne alien children.
Now the new moon shall devour them with their fields.
8 Blow the horn in Gib′e-ah,
the trumpet in Ramah.
Sound the alarm at Beth-a′ven;
tremble,[c] O Benjamin!
9 E′phraim shall become a desolation
in the day of punishment;
among the tribes of Israel
I declare what is sure.
10 The princes of Judah have become
like those who remove the landmark;
upon them I will pour out
my wrath like water.
11 E′phraim is oppressed, crushed in judgment,
because he was determined to go after vanity.[d]
12 Therefore I am like a moth to E′phraim,
and like dry rot to the house of Judah.
13 When E′phraim saw his sickness,
and Judah his wound,
then E′phraim went to Assyria,
and sent to the great king.[e]
But he is not able to cure you
or heal your wound.
14 For I will be like a lion to E′phraim,
and like a young lion to the house of Judah.
I, even I, will rend and go away,
I will carry off, and none shall rescue.
15 I will return again to my place,
until they acknowledge their guilt and seek my face,
and in their distress they seek me, saying,
22 “Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs which God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know— 23 this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. 24 But God raised him up, having loosed the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it. 25 For David says concerning him,
‘I saw the Lord always before me,
for he is at my right hand that I may not be shaken;
26 therefore my heart was glad, and my tongue rejoiced;
moreover my flesh will dwell in hope.
27 For thou wilt not abandon my soul to Hades,
nor let thy Holy One see corruption.
28 Thou hast made known to me the ways of life;
thou wilt make me full of gladness with thy presence.’
29 “Brethren, I may say to you confidently of the patriarch David that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. 30 Being therefore a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that he would set one of his descendants upon his throne, 31 he foresaw and spoke of the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption. 32 This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses. 33 Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this which you see and hear. 34 For David did not ascend into the heavens; but he himself says,
‘The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand,
35 till I make thy enemies a stool for thy feet.’
36 Let all the house of Israel therefore know assuredly that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.”
Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright © 1946, 1952, and 1971 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.