Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
Arise, O God of Our Fathers
Psalm 44
1 For the music director, a psalm of the sons of Korah, a contemplative song.
2 We have heard with our ears, O God
—our fathers have told us—
of a work You did in their days, in days of old.
3 With Your hand You displaced nations, but You planted them.
You afflicted peoples, and You drove them out.
4 For it was not by their own sword that they took possession of the land,
nor did their own arm save them.
But it was Your right hand, Your arm, and the light of Your face—
for You favored them.
5 You are my King, O God—
command victories for Jacob!
6 Through You we push back our foes.
Through Your Name we trample those rising up against us.
7 For I do not trust in my bow,
nor can my sword save me.
8 For You saved us from our oppressors
and put to shame those who hated us.
9 In God we make our boast all day
and Your Name we praise forever. Selah
10 Yet You have spurned and humiliated us,
and no longer go out with our armies.
11 You make us retreat before the enemy.
Those who hate us have plundered us.
12 You gave us to be devoured like sheep[a]
and have scattered us among the nations.
13 You are selling Your people cheaply—
not even getting a great price for them.
14 You made us a taunt for our neighbors,
a scorn and ridicule for those around us.
15 You have made us a byword among the nations,
head-wagging among the peoples.
16 All day my disgrace is before me,
and my face is covered with shame—
17 because of the sound of taunting and reviling
from the face of a vengeful enemy.
18 All this came upon us, though we did not forget You,
nor were we false to Your covenant.
19 Our heart did not turn back,
nor did our steps stray from Your path.
20 Yet You crushed us in a place of jackals,
covered us with the shadow of death.
21 If we had forgotten the Name of our God
or stretched our hands to a foreign god,
22 would God not have discovered it?
For He knows the secrets of the heart.
23 But for Your sake we are slain all day.
We are counted as sheep for slaughter.[b]
24 Awake! Why do you sleep, my Lord?
Wake up! Do not cast us off forever.
25 Why do You hide Your face
and forget our misery and oppression?
26 For our soul sinks down to the dust.
Our belly cleaves to the earth.
27 Arise, be our help,
and redeem us
for Your mercy’s sake.
14 I will also devastate her vines and her fig trees,
of which she said: ‘These are my payment
that my lovers have given to me.’
But I will turn them into a thicket
and beasts of the field will devour them.
15 Then I will punish her for the days of the Baalim[a]
to whom she would burn incense—
adorning herself with her rings and jewelry,
going after her lovers—
but Me she forgot.”
It is a declaration of Adonai.
Compassion and Covenant Love
16 “So then, I Myself will entice her,
I will bring her into the wilderness
and speak to her heart.
17 I will give her back her vineyards from there
and make the valley of Achor a door of hope.
She will respond there—
as in the days of her youth,
as in the day she came up out of the land of Egypt.
18 In that day—it is a declaration of Adonai—
you will proclaim, ‘My husband,’
and never again call Me, ‘My Baal.’
19 Then I will remove the names of the Baalim out of her mouth,
no longer to be mentioned by their name.
20 In that day I will make a covenant for them
with the beasts of the field, the flying creatures in the sky,
and the creeping things on the ground.
I will break into pieces the bow and sword
and warfare from the land,
and I will cause them to lie down securely.
21 Then I will betroth you to Me forever—
yes, I will betroth you to Me with righteousness,
justice, covenant loyalty and compassion.
22 I will betroth you to Me with faithfulness,
and you will know Adonai.
23 So it will be in that day, I will respond
—it is a declaration of Adonai—
I will respond to the skies,
and they will respond to the earth,
24 and the earth will respond
with grain, new wine, and fresh oil—
and they will respond with ‘Jezreel!’[b]
25 I will sow her in the land for Myself.
I will have compassion on Lo-ruhamah.
I will say to Lo-ammi, ‘You are My people!’[c]
and they will say, ‘My God!’”
Buying Back His Wife
3 Then Adonai said to me: “Go again! Love a woman who is loved by a companion and committing adultery—just as Adonai has loved the Bnei-Yisrael, while they were turning to other gods and loving raisin cakes.”
2 So I bought her for myself for fifteen shekels of silver and an omer and a half of barley. 3 Then I said to her: “For many days you must stay with me. You must not practice prostitution. You must not have a man, and I will be the same toward you.”
4 For Bnei-Yisrael will remain for many days without king, without prince, without sacrifice, without sacred pillar, and without ephod or teraphim. [d] 5 Afterwards, Bnei-Yisrael will return, and they will seek Adonai their God and David their king. Then they will turn in awe to Adonai and to His goodness in the last days.
The Danger of False Wisdom
16 Therefore, do not let anyone pass judgment on you in matters of food or drink, or in respect to a festival or new moon or Shabbat. [a] 17 These are a foreshadowing of things to come, but the reality is Messiah. [b] 18 Let no one disqualify you by insisting on false humility and worship of angels—going into detail about what he has seen, puffed up without cause by his fleshly mind. 19 He is not holding fast to the Head. It is from Him that the whole body, nourished and held together by its joints and tendons, grows with a godly increase. 20 If you died with Messiah to the basic principles of the world, why—as though living in the world—do you subject yourselves to their rules? 21 “Don’t handle! Don’t taste! Don’t touch!” 22 These all lead to decay with use, based as they are on man-made commands and teachings. [c] 23 Indeed, these are matters that have an appearance of wisdom in self-made religion and humility and self-denial of the body—yet none are of any value for stopping indulgence of the flesh.
Put Off the Old, Put On the New
3 Therefore, if you have been raised up with Messiah, keep seeking the things above—where Messiah is, sitting at the right hand of God.
Tree of Life (TLV) Translation of the Bible. Copyright © 2015 by The Messianic Jewish Family Bible Society.