Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

87 ^1-2 High on his holy mountain stands Jerusalem,^[a] the city of God, the city he loves more than any other!

³ O city of God, what wondrous tales are told of you! ⁴ Nowadays when I mention among my friends the names of Egypt and Babylonia, Philistia and Tyre, or even distant Ethiopia, someone boasts that he was born in one or another of those countries. ⁵ But someday the highest honor will be to be a native of Jerusalem! For the God above all gods will personally bless this city. ⁶ When he registers her citizens, he will place a check mark beside the names of those who were born here. ⁷ And in the festivals they’ll sing, “All my heart is in Jerusalem.”

3 “At that time, when I restore the prosperity of Judah and Jerusalem,” says the Lord, ² “I will gather the armies of the world into the ‘Valley Where Jehovah Judges’^[a] and punish them there for harming my people, for scattering my inheritance among the nations and dividing up my land.

³ “They divided up my people as their slaves; they traded a young lad for a prostitute, and a little girl for wine enough to get drunk. ⁴ Tyre and Sidon, don’t you try to interfere! Are you trying to take revenge on me, you cities of Philistia? Beware, for I will strike back swiftly and return the harm to your own heads.

⁵ “You have taken my silver and gold and all my precious treasures and carried them off to your heathen temples. ⁶ You have sold the people of Judah and Jerusalem to the Greeks, who took them far from their own land. ⁷ But I will bring them back again from all these places you have sold them to, and I will pay you back for all that you have done. ⁸ I will sell your sons and daughters to the people of Judah, and they will sell them to the Sabeans far away. This is a promise from the Lord.”

¹² Dear friends, don’t be bewildered or surprised when you go through the fiery trials ahead, for this is no strange, unusual thing that is going to happen to you. ¹³ Instead, be really glad—because these trials will make you partners with Christ in his suffering, and afterwards you will have the wonderful joy of sharing his glory in that coming day when it will be displayed.

¹⁴ Be happy if you are cursed and insulted for being a Christian, for when that happens the Spirit of God will come upon you with great glory.^{[a] 15} Don’t let me hear of your suffering for murdering or stealing or making trouble or being a busybody and prying into other people’s affairs. ¹⁶ But it is no shame to suffer for being a Christian. Praise God for the privilege of being in Christ’s family and being called by his wonderful name! ¹⁷ For the time has come for judgment, and it must begin first among God’s own children. And if even we who are Christians must be judged, what terrible fate awaits those who have never believed in the Lord? ¹⁸ If the righteous are barely saved, what chance will the godless have?

¹⁹ So if you are suffering according to God’s will, keep on doing what is right and trust yourself to the God who made you, for he will never fail you.