Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
137 You are righteous, O Lord,
and your regulations are fair.
138 You have issued your written instructions.
They are fair and completely dependable.
139 My devotion ⌞for your words⌟ consumes me,
because my enemies have forgotten your words.
140 Your promise has been thoroughly tested,
and I love it.
141 I am unimportant and despised,
⌞yet⌟ I never forget your guiding principles.
142 Your righteousness is an everlasting righteousness,
and your teachings are reliable.
143 Trouble and hardship have found me,
but your commandments ⌞still⌟ make me happy.
144 Your written instructions are always right.
Help me understand ⌞them⌟ so that I will live.
The Lord’s Answer
5 Look among the nations and watch.
Be amazed and astonished.
I am going to do something in your days
that you would not believe even if it were reported to you.
6 I am going to send the Babylonians,
that fierce and reckless nation.
They will march throughout the earth
to take possession of lands that don’t belong to them.
7 They will be terrifying and fearsome.
They will carry out their own kind of justice and honor.
8 Their horses will be faster than leopards
and quicker than wolves in the evening.
Their riders will gallop along proudly.
Their riders will come from far away.
They will fly like an eagle that swoops down for its prey.
9 They will all come for violence.
Every face will be directed forward.
They will gather prisoners like sand.
10 They will make fun of kings and treat rulers as a joke.
They will laugh at every fortified city
and build a dirt ramp to capture it.
11 They will move quickly and pass through like the wind.
So they will be guilty,
because their own strength is their god.
Habakkuk’s Question
12 Didn’t you exist before time began, O Lord, my God, my Holy One?
We will not die!
O Lord, you have appointed the Babylonians to bring judgment.
O Rock, you have destined them to correct us.
13 Your eyes are too pure to look at evil.
You can’t watch wickedness.
Why do you keep watching treacherous people?
Why are you silent when wicked people swallow those
who are more righteous than they are?
14 You make all people like the fish in the sea,
like schools of sea life that have no ruler.
15 The Babylonians pull them all up with fishhooks,
drag them away in nets,
and gather them in dragnets.
So they rejoice and are happy.
16 That is why they sacrifice to their nets and burn incense to their dragnets.
They are rich and well fed because of them.
17 Will they keep on emptying their nets
and always kill nations without mercy?
Greeting
1 From Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ.
To those who have obtained a faith that is as valuable as ours, a faith based on the approval that comes from our God and Savior, Jesus Christ.
2 May good will [a] and peace fill your lives through your knowledge about Jesus, our God and Lord!
God’s Power Gives Us the Ability to Live Godly Lives
3 God’s divine power has given us everything we need for life and for godliness. This power was given to us through knowledge of the one who called us by his own glory and integrity. 4 Through his glory and integrity he has given us his promises that are of the highest value. Through these promises you will share in the divine nature because you have escaped the corruption that sinful desires cause in the world.
5 Because of this, make every effort to add integrity to your faith; and to integrity add knowledge; 6 to knowledge add self-control; to self-control add endurance; to endurance add godliness; 7 to godliness add Christian affection; and to Christian affection add love. 8 If you have these qualities and they are increasing, it demonstrates that your knowledge about our Lord Jesus Christ is living and productive. 9 If these qualities aren’t present in your life, you’re shortsighted and have forgotten that you were cleansed from your past sins. 10 Therefore, brothers and sisters, use more effort to make God’s calling and choosing of you secure.
If you keep doing this, you will never fall away. 11 Then you will also be given the wealth of entering into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
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