Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
Hymns of Praise
12 And in that day you shall say:
O Lord, I will praise You;
though You were angry with me,
Your anger has turned away,
and You comforted me.
2 Certainly God is my salvation;
I will trust and not be afraid;
for the Lord God is my strength and my song;
He also has become my salvation.
3 Therefore with joy you shall draw water
out of the wells of salvation.
4 In that day you shall say:
Praise the Lord, call upon His name,
declare His deeds among the peoples,
make them remember that His name is exalted.
5 Sing to the Lord, for He has done excellent things;
let this be known in all the earth.
6 Cry out and shout for joy, O inhabitant of Zion.
For great is the Holy One of Israel in your midst.
The Consequence of Sin
59 Certainly, the hand of the Lord is not so short that it cannot save,
nor is His ear so dull that it cannot hear.
2 But your iniquities have made a separation between
you and your God,
and your sins have hidden His face from you
so that He will not hear.
3 For your hands are defiled with blood
and your fingers with iniquity;
your lips have spoken lies,
your tongue has muttered perverseness.
4 No one calls for justice,
nor does anyone plead for truth.
They trust in vanity and speak lies;
they conceive mischief and bring forth iniquity.
5 They hatch adders’ eggs
and weave the spider’s web;
he who eats of their eggs dies,
and that which is crushed breaks out into a viper.
6 Their webs shall not become garments,
nor shall they cover themselves with their works;
their works are works of iniquity,
and an act of violence is in their hands.
7 Their feet run to evil,
and they make haste to shed innocent blood;
their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity;
devastation and destruction are in their paths.
8 The way of peace they do not know,
and there is no justice in their ways;
they have made their paths crooked;
whoever walks in them does not know peace.
The Confession of Sin
9 Therefore, justice is far from us,
nor does righteousness overtake us;
we wait for light, but there is darkness,
for brightness, but we walk in gloom.
10 We grope along the wall like the blind,
and we grope as if we had no eyes;
we stumble at noonday as in the night;
among those who are vigorous, we are as dead men.
11 We all roar like bears
and mourn sadly like doves;
we look for justice, but there is none;
for salvation, but it is far from us.
12 For our transgressions are multiplied before You,
and our sins testify against us;
for our transgressions are with us.
And as for our iniquities, we know them:
13 transgressing, and lying against the Lord,
and departing away from our God,
speaking oppression and revolt,
conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood.
14 Justice is turned backward,
and righteousness stands far off;
for truth is fallen in the street,
and equity cannot enter.
15 Truth is lacking,
and he who departs from evil makes himself a prey.
The Redeemer of Zion
Then the Lord saw it, and it displeased Him
that there was no justice.
The Judgment at Christ’s Coming
3 We are bound to thank God always for you, brothers, as it is fitting, because your faith is growing abundantly, and the love of every one of you abounds toward each other. 4 So we boast about you in the churches of God for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that you are enduring.
5 This is evidence that God’s judgment, being righteous, will count you worthy of the kingdom of God for which you are suffering. 6 It is a righteous matter with God to repay with tribulation those who trouble you, 7 and to give you who are troubled rest with us when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, 8 in flaming fire taking vengeance on those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 They shall be punished with eternal destruction, isolated from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power, 10 when He comes, in that Day, to be glorified in His saints and to be marveled at by all those who believe, because our testimony among you was believed.
11 Therefore we always pray for you that our God would count you worthy of this calling and with power fulfill all your good desires and works done by faith, 12 so that the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you, and you in Him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.
The Holy Bible, Modern English Version. Copyright © 2014 by Military Bible Association. Published and distributed by Charisma House.