Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

A Song of Praise

138 I will give You thanks with all my heart. I will sing praises to You in front of the gods. ² I will bow down toward Your holy house. And I will give thanks to Your name for Your loving-kindness and Your truth. For You have honored Your Word because of what Your name is. ³ You answered me on the day I called. You gave me strength in my soul.

⁴ O Lord, all the kings of the earth will give thanks to You when they have heard the words of Your mouth. ⁵ And they will sing of the ways of the Lord. For the shining beauty of the Lord is great. ⁶ For even if the Lord is honored, He thinks about those who have no pride. But He knows the proud from far away. ⁷ Even if I walk into trouble, You will keep my life safe. You will put out Your hand against the anger of those who hate me. And Your right hand will save me. ⁸ The Lord will finish the work He started for me. O Lord, Your loving-kindness lasts forever. Do not turn away from the works of Your hands.

The Philistines and the Special Box

5 The Philistines took the special box of God and brought it from Ebenezer to Ashdod. ² They took the special box of God into the house of Dagon, and set it beside Dagon. ³ When the Ashdodites got up early the next morning, they saw that Dagon had fallen on his face to the ground before the special box of the Lord. So they took Dagon and set him in his place again. ⁴ But when they got up early the next morning, they saw that Dagon had fallen on his face to the ground in front of the special box of the Lord. And Dagon’s head and both his hands were cut off and lying in the doorway. Only the body of Dagon was left. ⁵ So the religious leaders of Dagon and all who go into Dagon’s house do not step on the bottom part of the doorway in Ashdod to this day.

⁶ The hand of the Lord was heavy on the Ashdodites. He filled them with fear and punished them with pain and sores, both Ashdod and its lands. ⁷ When the men of Ashdod saw how things were, they said, “The special box of the God of Israel must not stay with us. For His hand is hard on us and on our god Dagon.” ⁸ So they called together all the leaders of the Philistines and said, “What should we do with the special box of the God of Israel?” And they said, “Let the special box of the God of Israel be brought around to Gath.” So they brought the box of the God of Israel there. ⁹ But after they had brought it there, the hand of the Lord was against the city, causing much fear. He punished both the young and old men of the city, so that sores broke out upon them. ¹⁰ So they sent the special box of God to Ekron. When the box of God came to Ekron, the people there cried out, “They have brought the special box of the God of Israel to us, to kill us and our people.” ¹¹ So they called together all the leaders of the Philistines and said, “Send away the special box of the God of Israel. Let it return to its own place, that it may not kill us and our people.” For the people of the city were afraid. The hand of God was very heavy there. ¹² The men who did not die were punished with sores, and the cry of the city went up to heaven.

Our Weak Human Bodies

5 Our body is like a house we live in here on earth. When it is destroyed, we know that God has another body for us in heaven. The new one will not be made by human hands as a house is made. This body will last forever. ² Right now we cry inside ourselves because we wish we could have our new body which we will have in heaven. ³ We will not be without a body. We will live in a new body. ⁴ While we are in this body, we cry inside ourselves because things are hard for us. It is not that we want to die. Instead, we want to live in our new bodies. We want this dying body to be changed into a living body that lasts forever. ⁵ It is God Who has made us ready for this change. He has given us His Spirit to show us what He has for us.