Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Prayer of the Sinner

51 O God, favor me because of Your loving-kindness. Take away my wrong-doing because of the greatness of Your loving-pity. ² Wash me inside and out from my wrong-doing and make me clean from my sin. ³ For I know my wrong-doing, and my sin is always in front of me. ⁴ I have sinned against You, and You only. I have done what is sinful in Your eyes. You are always right when You speak, and fair when You judge.

⁵ See, I was born in sin and was in sin from my very beginning. ⁶ See, You want truth deep within the heart. And You will make me know wisdom in the hidden part. ⁷ Take away my sin, and I will be clean. Wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. ⁸ Make me hear joy and happiness. Let the bones that You have broken be full of joy. ⁹ Hide Your face from my sins. And take away all my wrong-doing.

¹⁰ Make a clean heart in me, O God. Give me a new spirit that will not be moved. ¹¹ Do not throw me away from where You are. And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. ¹² Let the joy of Your saving power return to me. And give me a willing spirit to obey you.

23 A long time after that, the Lord had given Israel rest from all those around them who hated them. Joshua had grown old, and had lived many years. ² Joshua called all Israel, their leaders, their heads, and the men chosen among them who judge between what is right or wrong. Then he said to them, “I am old and have lived many years. ³ And you have seen all the Lord your God has done to all these nations because of you. The Lord your God is the One Who has fought for you. ⁴ See, I have given to you as land for your families those nations that are left, with all the nations I have destroyed. They lie from the Jordan to the Great Sea in the west. ⁵ The Lord your God will send them out from in front of you. He will send them away from you. Then their land will be yours, just as the Lord your God promised you. ⁶ So do not be moved by others. Keep and obey all that is written in the book of the Law of Moses. Do not turn from it to the right or to the left. ⁷ Do not mix with these nations that stay among you. Do not say the names of their gods or make anyone swear by them. Do not work for them or worship them. ⁸ But hold on to the Lord your God, as you have done to this day. ⁹ For the Lord has driven away large and strong nations from in front of you. No man has been able to stand in front of you to this day. ¹⁰ One of your men makes a thousand run away. For the Lord your God is the One Who fights for you, just as He promised you. ¹¹ Be very careful to love the Lord your God. ¹² For if you ever turn away and join the people of these nations left among you and marry some of their people and go among them, ¹³ know for sure that the Lord your God will stop driving these nations away from you. And they will be a net and a trap to you. They will be a whip on your sides and thorns in your eyes, until you are destroyed from this good land the Lord your God has given you.

¹⁴ “See, today I am going the way of all the earth. Know in all your hearts and in all your souls that not one of all the good promises the Lord your God made to you has been broken. All have come true for you. Not one of them has been broken. ¹⁵ Every good promise the Lord your God made to you has come true. But in the same way, He will keep His promises to punish you. He will punish you until He has destroyed you from this good land the Lord your God has given you. ¹⁶ If you do not keep the agreement the Lord your God made with you, and serve other gods and worship them, then the anger of the Lord will burn against you and you will be destroyed from the good land He has given you.”

²⁷ Anyone who eats the bread or drinks from the cup, if his spirit is not right with the Lord, will be guilty of sinning against the body and the blood of the Lord. ²⁸ This is why a man should look into his own heart and life before eating the bread and drinking from the cup. ²⁹ Anyone who eats the bread and drinks from the cup, if his spirit is not right with the Lord, will be guilty as he eats and drinks. He does not understand the meaning of the Lord’s body. ³⁰ This is why some of you are sick and weak, and some have died. ³¹ But if we would look into our own lives and see if we are guilty, then God would not have to say we are guilty. ³² When we are guilty, we are punished by the Lord so we will not be told we are guilty with the rest of the world.

³³ Christian brothers, when you come together to eat, wait for each other. ³⁴ If anyone is hungry, he should eat at home. Then he will not be guilty as you meet together. I will talk about the other things when I come.