Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Joy of Being Forgiven

32 How happy he is whose wrong-doing is forgiven, and whose sin is covered! ² How happy is the man whose sin the Lord does not hold against him, and in whose spirit there is nothing false.

³ When I kept quiet about my sin, my bones wasted away from crying all day long. ⁴ For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me. My strength was dried up as in the hot summer. ⁵ I told my sin to You. I did not hide my wrong-doing. I said, “I will tell my sins to the Lord.” And You forgave the guilt of my sin. ⁶ So let all who are God-like pray to You while You may be found, because in the floods of much water, they will not touch him. ⁷ You are my hiding place. You keep me safe from trouble. All around me are your songs of being made free.

⁸ I will show you and teach you in the way you should go. I will tell you what to do with My eye upon you. ⁹ Do not be like the horse or the donkey which have no understanding. They must be made to work by using bits and leather ropes or they will not come to you. ¹⁰ Many are the sorrows of the sinful. But loving-kindness will be all around the man who trusts in the Lord. ¹¹ Be glad in the Lord and be full of joy, you who are right with God! Sing for joy all you who are pure in heart!

4 When all the nation had crossed the Jordan, the Lord said to Joshua, ² “Choose twelve men from the people, one man from each family. ³ Tell them, ‘Take twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan. Take them from the place where the religious leaders’ feet are standing. Carry them over with you, and lay them down in the place where you stay tonight.’” ⁴ So Joshua called the twelve men he had chosen from the sons of Israel, one man from each family. ⁵ And Joshua said to them, “Go into the middle of the Jordan in front of the special box of the agreement of the Lord your God. Each of you take a stone on his shoulder, one for each of the twelve family groups of Israel. ⁶ Let this be something special among you. Your children will ask you later, ‘What do these stones mean to you?’ ⁷ Then you will tell them that the water of the Jordan was cut off before the special box of the agreement of the Lord. When it crossed the Jordan, the water of the Jordan was cut off. So these stones will become something to remember to the people of Israel forever.”

⁸ The sons of Israel did as Joshua told them. They took up twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan, just as the Lord told Joshua. There was one stone for each family group of the sons of Israel. They carried them over with them to the place where they stayed, and put them down there. ⁹ Then Joshua set up twelve stones at the place where the feet of the religious leaders who carried the special box of the agreement were standing in the middle of the Jordan. They are there to this day. ¹⁰ The religious leaders who carried the special box of the agreement stood in the middle of the Jordan. They stood there until everything was finished that the Lord told Joshua to tell the people, all that Moses had told Joshua.

The people crossed in a hurry. ¹¹ When all the people were over, they watched the religious leaders carry the special box of the agreement to the other side. ¹² The sons of Reuben and Gad and the half-family group of Manasseh crossed over ready for battle before the people of Israel, just as Moses had told them. ¹³ About 40,000 soldiers ready for battle crossed before the Lord to the desert plains of Jericho.

Life Now—Life in Heaven

¹⁶ This is the reason we do not give up. Our human body is wearing out. But our spirits are getting stronger every day. ¹⁷ The little troubles we suffer now for a short time are making us ready for the great things God is going to give us forever. ¹⁸ We do not look at the things that can be seen. We look at the things that cannot be seen. The things that can be seen will come to an end. But the things that cannot be seen will last forever.

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.