Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Prayer for a Safe Place

59 O my God, take me away from those who hate me. Put me up high above those who rise up against me. ² Take me away from those who do wrong. And save me from those who kill. ³ For, look, they lie in wait for my life. Strong men are gathering together to fight me, but not because of my wrong-doing or my sin, O Lord. ⁴ I have done no wrong, but they get ready to fight against me. Rise up to help me. ⁵ You, O Lord God of All, God of Israel, rise up to punish all the nations. Show no loving-kindness to those people who cannot be trusted and plan sins. ⁶ They return at evening. They sound like dogs and go around the city. ⁷ See, they spit with their mouth. Swords are in their lips. And they say, “Who can hear us?” ⁸ But You laugh at them, O Lord. You laugh at all the nations.

⁹ O my Strength, I will watch for You. For God is my strong place. ¹⁰ My God in His loving-kindness will meet me. God will let me look at those who come against me and know that I will win the fight. ¹¹ Do not kill them, or my people may forget. Divide them by Your power and bring them down, O Lord, our safe-covering. ¹² Let them be caught in their pride for the sin of their mouth and the words of their lips. For the lies and bad things they say, ¹³ destroy them in anger. Destroy them so that they will be no more. Let it be known that God rules in Jacob and to the ends of the earth.

¹⁴ They return at evening. They make sounds like dogs and go around the city. ¹⁵ They go around looking for food and they show their teeth if they are not filled.

¹⁶ But as for me, I will sing of Your strength. Yes, I will sing with joy of Your loving-kindness in the morning. For You have been a strong and safe place for me in times of trouble. ¹⁷ O my Strength, I will sing praises to You. For God is my strong place and the God Who shows me loving-kindness.

Joram of Israel Is Killed

¹⁴ So Jehu the son of Jehoshaphat the son of Nimshi made plans against Joram. Now Joram and all Israel were fighting against Hazael king of Syria at Ramoth-gilead. ¹⁵ But King Joram had returned to Jezreel to be healed of the cuts the Syrians had given him, when he fought with King Hazael of Syria. So Jehu said, “If this is what you have in mind, then let no one get out of the city to tell the news in Jezreel.” ¹⁶ Then Jehu went to Jezreel in a war-wagon, for Joram was lying there. And Ahaziah the king of Judah had come down to see Joram.

¹⁷ Now the man who watched for danger was standing in the tower in Jezreel. He saw the group of Jehu’s men coming, and said, “I see a group of men coming.” Joram said, “Send a horseman to meet them and ask, ‘Do you come in peace?’” ¹⁸ So a horseman went to meet him and said, “The king asks, ‘Do you come in peace?’” And Jehu said, “What have you to do with peace? Get behind me.” Then the watchman told Joram, “The horseman came to them, but he did not return.” ¹⁹ So he sent out a second horseman, who came to them and said, “The king asks, ‘Do you come in peace?’” And Jehu answered, “What have you to do with peace? Get behind me.” ²⁰ The watchman told Joram, “He came to them, and he did not return. The leader goes in his war-wagon like a mad man, just like Jehu.”

²¹ Then Joram said, “Get ready.” And they made his war-wagon ready. Then Joram king of Israel and Ahaziah king of Judah went out, each in their war-wagon, to meet Jehu. They found him in the field of Naboth the Jezreelite. ²² When Joram saw Jehu, he said, “Do you come in peace, Jehu?” And he answered, “What peace can there be, so long as the sinful ways and witchcrafts of your mother Jezebel are so many?” ²³ So Joram turned the horses around and ran away, saying to Ahaziah, “He is turning against the king, O Ahaziah!” ²⁴ Jehu pulled his bow with all his strength and shot Joram between his arms. The arrow went through his heart, and he fell in his war-wagon. ²⁵ Then Jehu said to Bidkar his captain, “Pick him up and throw him into the field of Naboth the Jezreelite. For I remember when you and I were going together after his father Ahab. The Lord said then that this would happen to him. ²⁶ The Lord said, ‘Yesterday I have seen the blood of Naboth and his sons. I will punish you in this field.’ So now take and throw him into the field, as the word of the Lord has said.”

Followers Now Become the Body of Christ

¹¹ Do not forget that at one time you did not know God. The Jews, who had gone through the religious act of becoming a Jew by man’s hands, said you were people who do not know God. ¹² You were living without Christ then. The Jewish people who belonged to God had nothing to do with you. The promises He gave to them were not for you. You had nothing in this world to hope for. You were without God.

¹³ But now you belong to Christ Jesus. At one time you were far away from God. Now you have been brought close to Him. Christ did this for you when He gave His blood on the cross. ¹⁴ We have peace because of Christ. He has made the Jews and those who are not Jews one people. He broke down the wall that divided them. ¹⁵ He stopped the fighting between them by His death on the cross. He put an end to the Law. Then He made of the two people one new kind of people like Himself. In this way, He made peace. ¹⁶ He brought both groups together to God. Christ finished the fighting between them by His death on the cross. ¹⁷ Then Christ came and preached the Good News of peace to you who were far away from God. And He preached it to us who were near God. ¹⁸ Now all of us can go to the Father through Christ by way of the one Holy Spirit. ¹⁹ From now on you are not strangers and people who are not citizens. You are citizens together with those who belong to God. You belong in God’s family. ²⁰ This family is built on the teachings of the missionaries and the early preachers. Jesus Christ Himself is the cornerstone, which is the most important part of the building. ²¹ Christ keeps this building together and it is growing into a holy building for the Lord. ²² You are also being put together as a part of this building because God lives in you by His Spirit.