Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
Trust in God’s Love
52 Why do you take pride in wrong-doing, O powerful man? The loving-kindness of God lasts all day long. 2 Your tongue makes plans to destroy like a sharp knife, you who lie. 3 You love what is bad more than what is good, and you speak lies more than you speak the truth. 4 You love all words that destroy, O lying tongue.
5 But God will destroy you forever. He will pick you up and pull you away from your tent. He will pull up your roots from the land of the living. 6 And those who are right will see and be afraid. They will laugh at him, saying, 7 “Look, the man who would not make God his safe place, but trusted in his many riches and was strong in his sinful desire.”
8 But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God. I trust in the loving-kindness of God forever and ever. 9 I will give You thanks forever because of what You have done. And I will hope in Your name, for it is good to be where those who belong to You are.
18 It is bad for you who want the day of the Lord to come. For what will the day of the Lord be to you? It will be darkness and not light. 19 It will be as when a man runs away from a lion and is met by a bear. It will be as when a man goes home and rests with his hand against the wall, and gets bitten by a snake. 20 Will not the day of the Lord be darkness instead of light, very dark with nothing bright in it?
21 “I hate your special suppers. I will have nothing to do with them. And I am not pleased with your religious meetings. 22 Even if you give Me burnt gifts and grain gifts in worship, I will not receive them. I will not even look at the peace gifts of your fat animals. 23 Take the noise of your songs away from Me. I will not listen to the sound of your harps. 24 But let what is fair roll down like waters. Let what is right and good flow forever like a river.
25 “O people of Israel, was it to Me you gave gifts of animals and grain on the altar for forty years in the desert? 26 You also carried with you Sikkuth your king and Kiyyun your star god, the false gods you made for yourselves. 27 So I will make you go as prisoners to the other side of Damascus,” says the Lord, Whose name is the God of All.
Paul’s Prayer for the Church
14 For this reason, I bow my knees and pray to the Father. 15 It is from Him that every family in heaven and on earth has its name. 16 I pray that because of the riches of His shining-greatness, He will make you strong with power in your hearts through the Holy Spirit. 17 I pray that Christ may live in your hearts by faith. I pray that you will be filled with love. 18 I pray that you will be able to understand how wide and how long and how high and how deep His love is. 19 I pray that you will know the love of Christ. His love goes beyond anything we can understand. I pray that you will be filled with God Himself.
20 God is able to do much more than we ask or think through His power working in us. 21 May we see His shining-greatness in the church. May all people in all time honor Christ Jesus. Let it be so.
Copyright © 1969, 2003 by Barbour Publishing, Inc.