Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
Psalm 85
For the music leader. Of the Korahites. A psalm.
85 Lord, you’ve been kind to your land;
you’ve changed Jacob’s circumstances for the better.
2 You’ve forgiven your people’s wrongdoing;
you’ve covered all their sins. Selah
3 You’ve stopped being furious;
you’ve turned away from your burning anger.
4 You, the God who can save us, restore us!
Stop being angry with us!
5 Will you be mad at us forever?
Will you prolong your anger from one generation to the next?
6 Won’t you bring us back to life again
so that your people can rejoice in you?
7 Show us your faithful love, Lord!
Give us your salvation!
8 Let me hear what the Lord God says,
because he speaks peace to his people and to his faithful ones.
Don’t let them return to foolish ways.
9 God’s salvation is very close to those who honor him
so that his glory can live in our land.
10 Faithful love and truth have met;
righteousness and peace have kissed.
11 Truth springs up from the ground;
righteousness gazes down from heaven.
12 Yes, the Lord gives what is good,
and our land yields its produce.
13 Righteousness walks before God,
making a road for his steps.
Judgment on Israel and Judah
5 Hear this, priests!
Pay attention, house of Israel!
Listen, house of the king!
The judgment concerns you because you have been a trap at Mizpah,
and a net spread out upon Tabor.
2 In their wicked condition, they have sunk deep into corruption;
I will correct them through judgment.
3 I know Ephraim;
Israel doesn’t escape my eye;
for now Ephraim
you have acted like a prostitute;
Israel is defiled.
4 Their deeds don’t allow them
to return to their God,
because the spirit of prostitution is within them,
and they don’t know the Lord.
5 Israel’s pride is a witness against him;
both Israel and Ephraim stagger because of their guilt;
Judah staggers with them.
6 With their sheep and their cattle they will go
to seek the Lord,
but they will not find him;
he has withdrawn from them.
7 They have acted faithlessly against the Lord;
for their children have produced illegitimate children.
Now the new moon will devour them[a] along with their fields.
8 Blow a horn in Gibeah;
blow a trumpet in Ramah.
Sound the warning at Beth-aven:
“Look behind you, Benjamin!”
9 Ephraim will become a horrible place
on the Judgment Day.
Against the tribes of Israel
I will certainly announce what is to take place.
10 The princes of Judah act like raiders who steal the land;
I will pour out my anger like water upon them.
11 Ephraim is under pressure from its enemies;
Ephraim’s rights aren’t protected.
This is because Ephraim chose to pursue worthless things.
12 Therefore, I am like a moth to Ephraim,
and like decay to the house of Judah.
13 When Ephraim saw his sickness,
and Judah his wound,
then Ephraim went to Assyria,
and Ephraim sent for the great king.
But he could not heal them;
nor could he cure their wound.
14 I am like a lion to Ephraim,
like a young lion to the house of Judah.
I am the one who tears the prey and goes forth;
no one can snatch it from me.
15 I will leave so that I can return to my place
until they pay for their deeds,
until they seek me.
In their distress,
they will beg for my favor:
22 “Fellow Israelites, listen to these words! Jesus the Nazarene was a man whose credentials God proved to you through miracles, wonders, and signs, which God performed through him among you. You yourselves know this. 23 In accordance with God’s established plan and foreknowledge, he was betrayed. You, with the help of wicked men, had Jesus killed by nailing him to a cross. 24 God raised him up! God freed him from death’s dreadful grip, since it was impossible for death to hang on to him. 25 David says about him,
I foresaw that the Lord was always with me;
because he is at my right hand I won’t be shaken.
26 Therefore, my heart was glad
and my tongue rejoiced.
Moreover, my body will live in hope,
27 because you won’t abandon me to the grave,
nor permit your holy one to experience decay.
28 You have shown me the paths of life;
your presence will fill me with happiness.[a]
29 “Brothers and sisters, I can speak confidently about the patriarch David. He died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this very day. 30 Because he was a prophet, he knew that God promised him with a solemn pledge to seat one of his descendants on his throne. 31 Having seen this beforehand, David spoke about the resurrection of Christ, that he wasn’t abandoned to the grave, nor did his body experience decay.[b] 32 This Jesus God raised up. We are all witnesses to that fact. 33 He was exalted to God’s right side and received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit. He poured out this Spirit, and you are seeing and hearing the results of his having done so. 34 David didn’t ascend into heaven. Yet he says,
The Lord said to my Lord, ‘Sit at my right side,
35 until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.’[c]
36 “Therefore, let all Israel know beyond question that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.”
Copyright © 2011 by Common English Bible