Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
A Lament After a Defeat and a Prayer for Restoration
For the music director, according to Shushan Eduth.[a]
A miktam of David. To teach.
When he fought Mesopotamia and Aram Zobah, and Joab returned and struck Edom in the Valley of Salt, twelve thousand persons.[b]
60 O God, you have rejected us. You have broken us.
You have been angry. Restore us!
2 You have made the land quake. You have split it open.
Heal its fissures, because it totters.
3 You have shown your people hard things;
You have given us wine that staggers.
4 You have rallied those who fear you round a banner
out of bowshot,[c] Selah
5 so that your beloved ones may be rescued.
Save by your right hand and answer us.
6 God has spoken in his holiness,
“I will rejoice;
I will divide up Shechem,
and portion out the valley of Succoth.
7 Gilead is mine, and Manasseh is mine,
and Ephraim is the helmet for[d] my head;
Judah is my scepter.[e]
8 Moab is my washing pot;
over Edom, I will cast my sandal.
On account of me, O Philistia, raise a shout.”
9 Who will bring me to the fortified city?
Who will lead me to Edom?
10 Have not you yourself rejected us, O God,
and not gone out with our armies, O God?
11 Give us help against the adversary,
for the help of humankind is futile.
12 Through God we will do valiantly,[f]
and it is he who will tread down our enemies.
Return to Yahweh
14 Return to Yahweh your God, O Israel,
for you have stumbled because of your sin.
2 Take words with you,
and return to Yahweh.
Say to him,
“Take away all guilt;
accept good, and we will offer
the fruit[a] of our lips.
3 Assyria will not save us;
we will not ride on horses,[b]
and we will say no more, “Our God,”
to the work of our hands
because in you the fatherless child finds mercy.
4 I will heal their disloyalty;[c]
I will love them freely
because my anger has turned back
from them.[d]
5 I will be like the dew to Israel;
he will blossom like the lily plant,
and he will strike his roots like the trees of Lebanon.
6 His new plant shoots will spread out;
his splendor will be like the olive tree,
and his scent like the trees of Lebanon.
7 They will again dwell[e] in my[f] shadow;
they will grow grain
and they will blossom like the plant vine;
his fame will be like the wine of Lebanon.
8 O Ephraim, what have I to do[g] with idols?
I myself have answered and looked after you.[h]
I am like a luxuriant cypress;
your fruit[i] comes from me.
9 Who is wise that he can understand these things?
Who is discerning that he knows them?
The ways of Yahweh are right,
and the righteous walk in them;
but transgressors stumble in them.
Anxiety
22 And he said to his disciples, “For this reason I tell you, do not be anxious for your[a] life, what you will eat, or for your[b] body, what you will wear. 23 For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing. 24 Consider the ravens, that they neither sow nor reap; to them there is neither storeroom nor barn, and God feeds them. How much more are you worth than the birds? 25 And which of you by[c] being anxious is able to add an hour[d] to his life span? 26 If then you are not even able to do a very little thing, why are you anxious about the rest? 27 Consider the lilies, how they grow: they do not toil or spin, but I say to you, not even Solomon in all his glory was dressed like one of these. 28 But if God clothes the grass in the field in this way, although it[e] is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he do so for[f] you, you of little faith? 29 And you, do not consider what you will eat and what you will drink, and do not be anxious. 30 For all the nations of the world seek after these things, and your Father knows that you need these things. 31 But seek his kingdom and these things will be added to you.
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