Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
This is a special song that Asaph wrote.
A prayer for our nation[a]
74 God, have you turned against us for ever?
Why are you so angry with us?
We belong to you, so please take care of us,
like a shepherd takes care of his sheep.
2 Remember that we are your people.
Long ago you chose us for yourself.
You rescued us from being slaves,
so that we could be your special nation of people.[b]
So please think about us,
as well as your home on Mount Zion.
3 Come and look at our buildings!
Your enemies have completely destroyed them.
They have also destroyed everything that is in your temple.
4 Your enemies shout battle cries
inside your special meeting place.
They have put up their own flags there.
5 They used axes to cut the temple into pieces,
like people who cut down trees!
6 They used their hammers and axes
to break the wooden boards with pictures on them.
7 They completely burned your temple.
They knocked it down to the ground!
They caused your special place to become useless!
8 They said to themselves,
‘We will completely destroy them all.’
So they burned down every place in the land
where people meet to worship God.
9 We no longer see any signs that God is with us.
There are no more prophets among us.
Nobody can tell us how long this will continue.
10 God, how long will our enemies laugh at you?
Will they insult your name for ever?
11 Why do you do nothing to help us?
Use your power now to punish them!
12 God, you have been my king from the beginning.
You have done great things to rescue us
all over the earth.
13 You broke the sea into separate pieces,
because you are so strong.[c]
You broke the heads of the monsters
in the waters of the sea.[d]
14 You broke the heads of Leviathan.[e]
You gave his body as food
for the animals that live in the desert.
15 You caused springs and streams of water to appear.
And you made large rivers become dry![f]
16 Days and nights both belong to you.
You put the moon and the sun in their places.
17 You said where the land must be among the seas.
You made both summer and winter.[g]
18 Lord, think about your enemies.
They are always laughing at you.
Foolish people are insulting your name.
19 We, your people, are like your own special dove.
Do not let wild animals destroy us!
We are weak and poor,
so do not forget about us!
20 Remember what you have promised to do for us.
There are dark places everywhere,
where cruel people hide.
21 We are weak, and people want to hurt us.
Do not let us become ashamed.
Instead, let the poor, weak people praise your name!
22 Do something, God!
Show everyone that you are good.
Think how fools are laughing at you all the time.
23 Do not forget what your enemies are saying.
They shout things against you all the time!
Bad trouble will come
8 It will be very bad for you people who buy many houses for yourselves. You also buy land to join to the land that you already have. Then there is no more land left for anyone else. You are the only people who remain on the land.
9 I have heard the Lord Almighty promise this: ‘All these great, beautiful houses will certainly become empty. There will be nobody to live in them.
10 Large vineyards will give only a few bottles of wine. If you plant ten bags of seed, you will only get one bag of grain as your harvest.’
11 It will be bad for you people who like to get up early to start drinking. You continue to drink late into the night, until you are very drunk.
12 You have wild parties with plenty of music and wine. You make music with your lyres, harps, tambourines and flutes. But you do not understand the things that the Lord is doing. You do not see the things that he has made.
13 Because of that, my people will go into exile in countries far away. They do not know God. Their leaders will die because they have nothing to eat. All the other people will have nothing to drink.
14 So the deep hole of death will be hungry! It will open wide to eat the people of Jerusalem. The leaders and the people will go down into it. It will eat up those who are happy at their wild parties in Jerusalem.
15 So the Lord will bring its people down low. Its proud people will become ashamed.
16 But the Lord Almighty will be lifted up high by his justice. People will know that he is holy when he comes as judge.
17 Then lambs will find good grass to eat, as they do in their own fields. Fat sheep will find food to eat among the stones of the old houses.
18 It will be very bad for you people who are always deceiving others. You cannot leave your sins behind, like someone who pulls a cart with a rope.
19 People like that laugh at God. They say, ‘The Lord should do something quickly! We want to see what he can do. The holy God of Israel should do what he has decided to do. Then we will really know what that is!’
20 It will be very bad for people who call evil things good. And they call good things evil. They say, ‘It is light’, when it is dark. And they say, ‘It is dark’, when it is light. They say that bitter things are sweet. And they say that sweet things are bitter.
21 It will be very bad for people who think that they are wise. They think that they are very clever.
22 It will be very bad for people who think that they are famous because they can drink a lot of wine. They think that they are very brave to mix strong drinks together.
23 If people like that receive a bribe, they will not say that wicked people are guilty. They also refuse to say that righteous people are not guilty.
The Holy Spirit and false spirits
4 My friends, do not believe everyone who says that they speak God's message. There are many false prophets who are travelling around everywhere. They say that they have a message from God's Spirit, but the message comes from a false spirit. So check each message carefully to see if it is really from God.
2 How do you know whether a person has God's Spirit in him? He must agree that Jesus is God's Messiah who was born as a human baby. If someone says that, then he has God's Spirit. 3 But if someone does not agree to say that about Jesus, he does not have God's Spirit. That person has a spirit that comes from the enemy of Christ. You have heard that this enemy of Christ would come among us. Now this spirit is already here in the world.
4 My little children, you belong to God. You have won against those people with a false message. You have been able to do that because God's Holy Spirit is in you. He is more powerful than the spirit that belongs to this world. 5 Those false prophets belong to this world. Their message comes from the ideas of people of this world. So the people of this world believe what they teach. 6 But we belong to God. Everyone who knows God believes our message. But anyone who does not belong to God does not believe it.
So that is how we know if someone's message comes from God's Spirit or not. God's Spirit brings us a true message, but false spirits tell lies.[a]
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