Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Asaph wrote this psalm.

God, help us!^[a]

¹⁴ This is what the Lord says: ‘I will punish the wicked nations that came to attack the land of my people. It was the land that I gave to Israel's people to be their home. But those enemies destroyed it. So I will remove them from their own lands. I will rescue the people of Judah from among them. ¹⁵ But after I have removed those nations, I will return to help them. I will be kind to them. I will bring them back to the countries where they belong. Each nation will return to live in its own land. ¹⁶ But they must learn to live in the way that my people live. At one time they taught my people to use Baal's name when they made promises. But now they must give honour to me as the true God. When they make a promise, they must say, “I promise to do this, as surely as the Lord lives.” If they do these things, they will belong among my people. ¹⁷ But if any nation refuses to obey me, I will destroy it completely.’ That is what the Lord says.

A linen belt

13 The Lord said to me, ‘Go and buy a linen belt.^[a] Tie it around your body. But do not put it into water.’ ² So I bought a belt, as the Lord had told me to do. I tied it around me.

³ The Lord spoke to me again. ⁴ He said, ‘Take the belt that you bought and you are now wearing. Take it now to Perath. Hide it there in a hole in the rocks.’ ⁵ So I went to Perath. I hid it there, as the Lord had commanded me to do.^[b]

⁶ Many days after that, the Lord said to me, ‘Now go to Perath again. Get the belt that I told you to hide there.’ ⁷ So I went back to Perath. I dug out the belt from the place where I had hidden it. But it had become spoiled. I could not use it any more.

⁸ Then the Lord said to me, ⁹ ‘I, the Lord, tell you this: See what happened to your belt. Now I will destroy everything that the people of Judah and Jerusalem are proud of. ¹⁰ Those wicked people refuse to listen to my words. They do whatever they want to do. They are too proud to change. They serve other gods and they worship them. Now they will become as useless as this linen belt. ¹¹ I tell you this: My people should have been like a belt for me. I held all the people of Israel and all the people of Judah very near to me. I chose them to be my special people. They should have respected me and given me honour so that people would praise me. But they refused to obey me.

3 So someone may ask, ‘Does it help a person if they are a Jew, rather than a Gentile? Does it help a person if someone has circumcised them?’ ² Yes, it helps in many ways. The first is that God chose to give his messages to the Jewish people. ³ But you may say, ‘Some Jews did not believe God's messages as they should have done. Because of that, maybe God will not do what he said he would do.’ ⁴ No, certainly it does not mean that! God will always do what he says. He will always say what is true, even if everyone in the world should tell lies. This is what is written in the Bible:

⁵ Maybe some people may say, ‘The wrong things that we do show more clearly that God is always right. So perhaps God is wrong to punish us.’ ⁶ That is not true! God always decides what is right and fair. That is why he is able to judge everyone in the world.

⁷ Someone might also say, ‘When I tell lies, that shows how great and good God is. My lies show more clearly that God always says what is true. So God should not say that I am a bad person. He should not punish me.’ ⁸ But if that is true, you could also say, ‘We should do more and more bad things. Then something good will happen as a result.’ Some people even say that is the message which I teach. But if they say that, they are insulting me. It is right that God should punish those people.