Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

The Lord—the One We Trust

91 He who lives in the safe place of the Most High will be in the shadow of the All-powerful. ² I will say to the Lord, “You are my safe and strong place, my God, in Whom I trust.” ³ For it is He Who takes you away from the trap, and from the killing sickness. ⁴ He will cover you with His wings. And under His wings you will be safe. He is faithful like a safe-covering and a strong wall.

⁵ You will not be afraid of trouble at night, or of the arrow that flies by day. ⁶ You will not be afraid of the sickness that walks in darkness, or of the trouble that destroys at noon.

¹⁴ Because he has loved Me, I will bring him out of trouble. I will set him in a safe place on high, because he has known My name. ¹⁵ He will call upon Me, and I will answer him. I will be with him in trouble. I will take him out of trouble and honor him. ¹⁶ I will please him with a long life. And I will show him My saving power.

False Preachers and Empty Words

⁹ As for the men who speak for God, my heart is broken within me. All my bones shake. I have become like a drunk man, like a man who has had too much wine, because of the Lord and because of His holy words. ¹⁰ For the land is full of people who are not faithful. Because of the bad things that have come upon it, the land is filled with sorrow, and the fields of the desert have dried up. Their way is sinful, and they use their power in a wrong way. ¹¹ “For both the men of God and the religious leaders are sinful. I have found their sin even in My house,” says the Lord. ¹² “So their way will be a danger to them. They will be driven away into the darkness and fall down in it. For I will bring much trouble upon them in the year of their punishment,” says the Lord.

¹³ “In Samaria I have seen a very bad thing among the men of Samaria who tell what is going to happen in the future. They speak for the false god Baal, and have led My people into sin. ¹⁴ In Jerusalem I have seen a very sinful thing among the men of Jerusalem who tell what is going to happen in the future. They do sex sins and tell lies, and give help to those who do sinful things, so that no one turns from his sin. All of them have become like Sodom to Me. The people of Jerusalem have become like Gomorrah.” ¹⁵ So the Lord of All says about the men who tell what is going to happen in the future, “See, I will make them eat bitter food and drink water with poison. For from these men of Jerusalem sin has gone out into all the land.”

¹⁶ The Lord of All says, “Do not listen to the words of those who are telling you what will happen in the future. They are filling you with empty hopes. They tell of dreams from their own thoughts, not from the mouth of the Lord. ¹⁷ They keep saying to those who hate Me, ‘The Lord has said, “You will have peace.”’ To every one who walks in the strong-will of his own heart, they say, ‘Trouble will not come to you.’ ¹⁸ But who among them has listened to the Lord, that he should see and hear His Word? Who has given thought to His Word and listened? ¹⁹ See, the strong wind storm of the Lord has gone out in anger. It will come down upon the head of the sinful. ²⁰ The anger of the Lord will not turn back until He has done all that He has planned in His heart. In the last days you will understand. ²¹ I did not send these men who say they speak for God, yet they ran to tell their news. I did not speak to them, yet they spoke in My name. ²² But if they had listened to Me, then they would have made My words known to My people. And they would have turned them back from their sinful way and from the sinful things they did.”

⁸ I am not saying that you must do this, but I have told you how others have helped. This is a way to prove how true your love is. ⁹ You know of the loving-favor shown by our Lord Jesus Christ. He was rich, but He became poor for your good. In that way, because He became poor, you might become rich.

¹⁰ This is what I think. You had better finish what you started a year ago. You were the first to want to give a gift of money. ¹¹ Now do it with the same strong desires you had when you started. ¹² If a man is ready and willing to give, he should give of what he has, not of what he does not have. ¹³ This does not mean that others do not have to give and you have to give much. You should share alike. ¹⁴ You have more than you need now. When you have need, then they can help you. You should share alike. ¹⁵ The Holy Writings say, “The man who gathered much did not have too much. The man who did not gather much had enough.” ^(A)