Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
Asaph wrote this psalm for the music leader. He should use special music.
God, help our nation[a]
80 Shepherd of Israel, listen to us!
You lead us, Joseph's family,
as your sheep.[b]
God, you sit on your throne as king,
above the cherubs.[c]
Show everyone your bright glory!
2 Shine on Ephraim, Benjamin and Manasseh.
Show your great power!
Come and rescue us!
3 God, turn us to come back to you.
Look at us with a smile on your face!
Then we will be safe.
4 Lord God Almighty,
we, your people, are praying to you.
How long will you continue to be angry with us?
5 You have caused us to eat tears as our food.
Buckets full of tears is what we drink.
6 You have caused the people who live near us
to laugh at us.
Our enemies insult us.
7 God Almighty, turn us to come back to you.
Look at us with a smile on your face!
Then we will be safe.
17 Give strength to the one who sits at your right hand.
He is the man that you have chosen to serve you.[a]
18 Then we will never turn away from you.
Give to us new life and strength,
so that we may always worship you.
19 Lord God Almighty, turn us to come back to you.
Look at us with a smile on your face!
Then we will be safe.
God says that bad things will happen to the bad people
2 Micah continues:
People who prepare to do bad things should be afraid.
God will do bad things to them!
While they lie in bed, they think about bad things to do.
Then, when the morning comes, they do those bad things.
They have the authority to do whatever they want to do.
2 When they want fields, they take them from other people.
When they want houses, they take them.
These cruel people take other people's homes and fields;
then those people's families have nothing.
3 So the Lord says this to them:
‘I am against you.
You cannot save yourselves.
I will prepare trouble for you.
Then you will stop thinking that you are so very clever and important.
It will be a time of much trouble for you.
4 At that time, your enemies will laugh at you.
They will sing this sad song against you:
“God has completely destroyed us!
We no longer have any fields, because God has taken them away from us.
He has given them to our enemies, who have turned away from what is right.”
5 So, when the Lord's people measure the land again to give fields to everyone,
you will get none.[a]
You will have nobody to speak on your behalf.’
False prophets
6 The people say to me, ‘Do not prophesy against us![b]
Do not say that we will have trouble.
God will not make us ashamed!’
7 You should not talk like that, you who are descendants of Jacob.
Do you think that the Lord's Spirit will always be patient with you?
If you agree to do what is right, then you will accept that my message is good.
8 The Lord says:
‘You have become like enemies among my people.
You rob people of their coats when they pass by.
Even men who thought that they were safe now.
You even rob men who are returning home from war.
9 You rob the women among my people too.
You take away their happy homes.
So you take away what I want their children to enjoy.
10 Get up and go away!
You cannot remain in this place because you have made it bad.
It is so bad that it will completely destroy you.
11 When a person speaks false messages to you, then you believe them.
They might say that you would have plenty of wine and strong drink.
That is the message that you would like!’[c]
God promises to bring his people back together
12 ‘You people of Israel, I promise to bring all of you together.
I will bring back together all Israel's people who remain.
I will put all of you together like sheep in a field with a wall round it.
You will be like a field full of sheep.
There will be a loud noise because there will be so many of you.
13 The person who breaks open the way will go in front of you.
Then you will go out through the gate.
I am the Lord, your king, and I will lead you out.’
15 Long ago, God's prophet Daniel wrote in the Bible about something that would happen. He said that one day people would put a disgusting thing that causes trouble in the temple. You will see it in the holy place. (When you read this, you must understand what it means.) 16 At that time, people in Judea must run away to the hills to hide.
17 A person who is on the roof of his house must not go down into his house.[a] He must not stop to get anything from his home to take with him. 18 People who are outside in their fields must not go back to their homes. They must not even go to fetch their coats. 19 That will be a bad time for women who are soon to have a baby! It will also be a bad time for those women who have little babies! 20 You must pray to God about this time when you have to run away quickly. Pray that this time of trouble will not happen in winter. Pray that it will not happen on your day of rest. 21 Great troubles will happen to people at that time. Nothing as bad has ever happened before, since the beginning of the world. Nothing as bad will ever happen again. 22 God will cause those days of great trouble to be not so many. If he did not do that, there would be nobody still alive. But God will cause those days to come to an end. He will do that to help the people that he has chosen. 23 At that time, someone may say to you, “Look, here is the Messiah.” Or they may say, “There he is!” When they say that, do not believe them. 24 Some people will say to you, “I am the Messiah!” Other people will say, “I am a prophet from God.” But their words will be false. They will do strange and powerful things for people to see. If possible, they would even deceive the people that God has chosen. 25 So be careful! I have told you about these things before they happen.
26 Some people may say to you, “Look, the Messiah is out there in the wilderness.” But do not go out to see who is there. Some people may say to you, “Look, the Messiah is hiding in that secret room.” You must not believe these people. 27 Lightning shines quickly and it lights up the whole of the sky from one side to the other. It will be like that when the Son of Man returns. 28 If the dead body of an animal is lying somewhere, vultures will come together in that place.[b]
29 Then after all these bad things have happened,
“The sun will become dark.
The moon will not shine any more.
Stars will fall out of the sky.
And the powerful things in the sky will shake.”[c]
30 Then people will see a powerful thing in the sky. This will show them that the Son of Man is coming. All the families of people in the world will cry because they are very sad. Then they will see the Son of Man. He will be riding on the clouds in the sky. He will have great power and bright glory. 31 People will hear the sound of a loud trumpet. The Son of Man will send out his angels. They will go in every direction. They will bring together all the people that God has chosen from every part of the earth and from every part of the sky.’
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