Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

David wrote this psalm for the music leader.

It was when the prophet Nathan came to him, after David had sex with Bathsheba.

Please forgive me, Lord^[a]

¹⁵ The Almighty Lord, Israel's Holy God says this:

‘Turn back to me and wait for me to help you. Be quiet and trust in me. Then you will be safe and you will be strong again.’

But you do not want to trust in God. ¹⁶ Instead, you say, ‘No! We will run away on horses and we will escape.’ Yes, you will run away! You say, ‘Our horses will run very fast!’ But your enemies who chase you will also be very fast!

¹⁷ When one soldier from your enemy chases after you, one thousand of your men will run away from him! Five of them will chase away your whole army! Only a few of you will remain, like a stick with a flag on the top of a hill.

God will take care of his people

¹⁸ So the Lord is waiting for the right time to be kind to you. He is ready to show his great love for you. The Lord God does what is right and fair. Everyone who waits for him to come and help them is a happy person!

God's special place of rest

4 God promised his people that they could go to his special place of rest. That promise is still true for us today. So we must be very careful. Do not fail to arrive in that place. We certainly do not want that to happen. ² We have heard God's good news, just like God's people in the wilderness heard his message. But that message did not help them, because they did not believe it. They did not trust God, like those who obeyed him. ³ But those of us who trust God do enjoy his special place of rest. This is what God said:

God said that, even though he had finished his work when he made the world. ⁴ In the Bible God has spoken about the seventh day like this:

⁵ As we have already seen, God said something later about his rest:

⁶ So we see that there is still a chance for people to go to God's place of rest. But those people who first heard God's message in the wilderness refused to obey him. As a result, they did not arrive in his special place of rest. ⁷ So God chose another time for people to go to his place of rest. He called it ‘Today’. A long time after Moses, David spoke God's message. As we have already seen, he said:

⁸ This shows that Joshua did not bring God's people to the place where they could rest. Later, God had to speak again about another day of rest. ⁹ So we see this: God still has a place ready for his people, where they can rest. They will rest as God rested on the seventh day. ¹⁰ When God made the world and everything, he rested after he had finished his work. It is the same for everyone who goes to God's place of rest. They too will rest. They will no longer need to work.^[c]

¹¹ So we must do everything possible to arrive in God's special place of rest. God's people in the wilderness did not obey him. We must not be like them. If we do not obey God, we also will fail to arrive in that place.

¹² So be careful! God's message to us is alive and powerful. It is like a sword that has two sharp edges. Even more than a sword, God's message goes very deep into us. It cuts between our soul and our spirit. It is like a sharp knife that can cut deep into our body between our bones. God's message shows what we are really thinking. It shows what we really want. ¹³ There is nothing in the whole world that can hide from God. He sees everything clearly and he knows everything. We will have to explain to him everything that we have done during our lives.