Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
Psalm 44[a]
For the music director, by the Korahites; a well-written song.[b]
44 O God, we have clearly heard;[c]
our ancestors[d] have told us
what you did[e] in their days,
in ancient times.[f]
2 You, by your power,[g] defeated nations and settled our fathers on their land;[h]
you crushed[i] the people living there[j] and enabled our ancestors to occupy it.[k]
3 For they did not conquer[l] the land by their swords,
and they did not prevail by their strength,[m]
but rather by your power,[n] strength,[o] and good favor,[p]
for you were partial to[q] them.
4 You are my[r] king, O God.
Decree[s] Jacob’s[t] deliverance.
5 By your power[u] we will drive back[v] our enemies;
by your strength[w] we will trample down[x] our foes.[y]
6 For I do not trust in my bow,
and I do not prevail by my sword.
7 For you deliver[z] us from our enemies;
you humiliate[aa] those who hate us.
8 In God we boast all day long,
and we will continually give thanks to your name. (Selah)
9 But[ab] you rejected and embarrassed us.
You did not go into battle with our armies.[ac]
10 You made us retreat[ad] from the enemy.
Those who hate us take whatever they want from us.[ae]
11 You handed us[af] over like sheep to be eaten;
you scattered us among the nations.
12 You sold[ag] your people for a pittance;[ah]
you did not ask a high price for them.[ai]
13 You made us[aj] an object of disdain to our neighbors;
those who live on our borders taunt and insult us.[ak]
14 You made us[al] an object of ridicule[am] among the nations;
foreigners treat us with contempt.[an]
15 All day long I feel humiliated[ao]
and am overwhelmed with shame,[ap]
16 before the vindictive enemy
who ridicules and insults me.[aq]
17 All this has happened to us, even though we have not rejected you[ar]
or violated your covenant with us.[as]
18 We have not been unfaithful,[at]
nor have we disobeyed your commands.[au]
19 Yet you have battered us, leaving us a heap of ruins overrun by wild dogs;[av]
you have covered us with darkness.[aw]
20 If we had rejected our God,[ax]
and spread out our hands in prayer to another god,[ay]
21 would not God discover it,
for he knows[az] a person’s secret thoughts?[ba]
22 Yet because of you[bb] we are killed all day long;
we are treated like[bc] sheep at the slaughtering block.[bd]
23 Rouse yourself! Why do you sleep, O Lord?
Wake up![be] Do not reject us forever.
24 Why do you look the other way,[bf]
and ignore[bg] the way we are oppressed and mistreated?[bh]
25 For we lie in the dirt,
with our bellies pressed to the ground.[bi]
26 Rise up and help us.
Rescue us[bj] because of your loyal love.
Superficial Repentance Breeds False Assurance of God’s Forgiveness
6 Come on! Let’s return to the Lord.
He himself has torn us to pieces,
but he will heal us!
He has injured[a] us,
but he will bandage our wounds!
2 He will restore[b] us in a very short time;[c]
he will heal us in a little while,[d]
so that we may live in his presence.
3 So let us search for him![e]
Let us seek[f] to know the Lord!
He will come to our rescue as certainly as the appearance of the dawn,
as certainly as the winter rain comes,
as certainly as the spring rain that waters the land.
Transitory Faithfulness and Imminent Judgment
4 What am I going to do with you, O Ephraim?
What am I going to do with you, O Judah?
For[g] your faithfulness is as fleeting as the morning mist;[h]
it disappears as quickly as dawn’s dew.[i]
5 Therefore, I will certainly cut[j] you into pieces at the hands of the prophets;[k]
I will certainly kill you[l] in fulfillment of my oracles of judgment,[m]
for[n] my judgment[o] will come forth like the light of the dawn.[p]
6 For I delight in faithfulness, not simply in sacrifice;
I delight[q] in acknowledging God, not simply in whole burnt offerings.[r]
Indictments Against the Cities of Israel and Judah
7 At Adam[s] they broke[t] the covenant;
Oh how[u] they were unfaithful[v] to me!
8 Gilead is a city full of evildoers;[w]
its streets are stained with bloody footprints![x]
9 The company of priests is like a gang of robbers,
lying in ambush to pounce on a victim.
They commit murder on the road to Shechem;
they have done heinous crimes!
10 I have seen a disgusting thing in the house of Israel:
there Ephraim commits prostitution with other gods,[y]
and Israel defiles itself.
Israel’s Rejection Culpable
30 What shall we say then?—that the Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness obtained it, that is, a righteousness that is by faith, 31 but Israel even though pursuing[a] a law of righteousness[b] did not attain it.[c] 32 Why not? Because they pursued[d] it not by faith but (as if it were possible) by works.[e] They stumbled over the stumbling stone,[f] 33 just as it is written,
“Look, I am laying in Zion a stone that will cause people to stumble
and a rock that will make them fall,[g]
yet the one who believes in him will not be put to shame.”[h]
10 Brothers and sisters,[i] my heart’s desire and prayer to God on behalf of my fellow Israelites[j] is for their salvation. 2 For I can testify that they are zealous for God,[k] but their zeal is not in line with the truth.[l] 3 For ignoring the righteousness that comes from God, and seeking instead to establish their own righteousness, they did not submit to God’s righteousness. 4 For Christ is the end of the law, with the result that there is righteousness for everyone who believes.
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