Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

142 ^1-2 How I plead with God, how I implore his mercy, pouring out my troubles before him. ³ For I am overwhelmed and desperate, and you alone know which way I ought to turn to miss the traps my enemies have set for me. ⁴ (There’s one—just over there to the right!) No one gives me a passing thought. No one will help me; no one cares a bit what happens to me. ⁵ Then I prayed to Jehovah. “Lord,” I pled, “you are my only place of refuge. Only you can keep me safe.

⁶ “Hear my cry, for I am very low. Rescue me from my persecutors, for they are too strong for me. ⁷ Bring me out of prison so that I can thank you. The godly will rejoice with me for all your help.”

¹² “Woe to you who build cities with money gained from murdering and robbery! ¹³ Has not the Lord decreed that godless nations’ gains will turn to ashes in their hands? They work so hard, but all in vain!

¹⁴ (“The time will come when all the earth is filled, as the waters fill the sea, with an awareness of the glory of the Lord.)

¹⁵ “Woe to you for making your neighboring lands reel and stagger like drunkards beneath your blows, and then gloating over their nakedness and shame. ¹⁶ Soon your own glory will be replaced by shame. Drink down God’s judgment on yourselves. Stagger and fall! ¹⁷ You cut down the forests of Lebanon—now you will be cut down! You terrified the wild animals you caught in your traps—now terror will strike you because of all your murdering and violence in cities everywhere.

¹⁸ “What profit was there in worshiping all your man-made idols? What a foolish lie that they could help! What fools you were to trust what you yourselves had made. ¹⁹ Woe to those who command their lifeless wooden idols to arise and save them, who call out to the speechless stone to tell them what to do. Can images speak for God? They are overlaid with gold and silver, but there is no breath at all inside!

²⁰ “But the Lord is in his holy Temple; let all the earth be silent before him.”

⁹ When I wrote to you before I said not to mix with evil people. ¹⁰ But when I said that I wasn’t talking about unbelievers who live in sexual sin or are greedy cheats and thieves and idol worshipers. For you can’t live in this world without being with people like that. ¹¹ What I meant was that you are not to keep company with anyone who claims to be a brother Christian but indulges in sexual sins, or is greedy, or is a swindler, or worships idols, or is a drunkard, or abusive. Don’t even eat lunch with such a person.

¹² It isn’t our job to judge outsiders. But it certainly is our job to judge and deal strongly with those who are members of the church and who are sinning in these ways. ¹³ God alone is the Judge of those on the outside. But you yourselves must deal with this man and put him out of your church.