Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

12 At that time, you will say,
    ‘I praise you, Lord.
You were angry with me. But now, you are no longer angry.
    Now you have been kind to me.
² Listen! God is the one who saves me!
    I will continue to trust him.
I will not be afraid because the Lord himself makes me strong.
    He keeps me safe. He rescues us from our enemies.’
³ When God does that, it will make you very happy.
    You will be safe, like someone who gets plenty of good water from a well to drink.
⁴ At that time, you will say, ‘Praise the Lord!
    Thank him for his help!
Tell all the nations about the great things that God has done.
    Tell them that he is very great!
⁵ Sing songs to praise the Lord,
    because he has done wonderful things!
Cause everyone in the world to know it!
⁶ Everyone who lives in Zion,
    shout aloud and sing with joy!
The Holy God of Israel is great,
    and he lives among you.’

59 Listen! The Lord's hand is not too weak to save you.
    His ear is not too deaf to hear you.
² But the wrong things that you have done
    have made you separate from your God.
Your sins have caused him to turn away from you,
    so that he does not listen to your prayers.
³ Your hands are dirty with the blood of murder.
    They are dirty with all the bad things that you do.
Your mouth tells lies,
    and it says wicked things about other people.
⁴ When people accuse somebody in court,
    the truth is not important.
They tell lies and they deceive the judge,
    so that they will win.
They decide how they can cause trouble,
    and then they do wicked things.
⁵ Their thoughts are like the eggs of a snake.
    If anyone eats those eggs, they will die!
When an egg breaks open,
    a dangerous snake is born!
They like to catch people,
    like a spider that makes a web.^[a]
6 Their webs are useless to make clothes.
    They cannot cover themselves with them.
The things that they do are useless like that.
They do only wicked things.
    They use their strength only to hurt people.
⁷ They rush to do evil things.
They hurry to kill people who have not done anything wrong.
They think only about sin.
    They only want to be cruel and to hurt people.
⁸ They do not know how to live in peace.
    They cannot be honest and fair.
Their way of life is all wrong.
    Nobody who lives like that will have peace.

⁹ Because of that, God's justice is far away from us.
    He has not come to save us.
We look for light to come to us,
    but everything is dark.
We need some light in our lives,
    but all we have is darkness.
¹⁰ Like blind people,
    we touch the wall to find our way.
It seems that we have no eyes to see with.
Even at midday, we trip and we fall down,
    as if it was dark.
We are like dead people
    who live among strong people.
¹¹ We all make a noise, like hungry bears.
    We make sad noises, like doves.
We are waiting for God to bring justice to us,
    but nothing is happening.
We look for his salvation,
    but it is still far away.
¹² Lord, you see all the bad things that we have done.
    Our many sins show that we are wrong.
We know about the wrong things that we have done.
    We agree that our sins are many.
¹³ We have turned against the Lord.
    We have refused to obey him.
We have chosen to be cruel to other people,
    and we have turned against the truth.
We think about the lies that we can tell,
    and we use them to deceive people.
¹⁴ Judges do not decide in a fair way.
    Nobody tries to do what is right.
There is no place for truth on the streets of our towns.
    Honest people have to leave.
¹⁵ Nobody can speak the truth.
If anyone tries to stop doing evil things,
    other people will attack him.

The Lord saw how his people were living.
    He saw that there was no justice.
It made him very sad.