Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
This is a special song for the music leader. The sons of Korah wrote it.
A prayer when you are away from home[a]
42 God, I need you so much!
I look for you,
as a thirsty deer looks for streams of water.
2 Deep down inside me,
I am very thirsty!
You are the God who lives for ever,
and I need life from you!
When will I be able to come near to you
and see you face to face?[b]
3 All day and all night I weep.
My tears are my only food!
My enemies say to me all the time,
‘Where is your God?’
4 When I remember how my life was before,
I am very upset and I weep.
Once I walked with a big crowd of people
to worship God in his temple.
I led the people there as we sang happy songs,
and we praised God with loud voices.[c]
5 Now I ask myself,
‘Why am I so sad and upset?’
I must wait patiently for God to help me.
Then I will praise my God once again,
because he is the one who saves me.[d]
6 Deep inside me I am very sad.
So I will turn to you, my God, from where I am.
I will pray to you from Hermon mountain
where the Jordan River begins,
and from Mizar mountain.
7 I hear your waterfalls make a noise like thunder.
It seems like all that water is pouring over me
and it knocks me down to the ground.[e]
8 Each day, the Lord shows me that he loves me
with his faithful love.
Each night he gives me a song to sing,
as I pray to the God who lives for ever.[f]
9 I say to God, who is my high rock,
‘Why have you forgotten me? Why must I be so sad?
How much longer must I continue to weep,
because my enemies do cruel things to me?’
10 My enemies laugh at me all the time.
It is like they are breaking all my bones.
They are always saying,
‘Where is your God?’
11 I ask myself again,
‘Why am I so sad and upset?’
I must wait patiently for God to help me.
Then I will praise my God once again,
because he is the one who saves me.
The promises of God for Jerusalem
8 The Lord Almighty gave this message to Zechariah. 2 ‘I have wanted to help Jerusalem because I love its people very much. My love causes me to be very angry with the enemies of Jerusalem,’ says the Lord Almighty.
3 ‘Jerusalem is the city that I have chosen. I will return there and I will live there. Then Jerusalem will be called the city that obeys God. And the mountain of the Lord Almighty will be called the mountain that God has chosen.’
4 The Lord Almighty says, ‘Old men and old women will sit in the streets of Jerusalem again. Each will have a stick in his hands because he is so old.
5 Many boys and girls will play in the streets of the city again.’
6 ‘This may seem impossible to the few people that remain,’ says the Lord Almighty. ‘But nothing is impossible to me,’ says the Lord Almighty.
7 ‘I will bring my people back from the east country and from the west country,’ says the Lord Almighty. 8 ‘I will bring them back to live in Jerusalem. They will be my people and I will be their God. I will do for them what I promised to do.’
9 The Lord Almighty says, ‘Be strong, you people who now hear these words from the mouths of the prophets. The prophets spoke the same words when you prepared the ground for the temple of the Lord Almighty. Now be strong and continue to build. 10 Before that time, there was not enough money to pay for work that men or animals did. No man was safe from the enemy because I made all men angry with each other.’
11 ‘But now it is different. I will not be angry with the few people that have returned,’ says the Lord Almighty.
12 ‘The seeds and the plants will grow well. The trees will give fruit. There will be water from the skies. I will bless the few people that will return. 13 In past years, people from other countries have said bad things against you, Judah and Israel. But now I will help you. You will bless many people. Do not be afraid. Be strong.’
14 The Lord Almighty says this: ‘When your parents and their parents made me angry, I decided to punish them.’ ‘I have also punished you,’ says the Lord Almighty. 15 ‘Do not be afraid. I have now decided to do good things to Jerusalem and to the people in Judah again. 16 These are the things that you should do. Speak true words to each other. Leaders, be fair to all people. 17 Do not think to do bad things against other people. Do not use my name to promise things and then not do those things. All these things make me very angry.’
Jesus makes many people well
14 Jesus went into Peter's house. There, he saw the mother of Peter's wife. She was lying in bed. She was ill and her body was very hot. 15 Jesus touched her hand and immediately she was well again. So she got up and she prepared food for Jesus.
16 That evening, people brought to Jesus many people who were ill. Many of them had bad spirits in them. Jesus spoke a word so that the bad spirits left them. He made everybody who was ill well again. 17 Jesus did this so that the words of the prophet Isaiah would become true:
‘He took away everything that makes us weak.
He carried away everything that makes us ill.’
Jesus makes two men well again
28 Jesus arrived at the other side of Lake Galilee. He came to a place where the Gadarene people lived.[a] Two men who had bad spirits in them came to meet him. These men lived outside, among some graves. They were very strong and dangerous. People were too afraid to walk that way because of them. 29 When the two men saw Jesus, they immediately shouted at him, ‘You are the Son of God! What are you doing here? Have you come to punish us before the right time comes?’[b]
30 A large group of pigs was eating there, not very far away. 31 The bad spirits said to Jesus, ‘If you make us leave these men, please send us to those pigs. Let us go into them.’ 32 Jesus said to the bad spirits, ‘Go!’ So the bad spirits came out of the men and they went into the pigs. All the pigs rushed together down the hill into the lake. They all died there in the water. 33 When this happened, the men who took care of the pigs ran away. They went into the town. They told people there everything that had happened to the men with the bad spirits in them. 34 So everybody came out of the town to meet Jesus. When they saw him, they said, ‘Please go away. Leave our part of the country.’
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