Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
This is a song that David wrote for the music leader.
We trust God to help us[a]
20 May the Lord answer you
when you are in trouble and you call to him for help.
May Israel's great God keep you safe.
2 He will send help to you from his holy place,
from his temple in Zion.
3 He will remember the gifts that you have offered to him.
He will accept your burnt offerings
Selah
4 May God give to you
all the things that you really want.
He will help you to do everything that you want to do.
5 Then we will be happy and we will shout aloud
when you win against your enemies.
We will wave our flags to praise our God.
Yes, I pray that the Lord will do for you
everything that you ask him to do.
6 Now I know that the Lord will save
the king that he has chosen.
God will agree to help him from his holy place in heaven.
God will use his great power to make his king safe.
7 Some people hope that their chariots will keep them safe.
Other people trust their horses to save them.
But we will trust in the name of the Lord our God.
8 Those people will fall down,
and they will not get up again.
But we will get up and stand again,
and we will be strong.
9 Lord, help the king to win against his enemies!
Please answer us when we ask you for help.
15 The Lord says,
‘You can hear a sad noise in Ramah.
Someone is weeping with a loud voice.
It is Rachel, and she is weeping for her children.
Nobody can help her to stop weeping,
because her children are dead.’[a]
16 The Lord says,
‘Stop crying!
Do not weep any more!
I will help you because of what you have done.
Your children will return from the land of their enemies.’
That is what the Lord says.
17 ‘Yes, you will have descendants in the future.
Your children will return to their own land.’
That is what the Lord says.
18 ‘I have heard Israel's people when they are sad.
They say to me, “You punished us,
and we accepted it.
You taught us to obey you,
like a farmer teaches an ox to work for him.
So let us come back to serve you.
We are ready to return to you,
because you are the Lord, our God.
19 After we turned away from you,
we were sorry that we had done that.
We understood what we had done,
and we showed that we were sad.
We were ashamed and upset,
because of the disgusting things that we did when we were young.”
20 But Israel's people are my own dear children.
I still love them,
even when I have to speak against them.
I can never forget them.
I only want to help them.
I will certainly be kind to them.’
That is what the Lord says.
21 ‘People of Israel, put up signs along the roads,
so that you know the way to go.
Remember the road that you travelled on
when you went away from your land.
Now return, my special people, Israel.
Return to your cities that you had to leave.
22 You went away from me,
like a daughter who refuses to obey her father.
Do not continue to turn away from me.
I, the Lord, promise to do a new thing.
Women will take care of men!’
41 When Jesus got near to the city, he looked at it. He cried because he felt very sorry for the people in it. 42 He said, ‘You need to know what would really help you. Then you could have lived without trouble. But now, you are unable to understand properly. 43 As a result, days of trouble will come to you. Your enemies will build a wall round you. They will shut you in completely, and they will not let you leave. 44 So your enemies will knock you down. They will completely destroy your city and all the people who live in it. They will not leave even one stone on top of another stone. You did not understand that God had come to save you at this time. That is why these bad things will happen to you.’[a]
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