Old/New Testament
Psalm 79[a]
A psalm of Asaph.
79 O God, foreigners[b] have invaded your chosen land;[c]
they have polluted your holy temple
and turned Jerusalem into a heap of ruins.
2 They have given the corpses of your servants
to the birds of the sky,[d]
the flesh of your loyal followers
to the beasts of the earth.
3 They have made their blood flow like water
all around Jerusalem, and there is no one to bury them.[e]
4 We have become an object of disdain to our neighbors;
those who live on our borders taunt and insult us.[f]
5 How long will this go on, O Lord?[g]
Will you stay angry forever?
How long will your rage[h] burn like fire?
6 Pour out your anger on the nations that do not acknowledge you,[i]
on the kingdoms that do not pray to you.[j]
7 For they have devoured Jacob
and destroyed his home.
8 Do not hold us accountable for the sins of earlier generations.[k]
Quickly send your compassion our way,[l]
for we are in serious trouble.[m]
9 Help us, O God, our deliverer!
For the sake of your glorious reputation,[n] rescue us.
Forgive our sins for the sake of your reputation.[o]
10 Why should the nations say, “Where is their God?”
Before our very eyes may the shed blood of your servants
be avenged among the nations.[p]
11 Listen to the painful cries of the prisoners.[q]
Use your great strength to set free those condemned to die.[r]
12 Pay back our neighbors in full.[s]
May they be insulted the same way they insulted you, O Lord.[t]
13 Then we, your people, the sheep of your pasture,
will continually thank you.[u]
We will tell coming generations of your praiseworthy acts.[v]
Psalm 80[w]
For the music director, according to the shushan-eduth style;[x] a psalm of Asaph.
80 O Shepherd of Israel, pay attention,
you who lead Joseph like a flock of sheep.
You who sit enthroned above the cherubim,[y] reveal your splendor.[z]
2 In the sight of Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh reveal[aa] your power.
Come and deliver us.[ab]
3 O God, restore us.
Smile on us.[ac] Then we will be delivered.[ad]
4 O Lord God of Heaven’s Armies,[ae]
how long will you remain angry at your people while they pray to you?[af]
5 You have given them tears as food;[ag]
you have made them drink tears by the measure.[ah]
6 You have made our neighbors dislike us,[ai]
and our enemies insult us.
7 O God of Heaven’s Armies,[aj] restore us.
Smile on us.[ak] Then we will be delivered.[al]
8 You uprooted a vine[am] from Egypt;
you drove out nations and transplanted it.
9 You cleared the ground for it;[an]
it took root,[ao]
and filled the land.
10 The mountains were covered by its shadow,
the highest cedars[ap] by its branches.
11 Its branches reached the Mediterranean Sea,[aq]
and its shoots the Euphrates River.[ar]
12 Why did you break down its walls,[as]
so that all who pass by pluck its fruit?[at]
13 The wild boars of the forest ruin it;[au]
the insects[av] of the field feed on it.
14 O God of Heaven’s Armies,[aw] come back.
Look down from heaven and take notice.
Take care of this vine,
15 the root[ax] your right hand planted,
the shoot you made to grow.[ay]
16 It is burned[az] and cut down.
May those who did this die because you are displeased with them.[ba]
17 May you give support to the one you have chosen,[bb]
to the one whom you raised up for yourself.[bc]
18 Then we will not turn away from you.
Revive us and we will pray to you.[bd]
19 O Lord God of Heaven’s Armies,[be] restore us.
Smile on us.[bf] Then we will be delivered.[bg]
Israel’s Rejection not Complete nor Final
11 So I ask, God has not rejected his people, has he? Absolutely not! For I too am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, from the tribe of Benjamin. 2 God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew! Do you not know what the scripture says about Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel? 3 “Lord, they have killed your prophets, they have demolished your altars; I alone am left and they are seeking my life!”[a] 4 But what was the divine response[b] to him? “I have kept for myself 7,000 people[c] who have not bent the knee to Baal.”[d]
5 So in the same way at the present time there is a remnant chosen by grace. 6 And if it is by grace, it is no longer by works, otherwise grace would no longer be grace. 7 What then? Israel failed to obtain what it was diligently seeking, but the elect obtained it. The[e] rest were hardened, 8 as it is written,
“God gave them a spirit of stupor,
eyes that would not see and ears that would not hear,
to this very day.”[f]
9 And David says,
“Let their table become a snare and trap,
a stumbling block and a retribution for them;
10 let their eyes be darkened so that they may not see,
and make their backs bend continually.”[g]
11 I ask then, they did not stumble into an irrevocable fall,[h] did they? Absolutely not! But by their transgression salvation has come to the Gentiles, to make Israel[i] jealous. 12 Now if their transgression means riches for the world and their defeat means riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their full restoration[j] bring?
13 Now I am speaking to you Gentiles. Seeing that I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry, 14 if somehow I could provoke my people to jealousy and save some of them. 15 For if their rejection is the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead? 16 If the first portion[k] of the dough offered is holy, then the whole batch is holy, and if the root is holy, so too are the branches.[l]
17 Now if some of the branches were broken off, and you, a wild olive shoot, were grafted in among them and participated in[m] the richness of the olive root, 18 do not boast over the branches. But if you boast, remember that you do not support the root, but the root supports you.
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