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Psalm 142

1  I cry aloud to the Lord; ♦︎
   to the Lord I make my supplication.
2  I pour out my complaint before him ♦︎
   and tell him of my trouble.
3  When my spirit faints within me, you know my path; ♦︎
   in the way wherein I walk have they laid a snare for me.
4  I look to my right hand, and find no one who knows me; ♦︎
   I have no place to flee to, and no one cares for my soul.
5  I cry out to you, O Lord, and say: ♦︎
   ‘You are my refuge, my portion in the land of the living.
6  ‘Listen to my cry, for I am brought very low; ♦︎
   save me from my persecutors, for they are too strong for me.
7  ‘Bring my soul out of prison,
      that I may give thanks to your name; ♦︎
   when you have dealt bountifully with me,
      then shall the righteous gather around me.’

Judgement on Edom

7 Concerning Edom.

Thus says the Lord of hosts:
Is there no longer wisdom in Teman?
   Has counsel perished from the prudent?
   Has their wisdom vanished?
⁸ Flee, turn back, get down low,
   inhabitants of Dedan!
For I will bring the calamity of Esau upon him,
   at the time when I punish him.
⁹ If grape-gatherers came to you,
   would they not leave gleanings?
If thieves came by night,
   even they would pillage only what they wanted.
¹⁰ But as for me, I have stripped Esau bare,
   I have uncovered his hiding-places,
   and he is not able to conceal himself.
His offspring are destroyed, his kinsfolk
   and his neighbours; and he is no more.
¹¹ Leave your orphans, I will keep them alive;
   and let your widows trust in me.

The Old Life and the New

17 Now this I affirm and insist on in the Lord: you must no longer live as the Gentiles live, in the futility of their minds. ¹⁸They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of their ignorance and hardness of heart. ¹⁹They have lost all sensitivity and have abandoned themselves to licentiousness, greedy to practise every kind of impurity. ²⁰That is not the way you learned Christ! ²¹For surely you have heard about him and were taught in him, as truth is in Jesus. ²²You were taught to put away your former way of life, your old self, corrupt and deluded by its lusts, ²³and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, ²⁴and to clothe yourselves with the new self, created according to the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

Rules for the New Life

25 So then, putting away falsehood, let all of us speak the truth to our neighbours, for we are members of one another. ²⁶Be angry but do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, ²⁷and do not make room for the devil. ²⁸Thieves must give up stealing; rather let them labour and work honestly with their own hands, so as to have something to share with the needy. ²⁹Let no evil talk come out of your mouths, but only what is useful for building up,^* as there is need, so that your words may give grace to those who hear. ³⁰And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with which you were marked with a seal for the day of redemption. ³¹Put away from you all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, together with all malice, ³²and be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you.^* 5¹Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children, ²and live in love, as Christ loved us^* and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.