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Psalm 52

1  Why do you glory in evil, you tyrant, ♦︎
   while the goodness of God endures continually?
2  You plot destruction, you deceiver; ♦︎
   your tongue is like a sharpened razor.
3  You love evil rather than good, ♦︎
   falsehood rather than the word of truth.
4  You love all words that hurt, ♦︎
   O you deceitful tongue.
5  Therefore God shall utterly bring you down; ♦︎
   he shall take you and pluck you out of your tent
      and root you out of the land of the living.
6  The righteous shall see this and tremble; ♦︎
   they shall laugh you to scorn, and say:
7  ‘This is the one who did not take God for a refuge, ♦︎
   but trusted in great riches and relied upon wickedness.’
8  But I am like a spreading olive tree in the house of God; ♦︎
   I trust in the goodness of God for ever and ever.
9  I will always give thanks to you for what you have done; ♦︎
   I will hope in your name,
      for your faithful ones delight in it.

Psalm 53

1  The fool has said in his heart, ‘There is no God.’ ♦︎
   Corrupt are they, and abominable in their wickedness;
      there is no one that does good.
2  God has looked down from heaven upon the children of earth, ♦︎
   to see if there is anyone who is wise and seeks after God.
3  They are all gone out of the way;
      all alike have become corrupt; ♦︎
   there is no one that does good, no not one.
4  Have they no knowledge, those evildoers, ♦︎
   who eat up my people as if they ate bread,
      and do not call upon God?
5  There shall they be in great fear,
      such fear as never was; ♦︎
   for God will scatter the bones of the ungodly.
6  They will be put to shame, ♦︎
   because God has rejected them.
7  O that Israel’s salvation would come out of Zion! ♦︎
   When God restores the fortunes of his people
      then will Jacob rejoice and Israel be glad.

Israel and Judah Have Broken the Covenant

11The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: ²Hear the words of this covenant, and speak to the people of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. ³You shall say to them, Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Cursed be anyone who does not heed the words of this covenant, ⁴which I commanded your ancestors when I brought them out of the land of Egypt, from the iron-smelter, saying, Listen to my voice, and do all that I command you. So shall you be my people, and I will be your God, ⁵that I may perform the oath that I swore to your ancestors, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey, as at this day. Then I answered, ‘So be it, Lord.’

6 And the Lord said to me: Proclaim all these words in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem: Hear the words of this covenant and do them. ⁷For I solemnly warned your ancestors when I brought them up out of the land of Egypt, warning them persistently, even to this day, saying, Obey my voice. ⁸Yet they did not obey or incline their ear, but everyone walked in the stubbornness of an evil will. So I brought upon them all the words of this covenant, which I commanded them to do, but they did not.

9 And the Lord said to me: Conspiracy exists among the people of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. ¹⁰They have turned back to the iniquities of their ancestors of old, who refused to heed my words; they have gone after other gods to serve them; the house of Israel and the house of Judah have broken the covenant that I made with their ancestors. ¹¹Therefore, thus says the Lord, assuredly I am going to bring disaster upon them that they cannot escape; though they cry out to me, I will not listen to them. ¹²Then the cities of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem will go and cry out to the gods to whom they make offerings, but they will never save them in the time of their trouble. ¹³For your gods have become as many as your towns, O Judah; and as many as the streets of Jerusalem are the altars to shame that you have set up, altars to make offerings to Baal.

14 As for you, do not pray for this people, or lift up a cry or prayer on their behalf, for I will not listen when they call to me in the time of their trouble.

Being Subject to Authorities

13Let every person be subject to the governing authorities; for there is no authority except from God, and those authorities that exist have been instituted by God. ²Therefore whoever resists authority resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgement. ³For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Do you wish to have no fear of the authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive its approval; ⁴for it is God’s servant for your good. But if you do what is wrong, you should be afraid, for the authority^* does not bear the sword in vain! It is the servant of God to execute wrath on the wrongdoer. ⁵Therefore one must be subject, not only because of wrath but also because of conscience. ⁶For the same reason you also pay taxes, for the authorities are God’s servants, busy with this very thing. ⁷Pay to all what is due to them—taxes to whom taxes are due, revenue to whom revenue is due, respect to whom respect is due, honour to whom honour is due.

Love for One Another

8 Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. ⁹The commandments, ‘You shall not commit adultery; You shall not murder; You shall not steal; You shall not covet’; and any other commandment, are summed up in this word, ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ ¹⁰Love does no wrong to a neighbour; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law.

A Samaritan Village Refuses to Receive Jesus

51 When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem. ⁵²And he sent messengers ahead of him. On their way they entered a village of the Samaritans to make ready for him; ⁵³but they did not receive him, because his face was set towards Jerusalem. ⁵⁴When his disciples James and John saw it, they said, ‘Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?’^{* 55}But he turned and rebuked them. ⁵⁶Then^* they went on to another village.

Would-Be Followers of Jesus

57 As they were going along the road, someone said to him, ‘I will follow you wherever you go.’ ⁵⁸And Jesus said to him, ‘Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.’ ⁵⁹To another he said, ‘Follow me.’ But he said, ‘Lord, first let me go and bury my father.’ ⁶⁰But Jesus^* said to him, ‘Let the dead bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.’ ⁶¹Another said, ‘I will follow you, Lord; but let me first say farewell to those at my home.’ ⁶²Jesus said to him, ‘No one who puts a hand to the plough and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.’