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Psalm 71

1  In you, O Lord, do I seek refuge; ♦︎
   let me never be put to shame.
2  In your righteousness, deliver me and set me free; ♦︎
   incline your ear to me and save me.
3  Be for me a stronghold to which I may ever resort; ♦︎
   send out to save me, for you are my rock and my fortress.
4  Deliver me, my God, from the hand of the wicked, ♦︎
   from the grasp of the evildoer and the oppressor.
5  For you are my hope, O Lord God, ♦︎
   my confidence, even from my youth.
6  Upon you have I leaned from my birth,
      when you drew me from my mother’s womb; ♦︎
   my praise shall be always of you.
7  I have become a portent to many, ♦︎
   but you are my refuge and my strength.
8  Let my mouth be full of your praise ♦︎
   and your glory all the day long.
9  Do not cast me away in the time of old age; ♦︎
   forsake me not when my strength fails.
10  For my enemies are talking against me, ♦︎
   and those who lie in wait for my life take counsel together.
11  They say, ‘God has forsaken him;
      pursue him and take him, ♦︎
   because there is none to deliver him.’
12  O God, be not far from me; ♦︎
   come quickly to help me, O my God.
13  Let those who are against me
      be put to shame and disgrace; ♦︎
   let those who seek to do me evil
      be covered with scorn and reproach.
14  But as for me I will hope continually ♦︎
   and will praise you more and more.
15  My mouth shall tell of your righteousness
      and salvation all the day long, ♦︎
   for I know no end of the telling.
16  I will begin with the mighty works of the Lord God; ♦︎
   I will recall your righteousness, yours alone.
17  O God, you have taught me since I was young, ♦︎
   and to this day I tell of your wonderful works.
18  Forsake me not, O God,
      when I am old and grey-headed, ♦︎
   till I make known your deeds to the next generation
      and your power to all that are to come.
19  Your righteousness, O God, reaches to the heavens; ♦︎
   in the great things you have done, who is like you, O God?
20  What troubles and adversities you have shown me, ♦︎
   and yet you will turn and refresh me
      and bring me from the deep of the earth again.
21  Increase my honour; ♦︎
   turn again and comfort me.
22  Therefore will I praise you upon the harp
      for your faithfulness, O my God; ♦︎
   I will sing to you with the lyre, O Holy One of Israel.
23  My lips will sing out as I play to you, ♦︎
   and so will my soul, which you have redeemed.
24  My tongue also will tell of your righteousness all the day long, ♦︎
   for they shall be shamed and disgraced
      who sought to do me evil.

12 Who is wise enough to understand this? To whom has the mouth of the Lord spoken, so that they may declare it? Why is the land ruined and laid waste like a wilderness, so that no one passes through? ¹³And the Lord says: Because they have forsaken my law that I set before them, and have not obeyed my voice, or walked in accordance with it, ¹⁴but have stubbornly followed their own hearts and have gone after the Baals, as their ancestors taught them. ¹⁵Therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: I am feeding this people with wormwood, and giving them poisonous water to drink. ¹⁶I will scatter them among nations that neither they nor their ancestors have known; and I will send the sword after them, until I have consumed them.

The People Mourn in Judgement

¹⁷ Thus says the Lord of hosts:
Consider, and call for the mourning-women to come;
   send for the skilled women to come;
¹⁸ let them quickly raise a dirge over us,
   so that our eyes may run down with tears,
   and our eyelids flow with water.
¹⁹ For a sound of wailing is heard from Zion:
   ‘How we are ruined!
   We are utterly shamed,
because we have left the land,
   because they have cast down our dwellings.’

²⁰ Hear, O women, the word of the Lord,
   and let your ears receive the word of his mouth;
teach to your daughters a dirge,
   and each to her neighbour a lament.
²¹ ‘Death has come up into our windows,
   it has entered our palaces,
to cut off the children from the streets
   and the young men from the squares.’
²² Speak! Thus says the Lord:
‘Human corpses shall fall
   like dung upon the open field,
like sheaves behind the reaper,
   and no one shall gather them.’

23 Thus says the Lord: Do not let the wise boast in their wisdom, do not let the mighty boast in their might, do not let the wealthy boast in their wealth; ²⁴but let those who boast boast in this, that they understand and know me, that I am the Lord; I act with steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth, for in these things I delight, says the Lord.

The Unbelief of Jesus’ Brothers

7After this Jesus went about in Galilee. He did not wish^* to go about in Judea because the Jews were looking for an opportunity to kill him. ²Now the Jewish festival of Booths^* was near. ³So his brothers said to him, ‘Leave here and go to Judea so that your disciples also may see the works you are doing; ⁴for no one who wants^* to be widely known acts in secret. If you do these things, show yourself to the world.’ ⁵(For not even his brothers believed in him.) ⁶Jesus said to them, ‘My time has not yet come, but your time is always here. ⁷The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify against it that its works are evil. ⁸Go to the festival yourselves. I am not^* going to this festival, for my time has not yet fully come.’ ⁹After saying this, he remained in Galilee.

Jesus at the Festival of Booths

10 But after his brothers had gone to the festival, then he also went, not publicly but as it were^* in secret. ¹¹The Jews were looking for him at the festival and saying, ‘Where is he?’ ¹²And there was considerable complaining about him among the crowds. While some were saying, ‘He is a good man’, others were saying, ‘No, he is deceiving the crowd.’ ¹³Yet no one would speak openly about him for fear of the Jews.