Lamentations 5
1 “O Lord, remember what happened to us;
Look upon us with favor
And see our disgrace.
2 Our inheritance has been turned over to foreigners,
And our homes to strangers.
3 We have become orphans and have no father;
Our mothers are as widows.
4 “We pay for the water we drink,
And our wood comes at a price.
5 We are pursued at our heels;
We have labored;
We have no rest.
6 Egypt gave us a hand,
Assyria to their satisfaction.
7 “Our fathers sinned and are no more;
We suffered from their lawless actions.
8 Servants rule over us;
There is no one to redeem us from their hand.
9 We will bring in our bread
At the risk of our lives
From the presence of the sword in the desert.
10 “Our skin has became blackened as an oven.
They are shriveled up from the stormy wind of famine.
11 They humbled the women in Zion,
The virgins in the cities of Judah.
12 Princes were hung up by their hands,
And elders were not honored.
13 The chosen men took up weeping,
And the young men weakened under the loads of wood.
14 Elders also ceased to gather at the gate;
The chosen men ceased to sing their psalms.
15 “The joy of our heart has ceased;
Our dance has turned into mourning.
16 The crown fell from our head;
Woe to us, because we sinned!
17 Because of this, our heart has become painful;
Because of this, our eyes have remained in darkness.
18 On Mount Zion, because it is desolate,
Foxes pass through it.
19 “But You, O Lord, shall dwell forever,
Your throne from generation to generation.
20 Why will You utterly forget us?
Will You forsake us for so long a time?
21 Turn us back to You, O Lord,
And we shall be converted;
Renew our days as before.
22 For You have indeed rejected us,
And are exceedingly angry with us.”
Psalm 121
1 An ode of ascents.
I was glad when they said to me,
“Let us go into the house of the Lord.”
2 Our feet stand in your courts, O Jerusalem.
3 Jerusalem is built as a city
Whose compactness is complete.
4 There the tribes went up,
The tribes of the Lord, a testimony to Israel,
To give thanks to the name of the Lord.
5 For thrones sat there for judgment,
Thrones over the house of David.
6 Ask now for things regarding the peace of Jerusalem,
And there is prosperity for those who love you;
7 Let there now be peace in your power
And prosperity in your citadels.
8 For the sake of my brothers and my neighbors,
I indeed spoke peace concerning you;
9 For the sake of the house of the Lord our God,
I sought good things for you.
Psalm 122
1 An ode of ascents.
I lift my eyes to You,
Who dwell in heaven.
2 Behold, as the eyes of servants look to the hands of their masters,
As the eyes of the maidservant look to the hands of her mistress,
So our eyes look to the Lord our God
Until He shall have compassion on us.
3 Have mercy on us, O Lord, have mercy on us,
For we are greatly filled with contempt;
4 Our soul is greatly filled with it.
We are a disgrace to those who prosper,
And a contempt to the arrogant.
Proverbs 27:16–20
16 The north wind is a harsh wind,
And a prosperous man is called harsh.
17 Iron sharpens iron,
And a man sharpens the countenance of his friend.
18 Whoever plants a fig tree will eat its fruit,
And whoever guards his own master will be honored.
19 As faces are not like other faces,
So neither are the hearts of men.
20 Hades and destruction are not satiated;
In like manner the eyes of men are also insatiable.
1 John 2:28-3:24
28 And now, little children, abide in Him, that when He appears, we may have confidence and not be ashamed before Him at His coming.
29 If you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone who practices righteousness is born of Him.
1 Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him.
2 Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.
3 And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.
Sin and the Child of God
4 Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness.
5 And you know that He was manifested to take away our sins, and in Him there is no sin.
6 Whoever abides in Him does not sin. Whoever sins has neither seen Him nor known Him.
7 Little children, let no one deceive you. He who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous.
8 He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil.
9 Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God.
The Imperative of Love
(Matt. 22:39)
10 In this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest: Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is he who does not love his brother.
11 For this is the message that you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another,
12 not as Cain who was of the wicked one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his works were evil and his brother’s righteous.
13 Do not marvel, my brethren, if the world hates you.
14 We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love his brother abides in death.
15 Whoever hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.
The Outworking of Love
16 By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.
17 But whoever has this world’s goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him?
18 My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth.
19 And by this we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before Him.
20 For if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things.
21 Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence toward God.
22 And whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight.
23 And this is His commandment: that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another, as He gave us commandment.
The Spirit of Truth and the Spirit of Error
24 Now he who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. And by this we know that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us.