771 I cry out to God; yes, I shout. Oh, that God would listen to me! 2 When I was in deep trouble, I searched for the Lord. All night long I prayed, with hands lifted toward heaven, but my soul was not comforted. 3 I think of God, and I moan, overwhelmed with longing for his help. Interlude 4 You don't let me sleep. I am too distressed even to pray! 5 I think of the good old days, long since ended, 6 when my nights were filled with joyful songs. I search my soul and ponder the difference now. 7 Has the Lord rejected me forever? Will he never again be kind to me? 8 Is his unfailing love gone forever? Have his promises permanently failed? 9 Has God forgotten to be gracious? Has he slammed the door on his compassion? Interlude 10 And I said, "This is my fate; the Most High has turned his hand against me."
11 But then I recall all you have done, O Lord ; I remember your wonderful deeds of long ago. 12 They are constantly in my thoughts. I cannot stop thinking about your mighty works. 13 OÂ God, your ways are holy. Is there any god as mighty as you? 14 You are the God of great wonders! You demonstrate your awesome power among the nations. 15 By your strong arm, you redeemed your people, the descendants of Jacob and Joseph. Interlude 16 When the Red Sea saw you, OÂ God, its waters looked and trembled! The sea quaked to its very depths. 17 The clouds poured down rain; the thunder rumbled in the sky. Your arrows of lightning flashed. 18 Your thunder roared from the whirlwind; the lightning lit up the world! The earth trembled and shook. 19 Your road led through the sea, your pathway through the mighty waters- a pathway no one knew was there! 20 You led your people along that road like a flock of sheep, with Moses and Aaron as their shepherds.
781 OÂ my people, listen to my instructions. Open your ears to what I am saying, 2 for I will speak to you in a parable. I will teach you hidden lessons from our past- 3 stories we have heard and known, stories our ancestors handed down to us. 4 We will not hide these truths from our children; we will tell the next generation about the glorious deeds of the Lord, about his power and his mighty wonders. 5 For he issued his laws to Jacob; he gave his instructions to Israel. He commanded our ancestors to teach them to their children, 6 so the next generation might know them- even the children not yet born- and they in turn will teach their own children. 7 So each generation should set its hope anew on God, not forgetting his glorious miracles and obeying his commands. 8 Then they will not be like their ancestors- stubborn, rebellious, and unfaithful, refusing to give their hearts to God.
9 The warriors of Ephraim, though armed with bows, turned their backs and fled on the day of battle. 10 They did not keep God's covenant and refused to live by his instructions. 11 They forgot what he had done- the great wonders he had shown them, 12 the miracles he did for their ancestors on the plain of Zoan in the land of Egypt. 13 For he divided the sea and led them through, making the water stand up like walls! 14 In the daytime he led them by a cloud, and all night by a pillar of fire. 15 He split open the rocks in the wilderness to give them water, as from a gushing spring. 16 He made streams pour from the rock, making the waters flow down like a river! 17 Yet they kept on sinning against him, rebelling against the Most High in the desert. 18 They stubbornly tested God in their hearts, demanding the foods they craved. 19 They even spoke against God himself, saying, "God can't give us food in the wilderness. 20 Yes, he can strike a rock so water gushes out, but he can't give his people bread and meat." 21 When the Lord heard them, he was furious. The fire of his wrath burned against Jacob. Yes, his anger rose against Israel, 22 for they did not believe God or trust him to care for them. 23 But he commanded the skies to open; he opened the doors of heaven. 24 He rained down manna for them to eat; he gave them bread from heaven. 25 They ate the food of angels! God gave them all they could hold. 26 He released the east wind in the heavens and guided the south wind by his mighty power. 27 He rained down meat as thick as dust- birds as plentiful as the sand on the seashore! 28 He caused the birds to fall within their camp and all around their tents. 29 The people ate their fill. He gave them what they craved. 30 But before they satisfied their craving, while the meat was yet in their mouths, 31 the anger of God rose against them, and he killed their strongest men. He struck down the finest of Israel's young men. 32 But in spite of this, the people kept sinning. Despite his wonders, they refused to trust him. 33 So he ended their lives in failure, their years in terror. 34 When God began killing them, they finally sought him. They repented and took God seriously. 35 Then they remembered that God was their rock, that God Most High was their redeemer. 36 But all they gave him was lip service; they lied to him with their tongues. 37 Their hearts were not loyal to him. They did not keep his covenant. 38 Yet he was merciful and forgave their sins and did not destroy them all. Many times he held back his anger and did not unleash his fury! 39 For he remembered that they were merely mortal, gone like a breath of wind that never returns.
40 Oh, how often they rebelled against him in the wilderness and grieved his heart in that dry wasteland. 41 Again and again they tested God's patience and provoked the Holy One of Israel. 42 They did not remember his power and how he rescued them from their enemies. 43 They did not remember his miraculous signs in Egypt, his wonders on the plain of Zoan. 44 For he turned their rivers into blood, so no one could drink from the streams. 45 He sent vast swarms of flies to consume them and hordes of frogs to ruin them. 46 He gave their crops to caterpillars; their harvest was consumed by locusts. 47 He destroyed their grapevines with hail and shattered their sycamore-figs with sleet. 48 He abandoned their cattle to the hail, their livestock to bolts of lightning. 49 He loosed on them his fierce anger- all his fury, rage, and hostility. He dispatched against them a band of destroying angels. 50 He turned his anger against them; he did not spare the Egyptians' lives but ravaged them with the plague. 51 He killed the oldest son in each Egyptian family, the flower of youth throughout the land of Egypt. 52 But he led his own people like a flock of sheep, guiding them safely through the wilderness. 53 He kept them safe so they were not afraid; but the sea covered their enemies. 54 He brought them to the border of his holy land, to this land of hills he had won for them. 55 He drove out the nations before them; he gave them their inheritance by lot. He settled the tribes of Israel into their homes. 56 But they kept testing and rebelling against God Most High. They did not obey his laws. 57 They turned back and were as faithless as their parents. They were as undependable as a crooked bow. 58 They angered God by building shrines to other gods; they made him jealous with their idols. 59 When God heard them, he was very angry, and he completely rejected Israel. 60 Then he abandoned his dwelling at Shiloh, the Tabernacle where he had lived among the people. 61 He allowed the Ark of his might to be captured; he surrendered his glory into enemy hands. 62 He gave his people over to be butchered by the sword, because he was so angry with his own people-his special possession. 63 Their young men were killed by fire; their young women died before singing their wedding songs. 64 Their priests were slaughtered, and their widows could not mourn their deaths. 65 Then the Lord rose up as though waking from sleep, like a warrior aroused from a drunken stupor. 66 He routed his enemies and sent them to eternal shame. 67 But he rejected Joseph's descendants; he did not choose the tribe of Ephraim. 68 He chose instead the tribe of Judah, and Mount Zion, which he loved. 69 There he built his sanctuary as high as the heavens, as solid and enduring as the earth. 70 He chose his servant David, calling him from the sheep pens. 71 He took David from tending the ewes and lambs and made him the shepherd of Jacob's descendants- God's own people, Israel. 72 He cared for them with a true heart and led them with skillful hands.
101 Dear brothers and sisters, the longing of my heart and my prayer to God is for the people of Israel to be saved. 2 I know what enthusiasm they have for God, but it is misdirected zeal. 3 For they don't understand God's way of making people right with himself. Refusing to accept God's way, they cling to their own way of getting right with God by trying to keep the law. 4 For Christ has already accomplished the purpose for which the law was given. As a result, all who believe in him are made right with God. 5 For Moses writes that the law's way of making a person right with God requires obedience to all of its commands. 6 But faith's way of getting right with God says, "Don't say in your heart, 'Who will go up to heaven?' (to bring Christ down to earth). 7 And don't say, 'Who will go down to the place of the dead?' (to bring Christ back to life again)." 8 In fact, it says, "The message is very close at hand; it is on your lips and in your heart." And that message is the very message about faith that we preach: 9 If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by openly declaring your faith that you are saved. 11 As the Scriptures tell us, "Anyone who trusts in him will never be disgraced."
12 Jew and Gentile are the same in this respect. They have the same Lord, who gives generously to all who call on him. 13 For "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." 14 But how can they call on him to save them unless they believe in him? And how can they believe in him if they have never heard about him? And how can they hear about him unless someone tells them? 15 And how will anyone go and tell them without being sent? That is why the Scriptures say, "How beautiful are the feet of messengers who bring good news!" 16 But not everyone welcomes the Good News, for Isaiah the prophet said, " Lord, who has believed our message?" 17 So faith comes from hearing, that is, hearing the Good News about Christ. 18 But I ask, have the people of Israel actually heard the message? Yes, they have: "The message has gone throughout the earth, and the words to all the world." 19 But I ask, did the people of Israel really understand? Yes, they did, for even in the time of Moses, God said, "I will rouse your jealousy through people who are not even a nation. I will provoke your anger through the foolish Gentiles." 20 And later Isaiah spoke boldly for God, saying, "I was found by people who were not looking for me. I showed myself to those who were not asking for me." 21 But regarding Israel, God said, "All day long I opened my arms to them, but they were disobedient and rebellious."
