Psalm 85

RESTORATION OF FAVOR
For the choir director. A psalm of the sons of Korah.

Lord, you showed favor to your land;
you restored the fortunes of Jacob.
2 You forgave your people’s guilt;
you covered all their sin. Selah
3 You withdrew all your fury;
you turned from your burning anger.
4 Return to us, God of our salvation,
and abandon your displeasure with us.
5 Will you be angry with us forever?
Will you prolong your anger for all generations?
6 Will you not revive us again
so that your people may rejoice in you?
7 Show us your faithful love, Lord,
and give us your salvation.
8 I will listen to what God will say;
surely the Lord will declare peace
to his people, his faithful ones,
and not let them go back to foolish ways.
9 His salvation is very near those who fear him,
so that glory may dwell in our land.
10 Faithful love and truth will join together;
righteousness and peace will embrace.
11 Truth will spring up from the earth,
and righteousness will look down from heaven.
12 Also, the Lord will provide what is good,
and our land will yield its crops.
13 Righteousness will go before him
to prepare the way for his steps.

Psalm 86

LAMENT AND PETITION
A prayer of David.

Listen, Lord, and answer me,
for I am poor and needy.
2 Protect my life, for I am faithful.
You are my God; save your servant who trusts in you.
3 Be gracious to me, Lord,
for I call to you all day long.
4 Bring joy to your servant’s life,
because I appeal to you, Lord.
5 For you, Lord, are kind and ready to forgive,
abounding in faithful love to all who call on you.
6 Lord, hear my prayer;
listen to my cries for mercy.
7 I call on you in the day of my distress,
for you will answer me.
8 Lord, there is no one like you among the gods,
and there are no works like yours.
9 All the nations you have made
will come and bow down before you, Lord,
and will honor your name.
10 For you are great and perform wonders;
you alone are God.
11 Teach me your way, Lord,
and I will live by your truth.
Give me an undivided mind to fear your name.
12 I will praise you with all my heart, Lord my God,
and will honor your name forever.
13 For your faithful love for me is great,
and you rescue my life from the depths of Sheol.
14 God, arrogant people have attacked me;
a gang of ruthless men intends to kill me.
They do not let you guide them.
15 But you, Lord, are a compassionate and gracious God,
slow to anger and abounding in faithful love and truth.
16 Turn to me and be gracious to me.
Give your strength to your servant;
save the son of your female servant.
17 Show me a sign of your goodness;
my enemies will see and be put to shame
because you, Lord, have helped and comforted me.

Psalm 87

ZION, THE CITY OF GOD
A psalm of the sons of Korah. A song.

The city he founded is on the holy mountains.
2 The Lord loves Zion’s city gates
more than all the dwellings of Jacob.
3 Glorious things are said about you,
city of God. Selah
4 “I will make a record of those who know me:
Rahab, Babylon, Philistia, Tyre, and Cush —
each one was born there.”
5 And it will be said of Zion,
“This one and that one were born in her.”
The Most High himself will establish her.
6 When he registers the peoples,
the Lord will record,
“This one was born there.” Selah
7 Singers and dancers alike will say,
“My whole source of joy is in you.”

Romans 10:1–4

RIGHTEOUSNESS BY FAITH ALONE
Brothers and sisters, my heart’s desire and prayer to God concerning them is for their salvation.
2 I can testify about them that they have zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. 3 Since they are ignorant of the righteousness of God and attempted to establish their own righteousness, they have not submitted to God’s righteousness. 4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes,

— Romans 10:1-4 (CSB)

Romans 9:1–33

ISRAEL’S REJECTION OF CHRIST
Ispeak the truth in Christ ​— ​I am not lying; my conscience testifies to me through the Holy Spirit ​— ​
2 that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. 3 For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the benefit of my brothers and sisters, my own flesh and blood. 4 They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the temple service, and the promises. 5 The ancestors are theirs, and from them, by physical descent, came the Christ, who is God over all, praised forever. Amen.

GOD’S GRACIOUS ELECTION OF ISRAEL
6 Now it is not as though the word of God has failed, because not all who are descended from Israel are Israel. 7 Neither is it the case that all of Abraham’s children are his descendants. On the contrary, your offspring will be traced through Isaac. 8 That is, it is not the children by physical descent who are God’s children, but the children of the promise are considered to be the offspring. 9 For this is the statement of the promise: At this time I will come, and Sarah will have a son. 10 And not only that, but Rebekah conceived children through one man, our father Isaac. 11 For though her sons had not been born yet or done anything good or bad, so that God’s purpose according to election might stand — 12 not from works but from the one who calls ​— ​she was told, The older will serve the younger. 13 As it is written: I have loved Jacob, but I have hated Esau.

GOD’S SELECTION IS JUST
14 What should we say then? Is there injustice with God? Absolutely not! 15 For he tells Moses, I will show mercy to whom I will show mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. 16 So then, it does not depend on human will or effort but on God who shows mercy. 17 For the Scripture tells Pharaoh, I raised you up for this reason so that I may display my power in you and that my name may be proclaimed in the whole earth. 18 So then, he has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy and he hardens whom he wants to harden.

19 You will say to me, therefore, “Why then does he still find fault? For who resists his will? ” 20 On the contrary, who are you, a human being, to talk back to God? Will what is formed say to the one who formed it, “Why did you make me like this? ” 21 Or has the potter no right over the clay, to make from the same lump one piece of pottery for honor and another for dishonor? 22 And what if God, wanting to display his wrath and to make his power known, endured with much patience objects of wrath prepared for destruction? 23 And what if he did this to make known the riches of his glory on objects of mercy that he prepared beforehand for glory ​— ​24 on us, the ones he also called, not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles? 25 As it also says in Hosea,

I will call Not My People, My People,

and she who is Unloved, Beloved.

26 And it will be in the place where they were told,

you are not my people,

there they will be called sons of the living God.

27 But Isaiah cries out concerning Israel,

Though the number of Israelites

is like the sand of the sea,

only the remnant will be saved;

28 since the Lord will execute his sentence

completely and decisively on the earth.

29 And just as Isaiah predicted:

If the Lord of Armies had not left us offspring,

we would have become like Sodom,

and we would have been made like Gomorrah.

ISRAEL’S PRESENT STATE
30 What should we say then? Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have obtained righteousness ​— ​namely the righteousness that comes from faith. 31 But Israel, pursuing the law of righteousness, has not achieved the righteousness of the law. 32 Why is that? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as if it were by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone. 33 As it is written,

Look, I am putting a stone in Zion to stumble over

and a rock to trip over,

and the one who believes on him

will not be put to shame.

— Romans 9:1-33 (CSB)