Listen, my people, to my teaching, and pay attention to what I say.

Why are you so far away, O LORD? Why do you hide yourself when we are in trouble?

To God, my defender, I say, "Why have you forgotten me? Why must I go on suffering from the cruelty of my enemies?"

Why am I so sad? Why am I so troubled? I will put my hope in God, and once again I will praise him, my savior and my God.

But now you have rejected us and let us be defeated; you no longer march out with our armies.

You have rejected us, God, and defeated us; you have been angry with us---but now turn back to us.

Have you really rejected us? Aren't you going to march out with our armies?

"Will the Lord always reject us? Will he never again be pleased with us?

If one day the sky could be measured and the foundations of the earth explored, only then would he reject the people of Israel because of all they have done. The LORD has spoken.

"Have you noticed how people are saying that I have rejected Israel and Judah, the two families that I chose? And so they look with contempt on my people and no longer consider them a nation.

And just as surely as I have done this, so I will maintain my covenant with Jacob's descendants and with my servant David. I will choose one of David's descendants to rule over the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. I will be merciful to my people and make them prosperous again."

I ask, then: Did God reject his own people? Certainly not! I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin.

God has not rejected his people, whom he chose from the beginning. You know what the scripture says in the passage where Elijah pleads with God against Israel:

LORD, will you be angry with us forever? Will your anger continue to burn like fire?

The LORD will not forgive such a man. Instead, the LORD's burning anger will flame up against him, and all the disasters written in this book will fall on him until the LORD has destroyed him completely.

Then we, your people, the sheep of your flock, will thank you forever and praise you for all time to come.

He is our God; we are the people he cares for, the flock for which he provides. Listen today to what he says:

Acknowledge that the LORD is God. He made us, and we belong to him; we are his people, we are his flock.

How terrible will be the LORD's judgment on those rulers who destroy and scatter his people!

As surely as I am the living God, you had better listen to me. My sheep have been attacked by wild animals that killed and ate them because there was no shepherd. My shepherds did not try to find the sheep. They were taking care of themselves and not the sheep.

"You, my sheep, the flock that I feed, are my people, and I am your God," says the Sovereign LORD.

"Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father is pleased to give you the Kingdom.

but you will not believe, for you are not my sheep.

I give them eternal life, and they shall never die. No one can snatch them away from me.

The Father and I are one."