Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

46 God is our hope and strength; help in troubles, ready to be found.

² Therefore, we will not fear, though the Earth be moved and though the mountains fall into the midst of the sea.

³ The waters thereof rage and are troubled; the mountains shake at the surges of the same. Selah.

⁴ Still, there is a River whose stream shall make glad the City of God, the Sanctuary of the Tabernacles of the Most High.

⁵ God is in the midst of it; therefore, it shall not be moved. God shall help it in the dawning.

⁶ When the nations raged and the kingdoms were moved, God thundered, and the Earth melted.

⁷ The LORD of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah.

⁸ Come and behold the works of the LORD, what desolations He has made on the Earth.

⁹ He makes wars cease, to the ends of the world. He breaks the bow and cuts the spear and burns the chariots with fire.

¹⁰ “Be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the heathen. I will be exalted on the Earth.”

¹¹ The LORD of Hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah. To him who excels: A Psalm committed to the sons of Korah.

¹² And the messenger who went to call Michaiah spoke to him, saying, “Behold, the Words of the Prophets declare good to the king in agreement. Therefore, let your word be like one of theirs, please, and speak good.

¹³ And Michaiah said, “As the LORD lives, whatever my God says, that will I speak.”

¹⁴ So, he came to the king. And the king said to him, “Michaiah, shall we go to Ramoth Gilead to battle, or shall I refrain?” And he said, “Go up, and prosper. And they shall be delivered into your hand.”

¹⁵ And the king said to him, “How often shall I charge you to tell me nothing but the truth in the Name of the LORD?”

¹⁶ Then he said, “I saw all Israel scattered in the mountains, as sheep that have no shepherd. And the LORD said, ‘These have no master. Let every man return to his house in peace.’”

¹⁷ And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, “Did I not tell you that he would not Prophesy good to me, but misery?”

¹⁸ Again he said, “Therefore, hear the Word of the LORD. I saw the LORD sit upon His throne, and all the host of Heaven standing at His right Hand, and at His left.

¹⁹ “And the LORD said: ‘Who shall persuade Ahab, king of Israel, that he may go up and fall at Ramoth Gilead?’ And one spoke and said this, and another said that.

²⁰ “Then there came forth a spirit and stood before the LORD, and said, ‘I will persuade him.’ And the LORD said to him, ‘How?’

²¹ “And he said, ‘I will go out and be a false spirit in the mouth of all his Prophets.’ And He said, ‘You shall persuade, and shall also prevail. Go forth and do so.’

²² “Now, therefore, behold. The LORD has put a false spirit in the mouth of these your Prophets. And the LORD has determined misery against you.”

²³ It was necessary, then, that the representations of heavenly things should be purified with such things. But the heavenly things themselves are purified with better sacrifices than these.

²⁴ For Christ has not entered into the Holy Places that are made with hands - which are representations of the true things - but into Heaven itself, to appear now in the sight of God for us.

²⁵ Not that He should offer himself often, as the High Priest entered into the Holy Place every year with others’ blood.

²⁶ For then He would have had to suffer often, since the foundation of the world. But now, in the end of the world, He has appeared once, to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.

²⁷ And as much as it has been appointed to man that he shall die once (and after that comes the Judgment),

²⁸ so Christ was once offered to take away the sins of many. And to those who look for Him, He shall appear a second time - without sin - for salvation.