Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
A Desire for God’s House
84 How beautiful are the places where You live, O Lord of all! 2 My soul wants and even becomes weak from wanting to be in the house of the Lord. My heart and my flesh sing for joy to the living God. 3 Even the bird has found a home. The swallow has found a nest for herself where she may lay her young at Your altars, O Lord of all, my King and my God. 4 How happy are those who live in Your house! They are always giving thanks to You.
5 How happy is the man whose strength is in You and in whose heart are the roads to Zion! 6 As they pass through the dry valley of Baca, they make it a place of good water. The early rain fills the pools with good also. 7 They go from strength to strength. Every one of them stands before God in Zion.
8 O Lord God of all, hear my prayer. Listen, O God of Jacob. 9 Look upon our safe-covering, O God. And look upon the face of Your chosen one. 10 For a day in Your house is better than a thousand outside. I would rather be the one who opens the door of the house of my God, than to live in the tents of the sinful. 11 For the Lord God is a sun and a safe-covering. The Lord gives favor and honor. He holds back nothing good from those who walk in the way that is right. 12 O Lord of all, how happy is the man who trusts in You!
Solomon Builds the House of God
6 In the 480th year after the people of Israel came out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon’s rule over Israel, in the month of Ziv, the second month, he began to build the house of the Lord. 2 The house which King Solomon built for the Lord was as long as thirty long steps, as wide as ten long steps, and eight times taller than a man. 3 All along the front of the House of God was a porch ten long steps long and five long steps wide. It was as long as the house was wide. 4 He made windows for the house with beautiful cross-pieces.
21 Solomon covered the inside of the house with pure gold. He crossed the front of the most holy place with chains of gold, and he covered it with gold. 22 He covered the whole house with gold, until all the house was finished. And he covered the whole altar by the most holy place with gold.
10 Through God’s loving-favor to me, I laid the stones on which the building was to be built. I did it like one who knew what he was doing. Now another person is building on it. Each person who builds must be careful how he builds on it. 11 Jesus Christ is the Stone on which other stones for the building must be laid. It can be only Christ. 12 Now if a man builds on the Stone with gold or silver or beautiful stones, or if he builds with wood or grass or straw, 13 each man’s work will become known. There will be a day when it will be tested by fire. The fire will show what kind of work it is. 14 If a man builds on work that lasts, he will receive his reward. 15 If his work is burned up, he will lose it. Yet he himself will be saved as if he were going through a fire.
16 Do you not know that you are a house of God and that the Holy Spirit lives in you? 17 If any man destroys the house of God, God will destroy him. God’s house is holy. You are the place where He lives.
18 Do not fool yourself. If anyone thinks he knows a lot about the things of this world, he had better become a fool. Then he may become wise. 19 The wisdom of this world is foolish to God. The Holy Writings say, “He is the One Who gets them in a trap when they use their own wisdom.” (A) 20 They also say, “The Lord knows how the wise man thinks. His thinking is worth nothing.” (B) 21 As a Christian, do not be proud of men and of what they can do. All things belong to you. 22 Paul and Apollos and Peter belong to you. The world and life and death belong to you. Things now and things to come belong to you. 23 You belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God.
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