◀ All Reading Plans / Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary) / Daniel 7:9-10 13-14 (The coming one rules over all); Psalm 93 (Your throne has been established); Revelation 1:4b-8 (Christ the ruler of the earth); John 18:33-37 (The kingdom of Christ) (New Catholic Bible)

Prev Day

November 26, 1967

Next Day

Use the calendar to view readings from this devotional.

November 1967
Su	Mo	Tu	We	Th	Fr	Sa
			1	2	3	4
5	6	7	8	9	10	11
12	13	14	15	16	17	18
19	20	21	22	23	24	25
26	27	28	29	30

Return to today's reading

Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Daily Bible readings that follow the church liturgical year, with thematically matched Old and New Testament readings.

Duration: 1245 days

Daniel 7:9-10

One Like the Son of Man^[a]

⁹While I was watching,
    thrones were set in place,
    and the Ancient One sat on his throne.
His robe was as white as snow,
    and the hair on his head was as pure as wool.
His throne was ablaze with fiery flames,
    and its wheels were a burning fire.
¹⁰A stream of fire surged forth
    and flowed out from his presence.
Thousands upon thousands served him,
    and myriads upon myriads stood before him.
The court was in session,
    and the books lay open.

Daniel 7:13-14

¹³As the night visions continued,
    I beheld approaching on the clouds of heaven
    one like a son of man.
He came before the Ancient One
    and was presented to him.
¹⁴Dominion and glory and kingship
    were conferred upon him
so that all peoples and nations of every language
    would become his servants.
His dominion is an everlasting dominion
    that will never pass away,
and his kingdom is one
    that will never be destroyed.

Psalm 93

Psalm 93^[a]

Glory of the Lord’s Kingdom

¹The Lord is King,^[b] adorned in splendor;
    the Lord has clothed and girded himself with strength.
^[c]He has made the world firm,
    never to be moved.
²Your throne has stood firm from the beginning;
    you have existed throughout eternity, O Lord.
³The waters^[d] have lifted up, O Lord;
    the waters have lifted up their voice;
    the waters have lifted up their roar.
⁴More powerful than the roar of mighty waters,
    more powerful than the crashing waves of the sea,
    mighty on high is the Lord.^[e]
⁵Your decrees^[f] are firmly established;
    holiness adorns your house,
    O Lord, throughout the ages.

Footnotes

Psalm 93:1 This is one of the nine psalms of the kingdom (Pss 47; 93–100), most of which feature the liturgical acclamation “The Lord is King,” in which is centered the whole faith of Israel. All these hymns exalt the kingdom of God that extends over the entire universe and dominates the course of time. God reveals his kingship when he brings forth the world; he does so even more when he chooses Israel. Nonetheless, creation and history are still only the beginning and promise; the kingdom of God will be manifested in all its glory at the end of time (see Rev 4:11; 11:15-17): a new heaven, a new earth, and a new Jerusalem—such are the images that allow us to glimpse the joy of a new humanity gathered together in the glory of God (see Rev 21:1—22:5). The acclamation of the psalms of the kingdom already vibrates with this ineffable hope.
Psalm 93 exalts the Lord who reigns, robed in majesty. He affirms his greatness by the forces of creation that he rules, by the law—or “decrees”—that he gives to his people, and by the temple of Jerusalem that he consecrates to his mysterious presence. From his earthly experience, the believer acclaims the splendor of a kingdom that can have no end.
In all truth, we can regard this psalm as applicable to Christ’s kingship and sing: “Christ is King.” For he vanquishes in himself and in his followers all hostile powers (Satan, death, and sin), delivering believers from the reign of death and transferring them into his kingdom (see Eph 1:2). This is the extraordinary wonder that he continues across the centuries until the full deliverance of his Church and the definitive destruction of his enemies will occur (see Rev 20–22).
Psalm 93:1 The Lord is King: a liturgical acclamation that sums up the entire faith of Israel (see Pss 96:10; 97:1; 99:1; see also Zec 14:9).
Psalm 93:1 The Lord established his kingdom on earth when he created the world and everything in it (see Ps 24:1). Hence, the world will not be moved no matter what pressure is brought to bear on it by hostile forces (see Pss 10:6; 104:5), because the Lord has established his rule over it. Indeed, the Lord is eternal (see Ps 90:2), but his rule was established when his throne was set up at the beginning of history with the creation (“from the beginning”; see Isa 44:8; 45:21; 48:3-8).
Psalm 93:3 Waters: the waters of the primeval chaos that the Lord mastered through his creative word (see Pss 33:7; 104:7-9; Gen 1:6-10; Job 38:8-11; see also note on Ps 65:8). They can also stand for the enemies of God and his people (see Job 7:12; Isa 8:7; 17:12; Jer 46:8; Dan 7:2; Rev 17:15) as well as the ocean currents, whose powers were feared by the pagan nations as indicated in the mythical account of Baal’s victory over the sea god Yamm.
Psalm 93:4 The Lord is the Master of the thundering storms and surging waves by his simple word (see Christ’s calming of the storm by a single word in Mk 4:39).
Psalm 93:5 Decrees: these divine judgments constitute revelation in the wide sense insofar as they are the norm of human life (see Ps 119). As stable (see Ps 19:8) as the physical universe and as inviolable (see Ps 95:8-11) as the sanctuary of Jerusalem, this revelation will be the foundation of the Lord’s definitive kingdom, inaugurated from the creation and already effective in Israel (see Isa 51:9f, 13; 52:7). Holiness adorns your house . . . throughout the ages: the temple, home of the King of Israel, is consecrated forever (1 Ki 8:13; 9:3; Jud 9:1-8; Ezek 42:13f; Rev 21:27). Those who approach the most holy God (see Ps 99) are also consecrated (see Ex 19:6; Lev 10:3; 19:2).

Revelation 1:4-8

He Is, He Was, and He Will Return.^[a] ⁴John, to the seven Churches^[b] in Asia: grace to you and peace from him who is, who was, and who is to come, and from the seven spirits before his throne, ⁵and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness,^[c] the firstborn from the dead and the ruler of the kings of the earth. He loves us and has washed away our sins with his blood ⁶and made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father—to him be glory and power forever and ever. Amen.^[d]

⁷Behold, he is coming with the clouds;
    every eye will see him,
    even those who pierced him.
All the peoples of the earth will mourn him.
    So shall it be. Amen.

⁸“I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “the one who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.”

Footnotes

Revelation 1:4 The greeting and the address introduce the work as a letter. [He] who is: this is how God revealed himself to Moses at the burning bush (Ex 3:14); this time, the divine name embraces the past, present, and future of humankind and is turned to the future, to the immediate fulfillment of all things: God, he who is to come. God is also described with the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet, Alpha and . . . Omega; he is the Beginning and the End, the origin and the completion (a proper name of God according to Isa 44:6; 48:12). In addition, he is the master of all historical events, including the present ones, which, according to the author, are decisive. And Christ will appear in all the glory of his Resurrection and in the grandeur of the work accomplished to save humankind, comprising the body of the Church (see 1 Pet 2:5, 9), in the imminence of his coming to judge the world.
In order to speak of him, the author here multiplies Biblical reminiscences (Ex 19:6; Ps 89:28, 38; Isa 55:3). The seven spirits before the throne (v. 4) represent the Holy Spirit in the many ways that the Spirit manifests himself in the world (e.g., Isa 11:2, 5).
Revelation 1:4 Seven Churches: the Churches (named in v. 11) formed a circle in the province of Asia and were separated from one another by some fifty miles.
Revelation 1:5 Faithful witness: the Messiah is the witness to the promise the Lord made to David (2 Sam 7:1; Ps 89; Isa 55:3-4; Zec 12:8) in his person as well as in his work. He also fulfills this promise and is thus the efficacious Word, God’s Yes (see Rev 3:14; 19:11, 13; 2 Cor 1:20). He is the heir of David (see Rev 5:5; 22:16) but also the firstborn from the dead because of his Resurrection (see Col 1:18) who will rule the universe after his enemies have been overcome (see Rev 19:6; Dan 7:14).
Revelation 1:6 Those who follow Christ will be part of a kingdom, because they will rule over all the nations (see Isa 54:11-17; Dan 7:22, 27; Zec 12:1-3; see Rev 2:26; 5:10; 20:6; 22:5). They will also be priests because like Jesus the Priest they offer up the sacrifice of their own lives as a burnt offering of love.

John 18:33-37

³³The First Hearing before Pilate. Then Pilate went back into the praetorium, and having summoned Jesus he asked him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” ³⁴Jesus answered, “Are you saying this on your own, or have others told you about me?” ³⁵Pilate said, “Am I a Jew? Your own people and the chief priests have handed you over to me. What have you done?” ³⁶Jesus replied,

“My kingdom does not belong to this world.
If my kingdom did belong to this world,
my followers would have fought
to prevent me from being handed over to the Jews.
The fact is that my kingdom is not here.”

³⁷Pilate then said to him, “So you are a king!” Jesus answered,

“It is you who say
that I am a king.
For this was I born,
and for this I came into the world:
to testify to the truth.
Everyone who is of the truth
listens to my voice.”

New Catholic Bible (NCB)

Prev Day

Top

Next Day

Use the calendar to view readings from this devotional.

Log in to read this devotional and:

Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

One Like the Son of Man[a]

Footnotes

Psalm 93[a]

Glory of the Lord’s Kingdom

Footnotes

Footnotes

One Like the Son of Man^[a]

Psalm 93^[a]