Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
48 How great is the Lord! How much we should praise him. He lives upon Mount Zion in Jerusalem. 2 What a glorious sight! See Mount Zion rising north of the city[a] high above the plains for all to see—Mount Zion, joy of all the earth, the residence of the great King.
3 God himself is the defender of Jerusalem.[b] 4 The kings of the earth have arrived together to inspect the city. 5 They marvel at the sight and hurry home again, 6 afraid of what they have seen; they are filled with panic like a woman in travail! 7 For God destroys the mightiest warships with a breath of wind. 8 We have heard of the city’s glory—the city of our God, the Commander of the armies of heaven. And now we see it for ourselves! God has established Jerusalem forever.
9 Lord, here in your Temple we meditate upon your kindness and your love. 10 Your name is known throughout the earth, O God. You are praised everywhere for the salvation[c] you have scattered throughout the world. 11 O Jerusalem,[d] rejoice! O people of Judah, rejoice! For God will see to it that you are finally treated fairly. 12 Go, inspect the city! Walk around and count her many towers! 13 Note her walls and tour her palaces so that you can tell your children.
14 For this great God is our God forever and ever. He will be our guide until we die.
14 Again a message came from the Lord:
15 “Son of dust, the remnant left in Jerusalem are saying about your brother exiles: ‘It is because they were so wicked that the Lord has deported them. Now the Lord has given us their land!’
16 “But tell the exiles that the Lord God says: Although I have scattered you in the countries of the world, yet I will be a sanctuary to you for the time that you are there, 17 and I will gather you back from the nations where you are scattered and give you the land of Israel again. 18 And when you return, you will remove every trace of all this idol worship. 19 I will give you one heart and a new spirit; I will take from you your hearts of stone and give you tender hearts of love for God, 20 so that you can obey my laws and be my people, and I will be your God. 21 But as for those now in Jerusalem[a] who long for idols, I will repay them fully for their sins,” the Lord God says.
22 Then the Guardian Angels lifted their wings and rose into the air with their wheels beside them, and the glory of the God of Israel stood above them. 23 Then the glory of the Lord rose from over the city and stood above the mountain on the east side.
24 Afterwards the Spirit of God carried me back again to Babylon, to the Jews in exile there. And so ended the vision of my visit to Jerusalem. 25 And I told the exiles everything the Lord had shown me.
12 And God has actually given us his Spirit (not the world’s spirit) to tell us about the wonderful free gifts of grace and blessing that God has given us. 13 In telling you about these gifts we have even used the very words given to us by the Holy Spirit, not words that we as men might choose. So we use the Holy Spirit’s words to explain the Holy Spirit’s facts.[a] 14 But the man who isn’t a Christian can’t understand and can’t accept these thoughts from God, which the Holy Spirit teaches us. They sound foolish to him because only those who have the Holy Spirit within them can understand what the Holy Spirit means. Others just can’t take it in. 15 But the spiritual man has insight into everything, and that bothers and baffles the man of the world, who can’t understand him at all. 16 How could he? For certainly he has never been one to know the Lord’s thoughts, or to discuss them with him, or to move the hands of God by prayer.[b] But, strange as it seems, we Christians actually do have within us a portion of the very thoughts and mind of Christ.
The Living Bible copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.