Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
Psalm 50
God as Judge
A psalm of Asaph.(A)
1 Yahweh, the God of gods[a] speaks;
He summons the earth from east to west.[b](B)
2 From Zion, the perfection of beauty,
God appears in radiance.[c](C)
3 Our God is coming; He will not be silent!
Devouring fire precedes Him,
and a storm rages around Him.(D)
4 On high, He summons heaven and earth
in order to judge His people.(E)
5 “Gather My faithful ones to Me,
those who made a covenant with Me by sacrifice.”(F)
6 The heavens proclaim His righteousness,(G)
for God is the Judge.(H)
7 “Listen, My people, and I will speak;
I will testify against you, Israel.
I am God, your God.(I)
8 I do not rebuke you for your sacrifices
or for your burnt offerings,
which are continually before Me.(J)
9 I will not accept a bull from your household
or male goats from your pens,(K)
10 for every animal of the forest is Mine,
the cattle on a thousand hills.
11 I know every bird of the mountains,[d]
and the creatures of the field are Mine.(L)
12 If I were hungry, I would not tell you,
for the world and everything in it is Mine.(M)
13 Do I eat the flesh of bulls
or drink the blood of goats?(N)
14 Sacrifice a thank offering to God,(O)
and pay your vows to the Most High.(P)
15 Call on Me in a day of trouble;
I will rescue you, and you will honor Me.”(Q)
16 But God says to the wicked:
“What right do you have to recite My statutes
and to take My covenant on your lips?(R)
17 You hate instruction
and turn your back on My words.[e](S)
18 When you see a thief,
you make friends with him,
and you associate with adulterers.(T)
19 You unleash your mouth for evil
and harness your tongue for deceit.(U)
20 You sit, maligning your brother,
slandering your mother’s son.(V)
21 You have done these things, and I kept silent;
you thought I was just like you.(W)
But I will rebuke you
and lay out the case before you.[f](X)
Disobedience and Fasting
7 In the fourth year of King Darius,(A) the word of the Lord came to Zechariah on the fourth day of the ninth month, which is Chislev. 2 Now the people of Bethel had sent Sharezer, Regem-melech, and their men to plead for the Lord’s favor(B) 3 by asking the priests who were at the house of the Lord of Hosts as well as the prophets, “Should we mourn and fast in the fifth month as we have done these many years?”
4 Then the word of the Lord of Hosts came to me: 5 “Ask all the people of the land and the priests: When you fasted and lamented in the fifth and in the seventh months for these 70 years, did you really fast for Me?(C) 6 When you eat and drink, don’t you eat and drink simply for yourselves?(D) 7 Aren’t these the words that the Lord proclaimed through the earlier prophets when Jerusalem was inhabited and secure,[a] along with its surrounding cities, and when the southern region and the Judean foothills were inhabited?”
8 The word of the Lord came to Zechariah: 9 “The Lord of Hosts says this: Make fair decisions.(E) Show faithful love and compassion(F) to one another. 10 Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the foreigner or the poor,(G) and do not plot evil in your hearts against one another.(H) 11 But they refused to pay attention(I) and turned a stubborn shoulder; they closed their ears so they could not hear.(J) 12 They made their hearts like a rock so as not to obey the law or the words that the Lord of Hosts had sent by His Spirit through the earlier prophets.(K) Therefore great anger came from the Lord of Hosts. 13 Just as He had called, and they would not listen, so when they called, I would not listen,” says the Lord of Hosts. 14 “I scattered them with a windstorm over all the nations that had not known them, and the land was left desolate behind them, with no one coming or going. They turned a pleasant land into a desolation.”
Apostates: Past and Present
5 Now I want to remind you, though you know all these things: The Lord[a] first[b] saved a people out of Egypt and later destroyed those who did not believe;(A) 6 and He has kept, with eternal chains in darkness for the judgment of the great day, the angels(B) who did not keep their own position but deserted their proper dwelling. 7 In the same way, Sodom and Gomorrah(C) and the cities around them committed sexual immorality and practiced perversions,[c] just as angels did, and serve as an example by undergoing the punishment of eternal fire.(D)
8 Nevertheless, these dreamers likewise defile their flesh, reject authority, and blaspheme glorious ones.(E) 9 Yet Michael(F) the archangel,(G) when he was disputing with the Devil(H) in a debate about Moses’(I) body, did not dare bring an abusive condemnation against him but said, “The Lord rebuke you!” 10 But these people blaspheme anything they don’t understand. What they know by instinct like unreasoning animals—they destroy themselves with these things. 11 Woe to them! For they have traveled in the way of Cain,(J) have abandoned themselves to the error of Balaam(K) for profit, and have perished in Korah’s rebellion.(L)
The Apostates’ Doom
12 These are the ones who are like dangerous reefs[d] at your love feasts.(M) They feast with you, nurturing only themselves without fear. They are waterless clouds carried along by winds;(N) trees in late autumn—fruitless, twice dead, pulled out by the roots; 13 wild waves of the sea, foaming up their shameful deeds; wandering stars(O) for whom the blackness of darkness(P) is reserved forever!(Q)
14 And Enoch,(R) in the seventh generation from Adam, prophesied about them:
Look! The Lord comes[e]
with thousands of His holy ones(S)
15 to execute judgment on all
and to convict them[f]
of all their ungodly(T) acts
that they have done in an ungodly way,
and of all the harsh things ungodly sinners
have said against Him.
16 These people are discontented grumblers, walking according to their desires;(U) their mouths utter arrogant words, flattering(V) people for their own advantage.
17 But you, dear friends, remember what was predicted by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ; 18 they told you, “In the end time(W) there will be scoffers(X) walking according to their own ungodly desires.” 19 These people create divisions and are unbelievers,[g](Y) not having the Spirit.
Exhortation and Benediction
20 But you, dear friends, as you build yourselves up in your most holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit,(Z) 21 keep yourselves in the love of God,(AA) expecting the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ for eternal life.
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