Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
Psalm 50
God as Judge
A psalm of Asaph.(A)
1 The Mighty One, God,[a] the Lord, speaks;
he summons the earth
from the rising of the sun to its setting.(B)
2 From Zion, the perfection of beauty,
God appears in radiance.[b](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)Selah
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 take 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,
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 Offer a thanksgiving sacrifice 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 fling my words behind you.(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.[c](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 Armies 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 Armies 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 seventy 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 Armies 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 resident alien 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 Armies had sent by his Spirit through the earlier prophets.(K) Therefore intense anger came from the Lord of Armies. 13 Just as he had called, and they would not listen, so when they called, I would not listen, says the Lord of Armies. 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, although you came to know all these things once and for all, that Jesus[a] saved a people out of Egypt and later destroyed those who did not believe;(A) 6 and the angels(B) who did not keep their own position but abandoned their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains in deep darkness for the judgment on the great day. 7 Likewise, Sodom and Gomorrah(C) and the surrounding towns committed sexual immorality and perversions,[b] and serve as an example by undergoing the punishment of eternal fire.(D)
8 In the same way these people—relying on their dreams—defile their flesh, reject authority, and slander glorious ones.(E) 9 Yet when Michael(F) the archangel(G) was disputing with the devil(H) in an argument about Moses’s(I) body, he did not dare utter a slanderous condemnation against him but said, “The Lord rebuke you!” 10 But these people blaspheme anything they do not understand. And what they do understand by instinct—like irrational animals—by these things they are destroyed. 11 Woe to them! For they have gone the way of Cain,(J) have plunged into Balaam’s error(K) for profit, and have perished in Korah’s rebellion.(L)
The Apostates’ Doom
12 These people are dangerous reefs[c] at your love feasts(M) as they eat with you without reverence. They are shepherds who only look after themselves. They are waterless clouds carried along by winds;(N) trees in late autumn—fruitless, twice dead and uprooted. 13 They are 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 It was about these that Enoch,(R) in the seventh generation from Adam, prophesied: “Look! The Lord comes with tens of thousands of his holy ones(S) 15 to execute judgment on all and to convict all the ungodly(T) concerning all the ungodly acts that they have done in an ungodly way, and concerning all the harsh things ungodly sinners have said against him.” 16 These people are discontented grumblers, living 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) living according to their own ungodly desires.” 19 These people create divisions and are worldly,(Y) not having the Spirit.
Exhortation and Benediction
20 But you, dear friends, as you build yourselves up in your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit,(Z) 21 keep yourselves in the love of God,(AA) waiting expectantly for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ for eternal life.
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