Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Psalm 96

¹ O sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord, all the earth!

² Sing to the Lord, bless (affectionately praise) His name; show forth His salvation from day to day.

³ Declare His glory among the nations, His marvelous works among all the peoples.

⁴ For great is the Lord and greatly to be praised; He is to be reverently feared and worshiped above all [so-called] gods.^(A)

⁵ For all the gods of the nations are [lifeless] idols, but the Lord made the heavens.

⁶ Honor and majesty are before Him; strength and beauty are in His sanctuary.

⁷ Ascribe to the Lord, O you families of the peoples, ascribe to the Lord glory and strength.

⁸ Give to the Lord the glory due His name; bring an offering and come [before Him] into His courts.

⁹ O worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness; tremble before and reverently fear Him, all the earth.

²³ Within the Holy of Holies he made two cherubim of olive wood, each ten cubits high.

²⁴ Five cubits was the length of one wing of the cherub and five cubits its other wing; from the tip of one wing to the tip of the other was ten cubits.

²⁵ The wings of the other cherub were also ten cubits. Both cherubim were the same,

²⁶ The height of one cherub ten cubits, as was the other.

²⁷ He put the cherubim within the inner sanctuary. Their wings were stretched out, so that the wing of one touched one wall, and the wing of the other cherub touched the other wall, and their inner wings touched in the midst of the room.

²⁸ Solomon overlaid the cherubim with gold.

²⁹ He carved all the walls of the house (these two holy rooms) round about with figures of cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers, within and without.

³⁰ The floor of the house he overlaid with gold, inside and out.

³¹ For the Holy of Holies he made [folding] doors of olive wood; their entire width was one-fifth that of the wall.

³² On the two doors of olive wood he carved cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers; he overlaid them with gold, and spread gold on the cherubim and palm trees.

³³ Also he made for the door of the Holy Place four-sided posts of olive wood.

³⁴ The two doors were of cypress wood; the two leaves of each door were folding.

³⁵ He carved on them cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers, covered with gold evenly applied on the carved work.

³⁶ He built the inner court with three rows of hewn stone and a row of cedar beams.

³⁷ In the fourth year the foundation of the Lord’s house was laid, in the [second] month, Ziv.

³⁸ In the eleventh year, in Bul, the eighth month, the house was finished throughout according to all its specifications. So he was seven years in building it.

¹¹ Therefore, being conscious of fearing the Lord with respect and reverence, we seek to win people over [to persuade them]. But ^[a]what sort of persons we are is plainly recognized and thoroughly understood by God, and I hope that it is plainly recognized and thoroughly understood also by your consciences (your inborn discernment).

¹² We are not commending ourselves to you again, but we are providing you with an occasion and incentive to be [rightfully] proud of us, so that you may have a reply for those who pride themselves on surface appearances [^[b]on the virtues they only appear to have], although their heart is devoid of them.

¹³ For if we are beside ourselves [mad, as some say], it is for God and concerns Him; if we are in our right mind, it is for your benefit,

¹⁴ For the love of Christ controls and urges and impels us, because we are of the opinion and conviction that [if] One died for all, then all died;

¹⁵ And He died for all, so that all those who live might live no longer to and for themselves, but to and for Him Who died and was raised again for their sake.

¹⁶ Consequently, from now on we estimate and regard no one from a [purely] human point of view [in terms of natural standards of value]. [No] even though we once did estimate Christ from a human viewpoint and as a man, yet now [we have such knowledge of Him that] we know Him no longer [in terms of the flesh].

¹⁷ Therefore if any person is [ingrafted] in Christ (the Messiah) he is a new creation (a new creature altogether); the old [previous moral and spiritual condition] has passed away. Behold, the fresh and new has come!