Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

¹² Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem! Praise your God, O Zion!

¹³ For He has strengthened and made hard the bars of your gates, and He has blessed your children within you.

¹⁴ He makes peace in your borders; He fills you with the finest of the wheat.

¹⁵ He sends forth His commandment to the earth; His word runs very swiftly.

¹⁶ He gives [to the earth] snow like [a blanket of] wool; He scatters the hoarfrost like ashes.

¹⁷ He casts forth His ice like crumbs; who can stand before His cold?

¹⁸ He sends out His word, and melts [ice and snow]; He causes His wind to blow, and the waters flow.

¹⁹ He declares His word to Jacob, His statutes and His ordinances to Israel.^(A)

²⁰ He has not dealt so with any [other] nation; they have not known (understood, appreciated, given heed to, and cherished) His ordinances. Praise the Lord! (Hallelujah!)^(B)

28 David assembled at Jerusalem all the leaders of Israel and of the tribes, the officers of the divisions that served the king in courses, and those over thousands and hundreds, and the stewards over all the property and livestock of the king and his sons, with the palace officers, the mighty men, and all the mighty warriors.

² Then David the king rose to his feet and said, Hear me, my brethren and my people. I myself intended to build a house of rest for the ark of the covenant of the Lord, as a footstool for our God, and I prepared materials for the building.

³ But God said to me, You shall not build a house for My Name [and Presence], because you have been a man of war and have shed blood.

⁴ However, the Lord, the God of Israel, chose me before all my father’s house to be king over Israel forever. For He chose Judah to be the ruler; and of the house of Judah he chose the house of my father; and among the sons of my father He was pleased to make me king over all Israel;

⁵ And of all my sons, for the Lord has given me many sons, He has chosen Solomon my son to sit upon the throne of the kingdom of the Lord over Israel.

⁶ And He said to me, Solomon your son shall build My house and My courts, for I have chosen him to be My son, and I will be his father.

⁷ I will establish his kingdom forever if he loyally and continuously obeys My commandments and My ordinances, as he does today.

⁸ Now therefore, in the sight of all Israel, the assembly of the Lord, and in the hearing of our God, keep and seek [to be familiar with] all the commandments of the Lord your God, that you may possess this good land and leave it as an inheritance for your children after you forever.

⁹ And you, Solomon my son, know the God of your father [have personal knowledge of Him, be acquainted with, and understand Him; appreciate, heed, and cherish Him] and serve Him with a blameless heart and a willing mind. For the Lord searches all hearts and minds and understands all the wanderings of the thoughts. If you seek Him [inquiring for and of Him and requiring Him as your first and vital necessity] you will find Him; but ^[a]if you forsake Him, He will cast you off forever!

¹⁰ Take heed now, for the Lord has chosen you to build a house for the sanctuary. Be strong and do it!

¹⁰ According to the grace (the special endowment for my task) of God bestowed on me, like a skillful architect and master builder I laid [the] foundation, and now another [man] is building upon it. But let each [man] be careful how he builds upon it,

¹¹ For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is [already] laid, which is Jesus Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One).

¹² But if anyone builds upon the Foundation, whether it be with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw,

¹³ The work of each [one] will become [plainly, openly] known (shown for what it is); for the day [of Christ] will disclose and declare it, because it will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test and critically appraise the character and worth of the work each person has done.

¹⁴ If the work which any person has built on this Foundation [any product of his efforts whatever] survives [this test], he will get his reward.

¹⁵ But if any person’s work is burned up [under the test], he will suffer the loss [of it all, losing his reward], though he himself will be saved, but only as [one who has passed] through fire.^(A)

¹⁶ Do you not discern and understand that you [the whole church at Corinth] are God’s temple (His sanctuary), and that God’s Spirit has His permanent dwelling in you [to be at home in you, ^[a]collectively as a church and also individually]?

¹⁷ If anyone ^[b]does hurt to God’s temple or corrupts it [^[c]with false doctrines] or destroys it, God will ^[d]do hurt to him and bring him to the corruption of death and destroy him. For the temple of God is holy (sacred to Him) and that [temple] you [^[e]the believing church and its individual believers] are.