Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Psalm 29^[a]

A Psalm of David.

¹ Ascribe to the Lord, O sons of the mighty, ascribe to the Lord glory and strength.

² Give to the Lord the glory due to His name; worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness or in holy array.

³ The voice of the Lord is upon the waters; the God of glory thunders; the Lord is upon many (great) waters.

⁴ The voice of the Lord is powerful; the voice of the Lord is full of majesty.

⁵ The voice of the Lord breaks the cedars; yes, the Lord breaks in pieces the cedars of Lebanon.

⁶ He makes them also to skip like a calf; Lebanon and Sirion (Mount Hermon) like a young, wild ox.

⁷ The voice of the Lord splits and flashes forth forked lightning.

⁸ The voice of the Lord makes the wilderness tremble; the Lord shakes the Wilderness of Kadesh.

⁹ The voice of the Lord makes the hinds bring forth their young, and His voice strips bare the forests, while in His temple everyone is saying, Glory!

¹⁰ The Lord sat as King over the deluge; the Lord [still] sits as King [and] forever!

¹¹ The Lord will give [unyielding and impenetrable] strength to His people; the Lord will bless His people with peace.

1 The words of the Preacher, the son of David and king in Jerusalem.

² Vapor of vapors and futility of futilities, says the Preacher. Vapor of vapors and futility of futilities! All is vanity (emptiness, falsity, and vainglory).^(A)

³ What profit does man have left from all his toil at which he toils ^[a]under the sun? [Is life worth living?]

⁴ One generation goes and another generation comes, but the earth remains forever.^(B)

⁵ The sun also rises and the sun goes down, and hastens to the place where it rises.

⁶ The wind goes to the south and circles about to the north; it circles and circles about continually, and on its circuit the wind returns again.^(C)

⁷ All the rivers run into the sea, yet the sea is not full. To the place from which the rivers come, to there and from there they return again.

⁸ All things are weary with toil and all words are feeble; man cannot utter it. The eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing.^(D)

⁹ The thing that has been—it is what will be again, and that which has been done is that which will be done again; and there is nothing new under the sun.

¹⁰ Is there a thing of which it may be said, See, this is new? It has already been, in the vast ages of time [recorded or unrecorded] which were before us.

¹¹ There is no remembrance of former happenings or men, neither will there be any remembrance of happenings of generations that are to come by those who are to come after them.

¹⁸ For the story and message of the cross is sheer absurdity and folly to those who are perishing and on their way to perdition, but to us who are being saved it is the [manifestation of] the power of God.

¹⁹ For it is written, I will baffle and render useless and destroy the learning of the learned and the philosophy of the philosophers and the cleverness of the clever and the discernment of the discerning; I will frustrate and nullify [them] and bring [them] to nothing.^(A)

²⁰ Where is the wise man (the philosopher)? Where is the scribe (the scholar)? Where is the investigator (the logician, the debater) of this present time and age? Has not God shown up the nonsense and the folly of this world’s wisdom?

²¹ For when the world with all its earthly wisdom failed to perceive and recognize and know God by means of its own philosophy, God in His wisdom was pleased through the foolishness of preaching [salvation, procured by Christ and to be had through Him], to save those who believed (who clung to and trusted in and relied on Him).

²² For while Jews [demandingly] ask for signs and miracles and Greeks pursue philosophy and wisdom,

²³ We preach Christ (the Messiah) crucified, [preaching which] to the Jews is a scandal and an offensive stumbling block [that springs a snare or trap], and to the Gentiles it is absurd and utterly unphilosophical nonsense.

²⁴ But to those who are called, whether Jew or Greek (Gentile), Christ [is] the Power of God and the Wisdom of God.

²⁵ [This is] because the foolish thing [that has its source in] God is wiser than men, and the weak thing [that springs] from God is stronger than men.

²⁶ For [simply] consider your own call, brethren; not many [of you were considered to be] wise according to human estimates and standards, not many influential and powerful, not many of high and noble birth.

²⁷ [No] for God selected (deliberately chose) what in the world is foolish to put the wise to shame, and what the world calls weak to put the strong to shame.

²⁸ And God also selected (deliberately chose) what in the world is lowborn and insignificant and branded and treated with contempt, even the things that are nothing, that He might depose and bring to nothing the things that are,

²⁹ So that no mortal man should [have pretense for glorying and] boast in the presence of God.

³⁰ But it is from Him that you have your life in Christ Jesus, Whom God made our Wisdom from God, [revealed to us a knowledge of the divine plan of salvation previously hidden, manifesting itself as] our Righteousness [thus making us upright and putting us in right standing with God], and our Consecration [making us pure and holy], and our Redemption [providing our ransom from eternal penalty for sin].

³¹ So then, as it is written, Let him who boasts and proudly rejoices and glories, boast and proudly rejoice and glory in the Lord.^(B)