Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
Psalm 48[a]
A song. A psalm of the Sons of Korah.
1 Great is the Lord,(A) and most worthy of praise,(B)
in the city of our God,(C) his holy mountain.(D)
2 Beautiful(E) in its loftiness,
the joy of the whole earth,
like the heights of Zaphon[b](F) is Mount Zion,(G)
the city of the Great King.(H)
3 God is in her citadels;(I)
he has shown himself to be her fortress.(J)
4 When the kings joined forces,
when they advanced together,(K)
5 they saw her and were astounded;
they fled in terror.(L)
6 Trembling seized(M) them there,
pain like that of a woman in labor.(N)
7 You destroyed them like ships of Tarshish(O)
shattered by an east wind.(P)
8 As we have heard,
so we have seen
in the city of the Lord Almighty,
in the city of our God:
God makes her secure
forever.[c](Q)
9 Within your temple, O God,
we meditate(R) on your unfailing love.(S)
10 Like your name,(T) O God,
your praise reaches to the ends of the earth;(U)
your right hand is filled with righteousness.
11 Mount Zion rejoices,
the villages of Judah are glad
because of your judgments.(V)
12 Walk about Zion, go around her,
count her towers,(W)
13 consider well her ramparts,(X)
view her citadels,(Y)
that you may tell of them
to the next generation.(Z)
14 For this God is our God for ever and ever;
he will be our guide(AA) even to the end.
The Promise of Israel’s Return
14 The word of the Lord came to me: 15 “Son of man, the people of Jerusalem have said of your fellow exiles and all the other Israelites, ‘They are far away from the Lord; this land was given to us as our possession.’(A)
16 “Therefore say: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Although I sent them far away among the nations and scattered them among the countries, yet for a little while I have been a sanctuary(B) for them in the countries where they have gone.’
17 “Therefore say: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: I will gather you from the nations and bring you back from the countries where you have been scattered, and I will give you back the land of Israel again.’(C)
18 “They will return to it and remove all its vile images(D) and detestable idols.(E) 19 I will give them an undivided heart(F) and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone(G) and give them a heart of flesh.(H) 20 Then they will follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.(I) They will be my people,(J) and I will be their God.(K) 21 But as for those whose hearts are devoted to their vile images and detestable idols,(L) I will bring down on their own heads what they have done, declares the Sovereign Lord.(M)”
22 Then the cherubim, with the wheels beside them, spread their wings, and the glory(N) of the God of Israel was above them.(O) 23 The glory(P) of the Lord went up from within the city and stopped above the mountain(Q) east of it. 24 The Spirit(R) lifted me up and brought me to the exiles in Babylonia[a] in the vision(S) given by the Spirit of God.
Then the vision I had seen went up from me, 25 and I told the exiles everything the Lord had shown me.(T)
12 What we have received is not the spirit(A) of the world,(B) but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us. 13 This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom(C) but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words.[a] 14 The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God(D) but considers them foolishness,(E) and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit. 15 The person with the Spirit(F) makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments, 16 for,
But we have the mind of Christ.(H)
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