Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
(A psalm and a song for the Sabbath.)
Sing Praises to the Lord
1 It is wonderful to be grateful
and to sing your praises,
Lord Most High!
2 It is wonderful each morning
to tell about your love
and at night to announce
how faithful you are.
3 I enjoy praising your name
to the music of harps,
4 because everything you do
makes me happy,
and I sing joyful songs.
12 Good people will prosper
like palm trees,
and they will grow strong
like the cedars of Lebanon.
13 They will take root
in your house, Lord God,
and they will do well.
14 They will be like trees
that stay healthy and fruitful,
even when they are old.
15 And they will say about you,
“The Lord always does right!
God is our mighty rock.”[a]
26 (A) Solomon had 1,400 chariots and 12,000 horses that he kept in Jerusalem and other towns.
27 (B) While he was king, there was silver everywhere in Jerusalem, and cedar was as common as ordinary sycamore trees in the foothills.
28-29 (C) Solomon's merchants bought his horses and chariots in the regions of Musri and Kue.[a] They paid 600 pieces of silver for a chariot and 150 pieces of silver for a horse. They also sold horses and chariots to the Hittite and Syrian kings.
Solomon Disobeys the Lord
11 1-2 (D) The Lord did not want the Israelites to worship foreign gods, so he had warned them not to marry anyone who was not from Israel.
Solomon loved his wife, the daughter of the king of Egypt. But he also loved some women from Moab, Ammon, and Edom, and others from Sidon and the land of the Hittites. 3-4 Seven hundred of his wives were daughters of kings, but he also married 300 other women.[b]
As Solomon got older, some of his wives led him to worship their gods. He wasn't like his father David, who had worshiped only the Lord God. 5 Solomon also worshiped Astarte the goddess of Sidon, and Milcom the disgusting god of Ammon. 6 Solomon's father had obeyed the Lord with all his heart, but Solomon disobeyed and did what the Lord hated.
7 Solomon built shrines on a hill east of Jerusalem to worship Chemosh the disgusting god of Moab, and Molech the disgusting god of Ammon. 8 In fact, he built a shrine for each of his foreign wives, so all of them could burn incense and offer sacrifices to their own gods.
4 (A) Because Abel had faith, he offered God a better sacrifice than Cain did. God was pleased with him and his gift, and even though Abel is now dead, his faith still speaks for him.
5 (B) Enoch had faith and did not die. He pleased God, and God took him up to heaven. This is why his body was never found. 6 But without faith no one can please God. We must believe that God is real and rewards everyone who searches for him.
7 (C) Because Noah had faith, he was warned about something that had not yet happened. He obeyed and built a boat that saved him and his family. In this way the people of the world were judged, and Noah was given the blessings that come to everyone who pleases God.
Copyright © 1995 by American Bible Society For more information about CEV, visit www.bibles.com and www.cev.bible.