Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
Psalm 48
The Security of the King’s Holy City
Heading
A song. A psalm by the Sons of Korah.
Call to Praise
1 The Lord is great. He deserves to be praised
in the city of our God, on his holy mountain.
2 His mountain is lofty and beautiful, the joy of the whole earth.
Mount Zion, the northern mountain, is the city of the Great King.
3 God is in her citadels.
He is famous as her fortress.
Defeat of the Enemies
4 Look! See! The kings came together.
They advanced together.
5 They saw. Yes, they were amazed.
They were terrified. They were put to flight.
6 Trembling seized them there,
pain like a woman giving birth.
7 You shattered them with an east wind, like ships of Tarshish.
Thanksgiving
8 What we have heard, we now have also seen:
In the city of the Lord of Armies,
in the city of our God, Interlude
God establishes her forever.
9 Inside your temple, O God, we meditate on your mercy.
10 Your praise, O God, reaches to the ends of the earth,
just as your fame does.
Righteousness fills your right hand.
11 Mount Zion rejoices.
The daughters of Judah[a] celebrate because of your judgments.
12 Go around Zion. Yes, go all the way around her.
Count her towers. 13 Consider her rampart.[b]
View her citadels, so that you may tell the next generation about them.
14 For this God is our God forever and ever.
He will guide us beyond death.[c]
A Dialogue Between the Lord and the Prophet
The Lord’s Promises
18 The Lord is zealous for his land,
and he will take pity on his people.
19 The Lord will respond to them:
I am sending you grain, new wine, and fresh oil,
enough to satisfy you fully.
Never again will I subject you to scorn among the nations.
20 I will drive the northern invaders far from you,
pushing them into a parched and desolate land.
Their vanguard will be driven into the eastern sea[a]
and their rearguard into the western sea.[b]
Then their stench will go up. Their foul smell will go up.
The Prophet’s Response
Yes, the Lord[c] has done great things.
21 Do not be afraid, O earth.
Celebrate and be glad.
Yes, the Lord has done great things.
22 Do not be afraid, you animals out in the field,
because the grazing lands are becoming green.
The trees are bearing their fruit.
The fig tree and the vine yield their riches.
23 Celebrate, you people of Zion!
Rejoice in the Lord your God,
because he has given you the autumn rains in righteousness.[d]
He sends you abundant showers, both autumn and spring rains,[e] as he did in the beginning.
24 The threshing floors will be filled with grain.
The vats will overflow with new wine and olive oil.
The Lord’s Promise
25 I will repay you for the years eaten by the swarming locusts,
by the young locusts, the mature locusts, and the grasshoppers,[f]
my great army that I sent among you.
26 You will have plenty to eat.
You will eat until you are full,
and you will praise the name of the Lord your God,
who has worked wonders for you.
Never again will my people be put to shame!
27 Then you will know that I am in the midst of Israel,
that I am the Lord your God,
and that there is no other.
Never again will my people be put to shame!
28 After this, I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh.[g]
Your sons and your daughters will prophesy.
Your old men will dream dreams.
Your young men will see visions.
29 Even on the servants, both male and female,
I will pour out my Spirit in those days.
2 As for me, brothers, when I came to you, I did not come with superior speech or wisdom in order to proclaim to you the testimony[a] of God. 2 For I had no intention of knowing anything among you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified. 3 I came to you[b] in weakness, in fear, and with much trembling. 4 My message and my preaching were not marked by persuasive words of human[c] wisdom, but by a demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5 so that your faith would not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power.
In-Depth Wisdom Is for Spiritual People
6 Yet we do speak wisdom among those who are mature, but it is not a wisdom of this world or of the rulers of this world, who are being reduced to nothing. 7 Instead we speak God’s wisdom that has been hidden in mystery—before the ages, God foreordained that this wisdom would result in our glory. 8 None of the rulers of this world knew it. (If they had known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.) 9 But as it is written:
What no eye has seen and no ear has heard
and no human mind has conceived—
that is what God has prepared for those who love him.[d]
10 But God revealed it to us through his[e] Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God. 11 Indeed, who among men knows a man’s thoughts except the man’s spirit within him? So also, no one else knows God’s thoughts except God’s Spirit.
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.