Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
The Beauty and Glory of Zion.
A Song; a Psalm of the sons of Korah.
48 Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised,
In the city of our God, His holy mountain.
2
Fair and beautiful in elevation, the joy of all the earth,
Is Mount Zion [the City of David] in the far north,
The city of the great King.(A)
3
God, in her palaces,
Has made Himself known as a stronghold.
4
For, lo, the kings assembled themselves,
They [came and] passed by together.
5
They saw it, then they were amazed;
They were stricken with terror, they fled in alarm.
6
Panic seized them there,
And pain, as that of a woman in childbirth.
7
With the east wind
You shattered the ships of Tarshish.
8
As we have heard, so have we seen
In the city of the Lord of hosts, in the city of our God:
God will establish her forever. Selah.
9
We have thought of Your lovingkindness, O God,
In the midst of Your temple.
10
As is Your name, O God,
So is Your praise to the ends of the earth;
Your right hand is full of righteousness (rightness, justice).
11
Let Mount Zion be glad,
Let the daughters of Judah rejoice
Because of Your [righteous] judgments.
12
Walk about Zion, go all around her;
Count her towers,
13
Consider her ramparts,
Go through her palaces,
That you may tell the next generation [about her glory].
14
For this is God,
Our God forever and ever;
He will be our guide even until death.
Promise of Restoration
14 Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying, 15 “Son of man, your brothers, your relatives, your fellow exiles and the whole house of Israel, all of them, are those to whom the [present] inhabitants of Jerusalem have said, ‘Go far away from the Lord; this land has been given to us as a possession.’ 16 Therefore say, ‘Thus says the Lord God, “Though I had removed Israel far away among the nations and though I had scattered them among the countries, yet I have been a sanctuary for them for a little while in the countries to which they had gone.”’ 17 Therefore say, ‘Thus says the Lord God, “I will gather you from the peoples and assemble you out of the countries where you have been scattered, and I will give [back] to you the land of Israel.”’ 18 When they return there, they will remove from it all [traces of] its detestable things and all its repulsive things (remnants of paganism). 19 And I will give them one heart [a new heart], and put a new spirit within them. I will take from them the heart of stone, and will give them a heart of flesh [that is responsive to My touch],(A) 20 that they may walk in My statutes and keep My ordinances and do them. Then they shall be My people, and I will be their God. 21 But as for those whose heart longs for and follows after their detestable things and their repulsive things [associated with idolatry], on their own head I will repay [them in full for] their [vile] conduct,” says the Lord God.
22 Then the cherubim lifted up their wings with the wheels beside them, and the [Shekinah] glory of the God of Israel hovered over them. 23 Then the glory and brilliance of the Lord went up from the midst of the city and paused over the mountain, [the Mount of Olives] which is east of the city. 24 And the Spirit lifted me up and brought me in a vision by the Spirit of God to the exiles in Chaldea (Babylonia). Then the vision that I had seen left me. 25 Then I told the exiles everything that the Lord had shown me.
12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the [Holy] Spirit who is from God, so that we may know and understand the [wonderful] things freely given to us by God. 13 We also speak of these things, not in words taught or supplied by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining and interpreting spiritual thoughts with spiritual words [for those being guided by the Holy Spirit].
14 But the natural [unbelieving] man does not accept the things [the teachings and revelations] of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness [absurd and illogical] to him; and he is incapable of understanding them, because they are spiritually discerned and appreciated, [and he is unqualified to judge spiritual matters]. 15 But the spiritual man [the spiritually mature Christian] judges all things [questions, examines and applies what the Holy Spirit reveals], yet is himself judged by no one [the unbeliever cannot judge and understand the believer’s spiritual nature]. 16 For who has known the mind and purposes of the Lord, so as to instruct Him? But we have the mind of Christ [to be guided by His thoughts and purposes].(A)
Copyright © 2015 by The Lockman Foundation, La Habra, CA 90631. All rights reserved.