Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Psalm 48

A song; a Psalm of the sons of Korah.

¹ Great is the Lord, and highly to be praised in the city of our God! His holy mountain,

² Fair and beautiful in elevation, is the joy of all the earth—^[a]Mount Zion [the City of David], to the northern side [Mount Moriah and the temple], the [whole] city of the Great King!^(A)

³ God has made Himself known in her palaces as a Refuge (a High Tower and a Stronghold).

⁴ For, behold, the kings assembled, they came onward and they passed away together.

⁵ They looked, they were amazed; they were stricken with terror and took to flight [affrighted and dismayed].

⁶ Trembling took hold of them there, and pain as 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 it forever. Selah [pause, and calmly think of that]!

⁹ We have thought of Your steadfast love, 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 and justice).

¹¹ Let Mount Zion be glad! Let the daughters of Judah rejoice because of Your [righteous] judgments!

¹² Walk about Zion, and go round about her, number her towers (her lofty and noble deeds of past days),

¹³ Consider well her ramparts, go through her palaces and citadels, that you may tell the next generation [and cease recalling disappointments].

¹⁴ For this God is our God forever and ever; He will be our guide [even] until death.

¹⁴ And the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

¹⁵ Son of man, your brethren, even your kindred, your fellow exiles, and all the house of Israel, all of them, are they of whom the [present] inhabitants of Jerusalem have said, They have gone far from the Lord [and from this land]; therefore this land is given to us for a possession.

¹⁶ Therefore say, Thus says the Lord God: Whereas I have removed [Israel] far off among the nations, and whereas I have scattered them among the countries, yet I have been to them a sanctuary for a little while in the countries to which they have come.

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 And when they return there, they shall take away from it all traces of its detestable things and all its abominations (sex impurities and heathen religious practices).

¹⁹ And I will give them one heart [a new heart] and I will put a new spirit within them; and I will take the stony [unnaturally hardened] heart out of their flesh, and will give them a heart of flesh [sensitive and responsive to the touch of their God],^(A)

²⁰ That they may walk in My statutes and keep My ordinances, and do them. And they shall be My people, and I will be their God.

²¹ But as for those whose heart yearns for and goes after their detestable things and their loathsome abominations [associated with idolatry], I will repay their deeds upon their own heads, says the Lord God.

²² Then the cherubim lifted up their wings with the wheels which were beside them, and the glory of the God of Israel [the Shekinah, cloud] was over them.

²³ Then the glory of the Lord rose up from over the midst of the city and stood over the mountain which is on the east side of the city.

²⁴ And the Spirit lifted me up and brought me in a vision by the Spirit of God into Chaldea, to the exiles. Then the vision that I had seen went up from me.

²⁵ And I told the exiles everything that the Lord had shown me.

¹² Now we have not received the spirit [that belongs to] the world, but the [Holy] Spirit Who is from God, [given to us] that we might realize and comprehend and appreciate the gifts [of divine favor and blessing so freely and lavishly] bestowed on us by God.

¹³ And we are setting these truths forth in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the [Holy] Spirit, combining and interpreting spiritual truths with spiritual language [to those who possess the Holy Spirit].

¹⁴ But the natural, nonspiritual man does not accept or welcome or admit into his heart the gifts and teachings and revelations of the Spirit of God, for they are folly (meaningless nonsense) to him; and he is incapable of knowing them [of progressively recognizing, understanding, and becoming better acquainted with them] because they are spiritually discerned and estimated and appreciated.

¹⁵ But the spiritual man tries all things [he ^[a]examines, investigates, inquires into, questions, and discerns all things], yet is himself to be put on trial and judged by no one [he can read the meaning of everything, but no one can properly discern or appraise or get an insight into him].

¹⁶ For who has known or understood the mind (the counsels and purposes) of the Lord so as to guide and instruct Him and give Him knowledge? But we have the mind of Christ (the Messiah) and do hold the thoughts (feelings and purposes) of His heart.^(A)