Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
Psalm 50[a]
The Acceptable Sacrifice
1 A psalm of Asaph.
I
The God of gods, the Lord,
has spoken and summoned the earth
from the rising of the sun to its setting.(A)
2 From Zion, the perfection of beauty,
God shines forth.(B)
3 Our God comes and will not be silent!
Devouring fire precedes him,
it rages strongly around him.(C)
4 He calls to the heavens above
and to the earth to judge his people:
5 “Gather my loyal ones to me,
those who made a covenant with me by sacrifice.”
6 The heavens proclaim his righteousness,
for God himself is the judge.(D)
Selah
II
7 “Listen, my people, I will speak;
Israel, I will testify against you;
God, your God, am I.
8 Not for your sacrifices do I rebuke you,
your burnt offerings are always before me.
9 I will not take a bullock from your house,
or he-goats from your folds.(E)
10 For every animal of the forest is mine,
beasts by the thousands on my mountains.
11 I know every bird in the heights;
whatever moves in the wild is mine.
12 Were I hungry, I would not tell you,
for mine is the world and all that fills it.(F)
13 Do I eat the flesh of bulls
or drink the blood of he-goats?
14 Offer praise as your sacrifice to God;(G)
fulfill your vows to the Most High.
15 Then call on me on the day of distress;(H)
I will rescue you, and you shall honor me.”
III
16 But to the wicked God says:
“Why do you recite my commandments
and profess my covenant with your mouth?
17 You hate discipline;
you cast my words behind you!
18 If you see a thief, you run with him;
with adulterers you throw in your lot.
19 You give your mouth free rein for evil;
you yoke your tongue to deceit.
20 You sit and speak against your brother,
slandering your mother’s son.
21 When you do these things should I be silent?
Do you think that I am like you?
I accuse you, I lay out the matter before your eyes.
IV
22 “Now understand this, you who forget God,
lest I start ripping apart and there be no rescuer.
23 Those who offer praise as a sacrifice honor me;
I will let him whose way is steadfast
look upon the salvation of God.”(I)
Chapter 7
A Question About Fasting. 1 In the fourth year of Darius the king, the word of the Lord came to Zechariah, on the fourth day of the ninth month, Kislev.[a] 2 Bethelsarezer sent Regem-melech and his men to implore the favor of the Lord 3 and to ask the priests of the house of the Lord of hosts, and the prophets, “Must I weep and abstain in the fifth month[b] as I have been doing these many years?” 4 Then the word of the Lord of hosts came to me: 5 Say to all the people of the land and to the priests: When you fasted and lamented in the fifth and in the seventh month[c] these seventy years, was it really for me that you fasted?(A) 6 When you were eating and drinking, was it not for yourselves that you ate and for yourselves that you drank?
7 Are these not the words which the Lord proclaimed through the earlier prophets,[d] when Jerusalem and its surrounding cities were inhabited and secure, when the Negeb and the Shephelah were inhabited? 8 The word of the Lord came to Zechariah: 9 Thus says the Lord of hosts: Judge with true justice, and show kindness and compassion toward each other.(B) 10 Do not oppress the widow or the orphan, the resident alien or the poor;[e] do not plot evil against one another in your hearts.(C) 11 But they refused to listen; they stubbornly turned their backs and stopped their ears so as not to hear.(D) 12 And they made their hearts as hard as diamond(E) so as not to hear the instruction and the words that the Lord of hosts had sent by his spirit through the earlier prophets. So great anger came from the Lord of hosts: 13 Just as when I called out and they did not listen, so they will call out and I will not listen, says the Lord of hosts. 14 And I will scatter them among all the nations that they do not know.(F) So the land was left desolate behind them with no one moving about, and they made a pleasant land into a wasteland.
The False Teachers. 5 (A)I wish to remind you, although you know all things, that [the] Lord who once saved a people from the land of Egypt later destroyed those who did not believe.[a] 6 (B)The angels too, who did not keep to their own domain but deserted their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains, in gloom, for the judgment of the great day.[b] 7 Likewise, Sodom, Gomorrah, and the surrounding towns, which, in the same manner as they, indulged in sexual promiscuity and practiced unnatural vice,[c] serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire.(C)
8 Similarly, these dreamers[d] nevertheless also defile the flesh, scorn lordship, and revile glorious beings. 9 Yet the archangel Michael, when he argued with the devil in a dispute over the body of Moses, did not venture to pronounce a reviling judgment[e] upon him but said, “May the Lord rebuke you!”(D) 10 But these people revile what they do not understand and are destroyed by what they know by nature like irrational animals.(E) 11 Woe to them!(F) They followed the way of Cain, abandoned themselves to Balaam’s error for the sake of gain, and perished in the rebellion of Korah.[f] 12 These are blemishes on your love feasts,[g] as they carouse fearlessly and look after themselves. They are waterless clouds blown about by winds, fruitless trees in late autumn, twice dead and uprooted.(G) 13 They are like wild waves of the sea, foaming up their shameless deeds, wandering stars for whom the gloom of darkness has been reserved forever.
14 [h]Enoch, of the seventh generation from Adam, prophesied also about them when he said,(H) “Behold, the Lord has come with his countless holy ones 15 to execute judgment on all and to convict everyone for all the godless deeds that they committed and for all the harsh words godless sinners have uttered against him.” 16 These people are complainers, disgruntled ones who live by their desires; their mouths utter bombast as they fawn over people to gain advantage.(I)
Exhortations. 17 But you, beloved, remember the words spoken beforehand by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ,(J) 18 for they told you,(K) “In [the] last time there will be scoffers who will live according to their own godless desires.”[i] 19 These are the ones who cause divisions; they live on the natural plane, devoid of the Spirit.(L) 20 But you, beloved, build yourselves up in your most holy faith; pray in the holy Spirit.(M) 21 Keep yourselves in the love of God and wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life.(N)
Scripture texts, prefaces, introductions, footnotes and cross references used in this work are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc., Washington, DC All Rights Reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.