Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Psalm 98

Sing to the Lord a New Song

Heading
A psalm.

Invitation

Let His People Sing

Let All People Sing

Let the Whole Earth Sing

The Glory Is Seen Again

10 Then I looked, and there, above the vaulted ceiling^[a] that was over the heads of the cherubim, there was something that looked like a sapphire, shaped like a throne. It could be seen above the cherubim. ² The Lord^[b] said to the man dressed in linen, “Reach into the structure for the wheels that is beneath the cherubim, fill your cupped hands with fiery coals from among the cherubim, and scatter them over the city.” So he went in while I watched.

³ Now the cherubim were standing on the south side of the temple while he, the man, approached, and the cloud filled the inner courtyard. ⁴ Then the Glory of the Lord rose from above the cherubim and moved to the threshold of the temple. The temple was filled with the cloud, and the courtyard was full of the radiance of the Glory of the Lord. ⁵ The sound of the wings of the cherubim was heard as far away as the outer courtyard, like the voice of God Almighty when he speaks.

⁶ When he commanded the man dressed in linen, “Take fire from between the wheels, from between the cherubim,” the man went and stood beside the wheel. ⁷ Then a cherub stretched out his hand from among the cherubim and reached into the fire that was between the cherubim. He lifted up some coals, and he put them into the cupped hands of the man dressed in linen, and the man took them and went out.

⁸ The cherubim had something that seemed like the form of a human hand under their wings.

⁹ Then I looked, and right there beside the cherubim were four wheels, one wheel beside each cherub, and the wheels looked like topaz. ¹⁰ The four of them all looked alike—there was a wheel inside each wheel.^{[c] 11} The cherubim could move in any of the four directions toward which one of them faced, without turning as they moved. They went straight ahead in the direction they faced, never turning from side to side.^[d]

¹² Their entire body, their back, their hands, their wings, and the wheels were full of eyes all around. (I mean the wheels that belonged to the four of them.) ¹³ As for the wheels, they were called “wheelwork”^[e] in my hearing.

¹⁴ Each one of the cherubim had four faces. One face was the face of a cherub.^[f] The second face was the face of a man. The third was the face of a lion, and the fourth was the face of an eagle.

¹⁵ Then the cherubim rose. These were the living creatures that I had seen by the Kebar Canal. ¹⁶ Whenever the cherubim moved, the wheels moved alongside them, and whenever the cherubim lifted up their wings to rise from the ground, the wheels did not turn away from their side. ¹⁷ When the cherubim stood still, the wheels would stand still, and when the cherubim rose, the wheels would rise with them, because the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels.

¹⁸ Then the Glory of the Lord moved out from the threshold of the temple and took a position above the cherubim. ¹⁹ As I watched, the cherubim lifted up their wings and rose from the ground. As they went out, the wheels remained beside them. They^[g] stopped at the entrance of the east gate of the House of the Lord, and the Glory of the God of Israel was above the cherubim.

The Kingdom of God Is Within You

²⁰ The Pharisees asked Jesus when the kingdom of God would come. Jesus answered them, “The kingdom of God is not coming in a way you can observe, ²¹ nor will people say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘Look, there it is!’ because the kingdom of God is within^[a] you.”

Jesus Will Return

²² He said to the disciples, “The days will come when you will long to see one of the days of the Son of Man, and you will not see it. ²³ They will tell you, ‘Look, there he is!’ or ‘Look, here he is!’ Do not go out or chase after them, ²⁴ for the Son of Man in his day will be like the lightning that flashes and lights up the sky from one side to the other side. ²⁵ But first, he must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation. ²⁶ Just as it was in the days of Noah, so will it also be in the days of the Son of Man. ²⁷ They were eating and drinking, marrying and being given in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark. Then the flood came and destroyed them all. ²⁸ Likewise, just as it was in the days of Lot: They were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building, ²⁹ but on the day when Lot went out from Sodom, fire and sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all. ³⁰ It will be the same on the day the Son of Man is revealed. ³¹ On that day, the person who is on the roof and has belongings in the house should not go down to get them. Likewise, the person in the field should not turn back for anything. ³² Remember Lot’s wife! ³³ Whoever tries to preserve his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will keep it. ³⁴ I tell you, on that night there will be two people in one bed. One will be taken, and the other will be left. ³⁵ There will be two women grinding grain at the same place. One will be taken, and the other will be left.”^[b]

³⁷ “Where, Lord?” they asked him.

He said to them, “Where the corpse is, there the vultures will be gathered.”