Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Psalm 46

To the Chief Musician. [A Psalm] of the sons of Korah, set to treble voices. A song.

¹ God is our Refuge and Strength [mighty and impenetrable to temptation], a very present and well-proved help in trouble.

² Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change and though the mountains be shaken into the midst of the seas,

³ Though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble at its swelling and tumult. Selah [pause, and calmly think of that]!

⁴ There is a river whose streams shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the Most High.

⁵ God is in the midst of her, she shall not be moved; God will help her right early [at the dawn of the morning].

⁶ The nations raged, the kingdoms tottered and were moved; He uttered His voice, the earth melted.

⁷ The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our Refuge (our Fortress and High Tower). Selah [pause, and calmly think of that]!

⁸ Come, behold the works of the Lord, Who has wrought desolations and wonders in the earth.

⁹ He makes wars to cease to the end of the earth; He breaks the bow into pieces and snaps the spear in two; He burns the chariots in the fire.

¹⁰ Let be and be still, and know (recognize and understand) that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations! I will be exalted in the earth!

¹¹ The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our Refuge (our High Tower and Stronghold). Selah [pause, and calmly think of that]!

12 Now [in Haran] the Lord said to Abram, Go for yourself [for your own advantage] away from your country, from your relatives and your father’s house, to the land that I will show you.^(A)

² And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you [with abundant increase of favors] and make your name famous and distinguished, and you will be a blessing [dispensing good to others].

³ And I will bless those who bless you [who confer prosperity or happiness upon you] and ^[a]curse him who curses or uses insolent language toward you; in you will all the families and kindred of the earth be blessed [and by you they will bless themselves].^(B)

⁴ So Abram departed, as the Lord had directed him; and Lot [his nephew] went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he left Haran.

⁵ Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother’s son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the persons [servants] that they had acquired in Haran, and they went forth to go to the land of Canaan. When they came to the land of Canaan,

⁶ Abram passed through the land to the locality of Shechem, to the oak or terebinth tree of Moreh. And the Canaanite was then in the land.

⁷ Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, I will give this land to your posterity. So Abram built an altar there to the Lord, Who had appeared to him.

⁸ From there he pulled up [his tent pegs] and departed to the mountain on the east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east; and there he built an altar to the Lord and called upon the name of the Lord.

⁹ Abram journeyed on, still going toward the South (the Negeb).

¹⁷ Only, let each one [seek to conduct himself and regulate his affairs so as to] lead the life which the Lord has allotted and imparted to him and to which God has invited and summoned him. This is my order in all the churches.

¹⁸ Was anyone at the time of his summons [from God] already circumcised? Let him not seek to remove the evidence of circumcision. Was anyone at the time [God] called him uncircumcised? Let him not be circumcised.

¹⁹ For circumcision is nothing and counts for nothing, neither does uncircumcision, but [what counts is] keeping the commandments of God.

²⁰ Everyone should remain after God calls him in the station or condition of life in which the summons found him.

²¹ Were you a slave when you were called? Do not let that trouble you. But if you are able to gain your freedom, avail yourself of the opportunity.

²² For he who as a slave was summoned in [to union with] the Lord is a freedman of the Lord, just so he who was free when he was called is a bond servant of Christ (the Messiah).

²³ You were bought with a price [purchased with a preciousness and paid for by Christ]; then do not yield yourselves up to become [in your own estimation] slaves to men [but consider yourselves slaves to Christ].

²⁴ So, brethren, in whatever station or state or condition of life each one was when he was called, there let him continue with and close to God.