Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Psalm 46

For the worship leader. A song of the sons of Korah, a song for sopranos.^[a]

⁴ This is the detailed story of the Eternal God’s singular work in creating all that exists. On the day the heavens and earth were created, ⁵ there were no plants or vegetation to cover the earth. The fields were barren and empty, because the Eternal God had not sent the rains to nourish the soil or anyone to tend it. ⁶ In those days, a mist rose up from the ground to blanket the earth, and its vapors irrigated the land. ⁷ One day the Eternal God scooped dirt out of the ground, sculpted it into the shape we call human, breathed the breath that gives life into the nostrils of the human, and the human became a living soul.

⁸ The Eternal God planted a garden in the east in Eden—a place of utter delight—and placed the man whom He had sculpted there. ⁹ In this garden, He made the ground pregnant with life—bursting forth with nourishing food and luxuriant beauty. He created trees, and in the center of this garden of delights stood the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

¹⁰ A river flowed from Eden to irrigate the garden, and from there it separated into four smaller rivers. ^11-12 The first, the Pishon, flows around the land of Havilah—a rich land plentiful in gold of premium quality, bdellium, and onyx stones. ¹³ The second, the Gihon, flows around the entire land of Cush. ¹⁴ The third, the Tigris, flows east of Assyria, and the fourth is the Euphrates.

¹⁵ The Eternal God placed the newly made man in the garden of Eden in order to work the ground and care for it. ¹⁶ He made certain demands of the man regarding life in the garden.

¹⁹ So out of the same ground the man was made from, the Eternal God sculpted every sort of animal and every kind of bird that flies up in the sky. Then He brought them to the man and gave him the authority to name each creature as he saw fit: whatever he decided to call it, that became its name. ²⁰ Thus the man chose names for domesticated animals, birds, and wild beasts. But none of these creatures was a right and proper partner for Adam.

²¹ So the Eternal God put him into a deep sleep, removed a rib from his side, and closed the flesh around the opening. ²² He formed a woman from the rib taken out of the man and presented her to him.

²⁴ Now this is the reason a man leaves his father and his mother, and is united with his wife; and the two become one flesh. ²⁵ In those days the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.

⁶ Clearly it is not that God’s word has failed. The truth is that not everyone descended from Israel is truly Israel. ⁷ Just because people can claim Abraham as their father does not make them his true children. But in the Scriptures, it says, “Through Isaac your covenant children will be named.”^{[a] 8} The proper interpretation is this: Abraham’s children by natural descent are not necessarily God’s covenant people; what matters is that His children receive and live the promise. ⁹ For this is the word God promised: “In due time, I will come, and Sarah will give birth to a son.”^{[b] 10} But the story didn’t stop there. Remember when Rebekah conceived her twin boys by our father Isaac? ^11-12 The twins were in Rebekah’s womb when God said to her, “The older will serve the younger.”^[c] This was not based on merit or actions; the twins had not done anything to please or displease God. This was God’s call on each son and His desired purposes. ¹³ Just as the Scriptures say, “I loved Jacob, but I hated Esau.”^[d]