Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
Psalm 150
If Psalm 150 is any indication, then the worship of the one True God ought to be full of life and energy. Consider what it must have looked and sounded like in those days: voices lifted, shouting for joy, trumpets blaring, stringed instruments playing, people dancing, pipes humming, tambourines keeping rhythm, cymbals crashing. There are times when worship ought to break out in joy. Is it possible that our worship is too quiet, too reserved, too structured?
1 Praise the Eternal!
Praise the True God inside His temple.
Praise Him beneath massive skies, under moonlit stars and rising sun.
2 Praise Him for His powerful acts, redeeming His people.
Praise Him for His greatness that surpasses our time and understanding.
3-4 Praise Him with the blast of trumpets high into the heavens,
and praise Him with harps and lyres
and the rhythm of the tambourines skillfully played by those who love and fear the Eternal.
Praise Him with singing and dancing;
praise Him with flutes and strings of all kinds!
5 Praise Him with crashing cymbals,
loud clashing cymbals!
6 No one should be left out;
Let every man and every beast—
every creature that has the breath of the Lord—praise the Eternal!
Praise the Eternal!
This doxology not only closes Book Five, but it also closes the entire Book of Psalms. Up until now, the songs in this book have reminded us of all the reasons we should praise God. Some songs have even commanded us to praise Him. But this closing remark takes the command to praise one step further: everything alive—humans, animals, and heaven’s creatures—must praise Him. Praise is what God created us to do; it is one of our highest purposes in life. So it is no wonder that the longest book of the Bible is purely devoted to helping us do just that.
9 Lady Wisdom has built her house;
she has supported it with seven pillars.
2 She’s prepared a feast:
She’s slaughtered her animals, poured a spiced wine,
and set her table.
3 She has sent out her servants with the invitation to come to the party;
she, too, calls out from the highest point of the city:
4 Lady Wisdom: Whoever is young and gullible, turn in here.
You are welcome in this place!
Then, turning to those who are naive, she says:
5 Lady Wisdom: Come in. Come, eat my bread,
and drink my spiced wine.
6 Give up your gullible ways, your naive thoughts, for true life.
Set your course for understanding.
Mark finishes his Gospel in the same way he begins it—quickly, without commentary or explanation. He also finishes it in a humble way: it is the lowly women who take center stage in this greatest miracle of Jesus. The heavenly messenger sends the women with a commission to tell the disciples what has happened, making them the first preachers of the resurrection.
[9 After He rose from the dead early on Sunday,[a] Jesus appeared first to Mary Magdalene, a woman out of whom He had cast seven demons. 10 She brought this news back to all those who had followed Him and were still mourning and weeping, 11 but they refused to believe she had seen Jesus alive.
12 After that, Jesus appeared in a different form to two of them as they walked through the countryside, 13 and again the others did not believe it.
14 The eleven did not believe until Jesus appeared to them all as they sat at dinner. He rebuked them for their hard hearts—for their lack of faith—because they had failed to believe those witnesses who had seen Him after He had risen.
Jesus: 15 Go out into the world and share the good news with all of creation. 16 Anyone who believes this good news and is ceremonially washed[b] will be rescued, but anyone who does not believe it will be condemned. 17 And these signs will follow those who believe: they will be able to cast out demons in My name, speak with new tongues, 18 take up serpents, drink poison without being harmed, and lay their hands on the sick to heal them.
The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.