Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
Psalm 53
For the music leader, according to the mahalath. A maskil[a] of David.
53 Fools say in their hearts, There’s no God.
They are corrupt and do horrible deeds;
not one of them does anything good.
2 God looks down from heaven on humans
to see if anyone is wise,
to see if anyone seeks God.
3 But all have turned away.
Everyone is corrupt.
No one does good—
not even one person!
4 Are they dumb—these evildoers—
devouring my people like they are eating bread
but never calling on God?
5 There, where there was nothing to fear,
they will be in utter panic
because God will scatter the bones
of those who attacked you.
You will put them to shame
because God has rejected them.
6 Let Israel’s salvation come out of Zion!
When God changes
his people’s circumstances for the better,
Jacob will rejoice;
Israel will celebrate!
10 Then the Lord’s word came to Samuel: 11 “I regret making Saul king because he has turned away from following me and hasn’t done what I said.” Samuel was upset at this, and he prayed to the Lord all night long.
12 Samuel got up early in the morning to meet Saul, and was told, “Saul went to Carmel, where he is setting up a monument for himself. Then he left and went down to Gilgal.”
13 When Samuel reached Saul,[a] Saul greeted him, “The Lord bless you! I have done what the Lord said.”
14 “Then what,” Samuel asked, “is this bleating of sheep in my ears and mooing of cattle I hear?”
15 “They were taken from the Amalekites,” Saul said, “because the troops spared the best sheep and cattle in order to sacrifice them to the Lord your God. The rest was placed under the ban.”
16 Samuel then said to Saul, “Enough! Let me tell you what the Lord said to me last night.”
“Tell me,” Saul replied.
17 Samuel said, “Even if you think you are insignificant, aren’t you the leader of Israel’s tribes? The Lord anointed you king over Israel. 18 The Lord sent you on a mission, instructing you, ‘Go, and put the sinful Amalekites under the ban. Fight against them until you’ve wiped them out.’ 19 Why didn’t you obey the Lord? You did evil in the Lord’s eyes when you tore into the plunder!”
20 “But I did obey the Lord!” Saul protested to Samuel. “I went on the mission the Lord sent me on. I captured Agag the Amalekite king, and I put the Amalekites under the ban. 21 Yes, the troops took sheep and cattle from the plunder—the very best items placed under the ban—but in order to sacrifice them to the Lord your God at Gilgal.”
22 Then Samuel replied,
“Does the Lord want entirely burned offerings and sacrifices
as much as obedience to the Lord?
Listen to this: obeying is better than sacrificing,
paying attention is better than fat from rams,
23 because rebellion is as bad as the sin of divination;
arrogance is like the evil of idolatry.[b]
Because you have rejected what the Lord said,
he has rejected you as king.”
22 I didn’t see a temple in the city, because its temple is the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb. 23 The city doesn’t need the sun or the moon to shine on it, because God’s glory is its light, and its lamp is the Lamb. 24 The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it. 25 Its gates will never be shut by day, and there will be no night there. 26 They will bring the glory and honor of the nations into it. 27 Nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is vile and deceitful, but only those who are registered in the Lamb’s scroll of life.
22 Then the angel showed me the river of life-giving water,[a] shining like crystal, flowing from the throne of God and the Lamb 2 through the middle of the city’s main street. On each side of the river is the tree of life, which produces twelve crops of fruit, bearing its fruit each month. The tree’s leaves are for the healing of the nations. 3 There will no longer be any curse. The throne of God and the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him. 4 They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. 5 Night will be no more. They won’t need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will shine on them, and they will rule forever and always.
Copyright © 2011 by Common English Bible