Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
Psalm 11[a]
Unshakable Confidence in God
1 For the director.[b] Of David.
[c]In the Lord I take refuge.
How can you say to me,
“Flee like a bird to your mountains!
2 For behold, the wicked are bending their bows
as they fit their arrows to the string
so that from the shadows
they can shoot at those who are upright.[d]
3 If the foundations[e] are destroyed,
what can be done by those who are righteous?”
4 [f]The Lord is in his holy temple;
the Lord, whose throne is in heaven.
His eyes are fixed on the world;
his gaze examines everyone.
5 The Lord tests the upright and the wicked;
he detests the lover of violence.
6 Upon the wicked he will rain down
fiery coals and brimstone;[g]
a scorching wind will be their allotted portion.
7 For the Lord is just
and he loves righteous deeds;
the upright will behold his face.[h]
15 He lined the inside walls of the temple with cedar boards, covering the temple from the floor to its ceiling. He covered the floor of the temple with fir planks.
16 He separated off twenty cubits at the rear of the temple with cedar planks that ran from the floor to the ceiling, making an inner sanctuary, the Holy of Holies. 17 The part in front of the temple sanctuary was forty cubits long. 18 The inside of the temple was covered with cedar carved with buds and open flowers. Everything was covered in cedar, and no stone could be seen.
19 He set up the inner sanctuary in the temple as a place to set the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord. 20 The inner sanctuary was twenty cubits long, twenty cubits wide, and twenty cubits high. It was covered in pure gold, as was also the cedar altar.
21 Solomon covered the inside of the temple in pure gold. He stretched gold chains in front of the inner sanctuary, and he covered it in pure gold. 22 He covered the entire temple with gold until he had completed the whole temple. He also covered the altar that was in the inner sanctuary with gold.
23 He made two cherubim for the inner sanctuary out of olive wood, each ten cubits high. 24 The first wing of the cherub was five cubits and the other wing was also five cubits, making ten cubits from the tip of one wing to the tip of the other. 25 The other cherub was also ten cubits, for the two cherubim were the same size and shape. 26 Each of the cherubim was ten cubits high. 27 He set the cherubim in the innermost room of the temple. The wings of the cherubim were spread out, so that the wing of one touched one wall, while the wing of the other touched the other wall, and their wings touched one another in the middle of the room. 28 He covered the cherubim with gold.
29 He carved images of cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers on all of the walls around the temple, both in the inner and the outer rooms. 30 The floor of the temple was covered with gold, both in the inner and outer rooms.
31 He made doors of olive wood for the entrance to the sanctuary. It had a five-sided frame. 32 There were two olive wood doors, and upon them he carved images of cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers. He covered the cherubim and the palm trees with beaten gold.
33 In the same way he made four-sided frames out of olive wood for the entrance to the temple itself. 34 He also made two doors out of fir wood. Each of the doors had two folding panels. 35 He carved cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers upon them, and he carefully covered the carvings upon them with gold. 36 He built the inner court with three rows of hewn stone and then a row of cedar beams.
37 In the fourth year, the month of Ziv, the foundation of the temple of the Lord was laid. 38 In the eleventh year, the month of Bul, which is the eighth month, the temple was completely finished according to its plans. He needed seven years to build it.
16 “You did not choose me.
Rather, I chose you.
And I appointed you
to go out and bear fruit,
fruit that will remain,
so that the Father may give you
whatever you ask him in my name.
17 The command I give you is this:
love one another.
Witnesses to Jesus in the Face of the World’s Hatred[a]
18 “If the world hates you,
be aware that it hated me
before it hated you.
19 If you belonged to the world,
the world would love you as its own.
But you do not belong to the world
because I have chosen you out of the world,
and therefore the world hates you.
20 “Remember the word that I said to you:
‘a servant is not greater than his master.’
If they persecuted me,
they will persecute you.
If they kept my word,
they will keep yours as well.
21 But they will do all these things to you
on account of my name,
because they do not know the one who sent me.
22 “If I had not come
and spoken to them,
they would not be guilty of sin,
but now they have no excuse for their sin.
23 Whoever hates me
hates my Father also.
24 If I had not done works among them
that no one else had ever done,
they would not be guilty of sin.
But now they have seen and hated
both me and my Father.
25 All this was to fulfill the word
that is inscribed in their Law:
‘They hated me without cause.’
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