Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
The Creator Reveals His Word
12 Worship the Lord, O Jerusalem.
Praise your God, O Zion,
13 because he strengthens the bars on your gates.
He blesses your children within you.
14 He brings peace to your borders.
He satisfies you with the best wheat.
15 He sends his message to the earth.
His word runs swiftly.
16 He gives snow like wool.
He scatters frost like ashes.
17 He sends his hail like pieces of bread.
Who can stand in the face of his cold winds?
18 He sends his word, and the ice melts.
He breathes on the snow.[a] The waters flow.[b]
19 He reveals his words to Jacob,
his statutes and his judgments to Israel.
20 He has not done this for any other nation.
They do not know his judgments.
Praise the Lord.
The Plan for the Temple
28 David gathered all the officials of Israel in Jerusalem: namely, the officials over the tribes, the officers over the military divisions that served the king (the officers over the units of a thousand and the units of a hundred), the officials who were in charge of all the property and cattle that belonged to the king and his sons, together with the palace officials, the powerful men, all the strong, capable men.
2 Then King David stood up and said:
Listen to me, my brothers and my people. In my heart I wanted to build a house as a resting place for the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord and as a footstool for our God. So I made preparations to build. 3 But God said to me, “You will not build a house for my name because you are a man of war, and you have shed blood.” 4 Yet the Lord, the God of Israel, chose me from the whole house of my father to become king over Israel forever, because he chose Judah as leader, and in the house of Judah he chose the house of my father, and among the sons of my father he took pleasure in me to make me king over all Israel. 5 From all my sons (the Lord has given me many sons) he has chosen my son Solomon to sit upon the throne of the kingdom of the Lord over Israel. 6 He said to me, “Solomon, your son, is the one who will build my house and my courtyards, because I have chosen him for myself as a son. I will be his father. 7 I will establish his kingdom forever, if he is committed to keeping my commandments and my ordinances, as is happening today.”
8 Now in the sight of all Israel, the assembly of the Lord, and in the hearing of our God, keep and seek out all the commandments of the Lord your God so that you may possess the good land and live in it as an inheritance for your children after you, forever.
9 You, Solomon, my son, know the God of your father, and serve him with a whole heart and with a willing mind because the Lord searches all hearts. He understands every thought people plan. If you seek him, he will let you find him. If you forsake him, he will cast you off forever. 10 Consider this carefully! Because the Lord has chosen you to build a house for the holy place, be strong and do it.
10 In keeping with the grace of God given to me, as a wise master builder, I laid a foundation, and someone else is building on it. But let each person be careful how he builds on it. 11 In fact, no one can lay any other foundation than the one that has been laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12 But if anyone is building on the foundation with gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay, or straw, 13 each person’s work will become evident. The Day will make it plain, because it is going to be revealed in fire, and the fire will test each person’s work to show what sort of work it is. 14 If what someone has built remains, he will receive a reward. 15 If someone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but it will be like an escape through fire.
16 Do you not know that you yourselves are God’s temple, and that God’s Spirit lives in[a] you? 17 If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and that is what you are.
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.