Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
God in the Thunderstorm
A song of David.
29 Praise the Lord, you angels.
Praise the Lord’s glory and power.
2 Praise the Lord for the glory of his name.
Worship the Lord because he is holy.
3 The Lord’s voice is heard over the sea.
The glorious God thunders.
The Lord thunders over the great ocean.
4 The Lord’s voice is powerful.
The Lord’s voice is majestic.
5 The Lord’s voice breaks the trees.
The Lord breaks the cedars of Lebanon.
6 He makes the land of Lebanon dance like a calf.
He makes Mount Hermon jump like a baby bull.
7 The Lord’s voice makes the lightning flash.
8 The Lord’s voice shakes the desert.
The Lord shakes the Desert of Kadesh.
9 The Lord’s voice shakes the oaks.
The leaves fall off the trees.
In his Temple everyone says, “Glory to God!”
10 The Lord controls the flood.
The Lord will be King forever.
11 The Lord gives strength to his people.
The Lord blesses his people with peace.
1 These are the words of the Teacher. He is a son of David, king in Jerusalem.
2 The Teacher says,
“Useless! Useless!
Completely useless!
All things are useless.”
3 What do people really gain
from all the hard work they do here on earth?
Things Never Change
4 People live, and people die.
But the earth continues forever.
5 The sun rises, and the sun sets.
Then it hurries back to the place where it rises again.
6 The wind blows to the south.
Then it blows to the north.
It blows from one direction and then another.
Then it turns around and repeats the same pattern, going nowhere.
7 All the rivers flow to the sea.
But the sea never becomes full.
8 Everything is boring.
It makes you so tired you don’t even want to talk about it.
Words come again and again to our ears.
But we never can hear enough.
Nor can we ever really see all we want to see.
9 All things continue the way they have been since the beginning.
The same things will be done that have always been done.
There is nothing new here on earth.
10 A person might say,
“Look, this is new!”
But really it has always been here.
It was here before we were!
11 People don’t remember what happened long ago.
In the future, people will not remember what happens now.
And later, other people will not remember what was done before them.
Christ Is God’s Power and Wisdom
18 The teaching about the cross seems foolish to those who are lost. But to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19 It is written in the Scriptures:
“I will cause the wise men to lose their wisdom.
I will make the wise men unable to understand.” Isaiah 29:14
20 Where is the wise person? Where is the educated person? Where is the philosopher[a] of our times? God has made the wisdom of the world foolish. 21 The world did not know God through its own wisdom. So God chose to use the message that sounds foolish to save those who believe it. 22 The Jews ask for miracles as proofs. The Greeks want wisdom. 23 But we preach Christ on the cross. This is a big problem to the Jews. And it seems foolish to the non-Jews. 24 But Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God to those people God has called—Jews and Greeks. 25 Even the foolishness of God is wiser than men. Even the weakness of God is stronger than men.
26 Brothers, look at what you were when God called you. Not many of you were wise in the way the world judges wisdom. Not many of you had great influence. Not many of you came from important families. 27 But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise. He chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. 28 And he chose what the world thinks is not important. He chose what the world hates and thinks is nothing. He chose these to destroy what the world thinks is important. 29 God did this so that no man can brag before him. 30 It is God who has made you part of Christ Jesus. Christ has become wisdom for us from God. Christ is the reason we are right with God and have freedom from sin; Christ is the reason we are holy. 31 So, as the Scripture says, “If a person brags, he should brag only about the Lord.”[b]
The Holy Bible, International Children’s Bible® Copyright© 1986, 1988, 1999, 2015 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission.