Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
Psalm 50
The Folly of Formalistic Worship
Heading
A psalm by Asaph.[a]
The Summons
1 God, God the Lord, has spoken.
He calls to the earth from the rising of the sun to its setting.
2 From Zion, the perfection of beauty, God has shined.
3 Our God comes and he will not be silent.
Fire devours in front of him.
Around him a storm rages.
4 He calls to the heavens above and to the earth
to judge his people.
5 “Gather to me my favored ones,
who make a covenant with me by sacrifice.”
6 So the heavens proclaim his righteousness,
because God himself is judge. Interlude
The Lord’s Charges Against Them
7 Listen, my people, and let me speak, O Israel.
Then I will testify against you:
I am God, your God.
Hypocritical Sacrifices Are Useless
8 It is not because of your sacrifices that I rebuke you
or because of your burnt offerings that are always in front of me.
22 Now consider this, you who forget God,
or I will tear you to pieces,
and there will be no one to rescue you.
The Way to Escape
23 The one who sacrifices a thank offering honors me,
and he sets up the way by which I will show him the salvation of God.
18 Now wickedness burns like a fire.
It devours the briers and thorns.
Look, it flares up in the thickets of the forest,
and it swirls upward in a column of smoke.
19 By the wrath of the Lord of Armies, the land is burned up,
and the people are the fuel for the fire.
No one spares his brother.
20 On the right hand they will gobble down food,
but they will still be hungry.
On the left hand they will keep eating, but they will not be satisfied.
Everyone will eat the flesh of his own arm.[a]
21 Manasseh will be against Ephraim, and Ephraim against Manasseh,
and together they will be against Judah.
Yet for all this, his anger is not turned away,
and his hand is still stretched out, ready to strike.
Judgment on Corrupt Rulers
10 Woe to those who prescribe unjust decrees,
and to those who issue oppressive rulings,
2 to deprive the needy of justice,
and to rob the poor among my people of their rights,
to plunder widows,
and to make the fatherless their prey!
3 What will you do when the day comes to settle accounts,
during the devastation that will descend from far away?
To whom will you flee for help?
Where will you leave your wealth?
4 The only thing left for you will be to kneel among the prisoners
and to fall under the dead bodies.
Yet for all this, his anger is not turned away,
and his hand is still stretched out, ready to strike.
Stephen Defends Himself
7 Then the high priest asked, “Are these things true?”
2 Stephen said, “Gentlemen, brothers and fathers, listen! The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran. 3 God said to him, ‘Leave your land and your relatives and come to the land that I will show you.’[a]
4 “Then he left the land of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran. After his father died, God had him move from there to this land where you are now living.
5 “He gave him no inheritance in this land, not even enough to set his foot on. But God promised to give it as a possession to him and to his descendants[b] after him,[c] even though Abraham still had no child. 6 God revealed that his descendants[d] would live as strangers in a foreign country, and that they would be enslaved and mistreated for four hundred years. 7 God added, ‘I will judge the nation that they will serve as slaves, and after that they will leave there and serve me in this place.’[e]
8 “Then he gave Abraham the covenant of circumcision. So Abraham became the father of Isaac and circumcised him on the eighth day. Isaac became the father of Jacob, and Jacob became the father of the twelve patriarchs.
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.