Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
Psalm 50
God as Judge
A psalm of Asaph.(A)
1 Yahweh, the God of gods[a] speaks;
He summons the earth from east to west.[b](B)
2 From Zion, the perfection of beauty,
God appears in radiance.[c](C)
3 Our God is coming; He will not be silent!
Devouring fire precedes Him,
and a storm rages around Him.(D)
4 On high, He summons heaven and earth
in order to judge His people.(E)
5 “Gather My faithful ones to Me,
those who made a covenant with Me by sacrifice.”(F)
6 The heavens proclaim His righteousness,(G)
for God is the Judge.(H)
18 For wickedness burns like a fire(A)
that consumes thorns and briers
and kindles the forest thickets
so that they go up in a column of smoke.
19 The land is scorched
by the wrath of the Lord of Hosts,
and the people are like fuel for the fire.(B)
No one has compassion on his brother.(C)
20 They carve meat on the right,
but they are still hungry;(D)
they have eaten on the left,
but they are still not satisfied.
Each one eats the flesh of his own arm.(E)
21 Manasseh is with Ephraim,
and Ephraim with Manasseh;
together, both are against Judah.(F)
In all this, His anger is not removed,
and His hand is still raised to strike.(G)
10 Woe to those enacting crooked statutes
and writing oppressive laws
2 to keep the poor from getting a fair trial
and to deprive the afflicted among my people of justice,
so that widows can be their spoil
and they can plunder the fatherless.
3 What will you do on the day of punishment
when devastation comes from far away?
Who will you run to for help?
Where will you leave your wealth?
4 There will be nothing to do
except crouch among the prisoners
or fall among the slain.
In all this, His anger is not removed,
and His hand is still raised to strike.
Stephen’s Sermon
7 “Is this true?”[a] the high priest asked.
2 “Brothers and fathers,” he said, “listen: The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he settled in Haran,(A) 3 and said to him:
4 “Then he came out of the land of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran. From there, after his father died, God had him move to this land you now live in.(C) 5 He didn’t give him an inheritance in it, not even a foot of ground, but He promised to give it to him as a possession, and to his descendants after him,(D) even though he was childless. 6 God spoke in this way:
His descendants would be strangers
in a foreign country,
and they would enslave
and oppress them 400 years.
7 I will judge the nation
that they will serve as slaves, God said.
After this, they will come out
and worship Me in this place.(E)[c]
8 Then He gave him the covenant of circumcision. After this, he fathered Isaac and circumcised(F) him on the eighth day; Isaac did the same with Jacob, and Jacob with the 12 patriarchs.(G)
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