Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Psalm 50

A Psalm of ^[a]Asaph.

¹ The Mighty One, God, the Lord, speaks and calls the earth from the rising of the sun to its setting.

² Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God shines forth.

³ Our God comes and does not keep silence; a fire devours before Him, and round about Him a mighty tempest rages.

⁴ He calls to the heavens above and to the earth, that He may judge His people:

⁵ Gather together to Me My saints [those who have found grace in My sight], those who have made a covenant with Me by sacrifice.

⁶ And the heavens declare His righteousness (rightness and justice), for God, He is judge. Selah [pause, and calmly think of that]!

²⁶ Jeroboam son of Nebat, an Ephrathite of Zereda, Solomon’s servant, whose mother’s name was Zeruah, a widow woman, rebelled against the king—

²⁷ And for this reason: Solomon built the Millo and repaired the breaches of the city of David his father.

²⁸ The man Jeroboam was a mighty man of courage. Solomon, seeing that the young man was industrious, put him in charge over all the [forced] labor of the house of Joseph.

²⁹ At that time, when Jeroboam went out of Jerusalem, the prophet Ahijah the Shilonite met him on the way. Ahijah had clad himself with a new garment; and they were alone in the field.

³⁰ Ahijah caught the new garment he wore and tore it into twelve pieces.

³¹ He said to Jeroboam, You take ten pieces, for thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, Behold, I will tear the kingdom from the hand of Solomon and will give you ten tribes.

³² But he shall have one tribe, for My servant David’s sake and for Jerusalem’s sake, the city which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel,

³³ Because they have forsaken Me and have worshiped Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, Chemosh the god of the Moabites, and Milcom the god of the Ammonites, and have not walked in My ways, to do what is right in My sight, keeping My statutes and My ordinances as did David his father.

³⁴ However, I will not take the whole kingdom out of his hand; but I will make him ruler all the days of his life for David My servant’s sake, whom I chose because he kept My commandments and My statutes.

³⁵ But I will take the kingdom out of his son’s hand and give it to you, ten tribes.

³⁶ Yet to his son I will give one tribe, that David My servant may always have a light before Me in Jerusalem, the city where I have chosen to put My Name.

³⁷ And I will take you, and you shall reign according to all that your soul desires; and you shall be king over Israel.

³⁸ And if you will hearken to all I command you and will walk in My ways and do right in My sight, keeping My statutes and My commandments, as David My servant did, I will be with you and build you a sure house, as I built for David, and will give Israel to you.

³⁹ And I will for this afflict the descendants of David, but not forever.

⁴⁰ Solomon sought therefore to kill Jeroboam. But Jeroboam arose and fled into Egypt, to Shishak king of Egypt, and was in Egypt until Solomon died.

¹² Now when I arrived at Troas [to preach] the good news (the Gospel) of Christ, a door of opportunity was opened for me in the Lord,

¹³ Yet my spirit could not rest (relax, get relief) because I did not find my brother Titus there. So I took leave from them and departed for Macedonia.

¹⁴ But thanks be to God, Who in Christ always leads us in triumph [as trophies of Christ’s victory] and through us spreads and makes evident the fragrance of the knowledge of God everywhere,

¹⁵ For we are the sweet fragrance of Christ [which exhales] unto God, [discernible alike] among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing:

¹⁶ To the latter it is an aroma [wafted] from death to death [a fatal odor, the smell of doom]; to the former it is an aroma from life to life [a vital fragrance, living and fresh]. And who is qualified (fit and sufficient) for these things? [Who is able for such a ministry? We?]

¹⁷ For we are not, like so many, [like hucksters making a trade of] peddling God’s Word [shortchanging and adulterating the divine message]; but like [men] of sincerity and the purest motive, as [commissioned and sent] by God, we speak [His message] in Christ (the Messiah), in the [very] sight and presence of God.