Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Psalm 47

God Our King

For the choir director. A psalm of the sons of Korah.

¹⁵ When Moses went up the mountain, the cloud^(A) covered it. ¹⁶ The glory of the Lord settled on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it for six days. On the seventh day he called to Moses from the cloud.^{(B) 17} The appearance of the Lord’s glory to the Israelites was like a consuming fire^(C) on the mountaintop. ¹⁸ Moses entered the cloud as he went up the mountain, and he remained on the mountain forty days and forty nights.^(D)

John’s Vision of the Risen Lord

⁹ I, John, your brother and partner in the affliction,^(A) kingdom,^(B) and endurance^(C) that are in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus.^{(D) 10} I was in the Spirit^[a](E) on the Lord’s day, and I heard a loud voice behind me like a trumpet^{(F) 11} saying, “Write^(G) on a scroll^[b] what you see and send it to the seven churches: Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea.”

¹² Then I turned to see whose voice^(H) it was that spoke to me. When I turned I saw seven golden lampstands,^{(I) 13} and among the lampstands was one like the Son of Man,^[c](J) dressed in a robe^(K) and with a golden sash wrapped around his chest.^{(L) 14} The hair of his head was white as wool—white as snow^(M)—and his eyes like a fiery flame.^{(N) 15} His feet were like fine bronze as it is fired in a furnace,^(O) and his voice like the sound of cascading^[d] waters.^{(P) 16} He had seven stars in his right hand; a sharp double-edged sword came from his mouth,^(Q) and his face was shining like the sun at full strength.^(R)

¹⁷ When I saw him, I fell at his feet like a dead man.^(S) He laid his right hand on me and said, “Don’t be afraid. I am the First and the Last,^{(T) 18} and the Living One.^(U) I was dead, but look—I am alive forever and ever,^(V) and I hold the keys^(W) of death and Hades.