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July 3, 2021

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Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Daily Bible readings that follow the church liturgical year, with sequential stories told across multiple weeks.

Duration: 1245 days

Psalm 48

Psalm 48^[a]

Thanksgiving for the Deliverance of God’s People

¹A psalm of the sons of Korah.^[b] A song.

²Great is the Lord and worthy of high praise
    in the city of our God.
His holy mountain,^[c] ³towering in its beauty,
    is the joy of the entire earth.
Mount Zion, the true heights of the north,^[d]
    is the city of the great King.
⁴God is in her citadels
    and has revealed himself as her fortress.^[e]
⁵^[f]For the kings conspired together
    and came onward in unison.
⁶As soon as they beheld her, they were astounded;
    filled with panic, they fled.
⁷They were seized with trembling,
    with pains like those of a woman in labor,
⁸as though a wind from the east^[g]
    were breaking up the ships of Tarshish.
⁹What we had heard,
    we have now beheld for ourselves^[h]
    in the city of the Lord of hosts,
in the city of our God
    that he established to endure forever. Selah
¹⁰O God, as we stand in the midst of your temple,
    we will meditate on your kindness.^[i]
¹¹Like your name,^[j] O God,
    your praise extends to the ends of the earth.
Your right hand is filled with righteousness;
¹²    let Mount Zion rejoice.
Let the towns of Judah exult
    in your saving judgments.^[k]
¹³^[l]Walk around Zion; pass throughout her;
    count the number of her towers.
¹⁴Take careful note of her ramparts,
    walk through her citadels,
so that you may recount for future generations
¹⁵    that such is God;
our God forever and ever,
    he will be our guide eternally.^[m]

Footnotes

Psalm 48:1 With overflowing joy, this psalm sings of God and the holy city. All the glory of Jerusalem stems from the Lord who dwells, enveloped in mystery, in the temple on the hill in the heart of the city. From there he protects his people; he has even delivered this city from the assaults of the enemy. It is secure from the north (v. 3), east (v. 8), south (v. 11), and west (v. 14). There Israel encounters its God and gives him thanks. And from this dwelling of God, salvation, joy, and praise extend to all peoples and the whole universe. It is a grandiose vision; how can one not love this land of God in the midst of human beings!
To Christians, Zion stands for the Church of Jesus, soul of the world and sign of salvation for humankind, until all are gathered together into the kingdom of God, the heavenly Jerusalem (see Heb 12:22; Rev 14:1; 21:10-26).
Psalm 48:1 Sons of Korah: see note on Ps 42:1.
Psalm 48:2 Holy mountain: see note on Ps 2:6.
Psalm 48:3 The true heights of the north: Zaphon. Mount Zaphon was in the far north, the home of the Canaanite storm-god Baal. The psalmist declares that, although Zion is only a small hill, it is higher than any other mountain because it is the home of the only true God (see Ps 68:16f).
Psalm 48:4 The psalmist shows that Zion is impregnable not because of her walls but because of the fact that the Lord is present there as the strength of his people (see Pss 18:3; 122:7).
Psalm 48:5 In recalling past defeats of Israel’s enemies who attacked Zion, the psalmist may have in mind the victory over the Moab-Ammon coalition at the time of Jehoshaphat (see 2 Chr 20:22-28) or over the Assyrians at the time of Hezekiah (see 2 Ki 19:35f).
Psalm 48:8 East: geographical allusion mentioned in the introduction. Ships of Tarshish: i.e., the most powerful ships, built for long voyages—like those that went as far as Tarshish, perhaps Tartessus in southern Spain (see 1 Ki 10:22).
Psalm 48:9 Heard . . . beheld for ourselves: the psalmist may be referring to the glorious things that new pilgrims had heard about the beauty and awesomeness of the holy city and now beheld with their own eyes. He may also be referring to the things the pilgrims had heard from their ancestors about the security of the temple at Jerusalem (see Pss 44:2; 78:3) and now beheld for themselves. They became even more convinced of God’s presence in Jerusalem ordering the world’s events and working out the redemption of his people. The Lord of hosts: see note on Ps 24:10.
Psalm 48:10 The godly meditate on God’s mighty acts, taking comfort in, rejoicing in, and gratefully making offerings to the revelation of the perfections of the Lord. Kindness: see note on Ps 6:5.
Psalm 48:11 Name: see note on Ps 5:12. Right hand: the reaction of praise is a positive response by the godly in contrast to the dread that befell the nations. The godly praise God from one end of the earth to another, declaring his righteousness, i.e., the Lord’s victories and glorious work whose benefits his people share. That work is symbolized by his “right hand,” which includes power, justice, righteousness, and love. As alluded to in the introduction to this psalm, “right hand” also has a connotation of “south” in Hebrew.
Psalm 48:12 Judgments: God’s actions in human affairs (see Ps 105:7; Isa 26:9), especially his victories over Israel’s enemies (see Pss 98:8; 105:5; Deut 33:21).
Psalm 48:13 The psalmist calls upon the people to walk around Jerusalem and see its great defenses (towers, ramparts, citadels). The physical defense system of Jerusalem may have been a symbol of a far greater strength—the protection of the Lord himself. Furthermore, inasmuch as the Lord was present in the temple at Jerusalem, defense of the city was an expression of loyalty to him.
Psalm 48:15 After seeing the well-nigh impregnable fortifications of Jerusalem, the people will feel more secure and better understand the greatness of the Lord, who protects his city and his people in accord with his promises; they will then recount it to their children and grandchildren. The Lord is their God forever, the great Shepherd-King (see note on Ps 23), who will continue to guide them eternally (literally, “till death”).

2 Samuel 3:31-38

³¹David Mourns Abner. Then David said to Joab and all the people who were with him: “Tear off your clothes, put on sackcloth, and mourn over Abner.” King David himself walked behind the bier. ³²After they buried Abner at Hebron, the king wept aloud at the grave of Abner, and all the people also wept. ³³Then the king sang this lament for Abner:

“Why should Abner have died
    the way a lawless brute dies?
³⁴Your hands were not bound,
    your feet were not fettered
As one falls at the hands of the wicked,
    you too have fallen.”

And all the people continued to weep for him.

³⁵After that, the people tried to persuade David to eat something while it was still day, but David swore: “May God deal with me severely, and even more terribly, if I eat bread or anything else prior to sunset.” ³⁶All the people took note of his pledge with approval, just as everything that the king did truly pleased them. ³⁷Therefore, on that day the people and all Israel were fully convinced that the king had no part in the killing of Abner, the son of Ner.

³⁸Then the king said to his servants: “You surely must realize that a prince and a great warrior has fallen this day in Israel.

Matthew 8:18-22

¹⁸The Cost of Following Jesus.^[a] When Jesus saw the great crowds around him, he gave orders to cross to the other side of the lake. ¹⁹A scribe approached him and said, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.” ²⁰Jesus told him, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man^[b] has nowhere to lay his head.” ²¹Another man, one of the disciples, said, “Lord, allow me to go first and bury my father.” ²²Jesus answered him, “Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead.”

Footnotes

Matthew 8:18 Jesus has subordinated family ties to the needs of his mission of salvation and requires the same sacrifice of those called to share that mission, while other members of the family can perform the deeds of filial piety. These are “dead” only in the sense that they have not received the same call to separate themselves from family responsibility in order to preach the Gospel of the kingdom. They can nonetheless be his disciples in another sense.
Hence, following Jesus means Christians should be ready to make whatever sacrifice he asks of them. In the final analysis, they are followers of Christ, people who believe in him. They received faith in Christ at Baptism and are bound to serve him. By recourse to frequent prayer and true friendship with the Lord, they should strive to discover what Jesus asks of them in their service of him.
Matthew 8:20 Son of Man: the most common and enigmatic title of Christ used in the Gospels (81 times) and in Acts 7:56—frequently by Christ himself. It was well suited to his purpose of both veiling and revealing his person and mission. On the one hand, it meant simply “man” (see Ezek 2:1) and emphasized the lowliness of the human condition (Mt 8:20; 11:19; 20:28), especially in Christ’s humiliation and death (Mt 17:22). On the other hand, it expressed the triumph of Christ’s Resurrection (Mt 17:9), his return to glory (Mt 24:30; Dan 7:13), and his Second Coming as judge of the world (Mt 25:31).
Christ made use of this title at his trial before the Sanhedrin (Mt 26:64) when he prophesied that he would be vindicated and be seated in future glory at the right hand of God not merely as man but as Lord (see Dan 7:13; Mk 14:62).
This title was employed by Jewish apocalyptic literature (1 Enoch, 2 Ezra, 2 Baruch) to describe a unique religious personage endowed with extraordinary spiritual power who would receive the kingdom from God at the end of the ages. Early Christians revered this title as a reminder of Christ’s twofold destiny of humiliation and joy, which was also their own (Mt 24:30f).

New Catholic Bible (NCB)

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Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Psalm 48[a]

Thanksgiving for the Deliverance of God’s People

Footnotes

Footnotes

Psalm 48^[a]