Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
The Glory of God in Zion
A Song. A Psalm of the sons of Korah.
48 Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised
In the (A)city of our God,
In His holy mountain.
2 (B)Beautiful in [a]elevation,
The joy of the whole earth,
Is Mount Zion on the sides of the north,
The city of the great King.
3 God is in her palaces;
He is known as her refuge.
4 For behold, (C)the kings assembled,
They passed by together.
5 They saw it, and so they marveled;
They were troubled, they hastened away.
6 Fear (D)took hold of them there,
And pain, as of a woman in birth pangs,
7 As when You break the (E)ships of Tarshish
With an east wind.
8 As we have heard,
So we have seen
In the city of the Lord of hosts,
In the city of our God:
God will (F)establish it forever. Selah
David’s Mourning for Abner
31 Then David said to Joab and to all the people who were with him, (A)“Tear your clothes, (B)gird yourselves with sackcloth, and mourn for Abner.” And King David followed the coffin. 32 So they buried Abner in Hebron; and the king lifted up his voice and wept at the grave of Abner, and all the people wept. 33 And the king sang a lament over Abner and said:
“Should Abner die as a (C)fool dies?
34 Your hands were not bound
Nor your feet put into fetters;
As a man falls before wicked men, so you fell.”
Then all the people wept over him again.
35 And when all the people came (D)to persuade David to eat food while it was still day, David took an oath, saying, (E)“God do so to me, and more also, if I taste bread or anything else (F)till the sun goes down!” 36 Now all the people took note of it, and it pleased them, since whatever the king did pleased all the people. 37 For all the people and all Israel understood that day that it had not been the king’s intent to kill Abner the son of Ner. 38 Then the king said to his servants, “Do you not know that a prince and a great man has fallen this day in Israel?
The Cost of Discipleship(A)
18 And when Jesus saw great multitudes about Him, He gave a command to depart to the other side. 19 (B)Then a certain scribe came and said to Him, “Teacher, I will follow You wherever You go.”
20 And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.”
21 (C)Then another of His disciples said to Him, “Lord, (D)let me first go and bury my father.”
22 But Jesus said to him, “Follow Me, and let the dead bury their own dead.”
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.