Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
Psalm 48
A song of the sons of Korah.
1 The Eternal is great and mighty, worthy of great praise
in the city of our True God, upon His holy mountain.
2 Situated high above, Mount Zion is beautiful to see,
the pleasure of the entire earth.
Mount Zion, in the north,[a]
is the city of the great King.
3 In her palaces, the True God
has revealed Himself as a mighty fortress.
4 Not long ago, enemy kings gathered together
and moved forward as one to attack the city.
5 When they saw Mount Zion, they were amazed;
amazement became fear, then panic. They fled for their lives.
6 They were overtaken by terror, trembling in anguish
like a woman in childbirth.
7 God, You shattered the ships of Tarshish
with the mighty east wind.
8 As we have heard stories of Your greatness,
now we have also seen it with our own eyes
right here, in the city of the Eternal, the Commander of heavenly armies.
Right here, in our God’s city,
the True God will preserve her forever.
[pause][b]
9 We have meditated upon Your loyal love, O God,
within Your holy temple.
10 Just as Your name reaches to the ends of the earth, O God,
so Your praise flows there too;
Your right hand holds justice.
11 So because of Your judgments,
may Mount Zion be delighted!
May the villages of Judah celebrate!
12 Explore Zion; make an accounting,
note all her towers;
13 Reflect upon her defenses;
stroll through her palaces
So that you can tell the coming generation all about her.
14 For so is God,
our True God, forever and ever;
He will be our guide till the end.
31 Then David gave an order to Joab and his followers.
David: Tear your clothes. Put on sackcloth, and let me see you mourn for Abner in front of the procession.
And King David himself walked in the procession behind the corpse. 32 They buried Abner at Hebron. At the graveside, David lifted his voice and wept for Abner; and the people wept with him.
33 The king sang a song of lament for Abner.
David: Why should Abner die a fool’s death?
34 Your hands were not bound;
your feet were not chained.
You have fallen
as one falls among the wicked.
And the people wept again over Abner’s grave.
This song reminds us that David may be the writer of many psalms, and that David is a great warrior, musician, poet, and soon, a great king. David is also a person of great contradiction—not perfect, by any means—but a man of oversized loves and passions who must generally have his heart in the right place, since we’re reminded again and again that God loves him. He is powerful, and people in his way do tend to have horrible things happen to them. But he respects the dead, and sometimes, as with Saul, grieves in ways that feel—all these centuries later—authentic.
35 After the ceremony, the people came to David and tried to convince him to eat something that day, but he turned them away because fasting until evening was part of the mourning ritual.
David: May the True God punish me severely if I taste bread or anything else before the sun sets.
36 The people noticed that he honored Abner by fasting, and they approved—as they approved of everything their king did. 37 So everyone believed it was not David’s intention, nor did he have any part in the murder of Abner, the son of Ner.
David (to his servants): 38 Don’t you know that today a prince, a great man, has fallen in Israel?
18 Jesus saw that a crowd had gathered around Him, and He gave orders to go to the other side of the sea. 19 A scribe came up to Him.
Scribe: Teacher, I will follow You wherever You go.
Jesus: 20 Foxes have dens in which to sleep, and the birds have nests. But the Son of Man has no place to lay His head.
Disciple: 21 Jesus, before I do the things You’ve asked me to do, I must first bury my father.
Jesus: 22 Follow Me! And let the dead bury their own dead.
The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.