Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Psalm 11

Faith, Not Flight

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For the choir director. By David.

The Fear of the Fainthearted

David’s Answer

¹³ King Solomon drafted a labor force from all over Israel. It numbered thirty thousand men. ¹⁴ He sent ten thousand men per month to Lebanon in shifts. They would spend one month in Lebanon. Then for two months they would be at home. Adoniram was in charge of this forced labor. ¹⁵ Solomon had seventy thousand men to transport materials and eighty thousand men to quarry stones in the mountains, ¹⁶ not counting the officials who were overseeing the work for Solomon. There were thirty-three hundred men supervising the people who were doing the work. ¹⁷ The king gave a command, and they quarried large, high-quality stones to serve as a foundation for the temple building, which was made of trimmed stones. ¹⁸ Solomon’s builders and Hiram’s builders and the men from Gebal^[a] cut and prepared the wood and stones to construct the temple building.^[b]

²¹ and by submitting to one another in reverence for Christ.

Husbands and Wives

²² Wives, submit to your own husbands as to the Lord. ²³ For the husband is the head of the wife, just as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he himself is the Savior. ²⁴ Moreover, as the church submits to Christ, so also wives are to submit to their husbands in everything.

²⁵ Husbands, love your wives, in the same way as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her ²⁶ to make her holy, by cleansing her with the washing of water in connection with the Word. ²⁷ He did this so that he could present her to himself as a glorious church, having no stain or wrinkle or any such thing, but so that she would be holy and blameless. ²⁸ In the same way, husbands have an obligation to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. ²⁹ To be sure, no one has ever hated his own body, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, ³⁰ because we are members of his body, of his flesh and of his bones.^{[a] 31} “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two will be one flesh.”^{[b] 32} This is a great mystery, but I am talking about Christ and the church. ³³ In any case, each one of you also is to love his wife as himself, and each wife is to respect her husband.

Parents and Children

6 Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. ² “Honor your father and mother,”^[c] which is the first commandment with a promise: ³ “that it may go well with you and that you may live a long life on the earth.”^{[d] 4} Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.

Slaves and Masters

⁵ Slaves, obey your human masters^[e] with respect and reverence, and with a sincere heart, just as you obey Christ. ⁶ Do this not just when they are watching, as if merely to please people, but as slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart. ⁷ Serve with eagerness, as for the Lord and not for people, ⁸ because you know that each person, whether slave or free, will receive back from the Lord whatever good he has done. ⁹ And masters, do the same for your slaves. Do not threaten them, because you know that the one who is both their Master and yours is in heaven, and with him there is no favoritism.