Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
Psalm 50[a]
The Worship Acceptable to God
1 A psalm of Asaph.[b]
[c]The Lord, the God of gods,[d]
has spoken and summoned the earth
from the rising of the sun to its setting.
2 From Zion, perfect in beauty,
God shines forth.
3 Our God is coming, and he will not be silent;
he is preceded by a devouring fire,
and a raging tempest surrounds him.[e]
4 He summons the heavens above
and the earth to judge his people:
5 “Gather before me my faithful servants
who made a covenant with me by sacrifice.”[f]
6 The heavens proclaim his saving justice,
for God himself is the judge.[g] Selah
7 [h]“Listen, my people, and I will speak.
O Israel, I will testify against you.
I am God, your God.
8 I do not rebuke you for your sacrifices,
for your burnt offerings are constantly before me.
22 “Remember this, you who forget God,[a]
lest I tear you to pieces
and there be no one to rescue you.
23 He who offers a sacrifice of thanksgiving honors me;
to him who follows my way
I will show the salvation of God.”
18 The land was set ablaze
by the wrath of the Lord of hosts,
and the people became like fuel for the fire;
no one spared his brother.
19 They gorged on the right but were still hungry;
they devoured on the left but were not satisfied;
many ate the flesh of their own offspring.
20 Manasseh devoured Ephraim,
and Ephraim devoured Manasseh;
together they turned against Judah.
21 Yet after all this, his anger has not abated
and his hand is still outstretched.
Chapter 10
Social Injustice
1 Woe to those who enact unjust laws
and enforce oppressive statutes,
2 thereby depriving the needy of justice,
and making it impossible for the poorest of my people
to have their rights upheld,
as they plunder the widow
and make the orphans their prey.
3 What will you do on the day of punishment
when disaster befalls you from afar?
To whom will you flee for help,
and where will you leave your riches,
4 so that you can avoid cowering among the captives
or falling among the slain?
Yet after all this, his wrath has not abated;
his hand is still outstretched.
Chapter 7
Stephen’s Discourse. 1 Then the high priest asked him, “Are these things true?” 2 He replied, “Brethren and fathers, listen to me. The God of glory appeared to our ancestor Abraham while he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran, 3 and said to him, ‘Leave your country and your relatives and go to the land that I will show you.’
4 “Therefore, he departed from the land of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran. And after his father died, God led him to the land where you now dwell. 5 He did not give him any of this land as a heritage, not even as little as a foot, but he promised to give it to him as his possession, and to his descendants after him, even though he was childless.
6 “This is what God said: ‘His descendants will reside in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and oppressed for four hundred years. 7 But I will bring judgment on the nation that enslaved them,’ God said, ‘and after that they will come out and worship me in this place.’ 8 Then he gave him the covenant of circumcision. And so, when he became the father of Isaac, he circumcised him on the eighth day, as Isaac did for Jacob, and Jacob did for the twelve patriarchs.
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