Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
Wishing to Be in the Temple
For the director of music. On the gittith. A psalm of the sons of Korah.
84 Lord All-Powerful,
how lovely is your Temple!
2 I want more than anything
to be in the courtyards of the Lord’s Temple.
My whole being wants
to be with the living God.
3 The sparrows have found a home,
and the swallows have nests.
They raise their young near your altars,
Lord All-Powerful, my King and my God.
4 Happy are the people who live at your Temple;
they are always praising you. Selah
5 Happy are those whose strength comes from you,
who want to travel to Jerusalem.
6 As they pass through the Valley of Baca,
they make it like a spring.
The autumn rains fill it with pools of water.
7 The people get stronger as they go,
and everyone meets with God in Jerusalem.
8 Lord God All-Powerful, hear my prayer;
God of Jacob, listen to me. Selah
9 God, look at our shield;
be kind to your appointed king.
10 One day in the courtyards of your Temple is better
than a thousand days anywhere else.
I would rather be a doorkeeper in the Temple of my God
than live in the homes of the wicked.
11 The Lord God is like a sun and shield;
the Lord gives us kindness and honor.
He does not hold back anything good
from those whose lives are innocent.
12 Lord All-Powerful,
happy are the people who trust you!
Hezekiah Purifies the Temple
29 Hezekiah was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he ruled twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Abijah daughter of Zechariah. 2 Hezekiah did what the Lord said was right, just as his ancestor David had done.
3 Hezekiah opened the doors of the Temple of the Lord and repaired them in the first month of the first year he was king. 4 Hezekiah brought in the priests and Levites and gathered them in the courtyard on the east side of the Temple. 5 Hezekiah said, “Listen to me, Levites. Make yourselves ready for the Lord’s service, and make holy the Temple of the Lord, the God of your ancestors. Remove from the Temple everything that makes it impure. 6 Our ancestors were unfaithful to God and did what the Lord said was wrong. They left the Lord and stopped worshiping at the Temple where he lives. They rejected him. 7 They shut the doors of the porch of the Temple, and they let the fire go out in the lamps. They stopped burning incense and offering burnt offerings in the holy place to the God of Israel. 8 So the Lord became very angry with the people of Judah and Jerusalem, and he punished them. Other people are frightened and shocked by what he did to them. So they insult the people of Judah. You know these things are true. 9 That is why our ancestors were killed in battle and our sons, daughters, and wives were taken captive. 10 Now I, Hezekiah, have decided to make an agreement with the Lord, the God of Israel, so he will not be angry with us anymore. 11 My sons, don’t waste any more time. The Lord chose you to stand before him, to serve him, to be his servants, and to burn incense to him.”
16 When the priests went into the Temple of the Lord to purify it, they took out all the unclean things they found in the Temple of the Lord and put them in the Temple courtyard. Then the Levites took these things out to the Kidron Valley. 17 Beginning on the first day of the first month, they made the Temple holy for the Lord’s service. On the eighth day of the month, they came to the porch of the Temple, and for eight more days they made the Temple of the Lord holy. So they finished on the sixteenth day of the first month.
18 Then they went to King Hezekiah and said, “We have purified the entire Temple of the Lord, the altar for burnt offerings and its utensils, and the table for the holy bread and all its utensils. 19 When Ahaz was king, he was unfaithful to God and removed some things from the Temple. But we have put them back and made them holy for the Lord. They are now in front of the Lord’s altar.”
Christ’s Death Takes Away Sins
23 So the copies of the real things in heaven had to be made clean by animal sacrifices. But the real things in heaven need much better sacrifices. 24 Christ did not go into the Most Holy Place made by humans, which is only a copy of the real one. He went into heaven itself and is there now before God to help us. 25 The high priest enters the Most Holy Place once every year with blood that is not his own. But Christ did not offer himself many times. 26 Then he would have had to suffer many times since the world was made. But Christ came only once and for all time at just the right time to take away all sin by sacrificing himself. 27 Just as everyone must die once and then be judged, 28 so Christ was offered as a sacrifice one time to take away the sins of many people. And he will come a second time, not to offer himself for sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.
The Holy Bible, New Century Version®. Copyright © 2005 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.