Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
Folly of the Godless, and the Restoration of Israel(A)
To the Chief Musician. Set to “Mahalath.” A [a]Contemplation of David.
53 The (B)fool has said in his heart,
“There is no God.”
They are corrupt, and have done abominable iniquity;
(C)There is none who does good.
2 God looks down from heaven upon the children of men,
To see if there are any who understand, who (D)seek God.
3 Every one of them has turned aside;
They have together become corrupt;
There is none who does good,
No, not one.
Saul Rejected as King
10 Now the word of the Lord came to Samuel, saying, 11 (A)“I greatly regret that I have set up Saul as king, for he has (B)turned back from following Me, (C)and has not performed My commandments.” And it (D)grieved Samuel, and he cried out to the Lord all night. 12 So when Samuel rose early in the morning to meet Saul, it was told Samuel, saying, “Saul went to (E)Carmel, and indeed, he set up a monument for himself; and he has gone on around, passed by, and gone down to Gilgal.” 13 Then Samuel went to Saul, and Saul said to him, (F)“Blessed are you of the Lord! I have performed the commandment of the Lord.”
14 But Samuel said, “What then is this bleating of the sheep in my ears, and the lowing of the oxen which I hear?”
15 And Saul said, “They have brought them from the Amalekites; (G)for the people spared the best of the sheep and the oxen, to sacrifice to the Lord your God; and the rest we have utterly destroyed.”
16 Then Samuel said to Saul, “Be quiet! And I will tell you what the Lord said to me last night.”
And he said to him, “Speak on.”
17 So Samuel said, (H)“When you were little in your own eyes, were you not head of the tribes of Israel? And did not the Lord anoint you king over Israel? 18 Now the Lord sent you on a mission, and said, ‘Go, and utterly destroy the sinners, the Amalekites, and fight against them until they are [a]consumed.’ 19 Why then did you not obey the voice of the Lord? Why did you swoop down on the [b]spoil, and do evil in the sight of the Lord?”
20 And Saul said to Samuel, (I)“But I have obeyed the voice of the Lord, and gone on the mission on which the Lord sent me, and brought back Agag king of Amalek; I have utterly destroyed the Amalekites. 21 (J)But the people took of the plunder, sheep and oxen, the best of the things which should have been utterly destroyed, to sacrifice to the Lord your God in Gilgal.”
22 So Samuel said:
(K)“Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices,
As in obeying the voice of the Lord?
Behold, (L)to obey is better than sacrifice,
And to heed than the fat of rams.
23 For rebellion is as the sin of [c]witchcraft,
And stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry.
Because you have rejected the word of the Lord,
(M)He also has rejected you from being king.”
The Glory of the New Jerusalem
22 (A)But I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. 23 (B)The city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine [a]in it, for the [b]glory of God illuminated it. The Lamb is its light. 24 (C)And the nations [c]of those who are saved shall walk in its light, and the kings of the earth bring their glory and honor [d]into it. 25 (D)Its gates shall not be shut at all by day (E)(there shall be no night there). 26 (F)And they shall bring the glory and the honor of the nations into [e]it. 27 But (G)there shall by no means enter it anything [f]that defiles, or causes an abomination or a lie, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s (H)Book of Life.
The River of Life
22 And he showed me (I)a [g]pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb. 2 (J)In the middle of its street, and on either side of the river, was (K)the tree of life, which bore twelve fruits, each tree yielding its fruit every month. The leaves of the tree were (L)for the healing of the nations. 3 And (M)there shall be no more curse, (N)but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and His (O)servants shall serve Him. 4 (P)They shall see His face, and (Q)His name shall be on their foreheads. 5 (R)There shall be no night there: They need no lamp nor (S)light of the sun, for (T)the Lord God gives them light. (U)And they shall reign forever and ever.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.