Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
Psalm 48
A song. A psalm of the Korahites.
48 In the city belonging to our God,
the Lord is great and so worthy of praise!
His holy mountain 2 is a beautiful summit,
the joy of the whole world.
Mount Zion, in the far north,
is the city of the great king.
3 God is in its fortifications,
revealing himself as a place of safety.
4 Look: the kings assembled themselves,
advancing all together—
5 when they saw it, they were stunned;
they panicked and ran away frightened.
6 Trembling took hold of them right there—
like a woman giving birth,
7 or like the east wind when it smashes
the ships of Tarshish.
8 Just like we had heard,
now we’ve seen it for ourselves
in the city of the Lord of heavenly forces,
in the city of our God.
May God make it secure forever! Selah
9 We dwell on your faithful love, God,
in your temple.
10 Your praise, God, just like your reputation,
extends to the far corners of the earth.
Your strong hand is filled with righteousness.
11 Let Mount Zion be glad;
let the towns of Judah rejoice
because of your acts of justice!
12 Walk around Zion;
go all the way around it;
count its towers.
13 Examine its defenses closely;
tour its fortifications
so that you may tell future generations:
14 “This is God,
our God, forever and always!
He is the one who will lead us
even to the very end.”[a]
31 Then David ordered Joab and all the troops who were with him, “Tear your clothes and put on funeral clothes! Mourn for Abner!” King David himself walked behind the body. 32 They buried Abner in Hebron. The king wept loudly at Abner’s grave. All the troops cried too. 33 Then the king sang this funeral song[a] for Abner:
“Should Abner have died like a fool dies?
34 Your hands weren’t bound,
your feet weren’t chained,
but you have fallen
like someone falls before the wicked.”
Then the troops cried over Abner again.
35 Then all the soldiers came to urge David to eat something while it was still day, but David swore, “May God deal harshly with me and worse still if I eat bread or anything else before the sun goes down.” 36 All the troops took notice of this and were pleased by it. Indeed, everything that the king did pleased them. 37 So on that day all the troops and all Israel knew that it wasn’t the king’s idea to kill Abner, Ner’s son.
38 The king told his soldiers, “Don’t you know that a prince and a great man in Israel has fallen today?
Discussions about following
18 Now when Jesus saw the crowd, he ordered his disciples to go over to the other side of the lake. 19 A legal expert came and said to him, “Teacher, I’ll follow you wherever you go.”
20 Jesus replied, “Foxes have dens, and the birds in the sky have nests, but the Human One[a] has no place to lay his head.”
21 Another man, one of his disciples, said to him, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.”
22 But Jesus said to him, “Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead.”
Copyright © 2011 by Common English Bible