Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

This is a song that David wrote when he ran away from his son, Absalom.^[a]

A morning song

Solomon prays in the temple

²² Then Solomon stood in front of the Lord's altar. All the Israelite people who had come together there could see him. He lifted up his hands towards the sky.^{[a] 23} He prayed,

‘Lord, Israel's God, there is no God like you, either in heaven above or down here on the earth. You continue to do what you have promised to do for your people. You faithfully love those who want to serve you. ²⁴ You have done what you promised to do for your servant, my father David. You have used your power to finish today everything that you said you would do. ²⁵ Now Lord, Israel's God, there is another promise that you spoke to my father David. I pray that you will do that too. You said to David, “There will always be one of your descendants to rule Israel as my chosen king. But for this to happen, your sons must be careful to serve me well, as you have done.” ²⁶ So now, God of Israel, please cause what you promised to my father, your servant David, to happen.

²⁷ But surely God, you do not live on the earth! The whole sky, or even heaven itself, is too small to contain you! So how can you live in this temple that I have built? ²⁸ But Lord, my God, please listen to my prayer, as I ask you for help. Please answer me, your servant, because I need your help today. ²⁹ Watch over this temple and take care of it day and night. This is the place about which you said, “People will give honour to my name there.” Please answer my prayers when I turn towards this place to pray to you. ³⁰ Hear the prayers of me, your servant, and the prayers of your people, the Israelites. Please answer us when we turn towards this place and we pray to you. Hear us from heaven, the place where you live. And when we pray, forgive us for our sins.

⁹ So be careful! People will be against you. They will take you to stand in front of their leaders. They will punish you with whips in their meeting places. They will take you to stand in front of kings and rulers. This will happen because you are my disciples. You will tell them the good news about me. ¹⁰ Yes, you must first tell the good news about me to people in every country. ¹¹ When people take you to their leaders to show that you have done bad things, do not be afraid. Do not worry about what you should say. You should say the words that God gives you at that time. You will not be speaking your own words. Those words will come from the Holy Spirit.

¹² At that time, a man will let people kill his own brother. A father will let people kill his own child. Children will be against their parents. They will even ask people to kill their parents. ¹³ All people will hate you because you are my disciples. But God will save the person who remains strong until the end.

¹⁴ There will be a time when you will see in the temple a disgusting thing that causes trouble. You will see it in a place where it should not be. (When you read this, you must understand what it means.) At that time, people in Judea must run away to the hills to hide.^{[a] 15} A person who is on the roof of his house must not go down into the house.^[b] He must not stop to get anything from his home. ¹⁶ A person who is outside in his field must not go back to his home. He must not return even to fetch his coat.

¹⁷ That will be a bad time for women who are soon to have a baby. It will also be a bad time for those women who have little babies. ¹⁸ You must pray to God that this time of trouble will not happen in winter. ¹⁹ Very bad troubles will happen to people at that time and cause them a lot of pain. Nothing as bad has ever happened before, since God created the world. Nothing as bad will ever happen again. ²⁰ The Lord God will cause those days of very bad trouble to come to an end. If he did not do that, there would be nobody still alive. But God will cause those days to be not too many. He will do that to help the people that he has chosen. ²¹ At that time, someone may say to you, “Look, here is the Messiah!” Or they may say, “Look, he is there!” If they say that, do not believe them. ²² Some people will even say, “I am the Messiah.” Other people will say, “I am a prophet from God.” But their words will be false. They will do strange and powerful things for people to see. If possible, they would even deceive the people that God has chosen. ²³ So watch out! I have told you about all these things before they happen.