Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
The Glory of God in Zion
A Song. A Psalm of the sons of Korah.
48 Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised
In the (A)city of our God,
In His holy mountain.
2 (B)Beautiful in [a]elevation,
The joy of the whole earth,
Is Mount Zion on the sides of the north,
The city of the great King.
3 God is in her palaces;
He is known as her refuge.
4 For behold, (C)the kings assembled,
They passed by together.
5 They saw it, and so they marveled;
They were troubled, they hastened away.
6 Fear (D)took hold of them there,
And pain, as of a woman in birth pangs,
7 As when You break the (E)ships of Tarshish
With an east wind.
8 As we have heard,
So we have seen
In the city of the Lord of hosts,
In the city of our God:
God will (F)establish it forever. Selah
The Land Refreshed(A)
18 Then the Lord will (B)be zealous for His land,
And pity His people.
19 The Lord will answer and say to His people,
“Behold, I will send you (C)grain and new wine and oil,
And you will be satisfied by them;
I will no longer make you a reproach among the nations.
20 “But (D)I will remove far from you (E)the northern army,
And will drive him away into a barren and desolate land,
With his face toward the eastern sea
And his back (F)toward the western sea;
His stench will come up,
And his foul odor will rise,
Because he has done [a]monstrous things.”
21 Fear not, O land;
Be glad and rejoice,
For the Lord has done [b]marvelous things!
22 Do not be afraid, you beasts of the field;
For (G)the open pastures are springing up,
And the tree bears its fruit;
The fig tree and the vine yield their strength.
23 Be glad then, you children of Zion,
And (H)rejoice in the Lord your God;
For He has given you the [c]former rain faithfully,
And He (I)will cause the rain to come down for you—
The former rain,
And the latter rain in the first month.
24 The threshing floors shall be full of wheat,
And the vats shall overflow with new wine and oil.
25 “So I will restore to you the years (J)that the swarming [d]locust has eaten,
The crawling locust,
The consuming locust,
And the chewing locust,
My great army which I sent among you.
26 You shall (K)eat in plenty and be satisfied,
And praise the name of the Lord your God,
Who has dealt wondrously with you;
And My people shall never be put to (L)shame.
27 Then you shall know that I am (M)in the midst of Israel:
(N)I am the Lord your God
And there is no other.
My people shall never be put to shame.
God’s Spirit Poured Out
Christ Crucified
2 And I, brethren, when I came to you, did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the [a]testimony of God. 2 For I determined not to know anything among you (A)except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. 3 (B)I was with you (C)in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling. 4 And my speech and my preaching (D)were not with persuasive words of [b]human wisdom, (E)but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5 that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the (F)power of God.
Spiritual Wisdom
6 However, we speak wisdom among those who are mature, yet not the wisdom of this age, nor of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. 7 But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God [c]ordained before the ages for our glory, 8 which none of the rulers of this age knew; for (G)had they known, they would not have (H)crucified the Lord of glory.
9 But as it is written:
(I)“Eye has not seen, nor ear heard,
Nor have entered into the heart of man
The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.”
10 But (J)God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. 11 For what man knows the things of a man except the (K)spirit of the man which is in him? (L)Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.