Search Me, O God, and Know My Heart

To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David.

God Hears Israel's Groaning

^23 (A)During those many days the king of Egypt died, and the people of Israel ^(B)groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help. ^(C)Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God. ²⁴ And ^(D)God heard their groaning, and God ^(E)remembered his covenant with ^(F)Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. ²⁵ God ^(G)saw the people of Israel—and God ^(H)knew.

The Burning Bush

3 Now Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro, the priest of Midian, and he led his flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the ^(I)mountain of God. ^2 (J)And ^(K)the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. He looked, and behold, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed. ³ And Moses said, “I will turn aside to see this great sight, why the bush is not burned.” ⁴ When the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, ^(L)God called to him ^(M)out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.” ⁵ Then he said, “Do not come near; ^(N)take your sandals off your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” ⁶ And he said, ^(O)“I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for ^(P)he was afraid to look at God.

⁷ Then the Lord said, ^(Q)“I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their ^(R)taskmasters. I know their sufferings, ⁸ and ^(S)I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and ^(T)to bring them up out of that land to a ^(U)good and broad land, a land ^(V)flowing with milk and honey, to the place of ^(W)the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. ⁹ And now, behold, ^(X)the cry of the people of Israel has come to me, and I have also seen the ^(Y)oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them. ^10 (Z)Come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.” ¹¹ But Moses said to God, ^(AA)“Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?” ¹² He said, ^(AB)“But I will be with you, and this shall be the sign for you, that I have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, ^(AC)you shall serve God on this mountain.”

The Parable of the Wedding Feast

⁷ Now he told a parable to those who were invited, when he noticed ^(A)how they chose the places of honor, saying to them, ⁸ “When you are invited by someone to a wedding feast, do not sit down in a place of honor, lest someone more distinguished than you be invited by him, ⁹ and he who invited you both will come and say to you, ‘Give your place to this person,’ and then you will begin with shame to take the lowest place. ¹⁰ But when you are invited, go and sit in the lowest place, ^(B)so that when your host comes he may say to you, ‘Friend, move up higher.’ Then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at table with you. ¹¹ For ^(C)everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

The Parable of the Great Banquet

¹² He said also to the man who had invited him, “When you give ^(D)a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers^[a] or your relatives or rich neighbors, ^(E)lest they also invite you in return and you be repaid. ¹³ But when you give a feast, ^(F)invite ^(G)the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, ¹⁴ and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. For you will be repaid ^(H)at ^(I)the resurrection of the just.”

¹⁵ When one of those who reclined at table with him heard these things, he said to him, ^(J)“Blessed is everyone who will ^(K)eat bread in the kingdom of God!”