Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
Psalm 100
A song of thanks.
Psalm 100 is one of the best known and most loved psalms. This hymn of thanksgiving invites the whole world to come to God’s temple in Jerusalem and enter its sacred spaces with unbridled joy and hearts filled with gratitude. And why should we? The psalm provides the answer. Not only has God created us—a gracious act of love in and of itself—but He has made us His own people. He has chosen us and loved us. As with Psalm 23, God’s people are cast in the role as sheep living well in His pasture.
The psalm ends on a high note of confidence and hope. At all times—but perhaps more in times of difficulty—we need to be reminded of what is true. Regardless of what seems to be happening around us, the Eternal is good; His love and faithfulness will endure forever.
1 Raise your voices;
make a beautiful noise to the Eternal, all the earth.
2 Serve the Eternal gladly;
enter into His presence singing songs of joy!
3 Know this: the Eternal One Himself is the True God.
He is the One who made us;
we have not made ourselves;
we are His people, like sheep grazing in His fields.
4 Go through His gates, giving thanks;
walk through His courts, giving praise.
Offer Him your gratitude and praise His holy name.
5 Because the Eternal is good,
His loyal love and mercy will never end,
and His truth will last throughout all generations.
18 Barely convinced, Moses went back to his father-in-law, Jethro.
Moses (to Jethro): Please let me leave now, so that I can go back to my Hebrew brothers and sisters in Egypt and find out if they are still alive.
Jethro: You may go now with my blessing and peace.
19 The Eternal spoke to Moses while he was still in Midian.
Eternal One: Go back to Egypt. I assure you, all the men who wanted to kill you are no longer alive.
20 Moses placed his wife and sons on a donkey, and he started on the long journey back to Egypt. As he walked, he carried God’s staff—his shepherd’s staff—with him.
Eternal One: 21 When you arrive in Egypt, I want you to pay Pharaoh a visit. Make sure you perform all the wonders that I have entrusted to your hand. But I am going to harden Pharaoh’s stony heart, so that he will not free the people. 22 Then I want you to give Pharaoh a message for Me. Tell him, “This is what the Eternal says: ‘Israel is My firstborn son. 23 I say to you, “Release My son, so that he may serve Me,” but in your stubbornness you refused to free him; therefore, I am going to kill your firstborn son.’”
3 So all of you who are holy partners in a heavenly calling, let’s turn our attention to Jesus, the Emissary of God and High Priest, who brought us the faith we profess; 2 and compare Him to Moses, who also brought words from God. Both of them were faithful to their missions, to the One who called them. 3 But we value Jesus more than Moses, in the same way that we value a builder more than the house he builds. 4 Every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God. 5 Moses brought healing and redemption to his people as a faithful servant in God’s house, and he was a witness to the things that would be spoken later. 6 But Jesus the Anointed was faithful as a Son of that house. (We become that house, if we’re able to hold on to the confident hope we have in God until the end.)
The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.