Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
For the Director: On the Gittith. By Asaph.
Celebrating and Remembering God
81 Sing joyfully to God, our strength.
Raise a shout to the God of Jacob.
2 Sing a song and play the tambourine,
the pleasant-sounding lyre along with the harp.
3 Blow the ram’s horn when there is a New Moon,
when there is a full moon,
on our festival day,
4 because it is a statute in Israel,
an ordinance by the God of Jacob,
5 a decree that he prescribed for Joseph
when he went throughout the land of Egypt,
speaking a language I did not recognize.[a]
6 I removed the burden from your[b] shoulder;
your[c] hands were freed of the burdensome basket.[d]
7 In a time of need you called out and I delivered you;
I answered you from the dark thundercloud;
I tested you at the waters of Meribah.
8 Listen, My people and I will warn you.
Israel, if only you would obey me!
9 You must neither have a foreign god over you
or worship a strange god.
10 I am the Lord your God,
who brought you out of the land of Egypt,
open your mouth that I may fill it.
12 The Lord told Moses, 13 “You are to tell the Israelis: ‘You are to certainly observe my Sabbaths because it’s a sign between me and you from generation to generation, so you may know that I am the Lord who sanctifies you. 14 You are to observe the Sabbath, because it’s holy for you. Whoever profanes it is certainly to die; indeed, whoever does work on it is to be cut off from among his people. 15 Work may be done for six days, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of complete rest, holy to the Lord. Whoever does work on the Sabbath is certainly to die. 16 The Israelis are to keep the Sabbath to make the Sabbath observance a perpetual covenant from generation to generation. 17 It is a sign forever between me and the Israelis, because the Lord made the heavens and the earth in six days, but on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed.’”
18 When he finished speaking with Moses[a] on Mount Sinai, he gave him[b] the two Tablets of the Testimony, tablets of stone written by the finger of God.
Paul Appeals to the Emperor
25 Three days after Festus had arrived in the province, he went up from Caesarea to Jerusalem. 2 The high priests and Jewish leaders informed him of their charges against Paul, urging 3 and asking Festus[a] to have Paul[b] brought to Jerusalem as a favor. They were laying an ambush to kill him on the road.
4 Festus replied that Paul was being kept in custody at Caesarea and that he himself would be going there soon. 5 “Therefore,” he said, “have your authorities come down with me and present their charges against him there, if there is anything wrong with the man.”
6 Festus[c] stayed with them no more than eight or ten days and then went down to Caesarea. The next day, he sat on the judge’s seat and ordered Paul brought in. 7 When Paul[d] arrived, the Jewish leaders[e] who had come down from Jerusalem surrounded him and began bringing a number of serious charges against him that they couldn’t prove. 8 Paul said in his defense, “I have done nothing wrong against the Law of the Jews, or of the Temple, or of the emperor.”
9 Then Festus, wanting to do the Jewish leaders[f] a favor, asked Paul, “Are you willing to go up to Jerusalem to be tried there before me on these charges?”
10 But Paul said, “I am standing before the emperor’s judgment seat where I ought to be tried. I haven’t done anything wrong to the Jewish leaders,[g] as you know very well. 11 If I’m guilty and have done something that deserves death, I’m willing to die. But if there is nothing to their charges against me, no one can hand me over to them as a favor. I appeal to the emperor!”
12 Festus talked it over with the council and then answered, “To the emperor you have appealed; to the emperor you will go!”
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