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.
Scheduled Festivals
23 The Lord told Moses, 2 “Tell the Israelis that these are my festival times appointed by the Lord[a] that you are to declare as sacred assemblies: 3 Six days you may work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of rest, a sacred assembly. You are not to do any work. It’s a Sabbath to the Lord wherever you live.[b] 4 These are the Lord’s appointed festivals and sacred assemblies that you are to declare at their appointed time.
5 “The Lord’s Passover is to begin on the fourteenth day of the first month at twilight.[c] 6 On the fifteenth day of that month is the Festival of Unleavened Bread to the Lord. For seven days you are to eat unleavened bread. 7 On the first day that you hold the sacred assembly, you are to do no servile work. 8 Instead, you are to bring an offering made by fire to the Lord daily for seven days. On the seventh day, you are also to hold a sacred assembly during which you are to do no servile work.”
Nothing Can Separate Us from God’s Love
31 What, then, can we say about all of this? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 The one who did not spare his own Son, but offered him as a sacrifice[a] for all of us, surely will give us all things, along with his Son,[b] won’t he? 33 Who will accuse God’s elect? It is God who justifies! 34 Who is the one to condemn? It is the Messiah[c] Jesus who is interceding on our behalf. He died, and more importantly, has been raised and is seated at the right hand of God.
35 Who will separate us from the Messiah’s[d] love? Can trouble, distress, persecution, hunger, nakedness, danger, or a violent death[e] do this?[f] 36 As it is written,
“For your sake we are being put to death all day long.
We are thought of as sheep headed for slaughter.”[g]
37 In all these things we are triumphantly victorious due to the one who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor anything above, nor anything below, nor anything else in all creation can separate us from the love of God that is ours[h] in union with the Messiah[i] Jesus, our Lord.
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