Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
A Petition to Be Saved from Death.
A Song. A Psalm of the sons of Korah. To the Chief Musician; set to chant mournfully. A didactic or reflective poem of Heman the Ezrahite.
88 O Lord, the God of my salvation,
I have cried out [for help] by day and in the night before You.(A)
2
Let my prayer come before You and enter into Your presence;
Incline Your ear to my cry!
3
For my soul is full of troubles,
And my life draws near the grave (Sheol, the place of the dead).
4
I am counted among those who go down to the pit (grave);
I am like a man who has no strength [a mere shadow],
5
[a]Cast away [from the living] and abandoned among the dead,
Like the slain who lie in a [nameless] grave,
Whom You no longer remember,
And they are cut off from Your hand.
6
You have laid me in the lowest pit,
In dark places, in the depths.
7
Your wrath has rested heavily upon me,
And You have afflicted me with all Your waves.(B) Selah.
8
You have put my friends far from me;
You have made me an [b]object of loathing to them.
I am shut up and I cannot go out.
9
My eye grows dim with sorrow.
O Lord, I have called on You every day;
I have spread out my hands to You [in prayer].
10
Will You perform wonders for the dead?
Shall the departed spirits arise and praise You? Selah.
11
Will Your lovingkindness be declared in the grave
Or Your faithfulness in Abaddon (the underworld)?
12
Will Your wonders be known in the darkness?
And Your righteousness in the land of forgetfulness [where the dead forget and are forgotten]?
13
But I have cried out to You, O Lord, for help;
And in the morning my prayer will come to You.
14
O Lord, why do You reject me?
Why do You hide Your face from me?(C)
15
I was afflicted and close to death from my youth on;
I suffer Your terrors; I am overcome.
16
Your fierce wrath has swept over me;
Your terrors have destroyed me.
17
They have surrounded me like flood waters all day long;
They have completely encompassed me.
18
Lover and friend You have placed far from me;
My familiar friends are in darkness.
Regulations concerning Priests
21 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Speak to the priests, the sons of Aaron, and say to them:
‘No one shall defile himself [that is, become ceremonially unclean] for the dead among his people [by touching a corpse or assisting in preparing it for burial], 2 except for his relatives who are nearest to him, his mother, his father, his son, his daughter, and his brother, 3 also his virgin sister, who is near to him because she has had no husband; for her he may become unclean. 4 He shall not become unclean as a relative by marriage among his people, and so profane himself. 5 The priests [a]shall not shave their heads, nor shave off the edges of their beards, nor make any cuts in their body. 6 They shall be holy to their God and not profane the name of their God; for they present the offerings by fire to the Lord, the food of their God; so they shall be holy. 7 They shall not take [as a wife] a woman who is a prostitute, nor a woman who is divorced from her husband; for the priest is holy to his God. 8 You shall consecrate him, therefore, for he offers the food of your God; he shall be holy to you; for I the Lord, who sanctifies you, am holy. 9 The daughter of any priest who profanes herself by prostitution profanes her father; she shall be burned in fire.(A)
10 ‘But he who is the high priest among his brothers, on whose head the anointing oil has been poured and who has been consecrated to wear the [sacred] garments, shall not uncover his head nor tear his clothes [in mourning], 11 nor shall he approach any dead person, nor defile himself [by doing so, even] for his father or for his mother; 12 nor shall he go out of the sanctuary nor profane (make ceremonially unclean) the sanctuary of his God, for the consecration of the anointing oil of his God is on him; I am the Lord. 13 He shall take a wife in her virginity. 14 He may not marry a widow or a divorced woman or one who is profaned by prostitution, but he is to marry a virgin from his own people,(B) 15 so that he will not profane or dishonor his children among his people; for I am the Lord who sanctifies the high priest.’”
16 But thanks be to God who puts the same genuine concern for you in the heart of Titus. 17 For Titus not only accepted our appeal, but was so very interested in you that he has gone to visit you of his own accord. 18 And we have sent along with him the [a]brother who is praised in the gospel [ministry] throughout all the churches; 19 and not only this, but he has also been appointed by the churches to travel with us in regard to this gracious offering which we are administering for the glory of the Lord Himself, and to show our eagerness [as believers to help one another]. 20 We are taking precaution so that no one will [find anything with which to] discredit us in our administration of this generous gift. 21 For we have regard for what is honorable [and above suspicion], not only in the sight of the Lord, but also in the sight of men. 22 We have sent with them our brother, whom we have often tested and found to be diligent in many things, but who is now even more diligent [than ever] because of his great confidence in you. 23 As for Titus, he is my partner and fellow worker in your service; and as for the [other two] brothers, they are [special] [b]messengers of the churches, a glory and credit to Christ. 24 Therefore, show these men, in the sight of the churches, the proof of your love and our reason for being proud of you.
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