Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
This is a psalm to say ‘thank you’.
Thank you, God![a]
100 Everyone on earth,
shout and praise the Lord!
2 Worship the Lord and be happy!
Come near to him with songs of joy.
3 Understand that the Lord is God.
He made us and we are his people.
He takes care of us,
like a shepherd with his sheep.
4 Thank him as you go through the gates into his temple.
Praise him as you stand in his temple yards.[b]
Thank him and praise him
as he deserves!
5 Yes, the Lord is good.
He always loves us as his people.
He always does what he has promised
to us and to our descendants for ever.
27 The Lord said to Aaron, ‘Go into the desert to meet Moses.’ So Aaron went. He met Moses at the mountain of God and he kissed him. 28 Then Moses told Aaron all that the Lord had told him to say. He also told Aaron about all the special signs. God had commanded Moses to show these signs to the Israelites and to Pharaoh.
29 Then Moses and Aaron went to Egypt. They brought together all the leaders of the Israelites. 30 Aaron told them all the things that the Lord had said to Moses. Then Moses did the signs in front of the people. 31 And the people believed Aaron and Moses. They had heard that the Lord had come to his people. God had seen their hard life and he was sorry for them. They put their heads down and they worshipped God.
35 Then Stephen said, ‘Moses is the man that the people of Israel would not accept. They had said to him, “You have no authority to rule us. You are not our judge.” But God did send Moses to rule them. God himself sent Moses to save them from the Egyptians. God spoke to Moses through the angel that appeared to him in the bush. 36 So it was Moses who led the people of Israel out of Egypt. He did some powerful things before the people left Egypt. This showed that God was with him. He did more miracles at the Red Sea. Then he led the people through the wilderness for 40 years. He also did more miracles there.[a]
37 It was Moses who said to the people of Israel, “God will send you a prophet. He will be one of your own people. He will speak God's message as I have done.” 38 This is the same Moses who was leader of our people in the wilderness. He was there with our ancestors when the angel spoke to him on Sinai mountain. He received the message from God to give to us. Those words from God bring life to us.
39 But our ancestors would not obey Moses. They did not accept him as their leader. They wanted to go back to Egypt. 40 So the people said to Aaron, “Please make us some gods that we can carry in front of us. Yes, that man Moses brought us out of Egypt. But now we do not know what has happened to him.”[b]
41 It was then that the people made something that would be an idol for them. They made it from gold with the shape of a young bull. They killed some animals and they burned them as a gift for their idol. The people then had a big meal together because they were very happy. They thought that they had made something that was very good.[c]
42 But God turned away from his people. He let them do what they wanted to do. He let them worship the stars in the sky.
One of God's prophets wrote about this long ago:
“God said, ‘People of Israel, listen!
When you were in the wilderness for 40 years,
you brought sacrifices and gifts to me.
But you did not really worship me when you did that.
43 No. You carried with you the idol of the god called Molech.
You also carried an idol with the shape of a star,
to be like your god, Rephan.
These were the idols which you worshipped in the wilderness.
So now I will send you away from your own country.
You will go to live in places beyond Babylon.’ ”[d]
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