Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
For the choir director; on the gittith; [a] by Asaph.
81 Sing joyfully to God, our strength.
Shout happily to the God of Jacob.
2 Begin a psalm, and strike a tambourine.
Play lyres and harps with their pleasant music.
3 Blow the ram’s horn on the day of the new moon,
on the day of the full moon,
on our festival days.
4 This is a law for Israel,
a legal decision from the God of Jacob.
5 These are the instructions God set in place for Joseph
when Joseph rose to power over Egypt.
I heard a message I did not understand:
6 “I removed the burden from his shoulder.
His hands were freed from the basket.
7 When you were in trouble, you called out ⌞to me⌟, and I rescued you.
I was hidden in thunder, but I answered you.
I tested your ⌞loyalty⌟ at the oasis of Meribah. Selah
8 Listen, my people, and I will warn you.
Israel, if you would only listen to me!
9 Never keep any strange god among you.
Never worship a foreign god.
10 I am the Lord your God, the one who brought you out of Egypt.
Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it.
The Day of Rest and Other Holy Assemblies
23 The Lord spoke to Moses, 2 “Tell the Israelites: These are the appointed festivals with the Lord, which you must announce as holy assemblies. 3 You may work for six days. But the seventh day is a day of rest, a day when you don’t work, a holy assembly. Don’t do any work. It is the Lord’s day of rest—a holy day wherever you live.
4 “The following are the Lord’s appointed festivals with holy assemblies, which you must announce at their appointed times.
The Spring Festivals
5 “The fourteenth day of the first month, in the evening, is the Lord’s Passover. 6 The fifteenth day of this same month is the Lord’s Festival of Unleavened Bread. For seven days you must eat unleavened bread. 7 On the first day there will be a holy assembly. Don’t do any regular work. 8 Bring the Lord a sacrifice by fire for seven days. On the seventh day there will be a holy assembly. Don’t do any regular work.”
31 What can we say about all of this? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 God didn’t spare his own Son but handed him over ⌞to death⌟ for all of us. So he will also give us everything along with him. 33 Who will accuse those whom God has chosen? God has approved of them. 34 Who will condemn them? Christ has died, and more importantly, he was brought back to life. Christ is in the honored position—the one next to God the Father on the heavenly throne. Christ also intercedes for us. 35 What will separate us from the love Christ has for us? Can trouble, distress, persecution, hunger, nakedness, danger, or violent death separate us from his love? 36 As Scripture says:
“We are being killed all day long because of you.
We are thought of as sheep to be slaughtered.”
37 The one who loves us gives us an overwhelming victory in all these difficulties. 38 I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love which Christ Jesus our Lord shows us.[a] We can’t be separated by death or life, by angels or rulers, by anything in the present or anything in the future, by forces 39 or powers in the world above or in the world below, or by anything else in creation.
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