Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Psalm 118

The Stone the Builders Rejected

Introduction

The Messiah’s Joy in Victory

The Joy in Victory of Messiah’s Followers

David Brings the Ark to Jerusalem

6 David once again gathered all of the thirty thousand specially chosen men of Israel. ² Then David and all the people who were with him set out and went to Baale Judah^[a] to bring up the Ark of God, who is called by the name “The Lord of Armies, who sits above the cherubim.”

³ They transported the Ark of God on a new cart. They brought it out from Abinadab’s house, which was on the hill. Uzzah and Ahio, the sons of Abinadab, were guiding the new cart ⁴ ⎣⎦^[b] with the Ark of God on it. Ahio was walking in front of the ark.

⁵ David and all the house of Israel were celebrating before the Lord with all kinds of instruments, castanets,^[c] lyres, harps, hand drums, rattles,^[d] and cymbals.

⁶ But when they came to the threshing floor of Nakon, Uzzah reached out for the Ark of God and grabbed it because the oxen stumbled. ⁷ The anger of the Lord burned against Uzzah, and God struck him there for his irreverence. So he died there beside the Ark of God.

⁸ David was angry because the Lord had burst out so violently against Uzzah, and he called that place Perez Uzzah,^[e] as it is called to this day. ⁹ David was afraid of the Lord on that day. He said, “How can the Ark of the Lord come to me?” ¹⁰ David was not willing to move the Ark of the Lord to himself in the City of David.

So David diverted the ark to the house of Obed Edom the Gittite. ¹¹ The Ark of the Lord remained at the house of Obed Edom the Gittite for three months, and the Lord blessed Obed Edom and his whole household. ¹² David was told, “Because of the Ark of God, the Lord has blessed the house of Obed Edom and all that belongs to him.”^[f]

With rejoicing, David went and brought up the Ark of God from the house of Obed Edom to the City of David. ¹³ When those carrying the Ark of the Lord had gone six paces, David sacrificed an ox and a fattened calf. ¹⁴ David danced with all his might before the Lord. He was wearing a linen vest.^{[g] 15} David and the entire house of Israel brought up the Ark of the Lord with shouting and with the sound of a ram’s horn.

The Resurrection

24 On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women^[a] went to the tomb, carrying the spices they had prepared. ² They found that the stone had been rolled away from the tomb. ³ When they went in, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. ⁴ While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men stood by them in dazzling clothing. ⁵ The women were terrified and bowed down with their faces to the ground.

The men said to them, “Why are you looking for the living among the dead? ⁶ He is not here, but has been raised! Remember how he told you while he was still in Galilee ⁷ that the Son of Man must be delivered over to the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again?” ⁸ Then they remembered his words.

⁹ When they returned from the tomb, they told all these things to the Eleven and to all the rest. ¹⁰ It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them who told these things to the apostles. ¹¹ Yet these words seemed to them like nonsense, and they did not believe them. ¹² But Peter got up and ran to the tomb. Bending over to look in, he saw only the strips of linen cloth. He went home, amazed at what had happened.