◀ All Reading Plans / Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary) / Psalm 33:12-22 (Our help and our shield); Exodus 19:16-25 (Moses and Aaron meet the Lord); Romans 8:14-17 (Led by the Spirit of God) (New English Translation)

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May 22, 2026

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Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Daily Bible readings that follow the church liturgical year, with thematically matched Old and New Testament readings.

Duration: 1245 days

Psalm 33:12-22

¹²How blessed^[a] is the nation whose God is the Lord,
the people whom he has chosen to be his special possession.^[b]
¹³The Lord watches^[c] from heaven;
he sees all people.^[d]
¹⁴From the place where he lives he looks carefully
at all the earth’s inhabitants.
¹⁵He is the one who forms every human heart,^[e]
and takes note of all their actions.
¹⁶No king is delivered by his vast army;
a warrior is not saved by his great might.
¹⁷A horse disappoints those who trust in it for victory;^[f]
despite its great strength, it cannot deliver.
¹⁸Look, the Lord takes notice of his loyal followers,^[g]
those who wait for him to demonstrate his faithfulness^[h]
¹⁹by saving their lives from death^[i]
and sustaining them during times of famine.^[j]
²⁰We^[k] wait for the Lord;
he is our deliverer^[l] and shield.^[m]
²¹For our hearts rejoice in him,
for we trust in his holy name.
²²May we experience your faithfulness, O Lord,^[n]
for^[o] we wait for you.

Exodus 19:16-25

¹⁶On^[a] the third day in the morning there was thunder and lightning and a dense^[b] cloud on the mountain, and the sound of a very loud^[c] horn;^[d] all the people who were in the camp trembled. ¹⁷Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God, and they took their place at the foot of the mountain. ¹⁸Now Mount Sinai was completely covered with smoke because the Lord had descended on it in fire, and its smoke went up like the smoke of a great furnace,^[e] and the whole mountain shook^[f] violently. ¹⁹When the sound of the horn grew louder and louder,^[g] Moses was speaking^[h] and God was answering him with a voice.^[i]

²⁰The Lord came down on Mount Sinai, on the top of the mountain, and the Lord summoned Moses to the top of the mountain, and Moses went up. ²¹The Lord said to Moses, “Go down and solemnly warn^[j] the people, lest they force their way through to the Lord to look, and many of them perish.^[k] ²²Let the priests also, who approach the Lord, sanctify themselves, lest the Lord break through^[l] against them.”

²³Moses said to the Lord, “The people are not able to come up to Mount Sinai, because you solemnly warned us,^[m] ‘Set boundaries for the mountain and set it apart.’”^[n] ²⁴The Lord said to him, “Go, get down, and then come up, and Aaron with you, but do not let the priests and the people force their way through to come up to the Lord, lest he break through against them.” ²⁵So Moses went down to the people and spoke to them.^[o]

Footnotes

Exodus 19:16 tn Heb “and it was on.”
Exodus 19:16 tn Heb “heavy” (כָּבֵד, kaved).
Exodus 19:16 tn Literally “strong” (חָזָק, khazaq).
Exodus 19:16 tn The word here is שֹׁפָר (shofar), the normal word for “horn.” This word is used especially to announce something important in a public event (see 1 Kgs 1:34; 2 Sam 6:15). The previous word used in the context (v. 16) was יֹבֵל (yovel, “ram’s horn”).
Exodus 19:18 sn The image is that of a large kiln, as in Gen 19:28.
Exodus 19:18 tn This is the same word translated “trembled” above (v. 16).
Exodus 19:19 tn The active participle הוֹלֵךְ (holekh) is used to add the idea of “continually” to the action of the sentence; here the trumpet became very loud—continually. See GKC 344 §113.u.
Exodus 19:19 tn The two verbs here (“spoke” and “answered”) are imperfect tenses; they emphasize repeated action but in past time. The customary imperfect usually is translated “would” or “used to” do the action, but here continuous action in past time is meant. S. R. Driver translates it “kept speaking” and “kept answering” (Exodus, 172).
Exodus 19:19 tn The text simply has בְּקוֹל (b^eqol); it could mean “with a voice” or it could mean “in thunder” since “voice” was used in v. 16 for thunder. In this context it would be natural to say that the repeated thunderings were the voice of God—but how is that an answer? Deut 4:12 says that the people heard the sound of words. U. Cassuto (Exodus, 232-33) rightly comments, “He was answering him with a loud voice so that it was possible for Moses to hear His words clearly in the midst of the storm.” He then draws a parallel from Ugaritic where it tells that one of the gods was speaking in a loud voice.
Exodus 19:21 tn The imperative הָעֵד (haʿed) means “charge” them—put them under oath, or solemnly warn them. God wished to ensure that the people would not force their way past the barriers that had been set out.
Exodus 19:21 tn Heb “and fall”; NAB “be struck down.”
Exodus 19:22 tn The verb יִפְרֹץ (yifrots) is the imperfect tense from פָּרַץ (parats, “to make a breach, to break through”). The image of Yahweh breaking forth on them means “work destruction” (see 2 Sam 6:8; S. R. Driver, Exodus, 174).
Exodus 19:23 tn The construction is emphatic: “because you—you solemnly warned us.” Moses’ response to God is to ask how they would break through when God had already charged them not to. God knew them better than Moses did.
Exodus 19:23 tn Heb “sanctify it.”
Exodus 19:25 sn The passage has many themes and emphases that could be developed in exposition. It could serve for meditation, that is, the theology drawn from the three parts could be subordinated to the theme of holiness: God is holy, therefore adhere to his word for service, approach him through a mediator, and adore him in purity and fearful reverence. A developed outline for the exposition could be organized as follows: I. If the people of God will obey him, they will be privileged to serve in a unique way (vv. 1-8); II. If the people of God are to obey, they must be convinced of the divine source of their commands (v. 9); and finally, III. If the people of God are convinced of the divine approval of their mediator, and the divine source of their instructions, they must sanctify themselves before him (vv. 10-25). In sum, the manifestation of the holiness of Yahweh is the reason for sanctification and worship. The correlation is to be made through 1 Peter 2 to the church. The Church is a kingdom of priests; it is to obey the Word of God. What is the motivation for this? Their mediator is Jesus Christ; he has the approval of the Father and manifests the glory of God to his own; and he declares the purpose of their calling is to display his glory. God’s people are to abstain from sin so that pagans can see their good works and glorify God.

Romans 8:14-17

¹⁴For all who are led by the Spirit of God are^[a] the sons of God. ¹⁵For you did not receive the spirit of slavery leading again to fear,^[b] but you received the Spirit of adoption,^[c] by whom^[d] we cry, “Abba,^[e] Father.” ¹⁶The Spirit himself bears witness to^[f] our spirit that we are God’s children. ¹⁷And if children, then heirs (namely, heirs of God and also fellow heirs with Christ)^[g]—if indeed we suffer with him so we may also be glorified with him.

Footnotes

Romans 8:14 tn Grk “For as many as are being led by the Spirit of God, these are.”
Romans 8:15 tn Grk “slavery again to fear.”
Romans 8:15 tn The Greek term υἱοθεσία (huiothesia) was originally a legal technical term for adoption as a son with full rights of inheritance. BDAG 1024 s.v. notes, “a legal t.t. of ‘adoption’ of children, in our lit., i.e. in Paul, only in a transferred sense of a transcendent filial relationship between God and humans (with the legal aspect, not gender specificity, as major semantic component).”
Romans 8:15 tn Or “in that.”
Romans 8:15 tn The term “Abba” is the Greek transliteration of the Aramaic אַבָּא (’abba’), literally meaning “my father” but taken over simply as “father,” used in prayer and in the family circle, and later taken over by the early Greek-speaking Christians (BDAG 1 s.v. ἀββα).sn This Aramaic word is found three times in the New Testament (Mark 14:36; Rom 8:15; Gal 4:6), and in each case is followed by its Greek equivalent, which is translated “father.” It is a term expressing warm affection and filial confidence. It has no perfect equivalent in English. It has passed into European languages as an ecclesiastical term, “abbot.” Over the past fifty years a lot has been written about this term and Jesus’ use of it. Joachim Jeremias argued that Jesus routinely addressed God using this Aramaic word, and he also noted this was a “child’s word,” leading many to conclude its modern equivalent was “Daddy.” This conclusion Jeremias soon modified (the term on occasion is used of an adult son addressing his father) but the simplistic equation of abba with “Daddy” is still heard in some circles today. Nevertheless, the term does express a high degree of closeness with reverence, and in addition to the family circle could be used by disciples of a much loved and revered teacher.
Romans 8:16 tn Or possibly “with.” ExSyn 160-61, however, notes the following: “At issue, grammatically, is whether the Spirit testifies alongside of our spirit (dat. of association), or whether he testifies to our spirit (indirect object) that we are God’s children. If the former, the one receiving this testimony is unstated (is it God? or believers?). If the latter, the believer receives the testimony and hence is assured of salvation via the inner witness of the Spirit. The first view has the advantage of a σύν- (sun-) prefixed verb, which might be expected to take an accompanying dat. of association (and is supported by NEB, JB, etc.). But there are three reasons why πνεύματι (pneumati) should not be taken as association: (1) Grammatically, a dat. with a σύν- prefixed verb does not necessarily indicate association. This, of course, does not preclude such here, but this fact at least opens up the alternatives in this text. (2) Lexically, though συμμαρτυρέω (summartureō) originally bore an associative idea, it developed in the direction of merely intensifying μαρτυρέω (martureō). This is surely the case in the only other NT text with a dat. (Rom 9:1). (3) Contextually, a dat. of association does not seem to support Paul’s argument: ‘What standing has our spirit in this matter? Of itself it surely has no right at all to testify to our being sons of God’ [C. E. B. Cranfield, Romans [ICC], 1:403]. In sum, Rom 8:16 seems to be secure as a text in which the believer’s assurance of salvation is based on the inner witness of the Spirit. The implications of this for one’s soteriology are profound: The objective data, as helpful as they are, cannot by themselves provide assurance of salvation; the believer also needs (and receives) an existential, ongoing encounter with God’s Spirit in order to gain that familial comfort.”
Romans 8:17 tn Grk “on the one hand, heirs of God; on the other hand, fellow heirs with Christ.” Some prefer to render v. 17 as follows: “And if children, then heirs—that is, heirs of God. Also fellow heirs with Christ if indeed we suffer with him so we may also be glorified with him.” Such a translation suggests two distinct inheritances, one coming to all of God’s children, the other coming only to those who suffer with Christ. The difficulty of this view, however, is that it ignores the correlative conjunctions μέν…δέ (men…de, “on the one hand…on the other hand”): The construction strongly suggests that the inheritances cannot be separated since both explain “then heirs.” For this reason, the preferred translation puts this explanation in parentheses.

New English Translation (NET)

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