Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
Psalm 69
To the Chief Musician; [set to the tune of] “Lilies.” [A Psalm] of David.
1 Save me, O God, for the waters have come up to my neck [they threaten my life].
2 I sink in deep mire, where there is no foothold; I have come into deep waters, where the floods overwhelm me.
3 I am weary with my crying; my throat is parched; my eyes fail with waiting [hopefully] for my God.
4 Those who hate me without cause are more than the hairs of my head; those who would cut me off and destroy me, being my enemies wrongfully, are many and mighty. I am [forced] to restore what I did not steal.(A)
5 O God, You know my folly and blundering; my sins and my guilt are not hidden from You.
30 I will praise the name of God with a song and will magnify Him with thanksgiving,
31 And it will please the Lord better than an ox or a bullock that has horns and hoofs.
32 The humble shall see it and be glad; you who seek God, inquiring for and requiring Him [as your first need], let your hearts revive and live!(A)
33 For the Lord hears the poor and needy and despises not His prisoners (His miserable and wounded ones).
34 Let heaven and earth praise Him, the seas and everything that moves in them.
35 For God will save Zion and rebuild the cities of Judah; and [His servants] shall remain and dwell there and have it in their possession;
36 The children of His servants shall inherit it, and those who love His name shall dwell in it.
22 Moreover, the Lord said to Moses,
23 Take the best spices: of liquid myrrh 500 shekels, of sweet-scented cinnamon half as much, 250 shekels, of fragrant calamus 250 shekels,
24 And of cassia 500 shekels, in terms of the sanctuary shekel, and of olive oil a hin.
25 And you shall make of these a holy anointing oil, a perfume compounded after the art of the perfumer; it shall be a sacred anointing oil.
26 And you shall anoint the Tent of Meeting with it, and the ark of the Testimony,
27 And the [showbread] table and all its utensils, and the lampstand and its utensils, and the altar of incense,
28 And the altar of burnt offering with all its utensils, and the laver [for cleansing] and its base.
29 You shall sanctify (separate) them, that they may be most holy; whoever and whatever touches them must be holy (set apart to God).
30 And you shall anoint Aaron and his sons and sanctify (separate) them, that they may minister to Me as priests.
31 And say to the Israelites, This is a holy anointing oil [symbol of the Holy Spirit], sacred to Me alone throughout your generations.(A)
32 It shall not be poured upon a layman’s body, nor shall you make any other like it in composition; it is holy, and you shall hold it sacred.
33 Whoever compounds any like it or puts any of it upon an outsider shall be cut off from his people.
34 Then the Lord said to Moses, Take sweet spices—stacte, onycha, and galbanum, sweet spices with pure frankincense, an equal amount of each—
35 And make of them incense, a perfume after the perfumer’s art, seasoned with salt and mixed, pure and sacred.
36 You shall beat some of it very small and put some of it before the Testimony in the Tent of Meeting, where I will meet with you; it shall be to you most holy.
37 And the incense which you shall make according to its composition you shall not make for yourselves; it shall be to you holy to the Lord.
38 Whoever makes any like it for perfume shall be cut off from his people.
2 And when they heard that he addressed them in the Hebrew tongue, they were all the more quiet. And he continued,
3 I am a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia but reared in this city. At the feet of Gamaliel I was educated according to the strictest care in the Law of our fathers, being ardent [even a zealot] for God, as all of you are today.
4 [Yes] I harassed (troubled, molested, and persecuted) this Way [of the Lord] to the death, putting in chains and committing to prison both men and women,
5 As the high priest and whole council of elders (Sanhedrin) can testify; for from them indeed I received letters with which I was on my way to the brethren in Damascus in order to take also those [believers] who were there, and bring them in chains to Jerusalem that they might be punished.
6 But as I was on my journey and approached Damascus, about noon a great blaze of light flashed suddenly from heaven and shone about me.
7 And I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to me, Saul, Saul, why do you persecute Me [harass and trouble and molest Me]?
8 And I replied, Who are You, Lord? And He said to me, I am Jesus the Nazarene, Whom you are persecuting.
9 Now the men who were with me saw the light, but they did not hear [[a]the sound of the uttered words of] the voice of the One Who was speaking to me [so that they could [b]understand it].
10 And I asked, What shall I do, Lord? And the Lord answered me, Get up and go into Damascus, and there it will be told you all that it is destined and appointed for you to do.
11 And since I could not see because [of the dazzlingly glorious intensity] of the brightness of that light, I was led by the hand by those who were with me, and [thus] I arrived in Damascus.
12 And one Ananias, a devout man according to the Law, well spoken of by all the Jews who resided there,
13 Came to see me, and standing by my side said to me, Brother Saul, [c]look up and receive back your sight. And in that very [d]instant I [recovered my sight and] looking up saw him.
14 And he said, The God of our forefathers has destined and appointed you to come progressively to know His will [to perceive, to recognize more strongly and clearly, and to become better and more intimately acquainted with His will], and to see the Righteous One (Jesus Christ, the Messiah), and to hear a voice from His [own] mouth and a message from His [own] lips;
15 For you will be His witness unto all men of everything that you have seen and heard.
16 And now, why do you delay? Rise and be baptized, and [e]by calling upon His name, wash away your sins.
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