Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
The 4th Hallelujah Psalm
149 Hallelujah! Praise the Lord!
Sing a new song to worship the Lord.
When his own people meet together,
they should praise him.
2 People of Israel, be very happy,
because God made you.
People of Zion, be very happy,
because God is your king.
3 Yes, dance to praise the name of the Lord.
Take your harps and tambourines
and make music to praise him with your songs.
4 When the Lord's people serve him,
it makes him happy.
He is happy to help humble people,
so that people respect them.
5 The people who belong to God should be very happy,
because he has made them great.
They should always sing with joy,
even when they lie on their beds at night.
6 They should shout aloud to praise God,
while they hold sharp swords in their hands.
7 That is how they must fight against other nations,
to punish them for their sins.
8 They must tie up the foreign kings with chains,
and put the rulers in prison.
9 They must do that to punish their enemies
in the way that is right.
That is how God will cause his people to become great.
Hallelujah! Praise the Lord!
9: Darkness
21 Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Lift up your hand towards the sky. Then it will become dark over the whole country of Egypt. It will be so dark that people will be able to feel it.’ 22 So Moses lifted up his hand towards the sky and it became completely dark. It was dark through the whole country of Egypt for three days. 23 People could not see each other. Nobody could move anywhere for three days. But the Israelites had light in the places where they lived.
24 Then Pharaoh called Moses to come to him. He said, ‘Go and worship the Lord. Even your families may go with you. Only your animals must remain in Egypt.’
25 But Moses said, ‘Then you will have to give us animals for our sacrifices and burnt offerings. We need our animals to offer to the Lord our God.[a] 26 So we must take our animals with us. Not one animal can remain behind. We must take them to worship the Lord our God. Until we arrive in the desert, we will not know which animals to use as sacrifices.’
27 But the Lord caused Pharaoh's mind to be hard. Pharaoh would not agree to let the Israelites go. 28 Pharaoh said to Moses, ‘Go away from me! Be careful not to come back! I never want to see you again! On the day that you see my face, you will die!’
29 Moses replied, ‘You are right! You will never see me again.’
15 And nobody can go to tell God's message to people unless God sends them. This is written in the Bible: ‘When people arrive to tell us good news, we say “welcome!” ’[a]
16 But not every person who hears the good news obeys its message. Isaiah said this: ‘Lord God, it seems that nobody has believed our message.’[b] 17 So then, people must hear the message before they can trust God. And people hear that message when someone tells them about Christ.
18 Let me ask you this: ‘Did Israel's people hear that message?’ They certainly did! The Bible says:
‘People have spoken God's message everywhere.
People have heard his message in every part of the world.’[c]
19 So I ask this too: ‘When Israel's people heard God's message, did they understand it?’ First, think about what Moses wrote. God said to Israel's people:
‘I will make you jealous because of people who are not my people.
I will make you angry because of people who know nothing about me.’[d]
20 Also, this is what Isaiah said very bravely:
‘God says: Those people who were not looking for me have found me.
I showed myself to people who were not even asking about me.’[e]
21 But Isaiah says this about Israel's people:
‘God says: For a very long time,
I have been asking my people to return to me.
But they refused to obey me.
They turned against me.’[f]
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