Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Psalm 146

¹ Praise the Lord! (Hallelujah!) Praise the Lord, O my soul!

² While I live will I praise the Lord; I will sing praises to my God while I have any being.

³ Put not your trust in princes, in a son of man, in whom there is no help.

⁴ When his breath leaves him, he returns to his earth; in that very day his [previous] thoughts, plans, and purposes perish.^(A)

⁵ Happy (blessed, fortunate, enviable) is he who has the God of [special revelation to] Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the Lord his God,^(B)

⁶ Who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, Who keeps truth and is faithful forever,

⁷ Who executes justice for the oppressed, Who gives food to the hungry. The Lord sets free the prisoners,

⁸ The Lord opens the eyes of the blind, the Lord lifts up those who are bowed down, the Lord loves the [uncompromisingly] righteous (those upright in heart and in right standing with Him).^(C)

⁹ The Lord protects and preserves the strangers and temporary residents, He upholds the fatherless and the widow and sets them upright, but the way of the wicked He makes crooked (turns upside down and brings to ruin).

¹⁰ The Lord shall reign forever, even Your God, O Zion, from generation to generation. Praise the Lord! (Hallelujah!)^(D)

29 This is what you shall do to consecrate (set them apart) that they may serve Me as priests. Take one young bull and two rams, all without blemish,

² And unleavened bread and unleavened cakes mixed with oil and unleavened wafers spread with oil; of fine flour shall you make them.

³ You shall put them in one basket and bring them in [it], and bring also the bull and the two rams;

⁴ And bring Aaron and his sons to the door of the Tent of Meeting [out where the laver is] and wash them with water.

⁵ Then take the garments and put on Aaron the long and sleeved tunic and the robe of the ephod and the ephod and the breastplate, and gird him with the skillfully woven girding band of the ephod.

⁶ And you shall put the turban or miter upon his head and put the holy crown upon the turban.

⁷ Then take the anointing oil and pour it on his head and anoint him.

⁸ And bring his sons and put long and sleeved tunics on them.

⁹ And you shall gird them with sashes or belts, Aaron and his sons, and bind caps on them; and the priest’s office shall be theirs by a perpetual statute. Thus you shall ordain and consecrate Aaron and his sons.

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.

¹⁷ Then when I had come back to Jerusalem and was praying in the temple [^[f]enclosure], I fell into a trance (an ecstasy);

¹⁸ And I saw Him as He said to me, Hurry, get quickly out of Jerusalem, because they will not receive your testimony about Me.

¹⁹ And I said, Lord, they themselves well know that throughout all the synagogues I cast into prison and flogged those who believed on (adhered to and trusted in and relied on) You.

²⁰ And when the blood of Your witness (martyr) Stephen was shed, I also was personally standing by and consenting and approving and guarding the garments of those who slew him.

²¹ And the Lord said to me, Go, for I will send you far away unto the Gentiles (nations).