Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

19 The heavens are telling the glory of God; they are a marvelous display of his craftsmanship. ² Day and night they keep on telling about God. ^3-4 Without a sound or word, silent in the skies, their message reaches out to all the world. The sun lives in the heavens where God placed it ⁵ and moves out across the skies as radiant as a bridegroom^[a] going to his wedding, or as joyous as an athlete looking forward to a race! ⁶ The sun crosses the heavens from end to end, and nothing can hide from its heat.

^7-8 God’s laws are perfect. They protect us, make us wise, and give us joy and light. ⁹ God’s laws are pure, eternal, just.^{[b] 10} They are more desirable than gold. They are sweeter than honey dripping from a honeycomb. ¹¹ For they warn us away from harm and give success to those who obey them.

¹² But how can I ever know what sins are lurking in my heart? Cleanse me from these hidden faults. ¹³ And keep me from deliberate wrongs; help me to stop doing them. Only then can I be free of guilt and innocent of some great crime.

¹⁴ May my spoken words and unspoken thoughts be pleasing even to you, O Lord my Rock and my Redeemer.

⁹ Then he said to Moses, “I am going to come to you in the form of a dark cloud, so that the people themselves can hear me when I talk with you, and then they will always believe you. ¹⁰ Go down now and see that the people are ready for my visit. Sanctify them today and tomorrow, and have them wash their clothes. ¹¹ Then, the day after tomorrow, I will come down upon Mount Sinai as all the people watch. ¹² Set boundary lines the people may not pass, and tell them, ‘Beware! Do not go up into the mountain or even touch its boundaries; whoever does shall die— ¹³ no hand shall touch him, but he shall be stoned or shot to death with arrows, whether man or animal.’ Stay away from the mountain entirely until you hear a ram’s horn sounding one long blast; then gather at the foot of the mountain!”

¹⁴ So Moses went down to the people and sanctified them and they washed their clothing.

¹⁵ He told them, “Get ready for God’s appearance two days from now, and do not have sexual intercourse with your wives.”

³⁰ “Forty years later, in the desert near Mount Sinai, an Angel appeared to him in a flame of fire in a bush. ³¹ Moses saw it and wondered what it was, and as he ran to see, the voice of the Lord called out to him, ³² ‘I am the God of your ancestors—of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.’ Moses shook with terror and dared not look.

³³ “And the Lord said to him, ‘Take off your shoes, for you are standing on holy ground. ³⁴ I have seen the anguish of my people in Egypt and have heard their cries. I have come down to deliver them. Come, I will send you to Egypt.’ ³⁵ And so God sent back the same man his people had previously rejected by demanding, ‘Who made you a ruler and judge over us?’ Moses was sent to be their ruler and savior. ³⁶ And by means of many remarkable miracles he led them out of Egypt and through the Red Sea, and back and forth through the wilderness for forty years.

³⁷ “Moses himself told the people of Israel, ‘God will raise up a Prophet much like me^[a] from among your brothers.’ ³⁸ How true this proved to be, for in the wilderness, Moses was the go-between—the mediator between the people of Israel and the Angel who gave them the Law of God—the Living Word—on Mount Sinai.

³⁹ “But our fathers rejected Moses and wanted to return to Egypt. ⁴⁰ They told Aaron, ‘Make idols for us, so that we will have gods to lead us back; for we don’t know what has become of this Moses, who brought us out of Egypt.’