Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
Psalm 95
1 Come, let us worship in song, a joyful offering to the Eternal.
Shout! Shout with joy to the rock of our liberation.
2 Come face-to-face with God, and give thanks;
with loud and joyful voices, praise Him in songs.
3 For the Eternal is a great God,
and a great King, supreme over all gods.
4 Within His control are the very depths of the earth;
the mountaintops too—they all belong to Him.
5 The sea belongs to Him, for He created it—scooped and filled it—
with His hands He made the dry land—every valley and mountain.
6 Come, let us worship Him. Everyone bow down;
kneel before the Eternal who made us.
7 For He is our God
and we are His people, the flock of His pasture,
His sheep protected and nurtured by His hand.
Today, if He speaks, hear His voice.
8 “Don’t harden your hearts the way they did in the bitter uprising at Meribah
or like that day they complained in the wilderness of Massah.
9 Your ancestors tested Me,
wanted Me to prove Myself though they had seen that nothing was too great for Me.
10 For 40 years I despised that grumbling generation
and said, ‘Their hearts are unfaithful;
they no longer walk in My ways; though I call, they do not listen to My voice.’
11 That is why in My anger I swore,
‘They will never enter into My rest.’”
8 Do not gloat at my fate, my enemy;
although I am down now, I will rise up.
Although I am in darkness now, the Eternal One will be my light.
9 I must bear His anger because I have sinned against Him
until He argues on my behalf and rights all my wrongs.
He will bring me out into the light,
and then I will see His saving justice.
10 When my enemy sees that God has rescued me,
then shame will wash over her
Because she sneered to me, “Where is the Eternal your God?”
It will be my turn to watch when she is trampled,
Walked on like mud in the street.
11 Israel, that will be the day for building your city walls;
that will be the day to expand your national boundaries.
12 In that day, people will come to you
from everywhere: from Assyria to cities in Egypt,
From Egypt to the Euphrates River,
from sea to sea and from mountain to mountain.
13 The earth will become a desert because those who live on it
will produce no fruit from their labors.
14 God, with Your shepherd’s staff lead Your people to pasture;
lead the flock that belongs to You
And grazes alone in the forest surrounded by garden lands.
Let them graze in Bashan and Gilead as they used to do, long ago.
15 I will show you[a] wonders
as you saw in the days when you came out of Egypt;
16 The nations will see and be ashamed, despite all their might.
With their hands over their mouths and ears they will hear nothing.
17 They will lick dust like the snakes of the earth crawling across the dirt.
They will creep out of their holes, shivering in terror because of You.
They turn to the Eternal, our True God, filled with dread,
and they stand in awe of You.
18 Is there any other God like You, who forgives evil
and passes over the transgressions done by Yours who remain?
He does not hold onto His anger forever
because He delights in showing love and kindness.
19 He will take pity on us again, will tread our wrongdoing underfoot.
He will cast all our sins down to the bottom of the sea.
20 Show Your faithfulness to Jacob and show Your faithful love to Abraham
As You swore to our ancestors in the days long ago.
This moment has been commemorated for two thousand years. Exactly what Jesus meant by calling the bread and wine His body and blood has been debated for centuries. By eating the bread and drinking the wine, believers participate not only in this supper but also in His death and resurrection because the bread is torn and the wine is poured, just as His body was torn and His blood poured out.
Just as Jesus’ physical body housed the Spirit of God, the physicality of the bread and wine has a spiritual significance. Otherwise, we wouldn’t need to eat the bread and drink the wine to celebrate this moment—it would be enough for us to read the story and remember what happened. But we, too, are physical as well as spiritual; and our physical actions can have spiritual importance.
26 After the meal, they sang a psalm and went out of the city to the Mount of Olives.
Jesus: 27 All of you will desert Me tonight. It was written by Zechariah,
I will strike the shepherd,
and the sheep will scatter.[a]
28 But when I am raised up, I will go ahead of you to Galilee.
Peter (protesting): 29 It doesn’t matter who else turns his back on You. I will never desert You.
Jesus: 30 Peter, mark My words. This very night before the cock crows twice, you will have denied Me three times.
Peter (insisting): 31 No, Teacher. Even if it means that I have to die with You, I’ll never deny You.
All the other disciples said similar things.
The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.