Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Psalm 121

Help From the Lord

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A song for the ascents.

Help From the Lord, Israel’s Watchman

²⁶ Above the dome that was over their heads, there was something that appeared to be a sapphire that was shaped like a throne. Seated on that throne-like form there was a figure that looked like a man. ²⁷ I saw something like the gleam of glowing metal^[a] with fire in it and all around it. It extended upward from what appeared to be the man’s waist. Below what appeared to be his waist, I saw what appeared to be fire, and a bright light surrounded him. ²⁸ The bright light that surrounded him looked like the rainbow that is in the clouds on a rainy day.

This was the appearance of the likeness of the Glory of the Lord. When I saw this, I fell on my face, and I heard a voice speaking.

Ezekiel’s Call

2 He said to me, “Son of man, stand up on your feet, and I will speak with you.”

26 Then Agrippa said to Paul, “You have permission to speak for yourself.”

Then Paul stretched out his hand and began his defense. ² “King Agrippa, I consider myself fortunate that I am going to make my defense before you today concerning all the things about which I am being accused by the Jews, ³ especially because you are an expert in all the Jewish customs and controversies. Therefore, I beg you to listen to me patiently.

⁴ “All the Jews know the way I have lived from the earliest days of my youth, among my own people and in Jerusalem. ⁵ They have known about me for a long time, if they are willing to testify, that I lived as a Pharisee according to the strictest party of our religion.

⁶ “And now I stand on trial because of my hope in the promise made by God to our fathers, ⁷ the promise that our twelve tribes hope to attain as they earnestly serve God night and day. I am being accused by the Jews concerning this hope, O King. ⁸ Why does it seem unbelievable to any of you that God raises the dead?

⁹ “I too was convinced that it was necessary to do many things hostile to the name of Jesus the Nazarene. ¹⁰ And that is what I did in Jerusalem. After receiving authority from the chief priests, I put many of the saints in prison, and when they were put to death, I cast my vote against them. ¹¹ I often tried to make them blaspheme by punishing them throughout all the synagogues. Because I was so insanely angry with them, I even pursued them to foreign cities.

¹² “That is how I came to be traveling to Damascus with the authority and commission of the chief priests. ¹³ At noon along the road, O King, I saw a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, shining around me and those traveling with me. ¹⁴ We all fell to the ground, and I heard a voice saying to me in the Hebrew dialect,^[a] ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.’^[b]

¹⁵ “Then I said, ‘Who are you, Lord?’

“The Lord replied, ‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. ¹⁶ Now get up and stand on your feet, for I have appeared to you for this purpose: to appoint you as a servant and witness to the things you have seen^[c] and to the things I will reveal to you. ¹⁷ I will rescue you from your people and from the Gentiles to whom I am sending you. ¹⁸ You are to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive the forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’