Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
23 Because the Lord is my Shepherd, I have everything I need!
2-3 He lets me rest in the meadow grass and leads me beside the quiet streams. He gives me new strength. He helps me do what honors him the most.
4 Even when walking through the dark valley of death I will not be afraid, for you are close beside me, guarding, guiding all the way.[a]
5 You provide delicious food for me in the presence of my enemies. You have welcomed me as your guest;[b] blessings overflow!
6 Your goodness and unfailing kindness shall be with me all of my life, and afterwards I will live with you forever in your home.
15 And sure enough, when Pharaoh heard about it he ordered Moses arrested and executed. But Moses ran away into the land of Midian. As he was sitting there beside a well, 16 seven girls who were daughters of the priest of Midian came to draw water and fill the water troughs for their father’s flocks. 17 But the shepherds chased the girls away. Moses then came to their aid and rescued them from the shepherds and watered their flocks.
18 When they returned to their father, Reuel, he asked, “How did you get the flocks watered so quickly today?”
19 “An Egyptian defended us against the shepherds,” they told him; “he drew water for us and watered the flocks.”
20 “Well, where is he?” their father demanded. “Did you just leave him there? Invite him home for supper.”
21 Moses eventually decided to accept Reuel’s invitation to live with them, and Reuel gave him one of the girls, Zipporah, as his wife. 22 They had a baby named Gershom (meaning “foreigner”), for he said, “I am a stranger in a foreign land.”
23 Several years later the king of Egypt died. The Israelis were groaning beneath their burdens, in deep trouble because of their slavery, and weeping bitterly before the Lord. He heard their cries from heaven, 24 and remembered his promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to bring their descendants back into the land of Canaan.[a] 25 Looking down upon them, he knew that the time had come for their rescue.[b]
9 But you are not like that, for you have been chosen by God himself—you are priests of the King, you are holy and pure, you are God’s very own—all this so that you may show to others how God called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light. 10 Once you were less than nothing; now you are God’s own. Once you knew very little of God’s kindness; now your very lives have been changed by it.
11 Dear brothers, you are only visitors here. Since your real home is in heaven, I beg you to keep away from the evil pleasures of this world; they are not for you, for they fight against your very souls.
12 Be careful how you behave among your unsaved neighbors; for then, even if they are suspicious of you and talk against you, they will end up praising God for your good works when Christ returns.
The Living Bible copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.