Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
Psalm 31
Into Your Hands I Commit My Spirit
Heading
For the choir director. A psalm by David.
A Declaration of Confidence
1 In you, Lord, I have taken refuge.
Petition
Let me never be put to shame.
In your righteousness deliver me.
2 Turn your ear toward me.
Hurry! Rescue me!
Be a rock where I take refuge,
a fortified place that saves me.
The Basis for Confidence
3 Yes, you are my rocky cliff and my stronghold.
For the sake of your name you will lead me and guide me.
4 You will pull me out of the net that they hid for me,
because you are my refuge.
5 Into your hand I commit my spirit.
You have redeemed me, O Lord, the God of truth.
15 My times are in your hand.
Deliver me from the hand of my enemies
and from those who pursue me.
16 Let your face shine on your servant.
Save me in your mercy.
Moses and the Burning Bush
3 Now Moses was shepherding the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law, a priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. 2 The Angel of the Lord appeared to him in blazing fire from within a bush. Moses saw that the bush was on fire, but the bush was not burning up. 3 So he said, “I will go over and look at this amazing sight—to find out why the bush is not burning up.”
4 When the Lord saw that Moses had gone over to take a look, God called to him from the middle of the bush and said, “Moses! Moses!”
Moses said, “I am here.”
5 The Lord said, “Do not come any closer. Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.” 6 He then said, “I am the God of your fathers,[a] the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.”
Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God.
7 The Lord said, “I have certainly seen the misery of my people in Egypt, and I have heard their cry for help because of their slave drivers. Yes, I am aware of their suffering. 8 So I have come down to deliver them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and spacious land, to a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. 9 Now indeed, the Israelites’ cry for help has come to me. Yes, I have seen how the Egyptians are oppressing them. 10 Come now, I will send you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.”
11 But Moses said to God, “Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the Israelites out of Egypt?”
12 So he said, “I will certainly be with you. This will be the sign to you that I have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will serve God on this mountain.”
Stephen Defends Himself
7 Then the high priest asked, “Are these things true?”
2 Stephen said, “Gentlemen, brothers and fathers, listen! The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran. 3 God said to him, ‘Leave your land and your relatives and come to the land that I will show you.’[a]
4 “Then he left the land of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran. After his father died, God had him move from there to this land where you are now living.
5 “He gave him no inheritance in this land, not even enough to set his foot on. But God promised to give it as a possession to him and to his descendants[b] after him,[c] even though Abraham still had no child. 6 God revealed that his descendants[d] would live as strangers in a foreign country, and that they would be enslaved and mistreated for four hundred years. 7 God added, ‘I will judge the nation that they will serve as slaves, and after that they will leave there and serve me in this place.’[e]
8 “Then he gave Abraham the covenant of circumcision. So Abraham became the father of Isaac and circumcised him on the eighth day. Isaac became the father of Jacob, and Jacob became the father of the twelve patriarchs.
Stephen Defends Himself
9 “The patriarchs, filled with envy, sold Joseph into Egypt, but God was with him. 10 God rescued him from all his troubles and granted him favor and wisdom before Pharaoh, king of Egypt. And Pharaoh made him governor over Egypt and over his whole palace.
11 “A famine came over all of Egypt and Canaan, causing great suffering, and our fathers found no food. 12 But when Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent our fathers on their first visit. 13 On their second visit, Joseph made himself known to his brothers, and Joseph’s family became known to Pharaoh. 14 Then Joseph sent word and invited his father Jacob and all his relatives to come to him, seventy-five people in all. 15 Jacob went down to Egypt, and there he died, he and our fathers. 16 Their bodies were brought back to Shechem and laid in the tomb that Abraham had bought for a sum of silver from the sons of Hamor in Shechem.
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.