Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
Psalm 102
A prayer of the weak and oppressed, when he turns his complaints to the Eternal.
1 Hear me, O Eternal One, hear my prayer!
Hear my lonely desperate cry for help.
2 Do not hide from me
when my days are filled with anguish;
Lend Your ear to my wailing,
and answer me quickly when I call.
3 For my days come and go, vanishing like smoke,
and my bones are charred like bricks of a hearth.
4 My heart is beaten down like grass withered and scorched in the summer heat;
I can’t even remember to eat.
5 My body is shaken by my groans;
my bones cling to my skin, holding on for dear life.
6 I am like a solitary owl in the wilderness;
I am a lost and lonely screech owl at home in the rubble.
7 I stare at the ceiling, awake in my bed;
I am alone, a defenseless sparrow perched on a roof.
8 All day long my enemies chide me;
those who mock me spit out my name as a curse.
9 For ashes have become my bread;
my tears fall into my drink
10 Because of the depth of Your wrath.
You have brought me up
and then hurled me aside.
11 My days go by like a long shadow—stretched thin and disappearing—
I shrivel up like grass baked in the hot sun.
12 But You, O Eternal One, remain forever,
and Your name endures to all generations.
13 You will rise up once again and remember Your love for Zion;
it is time to have mercy on Your city;
yes, it is the divinely appointed time.
14 Your faithful servants take pleasure in her every stone;
they even delight in the dust of her streets.
15 Days are coming when nations will tremble at the name of the Eternal;
all the rulers of the earth will bow down to Your glory.
16 For He will return to rebuild His city, Zion;
He will be seen in His splendor.
17 He will listen to the prayer of the impoverished
and welcome their prayers.
17 After Pharaoh sent the people out, God did not take them by the coastal road that runs through the land of the Philistines, even though that was the nearest and easiest route. Instead, God said, “For if they see battle with those contentious Philistines, they might regret their decision and then return to Egypt.” 18 So God chose a different, longer path that led the community of His people through the desert toward the Red Sea. The Israelites marched out of the land of Egypt like an army ready for battle.
19 Moses took the bones of Joseph with him, for Joseph made the Israelites swear an oath, “God will certainly come and rescue you. Carry my bones with you when you leave this place.”[a]
20 The people of Israel departed from Succoth and set up camp in Etham at the edge of the desert. 21 The Eternal went on ahead to guide them during the day in a cloud shaped like a pillar; at night He appeared to them in a fire shaped like a pillar to light their way. So they were able to travel by day and by night. 22 The Eternal did not remove the cloud pillar or the fire pillar; by day and by night it continued to go ahead of the people.
17 Still God’s promise to Abraham had not yet been fulfilled, but the time for that fulfillment was drawing very near. In the meantime, our ancestors living in Egypt rapidly multiplied. 18 Eventually a new king came to power—one who had not known Joseph when he was the most powerful man in Egypt. 19 This new leader feared the growing population of our ancestors and manipulated them for his own benefit, eventually seeking to control their population by forcing them to abandon their infants so they would die. 20 Into this horrible situation our ancestor Moses was born, and he was a beautiful child in God’s eyes. He was raised for three months in his father’s home, 21 and then he was abandoned as the brutal regime required. However, Pharaoh’s daughter found, adopted, and raised him as her own son. 22 So Moses learned the culture and wisdom of the Egyptians and became a powerful man—both as an intellectual and as a leader. 23 When he reached the age of 40, his heart drew him to visit his kinfolk, our ancestors, the Israelites. 24 During his visit, he saw one of our people being wronged, and he took sides with our people by killing an Egyptian. 25 He thought his kinfolk would recognize him as their God-given liberator, but they didn’t realize who he was and what he represented.
26 The next day Moses was walking among the Israelites again when he observed a fight—but this time, it was between two Israelites. He intervened and tried to reconcile the men. “You two are brothers,” he said. “Why do you attack each other?” 27 But the aggressor pushed Moses away and responded with contempt: “Who made you our prince and judge? 28 Are you going to slay me and hide my body as you did with the Egyptian yesterday?”[a] 29 Realizing this murder had not gone unnoticed, he quickly escaped Egypt and lived as a refugee in the land of Midian. He married there and had two sons.
30 Forty more years passed. One day while Moses was in the desert near Mount Sinai, a heavenly messenger appeared to him in the flames of a burning bush. 31 The phenomenon intrigued Moses; and as he approached for a closer look, he heard a voice—the voice of the Lord: 32 “I am the God of your own fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.”[b] This terrified Moses—he began to tremble and looked away in fear. 33 The voice continued: “Take off your sandals and stand barefoot on the ground in My presence, for this ground is holy ground. 34 I have avidly watched how My people are being mistreated by the Egyptians. I have heard their groaning at the treatment of their oppressors. I am descending personally to rescue them. So get up. I’m sending you to Egypt.”[c]
35 Now remember: this was the same Moses who had been rejected by his kinfolk when they said, “Who made you our prince and judge?” This man, rejected by his own people, was the one God had truly sent and commissioned by the heavenly messenger who appeared in the bush, to be their leader and deliverer.
36 Moses indeed led our ancestors to freedom, and he performed miraculous signs and wonders in Egypt, at the Red Sea, and in the wilderness over a period of 40 years. 37 This Moses promised our ancestors, “The Eternal One your God will raise up from among your people a Prophet who will be like me.”[d] 38 This is the same one who led the people to Mount Sinai, where a heavenly messenger spoke to him and our ancestors, and who received the living message of God to give to us.
39 But our ancestors still resisted. They again pushed Moses away and refused to follow him. In their hearts, they were ready to return to their former slavery in Egypt. 40 While Moses was on the mountain communing with God, they begged Aaron to make idols to lead them. “We have no idea what happened to this fellow, Moses, who brought us from Egypt,”[e] they said.
The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.