Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

42 As the deer pants for water, so I long for you, O God. ² I thirst for God, the living God. Where can I find him to come and stand before him? ³ Day and night I weep for his help, and all the while my enemies taunt me. “Where is this God of yours?” they scoff.

^4-5 Take courage, my soul! Do you remember those times (but how could you ever forget them!) when you led a great procession to the Temple on festival days, singing with joy, praising the Lord? Why then be downcast? Why be discouraged and sad? Hope in God! I shall yet praise him again. Yes, I shall again praise him for his help.^[a]

⁶ Yet I am standing here depressed and gloomy, but I will meditate upon your kindness to this lovely land where the Jordan River flows and where Mount Hermon and Mount Mizar stand. ⁷ All your waves and billows have gone over me, and floods of sorrow pour upon me like a thundering cataract.^[b]

⁸ Yet day by day the Lord also pours out his steadfast love upon me, and through the night I sing his songs and pray to God who gives me life.

⁹ “O God my Rock,” I cry, “why have you forsaken me? Why must I suffer these attacks from my enemies?” ¹⁰ Their taunts pierce me like a fatal wound; again and again they scoff, “Where is that God of yours?” ¹¹ But, O my soul, don’t be discouraged. Don’t be upset. Expect God to act! For I know that I shall again have plenty of reason to praise him for all that he will do. He is my help! He is my God!

18 Word soon reached Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, the priest of Midian, about all the wonderful things God had done for his people and for Moses, and how the Lord had brought them out of Egypt.

² Then Jethro took Moses’ wife, Zipporah, to him (for he had sent her home), ³ along with Moses’ two sons, Gershom (meaning “foreigner,” for Moses said when he was born, “I have been wandering in a foreign land”) ⁴ and Eliezer (meaning “God is my help,” for Moses said at his birth, “The God of my fathers was my helper and delivered me from the sword of Pharaoh”). ^5-6 They arrived while Moses and the people were camped at Mount Sinai.^[a]

“Jethro, your father-in-law, has come to visit you,” Moses was told, “and he has brought your wife and your two sons.”

⁷ Moses went out to meet his father-in-law and greeted him warmly; they asked about each other’s health and then went into Moses’ tent to talk further. ⁸ Moses related to his father-in-law all that had been happening and what the Lord had done to Pharaoh and the Egyptians in order to deliver Israel, and all the problems there had been along the way, and how the Lord had delivered his people from all of them. ⁹ Jethro was very happy about everything the Lord had done for Israel, and about his bringing them out of Egypt.

¹⁰ “Bless the Lord,” Jethro said, “for he has saved you from the Egyptians and from Pharaoh, and has rescued Israel. ¹¹ I know now that the Lord is greater than any other god because he delivered his people from the proud and cruel Egyptians.”

¹² Jethro offered sacrifices to God,^[b] and afterwards Aaron and the leaders of Israel came to meet Jethro, and they all ate the sacrificial meal together before the Lord.

³ All my prayers for you are full of praise to God! ⁴ When I pray for you, my heart is full of joy ⁵ because of all your wonderful help in making known the Good News about Christ from the time you first heard it until now. ⁶ And I am sure that God who began the good work within you will keep right on helping you grow in his grace until his task within you is finally finished on that day when Jesus Christ returns.

⁷ How natural it is that I should feel as I do about you, for you have a very special place in my heart. We have shared together the blessings of God, both when I was in prison and when I was out, defending the truth and telling others about Christ. ⁸ Only God knows how deep is my love and longing for you—with the tenderness of Jesus Christ. ⁹ My prayer for you is that you will overflow more and more with love for others, and at the same time keep on growing in spiritual knowledge and insight, ¹⁰ for I want you always to see clearly the difference between right and wrong, and to be inwardly clean, no one being able to criticize you from now until our Lord returns. ¹¹ May you always be doing those good, kind things that show you are a child of God, for this will bring much praise and glory to the Lord.

¹² And I want you to know this, dear brothers: Everything that has happened to me here has been a great boost in getting out the Good News concerning Christ. ¹³ For everyone around here, including all the soldiers over at the barracks, knows that I am in chains simply because I am a Christian. ¹⁴ And because of my imprisonment, many of the Christians here seem to have lost their fear of chains! Somehow my patience has encouraged them, and they have become more and more bold in telling others about Christ.