Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
BOOK II (Psalms 42-72)
To the Director: An instruction[a] of the Sons of Korah.
Hope in God When Times of Trouble Come
42 As an antelope pants for streams of water,
so my soul pants for you, God.
2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
When may I come and appear in God’s presence?
3 My tears have been my food day and night,
while people[b] keep asking me all day long,
“Where is your God?”
4 These things I will recall as I pour out my troubles[c] within me:
I used to go with the crowd in a procession to the house of God,
accompanied with shouts of joy and thanksgiving.
5 Why are you in despair, my soul?
Why are you disturbed within me?
Hope in God,
for once again I will praise him,
since his presence saves me.
6 My God, my soul feels depressed[d] within me;
therefore I will remember you from the land of Jordan,
from the heights of Hermon,
even from the foothills.[e]
7 Deep waters call out to what is deeper still;[f]
at the roar of your waterfalls
all your breakers and your waves swirled over me.
8 By day the Lord will command his gracious love,
and by night his song is with me—
a prayer to the God of my life.
9 I will ask God, my Rock, “Why have you forsaken me?
Why do I go around mourning under the enemy’s oppression?”
10 Like the shattering of my bones are the taunts of my oppressors,
saying to me all day long,
“Where is your God?”
11 Why are you in despair, my soul?
Why are you disturbed within me?
Hope in God,
for once again I will praise him,
since his presence saves me
and he is my God.
9 The Lord told Moses, “Look, I’m coming to you in a thick cloud, so that the people may listen when I speak with you and always believe you.” Moses reported the words of the people to the Lord.
Preparation for the Covenant
10 The Lord told Moses, “Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow. They must wash their clothes, 11 and be ready for the third day, for on the third day the Lord will come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people. 12 You are to set boundaries for the people all around: ‘Be very careful that you don’t go up on the mountain or touch the side of it. Anyone who touches the mountain is certainly to be put to death. 13 No hand is to touch that person,[a] but he is certainly to be stoned or shot;[b] whether animal or person, he is not to live.’ They are to approach[c] the mountain only when the ram’s horn sounds a long blast.”
14 When Moses went down from the mountain to the people, he consecrated the people, and they washed their clothes. 15 He told the people, “Be ready for the third day; don’t go near a woman.”[d]
The Lord Appears on Mount Sinai
16 When morning came on the third day, there was thunder and lightning, with a heavy cloud over the mountain, and the very loud sound of a ram’s horn. All the people in the camp trembled. 17 Moses brought the people from the camp to meet God, and they stood at the base of the mountain. 18 Mount Sinai was completely enveloped in smoke because the Lord had come down in fire on it. Smoke went up from it like smoke from a kiln, and the whole mountain shook violently. 19 As the sound of the ram’s horn grew louder and louder, Moses would speak and God would answer with thunder.[e] 20 When the Lord came down on Mount Sinai to the top of the mountain, he[f] summoned Moses to the top of the mountain, and Moses went up.
21 The Lord told Moses, “Go down and warn the people so they don’t break through to look at the Lord, and many of them perish.[g] 22 Even the priests who approach the Lord must consecrate themselves. Otherwise, the Lord will attack them.”
23 Moses told the Lord, “The people cannot come up to Mount Sinai because you warned us: ‘Set boundaries around the mountain and consecrate it.’”[h]
24 The Lord told him, “Go down, and come back up with Aaron, but the priests and the people must not break through to go up to the Lord. Otherwise, he will attack them.” 25 So Moses went down to the people and spoke to them.
2 All at once some people[a] brought him a paralyzed man lying on a stretcher. When Jesus saw their faith, he told the paralyzed man, “Be courageous, son! Your sins are forgiven.”
3 Then some of the scribes told themselves, “This fellow is blaspheming!”
4 But Jesus, knowing[b] what they were thinking, replied, “Why do you have such evil thoughts in your hearts? 5 Which is easier: to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’? 6 But so you will know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins…” he told the paralyzed man, “Get up, pick up your stretcher, and go home!”
7 So the man[c] got up and went home. 8 When the crowds saw this, they became frightened[d] and glorified God for giving such authority to humans.
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