Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
Psalm 97
The Glory of God’s Reign
1 The Lord is king! Let the earth rejoice;
let the many coastlands be glad!(A)
2 Clouds and thick darkness are all around him;
righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne.(B)
3 Fire goes before him
and consumes his adversaries on every side.(C)
4 His lightnings light up the world;
the earth sees and trembles.
5 The mountains melt like wax before the Lord,
before the Lord of all the earth.(D)
6 The heavens proclaim his righteousness,
and all the peoples behold his glory.
7 All servants of images are put to shame,
those who make their boast in worthless idols;
all gods bow down before him.(E)
8 Zion hears and is glad,
and the towns[a] of Judah rejoice
because of your judgments, O God.(F)
9 For you, O Lord, are most high over all the earth;
you are exalted far above all gods.(G)
The Command to Leave Sinai
33 The Lord said to Moses, “Go, leave this place, you and the people whom you have brought up out of the land of Egypt, and go to the land of which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying, ‘To your descendants I will give it.’(A) 2 I will send an angel before you, and I will drive out the Canaanites, the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.(B) 3 Go up[a] to a land flowing with milk and honey, but I will not go up among you, or I would consume you on the way, for you are a stiff-necked people.”(C)
4 When the people heard these harsh words, they mourned, and no one put on ornaments.(D) 5 For the Lord had said to Moses, “Say to the Israelites, ‘You are a stiff-necked people; if for a single moment I should go up among you, I would consume you. So now take off your ornaments, and I will decide what to do to you.’ ” 6 Therefore the Israelites stripped themselves of their ornaments, from Mount Horeb onward.
13 Brothers and sisters, I do not consider that I have laid hold[a] of it, but one thing I have laid hold of: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead,(A) 14 I press on toward the goal, toward the prize of the heavenly[b] call of God in Christ Jesus.(B) 15 Let those of us, then, who are mature[c] think this way, and if you think differently about anything, this, too, God will reveal to you.(C) 16 Only let us hold fast to what we have attained.(D)
17 Brothers and sisters, join in imitating me, and observe those who live according to the example you have in us.(E) 18 For many live as enemies of the cross of Christ; I have often told you of them, and now I tell you even with tears.(F) 19 Their end is destruction, their god is the belly, and their glory is in their shame; their minds are set on earthly things.(G) 20 But our citizenship[d] is in heaven, and it is from there that we are expecting a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. 21 He will transform the body of our humiliation[e] that it may be conformed to the body of his glory,[f] by the power that also enables him to make all things subject to himself.(H) 4 1
New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.