Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Psalm 99

¹ The Lord reigns, let the peoples tremble [with reverential fear]! He sits [enthroned] above the cherubim, let the earth quake!

² The Lord is great in Zion, and He is high above all the peoples.

³ Let them confess and praise Your great name, awesome and reverence inspiring! It is holy, and holy is He!^(A)

⁴ The strength of the king who loves righteousness and equity You establish in uprightness; You execute justice and righteousness in Jacob (Israel).

⁵ Extol the Lord our God and worship at His footstool! Holy is He!

⁶ Moses and Aaron were among His priests, and Samuel was among those who called upon His name; they called upon the Lord, and He answered them.

⁷ He spoke to them in the pillar of cloud; they kept His testimonies and the statutes that He gave them.^(B)

⁸ You answered them, O Lord our God; You were a forgiving God to them, although avenging their evildoing and wicked practices.

⁹ Extol the Lord our God and worship at His holy hill, for the Lord our God is holy!

⁷ Now Moses used to take [his own] tent and pitch it outside the camp, far off from the camp, and he called it the tent of meeting [of God with His own people]. And everyone who sought the Lord went out to [that temporary] tent of meeting which was outside the camp.

⁸ When Moses went out to the tent of meeting, all the people rose and stood, every man at his tent door, and looked after Moses until he had gone into the tent.

⁹ When Moses entered the tent, the pillar of cloud would descend and stand at the door of the tent, and the Lord would talk with Moses.

¹⁰ And all the people saw the pillar of cloud stand at the tent door, and all the people rose up and worshiped, every man at his tent door.

¹¹ And the Lord spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. Moses returned to the camp, but his minister Joshua son of Nun, a young man, did not depart from the [temporary prayer] tent.

⁹ I have written briefly to the church; but Diotrephes, who likes to take the lead among them and put himself first, does not acknowledge my authority and refuses to accept my suggestions or to listen to me.

¹⁰ So when I arrive, I will call attention to what he is doing, his boiling over and casting malicious reflections upon us with insinuating language. And not satisfied with that, he refuses to receive and welcome the [missionary] brethren himself, and also interferes with and forbids those who would welcome them, and tries to expel (excommunicate) them from the church.

¹¹ Beloved, do not imitate evil, but imitate good. He who does good is of God; he who does evil has not seen (discerned or experienced) God [has enjoyed no vision of Him and does not know Him at all].

¹² Demetrius has warm commendation from everyone—and from the Truth itself; we add our testimony also, and you know that our testimony is true.