Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
Psalm 63
Comfort and Assurance in God’s Presence
A Psalm of David, when he was in the Wilderness of Judah.
1 O God, you are my God; I seek you;
my soul thirsts for you;
my flesh faints for you,
as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.(A)
2 So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary,
beholding your power and glory.(B)
3 Because your steadfast love is better than life,
my lips will praise you.(C)
4 So I will bless you as long as I live;
I will lift up my hands and call on your name.(D)
5 My soul is satisfied as with a rich feast,[a]
and my mouth praises you with joyful lips(E)
6 when I think of you on my bed
and meditate on you in the watches of the night,(F)
7 for you have been my help,
and in the shadow of your wings I sing for joy.(G)
8 My soul clings to you;
your right hand upholds me.(H)
Spies Sent into Canaan
13 The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 2 “Send men to spy out the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the Israelites; from each of their ancestral tribes you shall send a man, every one a leader among them.”(A)
17 Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan and said to them, “Go up there into the Negeb, and go up into the hill country,(A) 18 and see what the land is like and whether the people who live in it are strong or weak, whether they are few or many, 19 and whether the land they live in is good or bad, and whether the towns that they live in are unwalled or fortified, 20 and whether the land is rich or poor, and whether there are trees in it or not. Be bold, and bring some of the fruit of the land.” Now it was the season of the first ripe grapes.(B)
21 So they went up and spied out the land from the wilderness of Zin to Rehob, near Lebo-hamath. 22 They went up into the Negeb and came to Hebron, and Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, the Anakites, were there. (Hebron was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt.)(C) 23 And they came to the Wadi Eshcol and cut down from there a branch with a single cluster of grapes, and they carried it on a pole between two of them. They also brought some pomegranates and figs. 24 That place was called the Wadi Eshcol[a] because of the cluster that the Israelites cut down from there.
The Report of the Spies
25 At the end of forty days they returned from spying out the land. 26 And they came to Moses and Aaron and to all the congregation of the Israelites in the wilderness of Paran, at Kadesh; they brought back word to them and to all the congregation and showed them the fruit of the land.(D) 27 And they reported to him and said, “We came to the land to which you sent us; it flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit.(E) 28 Yet the people who live in the land are strong, and the towns are fortified and very large, and besides, we saw the descendants of Anak there.(F) 29 The Amalekites live in the land of the Negeb; the Hittites, the Jebusites, and the Amorites live in the hill country, and the Canaanites live by the sea and along the Jordan.”(G)
30 But Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, “Let us go up at once and occupy it, for we are well able to overcome it.”(H) 31 Then the men who had gone up with him said, “We are not able to go up against this people, for they are stronger than we.”(I) 32 So they brought to the Israelites an unfavorable report of the land that they had spied out, saying, “The land that we have gone through as spies is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people that we saw in it are of great size.(J) 33 There we saw the Nephilim (the Anakites come from the Nephilim), and to ourselves we seemed like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them.”(K)
The People Rebel
14 Then all the congregation raised a loud cry, and the people wept that night. 2 And all the Israelites complained against Moses and Aaron; the whole congregation said to them, “Would that we had died in the land of Egypt! Or would that we had died in this wilderness!(L) 3 Why is the Lord bringing us into this land to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will become plunder; would it not be better for us to go back to Egypt?” 4 So they said to one another, “Let us choose a captain and go back to Egypt.”
5 Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the Israelites.(M) 6 And Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh, who were among those who had spied out the land, tore their clothes 7 and said to all the congregation of the Israelites, “The land that we went through as spies is an exceedingly good land.(N) 8 If the Lord is pleased with us, he will bring us into this land and give it to us, a land that flows with milk and honey.(O) 9 Only, do not rebel against the Lord, and do not fear the people of the land, for they are no more than bread for us; their protection is removed from them, and the Lord is with us; do not fear them.”(P)
Jesus Again Foretells His Death and Resurrection
22 As they were gathering[a] in Galilee, Jesus said to them, “The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into human hands,(A) 23 and they will kill him, and on the third day he will be raised.” And they were greatly distressed.
Jesus and the Temple Tax
24 When they reached Capernaum, the collectors of the temple tax came to Peter and said, “Does your teacher not pay the temple tax?”(B) 25 He said, “Yes, he does.” And when he came home, Jesus spoke of it first, asking, “What do you think, Simon? From whom do kings of the earth take toll or tribute? From their children or from others?”(C) 26 When Peter[b] said, “From others,” Jesus said to him, “Then the children are free. 27 However, so that we do not give offense to them, go to the sea and cast a hook; take the first fish that comes up, and when you open its mouth you will find a coin; take that and give it to them for you and me.”(D)
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.