Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
Psalm 20
Prayer for Victory
To the leader. A Psalm of David.
1 The Lord answer you in the day of trouble!
The name of the God of Jacob protect you!(A)
2 May he send you help from the sanctuary
and give you support from Zion.(B)
3 May he remember all your offerings
and regard with favor your burnt sacrifices. Selah(C)
4 May he grant you your heart’s desire
and fulfill all your plans.(D)
5 May we shout for joy over your victory
and in the name of our God set up our banners.
May the Lord fulfill all your petitions.(E)
6 Now I know that the Lord will help his anointed;
he will answer him from his holy heaven
with mighty victories by his right hand.(F)
7 Some take pride in chariots and some in horses,
but our pride is in the name of the Lord our God.(G)
8 They will collapse and fall,
but we shall rise and stand upright.(H)
9 Give victory to the king, O Lord;
answer us when we call.[a]
Offerings for the Tabernacle
25 The Lord said to Moses, 2 “Tell the Israelites to take for me an offering; from all whose hearts prompt them to give you shall receive the offering for me.(A) 3 This is the offering that you shall receive from them: gold, silver, and bronze, 4 blue, purple, and crimson yarns and fine linen, goats’ hair, 5 tanned rams’ skins, fine leather,[a] acacia wood, 6 oil for the lamps, spices for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense,(B) 7 onyx stones and gems to be set in the ephod and for the breastpiece.(C) 8 And they shall make me a sanctuary so that I may dwell among them.(D) 9 In accordance with all that I show you concerning the pattern of the tabernacle and of all its furniture, so you shall make it.(E)
The Ark of the Covenant
10 “They shall make an ark of acacia wood; it shall be two and a half cubits long, a cubit and a half wide, and a cubit and a half high.(F) 11 You shall overlay it with pure gold, inside and outside you shall overlay it, and you shall make a molding of gold upon it all around. 12 You shall cast four rings of gold for it and put them on its four feet, two rings on one side of it and two rings on the other side. 13 You shall make poles of acacia wood and overlay them with gold. 14 And you shall put the poles into the rings on the sides of the ark, for carrying the ark. 15 The poles shall remain in the rings of the ark; they shall not be removed. 16 You shall put the covenant that I am giving you into the ark.(G)
17 “Then you shall make a cover of pure gold; two cubits and a half shall be its length and a cubit and a half its width.(H) 18 You shall make two cherubim of gold; you shall make them of hammered work at the two ends of the cover. 19 Make one cherub at one end and one cherub at the other; of one piece with the cover you shall make the cherubim at its two ends. 20 The cherubim shall spread out their wings above, overshadowing the cover with their wings. They shall face one to another; the faces of the cherubim shall be turned toward the cover.(I) 21 You shall put the cover on the top of the ark, and in the ark you shall put the covenant that I am giving you.(J) 22 There I will meet with you, and from above the cover, from between the two cherubim that are on the ark of the covenant, I will tell you all that I am commanding you for the Israelites.(K)
Proclaiming Christ Crucified
2 When I came to you, brothers and sisters, I did not come proclaiming the testimony[a] of God to you with superior speech or wisdom.(A) 2 For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. 3 And I came to you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling. 4 My speech and my proclamation were made not with persuasive words of wisdom[b] but with a demonstration of the Spirit and of power,(B) 5 so that your faith might rest not on human wisdom but on the power of God.
The True Wisdom of God
6 Yet among the mature we do speak wisdom, though it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are being destroyed.(C) 7 But we speak God’s wisdom, a hidden mystery, which God decreed before the ages for our glory 8 and which none of the rulers of this age understood, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. 9 But, as it is written,
“What no eye has seen, nor ear heard,
nor the human heart conceived,
what God has prepared for those who love him”—(D)
10 God has revealed to us through the Spirit, for the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God.(E)
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.