◀ All Reading Plans / Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous) / Psalm 42 (Hope in God the rock); Exodus 18:1-12 (Moses reunited with family); Philippians 1:3-14 (Paul prays for the Philippians) (New Catholic Bible)

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October 2, 2023

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Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Daily Bible readings that follow the church liturgical year, with sequential stories told across multiple weeks.

Duration: 1245 days

Psalm 42

Book II—Psalms 42–72^[a]

Psalm 42^[b]

Prayer of Longing for God

¹For the director.^[c] A maskil of the sons of Korah.

²As a deer longs for running streams,
    so my soul longs for you, O God.^[d]
³My soul^[e] thirsts for God, the living God.
    When shall I come to behold the face of God?
⁴My tears have become my food
    day and night,
while people taunt me all day long, saying,
    “Where is your God?”
⁵As I pour out my soul,
    I recall those times
when I journeyed with the multitude
    and led them in procession to the house of God,
amid loud cries of joy and thanksgiving
    on the part of the crowd keeping festival.
⁶Why are you so disheartened, O my soul?
    Why do you sigh within me?
Place your hope in God,
    for I will once again praise him,
    my Savior and my God.^[f]
⁷My soul is disheartened within me;
    therefore, I remember you
from the land of Jordan and Hermon,
    from Mount Mizar.^[g]
⁸The depths of the sea resound
    in the roar of your waterfalls;^[h]
all your waves and your breakers
    sweep over me.
⁹During the day the Lord grants his kindness,
    and at night his praise is with me,
    a prayer to the living God.^[i]
¹⁰I say to God, my Rock,^[j]
    “Why have you forgotten me?
Why must I go about in mourning
    while my enemy oppresses me?”
¹¹It crushes my bones
    when my foes taunt me,
jeering at me all day long,
    “Where is your God?”^[k]
¹²Why are you so disheartened, O my soul?
    Why do you sigh within me?
Place your hope in God;
    for I will once again praise him,
    my Savior and my God.^[l]

Footnotes

Psalm 42:1 The drama of the righteous confronted with the rise of evil terminated Book I of the Psalter. This conflict remains, but other themes come to the fore with greater insistence. Now the prayer often evinces a desire for God and to be far from human beings, oftentimes with a more mystical note added. At other times, crucial moments of history will appear to provoke alternatively both praise and supplication: the drama of the righteous remains—as that of the people. In short, in the psalms that follow, the collective aspect will be readily underlined.
Psalm 42:1 This psalm, which really forms one with the next psalm, has a fascinating literary beauty but also expresses feeling of a rare kind. It is the lament of the exiled Levite combining nostalgia, distress, and fervent desire. Living in a foreign land, far from the temple of Jerusalem, the sole place where it was believed one would encounter God, the sacred ministers feel the Exile more deeply; the sanctuary is the only place where they find their happiness. They are the first to suffer the mockings of the pagans, who do not recognize the God to whom they have dedicated their lives. Three times the lament is voiced, and three times the chant that gives hope is also uttered, as the psalm vibrantly expresses the fervor for the temple, where the people flocked to celebrate the love and presence of God.
At the heart of this fervor we glimpse the deepest human yearning: the desire for God. It is this that here on earth inspires the candidates who seek to enter the Church, the “house of God,” and we also place it on the lips of the dead who are waiting to be admitted into the new Jerusalem, the heavenly city of God. Consecrated men and women also recognize herein the movement of their souls. Is not this the sublime desire at the root of all human restlessness? Down the centuries Augustine has proclaimed: “Our hearts are restless until they rest in you.”
Psalm 42:1 For the director: these words are thought to be a musical or liturgical notation. Maskil: see note on Ps 32:1a. Sons of Korah: Levites (see 1 Chr 26:19). In Book II, seven psalms bear this inscription (Pss 42; 44–49) and four in Book III (Pss 84–85; 87–88).
Psalm 42:2 God: from Pss 42 to 89, the ineffable tetragrammaton (“Yahweh”) is generally replaced by “God” (“Elohim”), marking this as the “Elohist Psalter.”
Psalm 42:3 Soul: see note on Ps 6:4. Living God: see Deut 5:26. Behold the face of God: here the phrase is taken to mean God’s personal presence (see Gen 33:10; Ex 10:28f). In other places the expression “see God” (or “see the face of God”) indicates the presence of God in the temple (see Pss 11:7; 17:15; 63:3; Ex 24:10; 33:7-11; Job 33:26).
Psalm 42:6 Why . . . my God: this refrain appears three times in this double psalm (vv. 6, 12; 43:5) and indicates that the two parts were originally one psalm (see note on v. 12).
Psalm 42:7 Mount Mizar: not identified. The translation from the land . . . supposes a Levite exiled to the springs of the Jordan, at the foot of Mount Hermon. If we think of him as exiled in Babylon, the translation would be: “I will remember you / more than the land of the Jordan and Hermon, / than the lowly mountain [Zion].”
Psalm 42:8 The depths of the sea resound . . . your waterfalls: the psalmist alludes to the “waterfalls” that carry God’s waters from the “depths” above to the “depths” below (see note on Ps 36:9), bringing God’s breakers sweeping over him (see Pss 69:2f; 88:8; Jon 2:3, 5). And God is involved in this danger of water toward the psalmist (see note on Ps 32:6)—he lets it happen.
Psalm 42:9 Nonetheless, the psalmist is confident of God’s kindness, and this sustains him (see note on Ps 6:5). The living God: some propose the translation: “the God of my life” and understand it as the “God who gives me life.”
Psalm 42:10 Rock: see note on Ps 18:3. Why . . . ? Why . . . ?: see note on Ps 6:4.
Psalm 42:11 The psalmist has been abandoned by God to his godless enemies, who taunt him with the words “Where is your God?” He resembles a dying man, and his whole being (bones; see note on Ps 34:20-21) is distressed by his foes and by God’s silence.
Psalm 42:12 The refrain is voiced for the second time in this double-psalm (see v. 6, above) and will be repeated once more in Ps 43:5. This threefold refrain reflects the attitude of many of God’s people during the Exile or any crisis situation. In such loneliness and alienation, faith is tried and leads to salvation. For hope is mindful of the Lord’s glorious works of salvation and victory recounted in the sacred writings. See Mt 26:38 for the application of these words to Christ’s agony in the Garden of Gethsemane.

Exodus 18:1-12

Chapter 18

Moses Visited by His Father-in-Law.^[a] ¹Jethro, the priest of Midian and the father-in-law of Moses, came to know what God had done for Moses and for Israel, his people, and how the Lord had brought Israel out of Egypt.

²Jethro brought Zipporah, the wife of Moses, with him, for he had sent her back to him, ³and also her two sons. One son was named Gershom, for he had said, “I am a stranger in a strange land,” ⁴and the other named Eliezer, for he had said, “The God of my father has come to my assistance and has freed me from the sword of Pharaoh.”

⁵Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, and the sons and wife of Moses came to him in the desert where he was camped, near the mountain of God. ⁶He had it announced to Moses, “It is I, Jethro, your father-in-law. I have come with your wife and your two sons.”

⁷Moses went out to meet his father-in-law. He bowed before him and kissed him. They inquired about each other’s health, and then went into their tent. ⁸Moses told his father-in-law what the Lord had done to Pharaoh and the Egyptians for the children of Israel, and also about all the difficulties that they had encountered during their journey, and from which the Lord had delivered them.

⁹Jethro rejoiced over all the blessings that the Lord had shown to Israel when he liberated it from the hands of the Egyptians. ¹⁰Jethro said, “Blessed be the Lord, who freed you from the hands of the Egyptians and from the hands of Pharaoh. He delivered this people from the hands of the Egyptians. ¹¹Now I know that the Lord is the greatest of all gods because of what he has done to the Egyptians. He delivered them from their hands when they acted arrogantly.”

¹²Jethro, the father-in-law of Moses, offered a burnt offering and sacrificed to God. Aaron and all the elders of Israel came and ate a banquet with the father-in-law of Moses before God.

Philippians 1:3-14

Joyful Prayer for the Philippians.^[a] ³I give thanks to my God every time I think of you. ⁴I always pray for you, interceding for you with joy ⁵because of your sharing in the gospel from the first day until now. ⁶I am confident of this: that the one who began a good work in you will bring it to completion on the day of Christ Jesus.^[b]

⁷It is only right for me to feel this way toward you, because I hold you in my heart, for you have all shared with me in God’s grace, both during my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel. ⁸Indeed, God is my witness how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus.

⁹And for this I pray: that your love may increase ever more and more in knowledge and full insight ¹⁰to enable you to discover what is really important, so that on the day of Christ you may be pure and blameless, ¹¹filled with the fruits of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ for the glory and praise of God.

News and Instructions

¹²To Live Is Christ.^[c] Brethren, I want you to know that what has happened to me has actually helped spread the gospel, ¹³for my imprisonment has become known not only throughout the praetorium^[d] but to everyone else as well. ¹⁴And the majority of the brethren having taken encouragement in the Lord from my imprisonment, dare more than ever to proclaim the word without fear.

Footnotes

Philippians 1:3 This prayer, filled with confidence and thanksgiving, gives us a glimpse of the deep attachment held by Paul, the prisoner, for the living community of Philippi that shares his concerns and his initiatives. He regards the action and life of Christians as a project that must be ceaselessly developed until the encounter with Christ at his Second Coming. Hence, he prays that believers might have the spiritual sense that will enable them to take hold of the essential, i.e., the very will of the Lord, in any situation: faith and love will help discern what is the best thing for them to do.
Philippians 1:6 The day of Christ Jesus: the Second Coming of the Lord in all his glory, when the faithful will be with him and will share in eternal glory (see 1 Cor 1:8; Phil 1:10; 2:16; 3:20f; 1 Thes 4:17; 5:10; 2 Thes 1:10).
Philippians 1:12 Little concerned for his own fate, the prisoner is interested only in the progress of the Good News of Christ. Certain missionaries, jealous of his success among the Gentiles, profit from his captivity to gain influence at his expense (see 1 Cor 1). Far from taking offense, Paul is able to rejoice in this: for it means that Christ is better known and loved.
Never before has he let his readers discern the profound bond that unites him to Jesus, a bond inaugurated by Baptism and sealed by the Eucharist but a bond that is lived in the whole initiative of his existence. He has already attained his spiritual maturity, and all his desire is fixed on Christ. As in the Second Letter to the Corinthians (5:6-8), he lets us glimpse his eager longing for an immediate meeting with the Savior. There is a part of him that can no longer wait for the day of the resurrection. This striking text constitutes one of the highest points of Christian mysticism.
Philippians 1:13 Praetorium: this may refer to the praetorian guard in the city of Paul’s imprisonment or to the governor’s residence in a Roman province (see Mk 15:16; Acts 23:35).

New Catholic Bible (NCB)

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Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Book II—Psalms 42–72[a]

Psalm 42[b]

Prayer of Longing for God

Footnotes

Chapter 18

Footnotes

News and Instructions

Footnotes

Book II—Psalms 42–72^[a]

Psalm 42^[b]