Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
BOOK TWO
Psalms 42–72
Psalm 42
For the Music Director. A Contemplative Maskil of the sons of Korah.
1 As the deer pants after the water brooks,
so my soul pants after You, O God.
2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
When will I come and appear before God?
3 My tears have been my food
day and night,
while they always say to me,
“Where is your God?”
4 When I remember these things,
I pour out my soul within me.
For I would travel with the throng of people;
I proceeded with them to the house of God,
with the voice of joy and thanks,
with a multitude making a pilgrimage.
5 Why are you cast down, O my soul?
And why are you disquieted in me?
Hope in God,
for I will yet thank Him
for the help of His presence.
6 O my God, my soul is cast down within me;
therefore I will remember You
from the land of Jordan,
and of the Hermon, from the hill of Mizar.
7 Deep calls to deep
at the noise of Your waterfalls;
all Your waves and Your billows
passed over me.
8 Yet the Lord will command His lovingkindness in the daytime,
and in the night His song will be with me,
a prayer to the God of my life.
9 I will say to God, my rock,
“Why have You forgotten me?
Why do I go mourning
because of the oppression of the enemy?”
10 With shattering in my bones,
those harassing me reproach me,
when they say to me every day,
“Where is your God?”
11 Why, my soul, are you cast down?
Why do you groan within me?
Wait for God;
I will yet thank Him,
For He is my deliverance and my God.
Jethro Counsels Moses
18 Jethro, the priest of Midian, Moses’ father-in-law, heard of all that God had done for Moses, and for Israel His people, and that the Lord had brought Israel out of Egypt.
2 Then Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, took Zipporah, Moses’ wife, after he had sent her back, 3 and her two sons, one of whom was named Gershom; for he said, “I have been a sojourner in a foreign land.” 4 And the name of the other was Eliezer, for he said, “The God of my father was my help, and He delivered me from the sword of Pharaoh.”
5 Then Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, came with his sons and his wife to Moses in the wilderness, where he camped at the mountain of God. 6 And he said to Moses, “I, your father-in-law, Jethro, am coming to you, and your wife, and her two sons with her.”
7 Then Moses went out to meet his father-in-law, and bowed down and kissed him; and they asked each other of the other’s welfare, and then they went into the tent. 8 Moses told his father-in-law all that the Lord had done to Pharaoh and to the Egyptians for Israel’s sake, and all the hardships that had come on them along the way, and how the Lord delivered them.
9 Jethro rejoiced because of all the goodness which the Lord had done for Israel, whom He had delivered out of the hand of the Egyptians. 10 Jethro said, “The Lord be blessed, who has delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians, and out of the hand of Pharaoh, who has delivered the people from under the hand of the Egyptians. 11 Now I know that the Lord is greater than all gods, for in the matter in which they treated the people insolently, He was above them.” 12 Then Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, took a burnt offering and sacrifices for God, and Aaron and all the elders of Israel came to eat bread with Moses’ father-in-law before God.
Paul’s Prayer for the Philippians
3 I thank my God for every reminder of you. 4 In every prayer of mine for you all, I have always made requests with joy, 5 due to your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now. 6 I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Jesus Christ.
7 It is right for me to think this of you all because I have you in my heart, since both in my imprisonments and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, you all are fellow partakers of my grace. 8 For God is my witness, how I long after you all with the affection of Jesus Christ.
9 And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all discernment, 10 that you may approve things that are excellent so that you may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, 11 being filled with the fruit of righteousness, which comes through Jesus Christ, for the glory and praise of God.
To Live Is Christ
12 But I want you to know, brothers, that the things which happened to me have resulted in advancing the gospel, 13 so that my imprisonments in Christ have become known throughout the entire palace guard and to all the rest. 14 And a great many of the brothers in the Lord, having become confident because of my incarcerations, have dared to speak the word without fear.
The Holy Bible, Modern English Version. Copyright © 2014 by Military Bible Association. Published and distributed by Charisma House.