Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
BOOK TWO
(Psalms 42–72)
For the choir director; a maskil [a] by Korah’s descendants.
42 As a deer longs for flowing streams,
so my soul longs for you, O God.
2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
When may I come to see God’s face?
3 My tears are my food day and night.
People ask me all day long, “Where is your God?”
4 I will remember these things as I pour out my soul:
how I used to walk with the crowd
and lead it in a procession to God’s house.
⌞I sang⌟ songs of joy and thanksgiving
while crowds of people celebrated a festival.
5 Why are you discouraged, my soul?
Why are you so restless?
Put your hope in God,
because I will still praise him.
He is my savior and my God.
6 My soul is discouraged.
That is why I will remember you
in the land of Jordan, on the peaks of Hermon, on Mount Mizar.
7 One deep sea calls to another at the roar of your waterspouts.
All the whitecaps on your waves have swept over me.
8 The Lord commands his mercy during the day,
and at night his song is with me—
a prayer to the God of my life.
9 I will ask God, my rock,
“Why have you forgotten me?
Why must I walk around in mourning
while the enemy oppresses me?”
10 With a shattering blow to my bones,
my enemies taunt me.
They ask me all day long, “Where is your God?”
11 Why are you discouraged, my soul?
Why are you so restless?
Put your hope in God,
because I will still praise him.
He is my savior and my God.
9 The Lord said to Moses, “I am coming to you in a storm cloud so that the people will hear me speaking with you and will always believe you.” Moses told the Lord what the people had said.
10 So the Lord said to Moses, “Go to the people, and tell them they have two days to get ready. They must set themselves apart as holy. Have them wash their clothes 11 and be ready by the day after tomorrow. On that day the Lord will come down on Mount Sinai as all the people watch. 12 Mark off a boundary around the mountain for the people, and tell them not to go up the mountain or even touch it. Those who touch the mountain must be put to death. 13 No one should touch them. They must be stoned or shot with arrows. No matter whether it’s an animal or a person, it must not live. The people may go up the mountain ⌞only⌟ when the ram’s horn sounds a long blast.”
14 After Moses went down the mountain to the people, he had them get ready, and they washed their clothes. 15 Then Moses said to the people, “Be ready two days from now. Don’t disqualify yourselves by having sexual intercourse.”
16 On the morning of the second day, there was thunder and lightning with a heavy cloud over the mountain, and a very loud blast from a ram’s horn ⌞was heard⌟. All the people in the camp shook with fear. 17 Then Moses led the people out of the camp to meet with God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain. 18 All of Mount Sinai was covered with smoke because the Lord had come down on it in fire. Smoke rose from the mountain like the smoke from a kiln, and the whole mountain shook violently. 19 As the sound of the horn grew louder and louder, Moses was speaking, and the voice of God answered him.
20 The Lord came down on top of Mount Sinai and called Moses to the top of the mountain. So Moses went up. 21 The Lord said to him, “Go down and warn the people not to force their way through ⌞the boundary⌟ to see the Lord, or many of them will die. 22 Even the priests who are allowed to come near the Lord must set themselves apart as holy, or the Lord will violently kill them.”
23 Moses said to the Lord, “The people can’t come up Mount Sinai, because you warned us yourself to mark off a boundary around the mountain and consider it holy.”
24 The Lord said to him, “Go down, and bring Aaron back with you. But the priests and the people must not force their way through the boundary to come up to the Lord, or he will violently kill them.”
25 So Moses went down to the people and told them.
2 Some people brought him a paralyzed man on a stretcher.
When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the man, “Cheer up, friend! Your sins are forgiven.”
3 Then some of the experts in Moses’ Teachings thought, “He’s dishonoring God.”
4 Jesus knew what they were thinking. He asked them, “Why are you thinking evil things? 5 Is it easier to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’? 6 I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.” Then he said to the paralyzed man, “Get up, pick up your stretcher, and go home.”
7 So the man got up and went home. 8 When the crowd saw this, they were filled with awe and praised God for giving such authority to humans.
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