Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
Worship God and obey him[a]
95 Come now! Let us sing together to worship the Lord!
We will shout aloud
to praise God, the strong Rock who makes us safe!
2 Let us come near to God
and thank him![b]
Let us sing songs to praise him,
because we are so happy!
3 Yes, the Lord is the great God.
He is the great king who rules over all gods.
4 The deepest places of the earth are in his hand.
The highest mountains belong to him.
5 The seas are his,
because he made them.
He also made the dry land,
with his own hands.
6 Come now! Let us bend down to worship him!
Let us bend our knees in front of the Lord.
He is the one who made us.
7 He is our God.
He takes care of us,
like a shepherd takes care of his sheep.[c]
As his sheep, he gives us what we need.
Today, you must listen to him
and obey him.
8 He says, ‘Do not refuse to obey me,
like my people did at Meribah.
They also did that one day at Massah,
in the desert.
9 Your ancestors tested me there,
to see if I would punish them.
But they had already seen the great things
that I had done for them!
10 So I was angry with those people
all the time for 40 years.
I said, “These people love to go the wrong way.
They refuse to follow my ways.”
11 I was very angry and I promised,
“They will never come into my place of rest.” ’[d]
David becomes king[a]
11 Then all the Israelites came to David at Hebron. They said to him, ‘We all belong to the same family as you do. 2 In the past, even when Saul was our king, you led the Israelites in war. The Lord your God said to you, “You will take care of my people, as a shepherd takes care of his sheep. You will rule over my people, Israel.” ’
3 So King David made an agreement with the leaders of Israel when they came to him at Hebron. They made promises in the Lord's name. Then they anointed David to be king over Israel. The Lord had told Samuel that this would happen.
David and his men attack Jerusalem
4 David and the whole Israelite army marched to attack Jerusalem. At that time, the city was called Jebus. The people who lived there were called Jebusites. 5 The Jebusites said to David, ‘You will never get into our city.’ But David did get in and he took Zion, the city's strong place. It is now called the City of David.
6 David had said to his soldiers, ‘The man who attacks the Jebusites first will become the captain of my army.’ Zeruiah's son Joab attacked first. So he became the captain of the army.
7 David went to live in the strong place of the city. So people called it ‘The City of David’. 8 David built more houses all around it, from the edge of the hill to the city's walls. Joab built up again the other buildings in the city. 9 David became more and more powerful because the Lord Almighty was with him.
13 Then one of the leaders asked me, ‘Who are these people in white clothes? Where did they come from?’
14 I replied, ‘You surely know who they are, sir.’
He said to me, ‘They are the people who have had a time of very bad trouble. Now they have come out of that. They have washed their clothes in the blood of the Lamb. Now their clothes are white and clean.[a] 15 Because of that, they are now standing in front of God's throne. They serve God in his house all the time, day and night. And God will keep them safe because he is with them. 16 They will never again be hungry. They will never be thirsty. The sun will not burn them, nor will any other strong heat burn them. 17 The Lamb is there with them, near to God's throne. He will take care of them, like a shepherd with his sheep. He will take them to drink fresh water that gives people life. They will no longer be sad. God will take away all the tears from their eyes.’
EasyEnglish Bible Copyright © MissionAssist 2019 - Charitable Incorporated Organisation 1162807. Used by permission. All rights reserved.