Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Psalm 20

For the music leader. A psalm of David.

Gifts offered for the dwelling

25 The Lord said to Moses: ² Tell the Israelites to collect gift offerings for me. Receive my gift offerings from everyone who freely wants to give. ³ These are the gift offerings that you should receive from them: gold, silver, and copper; ⁴ blue, purple, and deep red yarns; fine linen; goats’ hair; ⁵ rams’ skins dyed red; beaded leather;^[a] acacia wood; ⁶ oil for the lamps; spices for the anointing oil and for the sweet-smelling incense; ⁷ gemstones; and gems for setting in the priest’s vest^[b] and chest piece. ⁸ They should make me a sanctuary so I can be present among them. ⁹ You should follow the blueprints that I will show you for the dwelling and for all its equipment.

Instructions for building the chest containing the covenant

¹⁰ Have them make an acacia-wood chest. It should be forty-five inches long, twenty-seven inches wide, and twenty-seven inches high. ¹¹ Cover it with pure gold, inside and out, and make a gold molding all around it. ¹² Cast four gold rings for it and put them on its four feet, two rings on one side and two rings on the other. ¹³ Make acacia-wood poles and cover them with gold. ¹⁴ Then put the poles into the rings on the chest’s sides and use them to carry the chest. ¹⁵ The poles should stay in the chest’s rings. They shouldn’t be taken out of them. ¹⁶ Put the covenant document that I will give you into the chest.

¹⁷ Then make a cover of pure gold, forty-five inches long and twenty-seven inches wide. ¹⁸ Make two winged heavenly creatures of hammered gold, one for each end of the cover. ¹⁹ Put one winged heavenly creature at one end and one winged heavenly creature at the other. Place the winged heavenly creatures at the cover’s two ends. ²⁰ The heavenly creatures should have their wings spread out above, shielding the cover with their wings. The winged heavenly creatures should face each other toward the cover’s center. ²¹ Put the gold cover on top of the chest and put the covenant document that I will give you inside the chest. ²² There I will meet with you. From there above the cover, from between the two winged heavenly creatures that are on top of the chest containing the covenant, I will deliver to you all that I command you concerning the Israelites.

2 When I came to you, brothers and sisters, I didn’t come preaching God’s secrets to you like I was an expert in speech or wisdom. ² I had made up my mind not to think about anything while I was with you except Jesus Christ, and to preach him as crucified. ³ I stood in front of you with weakness, fear, and a lot of shaking. ⁴ My message and my preaching weren’t presented with convincing wise words but with a demonstration of the Spirit and of power. ⁵ I did this so that your faith might not depend on the wisdom of people but on the power of God.

Definition of wisdom

⁶ What we say is wisdom to people who are mature. It isn’t a wisdom that comes from the present day or from today’s leaders who are being reduced to nothing. ⁷ We talk about God’s wisdom, which has been hidden as a secret. God determined this wisdom in advance, before time began, for our glory. ⁸ It is a wisdom that none of the present-day rulers have understood, because if they did understand it, they would never have crucified the Lord of glory! ⁹ But this is precisely what is written: God has prepared things for those who love him that no eye has seen, or ear has heard, or that haven’t crossed the mind of any human being.^{[a] 10} God has revealed these things to us through the Spirit. The Spirit searches everything, including the depths of God.