Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

This is a song that David wrote for the music leader.

We trust God to help us^[a]

Moses puts up the tabernacle

40 Then the Lord said to Moses, ² ‘On the first day of the first month, put up the tabernacle, the Tent of Meeting.^{[a] 3} Put the Covenant Box in the tabernacle and hide it behind the special curtain. ⁴ Bring in the special table and put the dishes on it. Then bring in the lampstand. Fix its lamps on it. ⁵ Put the gold altar for incense in front of the Covenant Box. Hang the curtain that will be at the entrance to the tabernacle.

⁶ Put the altar for burnt offerings in front of the entrance to the Tent of Meeting. ⁷ Put the large bowl for water between the Tent of Meeting and the altar. Put water in the bowl. ⁸ Hang the curtains around the yard of the tabernacle, as well as the curtain at the entrance to the yard.

⁹ Take the special oil that makes things holy. Pour some oil on the tabernacle and on everything that is in it. Offer the tabernacle and all its things to God, and then it will be holy. ¹⁰ Then pour some oil on the altar for burnt offerings and all its tools. Offer it all to God, and then it will be completely holy. ¹¹ Pour some oil on the large bowl for water and on its base to offer them to God.

¹² Bring Aaron and his sons to the entrance of the Tent of Meeting. Wash them with water. ¹³ Then dress Aaron in the special clothes for the priest. Pour some of the special oil on his head. Offer him to me to serve me as my priest. ¹⁴ Also bring his sons and dress them in the special long shirts. ¹⁵ Pour some oil on their heads, as you did to their father. Then they too may serve me as my priests. In this way, they and their descendants will always continue to serve me as priests.’

We must continue to trust God

¹⁹ So then, Christian friends, we see that Jesus died as a sacrifice on our behalf. Because of that, we may go into God's Most Holy Place. We are not afraid to do that. ²⁰ Jesus has opened a new way for us to come near to God. That way gives us life with God. It leads us through the curtain into God's Most Holy Place. Jesus opened that curtain for us when he offered his own body to God as a sacrifice.^{[a] 21} We have a great priest who rules the people of God's house. ²² So we should come near to God and we should not be afraid. But we must be honest and we must continue to trust him. He has made us clean from the dirt of our sins. Our thoughts no longer give us trouble about our sins. We have become clean. It is like he has washed our bodies with clean water.^[b]

²³ We know that we can trust God to do the things that he has promised. So we must continue to expect those things. We must tell other people that we trust God. We should not stop doing that. ²⁴ We should think about how we can help one another. We want everyone to show love to each other. We want everyone to do good things to help one another. ²⁵ Some people have stopped meeting with the group of Christians. But that is not good. We should all continue to meet together. We need to help one another to be strong and brave. That is now even more important, because the Lord's great day is coming. You know that the Lord will return soon.