Tuesday, 12 March

1.   Then the LORD said to Moses, "Depart and go up from here, you and the people whom you have brought out of the land of Egypt, to the land of which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying, ‘To your descendants I will give it.’ 2.   "And I will send My Angel before you, and I will drive out the Canaanite and the Amorite and the Hittite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite. 3.   " Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey; for I will not go up in your midst, lest I consume you on the way, for you are a stiff–necked people." 4.   And when the people heard this bad news, they mourned, and no one put on his ornaments. 5.   For the LORD had said to Moses, "Say to the children of Israel, ‘You are a stiff–necked people. I could come up into your midst in one moment and consume you. Now therefore, take off your ornaments, that I may know what to do to you.’" 6.   So the children of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments by Mount Horeb. 7.   Moses took his tent and pitched it outside the camp, far from the camp, and called it the tabernacle of meeting. And it came to pass that everyone who sought the LORD went out to the tabernacle of meeting which was outside the camp. 8.   So it was, whenever Moses went out to the tabernacle, that all the people rose, and each man stood at his tent door and watched Moses until he had gone into the tabernacle. 9.   And it came to pass, when Moses entered the tabernacle, that the pillar of cloud descended and stood at the door of the tabernacle, and the LORD talked with Moses. 10.   All the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the tabernacle door, and all the people rose and worshiped, each man in his tent door. 11.   So the LORD spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. And he would return to the camp, but his servant Joshua the son of Nun, a young man, did not depart from the tabernacle. 12.   Then Moses said to the LORD, "See, You say to me, ‘Bring up this people.’ But You have not let me know whom You will send with me. Yet You have said, ‘I know you by name, and you have also found grace in My sight.’ 13.   "Now therefore, I pray, if I have found grace in Your sight, show me now Your way, that I may know You and that I may find grace in Your sight. And consider that this nation is Your people." 14.   And He said, "My Presence will go with you , and I will give you rest." 15.   Then he said to Him, "If Your Presence does not go with us , do not bring us up from here. 16.   "For how then will it be known that Your people and I have found grace in Your sight, except You go with us? So we shall be separate, Your people and I, from all the people who are upon the face of the earth." 17.   So the LORD said to Moses, "I will also do this thing that you have spoken; for you have found grace in My sight, and I know you by name." 18.   And he said, "Please, show me Your glory." 19.   Then He said, "I will make all My goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim the name of the LORD before you. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion." 20.   But He said, "You cannot see My face; for no man shall see Me, and live." 21.   And the LORD said, "Here is a place by Me, and you shall stand on the rock. 22.   "So it shall be, while My glory passes by, that I will put you in the cleft of the rock, and will cover you with My hand while I pass by. 23.   "Then I will take away My hand, and you shall see My back; but My face shall not be seen."

1.   <> Blessed is he who considers the poor; The LORD will deliver him in time of trouble. 2.   The LORD will preserve him and keep him alive, And he will be blessed on the earth; You will not deliver him to the will of his enemies. 3.   The LORD will strengthen him on his bed of illness; You will sustain him on his sickbed. 4.   I said, "LORD, be merciful to me; Heal my soul, for I have sinned against You." 5.   My enemies speak evil of me: "When will he die, and his name perish?" 6.   And if he comes to see me , he speaks lies; His heart gathers iniquity to itself; When he goes out, he tells it . 7.   All who hate me whisper together against me; Against me they devise my hurt. 8.   "An evil disease," they say , "clings to him. And now that he lies down, he will rise up no more." 9.   Even my own familiar friend in whom I trusted, Who ate my bread, Has lifted up his heel against me. 10.   But You, O LORD, be merciful to me, and raise me up, That I may repay them. 11.   By this I know that You are well pleased with me, Because my enemy does not triumph over me. 12.   As for me, You uphold me in my integrity, And set me before Your face forever. 13.   Blessed be the LORD God of Israel From everlasting to everlasting! Amen and Amen.

1.   <> As the deer pants for the water brooks, So pants my soul for You, O God. 2.   My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God? 3.   My tears have been my food day and night, While they continually say to me, "Where is your God?" 4.   When I remember these things , I pour out my soul within me. For I used to go with the multitude; I went with them to the house of God, With the voice of joy and praise, With a multitude that kept a pilgrim feast. 5.   Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him For the help of His countenance. 6.   O my God, my soul is cast down within me; Therefore I will remember You from the land of the Jordan, And from the heights of Hermon, From the Hill Mizar. 7.   Deep calls unto deep at the noise of Your waterfalls; All Your waves and billows have gone over me. 8.   The LORD will command His lovingkindness in the daytime, And in the night His song shall 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.   As with a breaking of my bones, My enemies reproach me, While they say to me all day long, "Where is your God?" 11.   Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God; For I shall yet praise Him, The help of my countenance and my God.

1.   And certain men came down from Judea and taught the brethren, "Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved." 2.   Therefore, when Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and dispute with them, they determined that Paul and Barnabas and certain others of them should go up to Jerusalem, to the apostles and elders, about this question. 3.   So, being sent on their way by the church, they passed through Phoenicia and Samaria, describing the conversion of the Gentiles; and they caused great joy to all the brethren. 4.   And when they had come to Jerusalem, they were received by the church and the apostles and the elders; and they reported all things that God had done with them. 5.   But some of the sect of the Pharisees who believed rose up, saying, "It is necessary to circumcise them, and to command them to keep the law of Moses." 6.   Now the apostles and elders came together to consider this matter. 7.   And when there had been much dispute, Peter rose up and said to them: "Men and brethren, you know that a good while ago God chose among us, that by my mouth the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel and believe. 8.   "So God, who knows the heart, acknowledged them by giving them the Holy Spirit, just as He did to us, 9.   "and made no distinction between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith. 10.   "Now therefore, why do you test God by putting a yoke on the neck of the disciples which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear? 11.   "But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved in the same manner as they." 12.   Then all the multitude kept silent and listened to Barnabas and Paul declaring how many miracles and wonders God had worked through them among the Gentiles. 13.   And after they had become silent, James answered, saying, "Men and brethren, listen to me: 14.   "Simon has declared how God at the first visited the Gentiles to take out of them a people for His name. 15.   "And with this the words of the prophets agree, just as it is written: 16.   ‘After this I will return And will rebuild the tabernacle of David, which has fallen down; I will rebuild its ruins, And I will set it up; 17.   So that the rest of mankind may seek the LORD, Even all the Gentiles who are called by My name, Says the LORD who does all these things.’ 18.   "Known to God from eternity are all His works. 19.   "Therefore I judge that we should not trouble those from among the Gentiles who are turning to God, 20.   "but that we write to them to abstain from things polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from things strangled, and from blood. 21.   "For Moses has had throughout many generations those who preach him in every city, being read in the synagogues every Sabbath."