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Psalm 121

1  I lift up my eyes to the hills; ♦︎
   from where is my help to come?
2  My help comes from the Lord, ♦︎
   the maker of heaven and earth.
3  He will not suffer your foot to stumble; ♦︎
   he who watches over you will not sleep.
4  Behold, he who keeps watch over Israel ♦︎
   shall neither slumber nor sleep.
5  The Lord himself watches over you; ♦︎
   the Lord is your shade at your right hand,
6  So that the sun shall not strike you by day, ♦︎
   neither the moon by night.
7  The Lord shall keep you from all evil; ♦︎
   it is he who shall keep your soul.
8  The Lord shall keep watch over your going out
      and your coming in, ♦︎
   from this time forth for evermore.

14 This day shall be a day of remembrance for you. You shall celebrate it as a festival to the Lord; throughout your generations you shall observe it as a perpetual ordinance. ¹⁵Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread; on the first day you shall remove leaven from your houses, for whoever eats leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day shall be cut off from Israel. ¹⁶On the first day you shall hold a solemn assembly, and on the seventh day a solemn assembly; no work shall be done on those days; only what everyone must eat, that alone may be prepared by you. ¹⁷You shall observe the festival of unleavened bread, for on this very day I brought your companies out of the land of Egypt: you shall observe this day throughout your generations as a perpetual ordinance. ¹⁸In the first month, from the evening of the fourteenth day until the evening of the twenty-first day, you shall eat unleavened bread. ¹⁹For seven days no leaven shall be found in your houses; for whoever eats what is leavened shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether an alien or a native of the land. ²⁰You shall eat nothing leavened; in all your settlements you shall eat unleavened bread.

21 Then Moses called all the elders of Israel and said to them, ‘Go, select lambs for your families, and slaughter the passover lamb. ²²Take a bunch of hyssop, dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and touch the lintel and the two doorposts with the blood in the basin. None of you shall go outside the door of your house until morning. ²³For the Lord will pass through to strike down the Egyptians; when he sees the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts, the Lord will pass over that door and will not allow the destroyer to enter your houses to strike you down. ²⁴You shall observe this rite as a perpetual ordinance for you and your children. ²⁵When you come to the land that the Lord will give you, as he has promised, you shall keep this observance. ²⁶And when your children ask you, “What do you mean by this observance?” ²⁷you shall say, “It is the passover sacrifice to the Lord, for he passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt, when he struck down the Egyptians but spared our houses.” ’ And the people bowed down and worshipped.

28 The Israelites went and did just as the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron.

Live as Servants of God

11 Beloved, I urge you as aliens and exiles to abstain from the desires of the flesh that wage war against the soul. ¹²Conduct yourselves honourably among the Gentiles, so that, though they malign you as evildoers, they may see your honourable deeds and glorify God when he comes to judge.^*

13 For the Lord’s sake accept the authority of every human institution,^* whether of the emperor as supreme, ¹⁴or of governors, as sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to praise those who do right. ¹⁵For it is God’s will that by doing right you should silence the ignorance of the foolish. ¹⁶As servants^* of God, live as free people, yet do not use your freedom as a pretext for evil. ¹⁷Honour everyone. Love the family of believers.^* Fear God. Honour the emperor.