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Psalm 25

1  To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul;
      O my God, in you I trust; ♦︎
   let me not be put to shame;
      let not my enemies triumph over me.
2  Let none who look to you be put to shame, ♦︎
   but let the treacherous be shamed and frustrated.
3  Make me to know your ways, O Lord, ♦︎
   and teach me your paths.
4  Lead me in your truth and teach me, ♦︎
   for you are the God of my salvation;
      for you have I hoped all the day long.
5  Remember, Lord, your compassion and love, ♦︎
   for they are from everlasting.
6  Remember not the sins of my youth
      or my transgressions, ♦︎
   but think on me in your goodness, O Lord,
      according to your steadfast love.
7  Gracious and upright is the Lord; ♦︎
   therefore shall he teach sinners in the way.
8  He will guide the humble in doing right ♦︎
   and teach his way to the lowly.
9  All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth ♦︎
   to those who keep his covenant and his testimonies.
10  For your name’s sake, O Lord, ♦︎
   be merciful to my sin, for it is great.
11  Who are those who fear the Lord? ♦︎
   Them will he teach in the way that they should choose.
12  Their soul shall dwell at ease ♦︎
   and their offspring shall inherit the land.
13  The hidden purpose of the Lord is for those who fear him ♦︎
   and he will show them his covenant.
14  My eyes are ever looking to the Lord, ♦︎
   for he shall pluck my feet out of the net.
15  Turn to me and be gracious to me, ♦︎
   for I am alone and brought very low.
16  The sorrows of my heart have increased; ♦︎
   O bring me out of my distress.
17  Look upon my adversity and misery ♦︎
   and forgive me all my sin.
18  Look upon my enemies, for they are many ♦︎
   and they bear a violent hatred against me.
19  O keep my soul and deliver me; ♦︎
   let me not be put to shame, for I have put my trust in you.
20  Let integrity and uprightness preserve me, ♦︎
   for my hope has been in you.
21  Deliver Israel, O God, ♦︎
   out of all his troubles.

Moses Flees to Midian

11 One day, after Moses had grown up, he went out to his people and saw their forced labour. He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his kinsfolk. ¹²He looked this way and that, and seeing no one he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. ¹³When he went out the next day, he saw two Hebrews fighting; and he said to the one who was in the wrong, ‘Why do you strike your fellow Hebrew?’ ¹⁴He answered, ‘Who made you a ruler and judge over us? Do you mean to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?’ Then Moses was afraid and thought, ‘Surely the thing is known.’ ¹⁵When Pharaoh heard of it, he sought to kill Moses.

But Moses fled from Pharaoh. He settled in the land of Midian, and sat down by a well. ¹⁶The priest of Midian had seven daughters. They came to draw water, and filled the troughs to water their father’s flock. ¹⁷But some shepherds came and drove them away. Moses got up and came to their defence and watered their flock. ¹⁸When they returned to their father Reuel, he said, ‘How is it that you have come back so soon today?’ ¹⁹They said, ‘An Egyptian helped us against the shepherds; he even drew water for us and watered the flock.’ ²⁰He said to his daughters, ‘Where is he? Why did you leave the man? Invite him to break bread.’ ²¹Moses agreed to stay with the man, and he gave Moses his daughter Zipporah in marriage. ²²She bore a son, and he named him Gershom; for he said, ‘I have been an alien^* residing in a foreign land.’

The Earthly and the Heavenly Sanctuaries

9Now even the first covenant had regulations for worship and an earthly sanctuary. ²For a tent^* was constructed, the first one, in which were the lampstand, the table, and the bread of the Presence;^* this is called the Holy Place. ³Behind the second curtain was a tent^* called the Holy of Holies. ⁴In it stood the golden altar of incense and the ark of the covenant overlaid on all sides with gold, in which there were a golden urn holding the manna, and Aaron’s rod that budded, and the tablets of the covenant; ⁵above it were the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy-seat.^* Of these things we cannot speak now in detail.

6 Such preparations having been made, the priests go continually into the first tent^* to carry out their ritual duties; ⁷but only the high priest goes into the second, and he but once a year, and not without taking the blood that he offers for himself and for the sins committed unintentionally by the people. ⁸By this the Holy Spirit indicates that the way into the sanctuary has not yet been disclosed as long as the first tent^* is still standing. ⁹This is a symbol^* of the present time, during which gifts and sacrifices are offered that cannot perfect the conscience of the worshipper, ¹⁰but deal only with food and drink and various baptisms, regulations for the body imposed until the time comes to set things right.

11 But when Christ came as a high priest of the good things that have come,^* then through the greater and perfect^* tent^* (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation), ¹²he entered once for all into the Holy Place, not with the blood of goats and calves, but with his own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption. ¹³For if the blood of goats and bulls, with the sprinkling of the ashes of a heifer, sanctifies those who have been defiled so that their flesh is purified, ¹⁴how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit^* offered himself without blemish to God, purify our^* conscience from dead works to worship the living God!