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Psalm 121

Assurance of God’s Protection

A Song of Ascents.

I lift up my eyes to the hills—
    from where will my help come?
My help comes from the Lord,
    who made heaven and earth.(A)

He will not let your foot be moved;
    he who keeps you will not slumber.(B)
He who keeps Israel
    will neither slumber nor sleep.

The Lord is your keeper;
    the Lord is your shade at your right hand.(C)
The sun shall not strike you by day
    nor the moon by night.(D)

The Lord will keep you from all evil;
    he will keep your life.(E)
The Lord will keep
    your going out and your coming in
    from this time on and forevermore.(F)

Psalm 122

Song of Praise and Prayer for Jerusalem

A Song of Ascents. Of David.

I was glad when they said to me,
    “Let us go to the house of the Lord!”(A)
Our feet are standing
    within your gates, O Jerusalem.

Jerusalem—built as a city
    that is bound firmly together.(B)
To it the tribes go up,
    the tribes of the Lord,
as was decreed for Israel,
    to give thanks to the name of the Lord.(C)
For there the thrones for judgment were set up,
    the thrones of the house of David.(D)

Pray for the peace of Jerusalem:
    “May they prosper who love you.(E)
Peace be within your walls
    and security within your towers.”
For the sake of my relatives and friends
    I will say, “Peace be within you.”
For the sake of the house of the Lord our God,
    I will seek your good.(F)

Psalm 123

Supplication for Mercy

A Song of Ascents.

To you I lift up my eyes,
    O you who are enthroned in the heavens!(A)
As the eyes of servants
    look to the hand of their master,
as the eyes of a maid
    to the hand of her mistress,
so our eyes look to the Lord our God,
    until he has mercy upon us.(B)

Have mercy upon us, O Lord, have mercy upon us,
    for we have had more than enough of contempt.(C)
Our soul has had more than its fill
    of the scorn of those who are at ease,
    of the contempt of the proud.(D)

Vengeance on Edom

63 “Who is this coming from Edom,
    from Bozrah in garments stained crimson?
Who is this so splendidly robed,
    marching in his great might?”

“It is I, announcing vindication,
    mighty to save.”(A)

“Why are your robes red
    and your garments like theirs who tread the winepress?”(B)

“I have trodden the winepress alone,
    and from the peoples no one was with me;
I trod them in my anger
    and trampled them in my wrath;
their juice spattered on my garments,
    and I stained all my robes.(C)
For the day of vengeance was in my mind,
    and the year for my redeeming work had come.(D)
I looked, but there was no helper;
    I was abandoned, and there was no one to sustain me,
so my own arm brought me victory,
    and my wrath sustained me.(E)

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The Message to Thyatira

18 “And to the angel of the church in Thyatira write: These are the words of the Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire and whose feet are like burnished bronze:(A)

19 “I know your works: your love, faith, service, and endurance. I know that your latest works are greater than the first. 20 But I have this against you: you tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophet and is teaching and beguiling my servants to engage in sexual immorality[a] and to eat food sacrificed to idols.(B) 21 I gave her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her sexual immorality.[b](C) 22 Beware, I am throwing her on a bed, and those who commit adultery with her I am throwing into great distress, unless they repent of her doings, 23 and I will strike her children dead. And all the churches will know that I am the one who searches minds and hearts, and I will give to each of you as your works deserve.(D) 24 But to the rest of you in Thyatira, who do not hold this teaching, who have not learned what some call ‘the deep things of Satan,’ to you I say, I do not lay on you any other burden;(E) 25 only hold fast to what you have until I come. 26 To everyone who conquers and continues to do my works to the end,

I will give authority over the nations,(F)
27 to rule[c] them with an iron scepter,
    as when clay pots are shattered—(G)

28 “even as I also received authority from my Father. To the one who conquers I will also give the morning star.(H) 29 Let anyone who has an ear listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches.

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Footnotes

  1. 2.20 Or prostitution
  2. 2.21 Or prostitution
  3. 2.27 Or to shepherd

Jesus Heals on the Sabbath

After this there was a festival of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

Now in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate there is a pool, called in Hebrew[a] Beth-zatha,[b] which has five porticoes.(A) In these lay many ill, blind, lame, and paralyzed people.[c] One man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be made well?” The ill man answered him, “Sir,[d] I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, and while I am making my way someone else steps down ahead of me.” Jesus said to him, “Stand up, take your mat and walk.”(B) At once the man was made well, and he took up his mat and began to walk.

Now that day was a Sabbath.(C) 10 So the Jews said to the man who had been cured, “It is the Sabbath; it is not lawful for you to carry your mat.”(D) 11 But he answered them, “The man who made me well said to me, ‘Take up your mat and walk.’ ” 12 They asked him, “Who is the man who said to you, ‘Take it up and walk’?” 13 Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had disappeared in[e] the crowd that was there. 14 Later Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, “See, you have been made well! Do not sin any more, so that nothing worse happens to you.”(E) 15 The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well.

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Footnotes

  1. 5.2 That is, Aramaic
  2. 5.2 Other ancient authorities read Bethesda or Bethsaida
  3. 5.3 Other ancient authorities add, wholly or in part, waiting for the stirring of the water, for an angel of the Lord went down from time to time into the pool and stirred up the water; whoever stepped in first after the stirring of the water was made well from whatever disease that person had.
  4. 5.7 Or Lord
  5. 5.13 Or had left because of

Psalm 131

Song of Quiet Trust

A Song of Ascents. Of David.

O Lord, my heart is not lifted up;
    my eyes are not raised too high;
I do not occupy myself with things
    too great and too marvelous for me.(A)
But I have calmed and quieted my soul,
    like a weaned child with its mother;
    my soul is like the weaned child that is with me.[a](B)

O Israel, hope in the Lord
    from this time on and forevermore.(C)

Footnotes

  1. 131.2 Or my soul within me is like a weaned child

Psalm 132

The Eternal Dwelling of God in Zion

A Song of Ascents.

O Lord, remember in David’s favor
    all the hardships he endured;
how he swore to the Lord
    and vowed to the Mighty One of Jacob,(A)
“I will not enter my house
    or get into my bed;
I will not give sleep to my eyes
    or slumber to my eyelids,
until I find a place for the Lord,
    a dwelling place for the Mighty One of Jacob.”(B)

We heard of it in Ephrathah;
    we found it in the fields of Jaar.(C)
“Let us go to his dwelling place;
    let us worship at his footstool.”(D)

Rise up, O Lord, and go to your resting place,
    you and the ark of your might.(E)
Let your priests be clothed with righteousness,
    and let your faithful shout for joy.(F)
10 For your servant David’s sake
    do not turn away the face of your anointed one.

11 The Lord swore to David a sure oath
    from which he will not turn back:
“One of the sons of your body
    I will set on your throne.(G)
12 If your sons keep my covenant
    and my decrees that I shall teach them,
their sons also, forevermore,
    shall sit on your throne.”(H)

13 For the Lord has chosen Zion;
    he has desired it for his habitation:(I)
14 “This is my resting place forever;
    here I will reside, for I have desired it.
15 I will abundantly bless its provisions;
    I will satisfy its poor with bread.(J)
16 Its priests I will clothe with salvation,
    and its faithful will shout for joy.
17 There I will cause a horn to sprout up for David;
    I have prepared a lamp for my anointed one.(K)
18 His enemies I will clothe with disgrace,
    but on him, his crown will gleam.”(L)