Book of Common Prayer
33 He turns rivers into a wilderness
and springs of water into thirsty ground,
34 a fruitful land into a salty place,
because of the evil of its inhabitants.
35 He turns a wilderness into a pool of water
and a dry land into springs of water.
36 And he settles the hungry there,
so that they may establish a city to inhabit,
37 and sow fields and plant vineyards,
that they may yield fruit at harvest.[a]
38 And he blesses them and they multiply greatly,
and he does not let their cattle become few.
39 When they become few and they are bent down
from the oppression of calamity and grief,
40 he pours contempt on princes
and causes them to wander in a trackless waste.
41 But he protects[b] the needy from misery,
and he makes their families like a flock.
42 The upright see it and are glad,
and all wickedness shuts its mouth.
43 Whoever is wise, then let him observe these things,
and let them consider Yahweh’s acts of loyal love.
Prayer to Yahweh for Victory over Enemies
A song. A psalm of David.[c]
108 My heart is steadfast, O God.
I will sing and give praise, even with my glory.
2 Awake, harp and lyre.
I will awake the dawn.[d]
3 I will give you thanks among the peoples, O Yahweh;
I will give you praise among the nations,
4 because your loyal love is great above the heavens,
and your faithfulness reaches to the clouds.
5 Be exalted above the heavens, O God,
and let your glory be above all the earth,
6 so that your beloved ones may be rescued.
Save by your right hand and answer me.
7 God has spoken in his holiness,
“I will exult, I will divide up Shechem,
and portion out the valley of Succoth.
8 Gilead is mine. Manasseh is mine.
And Ephraim is the helmet for[e] my head.
Judah is my scepter;[f]
9 Moab is my washing pot.
Over Edom I will cast my sandal;
Over Philistia I will shout in triumph.”
10 Who will bring me to the fortified city?
Who will lead me to Edom?
11 Have you not rejected us, O God,
and not gone out with our armies, O God?
12 Give us help against the enemy,
for the help of humankind is futile.
13 Through God we will do valiantly,[g]
and it is he who will tread down our enemies.
Praise to Yahweh for His Character and Creation
33 Exult in Yahweh, O you righteous,
for praise is fitting for the upright.
2 Give thanks to Yahweh with the lyre;
with a harp of ten strings play to him.
3 Sing to him a new song;
play skillfully with jubilant shout.
4 For the word of Yahweh is upright,
and all his work is done in faithfulness.
5 He loves righteousness and justice.
The earth is full of the loyal love of Yahweh.
6 By the word of Yahweh the heavens were made,
and by the breath of his mouth all their host.
7 He gathered the waters of the sea like a heap.
He put the deeps in storehouses.
8 Let all the earth fear Yahweh.
Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him.
9 For he himself spoke[a] and it came to pass.
He himself commanded[b] and it stood firm.
10 Yahweh brings to nothing[c] the plan of nations;
he frustrates[d] the intents of peoples.
11 The plan of Yahweh stands firm forever,
the intents of his heart from one generation to the next.[e]
12 Blessed is the nation whose God is Yahweh,
the people he has chosen for his inheritance.
13 From heaven Yahweh looks;
he sees all the children of humankind.
14 From his dwelling place[f] he gazes
on all the inhabitants of the earth,
15 he who fashions altogether their heart,
he who understands all their works.
16 The king is not saved by the greatness of an army.
The warrior is not delivered by the greatness of strength.
17 The horse is a false hope for victory,
nor can it save by the greatness of its power.
18 Behold, the eye of Yahweh is on those who fear him,
on those who hope[g] for his loyal love
19 to deliver their soul from death
and to keep them alive in famine.
20 Our soul waits for Yahweh;
he is our help and our shield.
21 For in him our heart rejoices
because in his holy name we trust.
22 Let your loyal love, O Yahweh, be upon us,
even as[h] we hope in you.
The Unfaithful Prophets
9 Concerning the prophets:
My heart is broken in my midst.
All my bones tremble.
I have become like a drunken man,
even like a man over whom wine has passed,
because of Yahweh,
and because of his holy words.[a]
10 For the land is full of adulterers;
for the land mourns because of a curse.
The pastures of the desert[b] are dry,
and their evil has been their way of running,
and their power is not right.
11 “For both prophet as well as priest are godless,
even in my temple I have found their wickedness,” declares[c] Yahweh.
12 “Therefore[d] their way will be to them like the slippery places,
they will be pushed in the darkness,
and they will fall into it,
for I will bring disaster on them in the year of their punishment,” declares[e] Yahweh.
13 “Now in the prophets of Samaria I saw a disgusting thing.
They prophesied by Baal and they caused my people Israel to err.
14 And in the prophets of Jerusalem I have seen something horrible.
They commit adultery, and they walk in lies,[f]
and they make strong the hands of evildoers,
so that they have not turned back each from his wickedness.
All of them have become to me like Sodom,
and its inhabitants like Gomorrah.”
15 Therefore[g] thus says Yahweh concerning the prophets,
“Look, I am going to let them eat wormwood
and I will give them water of poison to drink,
for from the prophets of Jerusalem
went out ungodliness to all the land.”
Israel’s Rejection
9 I am telling the truth in Christ—I am not lying; my conscience bears witness to me in the Holy Spirit— 2 that my grief is great and there is constant distress in my heart. 3 For I could wish myself to be accursed from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my fellow countrymen according to the flesh, 4 who are Israelites, to whom belong the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the temple service, and the promises, 5 to whom belong the patriarchs, and from whom is the Christ according to human descent, who is God over all, blessed forever[a]! Amen.
6 But it is not as if the word of God had failed. For not all those who are descended from Israel are truly Israel, 7 nor are they all children because they are descendants of Abraham, but “In Isaac will your descendants be named.”[b] 8 That is, it is not the children by human descent[c] who are children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as descendants. 9 For the statement of the promise is this: “At this time I will return and Sarah will have[d] a son.”[e] 10 And not only this, but also when[f] Rebecca conceived children by one man,[g] Isaac our father— 11 for although they[h] had not yet been born, or done anything good or evil, in order that the purpose of God according to election might remain, 12 not by works but by the one who calls—it was said to her, “The older will serve the younger,”[i] 13 just as it is written, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”[j]
God’s Sovereign Choice to Show Mercy
14 What then shall we say? There is no injustice with God, is there?[k] May it never be! 15 For to Moses he says, “I will have mercy on whomever I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I have compassion.”[l] 16 Consequently therefore, it does not depend on the[m] one who wills or on the one who runs, but on God who shows mercy. 17 For the scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very reason I have raised you up, so that I may demonstrate my power in you, and so that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.”[n] 18 Consequently therefore, he has mercy on whomever he wishes, and he hardens whomever he wishes.
60 Thus many of his disciples, when they[a] heard it,[b] said, “This saying is hard! Who can understand it?” 61 But Jesus, because he[c] knew within himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, said to them, “Does this cause you to be offended? 62 Then what if you see the Son of Man ascending where he was before? 63 The Spirit is the one who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life. 64 But there are some of you who do not believe.” (For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe, and who it was who would betray him.) 65 And he said, “Because of this I said to you that no one can come to me unless it has been granted to him by the Father.”
Peter’s Confession
66 For this reason many of his disciples drew back[d] and were not walking with him any longer. 67 So Jesus said to the twelve, “You do not want to go away also, do you?”[e] 68 Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words of eternal life. 69 And we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.” 70 Jesus replied to them, “Did I not choose you, the twelve, and one of you is the devil?” 71 (Now he was speaking about Judas son of Simon Iscariot, because this one—one of the twelve—was going to betray him.)
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