Book of Common Prayer
33 [a]He turns rivers into wasteland,
springs of water into parched ground,[b]
34 and fertile land into a salt waste,
because of the wickedness of those who live there.[c]
35 He turns the wasteland into pools of water
and the parched ground into bubbling springs.
36 [d]There he provides the hungry with a home,
and they build a city where they can settle.
37 They sow fields and plant vineyards
that yield crops for the harvest.
38 He blesses them and they greatly increase in number,
and he does not let their cattle decrease.
39 Eventually their numbers diminish and they are humbled
because of oppression, adversity, and affliction;
40 he who pours forth his contempt on princes
makes them wander in trackless wastes,
41 while he raises the needy from their misery
and increases their families like flocks.
42 The upright see and exult,
while the wicked[e] are reduced to silence.
43 Let whoever is wise reflect on these things
and understand the merciful love of the Lord.[f]
Psalm 108[g]
Prayer for Divine Assistance against Enemies
1 A song. A psalm of David.
2 [h]My heart[i] is steadfast, O God,
my heart is steadfast.
I will sing and chant your praise;
awake, my soul!
3 Awake, lyre and harp!
I will awaken the dawn.[j]
4 [k]I will give thanks to you among the peoples, O Lord;
I will sing your praises among the nations.
5 For your kindness extends above the heavens;
your faithfulness, to the skies.
6 Be exalted, O God, above the heavens,
and let your glory shine over all the earth.
7 [l]With your right hand come to our aid
so that those you love may be delivered.
8 [m]God has promised from his sanctuary,
“In triumph I will apportion Shechem
and measure out the Valley of Succoth.
9 Gilead is mine, and Manasseh is mine;
Ephraim is my helmet,[n]
Judah is my scepter.
10 Moab is my washbasin;[o]
upon Edom I will plant my sandal;
over Philistia I will shout in triumph.”
11 Who will lead me into the fortified city?[p]
Who will guide me into Edom?
12 [q]Is it not you, O God, who have rejected us
and no longer go forth with our armies?
13 Grant us your help against our enemies,
for any human assistance is worthless.
Psalm 33[a]
Praise of God’s Providence
1 Rejoice in the Lord, you righteous;
it is fitting for the upright to praise him.
2 Give thanks to the Lord on the harp;
offer praise to him on the ten-stringed lyre.
3 Sing to him a new song;[b]
play skillfully on the strings with joyful shouts.
4 [c]For the word of the Lord is true,
and he is faithful in everything he does.
5 The Lord loves righteousness and justice;
the earth is filled with his kindness.
6 The heavens were made by the word[d] of the Lord,
and all their host by the breath of his mouth.
7 He gathers the waters of the sea as in a bowl;[e]
he places the deep in storehouses.
8 Let all the earth fear the Lord;
let all the inhabitants of the world revere him.[f]
9 [g]For he spoke, and it came to be;
he commanded, and it stood firm.
10 The Lord thwarts the plans of nations
and frustrates the designs of peoples.
11 But the plan of the Lord remains forever,
the designs of his heart for all generations.
12 [h]Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord,
the people whom he has chosen as his heritage.[i]
13 [j]The Lord gazes down from heaven
and beholds the entire human race.
14 From his royal throne
he watches all who dwell on the earth.
15 He who has fashioned the hearts of them all
observes everything they do.
16 A king is not saved by a large army,
nor is a warrior delivered by great strength.
17 A horse offers false hope for victory;
despite its power it cannot save.
18 [k]But the eyes of the Lord are on those who fear him,
on those who trust in his kindness,
19 to deliver them from death
and to preserve their lives in time of famine.
20 [l]Our soul waits in hope for the Lord;
he is our help and our shield.
21 Our hearts rejoice in him
because we trust in his holy name.
22 O Lord, let your kindness rest upon us,
for we have placed our hope in you.
21 [a]“This is the word that the Lord has spoken about him:
“The virgin daughter of Zion
despises you and laughs at you.
The daughter of Jerusalem
tosses her head at you.
22 Whom have you taunted and blasphemed?
Against whom have you raised your voice
and lifted your eyes in pride?
Against the Holy One of Israel.
23 You have taunted the Lord through your messengers by saying,
‘I have come up to the heights of the mountains
with many chariots, to the peaks of Lebanon.
I have cut down tall cedars,
choice fir trees.
I have entered its most remote stand,
its finest forests.
24 I have dug wells in foreign lands and drunk the water.
I have dried up the streams of Egypt
with the soles of my feet.’
25 “Have you not heard?
Long ago I established it,
in ancient times I planned it.
Now I have ordained that you break down
fortified cities into piles of ruins.
26 Their inhabitants, having lost their power,
have become dismayed and confounded.
They are like the grass in the field,
like a green plant,
like grass growing on the roof
that is scorched before it can grow.
27 But I know where you live,
your going out, your coming in,
and how you rage against me.
28 The face that you rage against
and your arrogance have reached my ears.
I will put a ring in your nose
and a bridle in your mouth.
I will force you to return the way by which you came.
29 “This will be a sign for you:
This year you will eat what grows by itself,
and the next year you will eat what springs from that.
But in the third year you will sow and reap,
you will plant vineyards and eat its fruit.
30 Once more a remnant of Judah that has escaped
will take root below
and bear fruit above.
31 Out of Jerusalem a remnant will come,
out of Mount Zion survivors.
The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.
32 “Therefore, thus says the Lord
concerning the king of Assyria:
He will not enter this city,
nor will he shoot an arrow there.
He will not come before it with a shield,
nor will he cast up a siege-work against it.
33 He will return by the way he came,
but he will not enter the city, says the Lord,
34 I will defend this city and save it, for my own sake
and that of David, my servant.”
35 That night an angel of the Lord went out and killed one hundred eighty-five thousand of the Assyrians. 36 Sennacherib, the king of Assyria withdrew, departed, and returned to Nineveh.
Chapter 10
The Lesson of Israel’s Past.[a] 1 Brethren, I do not want you to be unaware that our ancestors were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea, 2 and they were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. 3 All ate the same spiritual food, 4 and all drank the same spiritual drink—for they drank from the spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ. 5 Yet God was not pleased with most of them, and they were struck down in the desert.
6 These events occurred to offer examples for us so that we might not desire evil things as they did. 7 Do not become idolaters, as some of them did. It is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink, and they rose up to engage in revelry.”
8 Let us not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand of them died in a single day. 9 Let us not put Christ to the test, as some of them did, and they were destroyed by serpents. 10 And do not complain, as some of them did, and they were slain by the Destroyer.[b] 11 All these things happened to them to serve as an example, and they have been written down as a warning to us upon whom the end of the ages has come.
12 Therefore, if you think you are standing securely, take care that you do not fall 13 No trial has confronted you except what a person can stand. God is faithful, and he will not allow you to be tried beyond your strength. But together with the trial he will also provide a way out and the strength to bear it.
18 The Cost of Following Jesus.[a] When Jesus saw the great crowds around him, he gave orders to cross to the other side of the lake. 19 A scribe approached him and said, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.” 20 Jesus told him, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man[b] has nowhere to lay his head.” 21 Another man, one of the disciples, said, “Lord, allow me to go first and bury my father.” 22 Jesus answered him, “Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead.”
23 Jesus Calms the Storm.[c] He then got into the boat, followed by his disciples. 24 Suddenly, a great storm came up on the lake, so that the boat was being swamped by the waves. But he was asleep. 25 And so they went to him and awakened him, saying, “Lord, save us! We are going to die!” 26 He said to them in reply, “Why are you so frightened, O you of little faith?”
Then he stood up and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm. 27 They were amazed and asked, “What sort of man is this, whom even the winds and the sea obey?”
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