Book of Common Prayer
33 He (A)turns rivers into a wilderness,
And the watersprings into dry ground;
34 A (B)fruitful land into [a]barrenness,
For the wickedness of those who dwell in it.
35 (C)He turns a wilderness into pools of water,
And dry land into watersprings.
36 There He makes the hungry dwell,
That they may establish a city for a dwelling place,
37 And sow fields and plant vineyards,
That they may yield a fruitful harvest.
38 (D)He also blesses them, and they multiply greatly;
And He does not let their cattle (E)decrease.
39 When they are (F)diminished and brought low
Through oppression, affliction, and sorrow,
40 (G)He pours contempt on princes,
And causes them to wander in the wilderness where there is no way;
41 (H)Yet He sets the poor on high, far from affliction,
And (I)makes their families like a flock.
42 (J)The righteous see it and rejoice,
And all (K)iniquity stops its mouth.
43 (L)Whoever is wise will observe these things,
And they will understand the lovingkindness of the Lord.
Assurance of God’s Victory over Enemies(M)
A Song. A Psalm of David.
108 O (N)God, my heart is steadfast;
I will sing and give praise, even with my glory.
2 (O)Awake, lute and harp!
I will awaken the dawn.
3 I will praise You, O Lord, among the peoples,
And I will sing praises to You among the nations.
4 For Your mercy is great above the [b]heavens,
And Your truth reaches to the clouds.
5 (P)Be exalted, O God, above the heavens,
And Your glory above all the earth;
6 (Q)That Your beloved may be delivered,
Save with Your right hand, and [c]hear me.
7 God has spoken in His holiness:
“I will rejoice;
I will divide Shechem
And measure out the Valley of Succoth.
8 Gilead is Mine; Manasseh is Mine;
Ephraim also is the [d]helmet for My head;
(R)Judah is My lawgiver.
9 Moab is My washpot;
Over Edom I will cast My shoe;
Over Philistia I will triumph.”
10 (S)Who will bring me into the strong city?
Who will lead me to Edom?
11 Is it not You, O God, who cast us off?
And You, O God, who did not go out with our armies?
12 Give us help from trouble,
For the help of man is useless.
13 (T)Through God we will do valiantly,
For it is He who shall tread down our enemies.
The Sovereignty of the Lord in Creation and History
33 Rejoice (A)in the Lord, O you righteous!
For praise from the upright is beautiful.
2 Praise the Lord with the harp;
[a]Make melody to Him with an instrument of ten strings.
3 Sing to Him a new song;
Play skillfully with a shout of joy.
4 For the word of the Lord is right,
And all His work is done in truth.
5 He loves righteousness and justice;
The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord.
6 (B)By the word of the Lord the heavens were made,
And all the (C)host of them (D)by the breath of His mouth.
7 (E)He gathers the waters of the sea together [b]as a heap;
He lays up the deep in storehouses.
8 Let all the earth fear the Lord;
Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him.
9 For (F)He spoke, and it was done;
He commanded, and it stood fast.
10 (G)The Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing;
He makes the plans of the peoples of no effect.
11 (H)The counsel of the Lord stands forever,
The plans of His heart to all generations.
12 Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord,
The people He has (I)chosen as His own inheritance.
13 (J)The Lord looks from heaven;
He sees all the sons of men.
14 From the place of His dwelling He looks
On all the inhabitants of the earth;
15 He fashions their hearts individually;
(K)He [c]considers all their works.
16 (L)No king is saved by the multitude of an army;
A mighty man is not delivered by great strength.
17 (M)A horse is a [d]vain hope for safety;
Neither shall it deliver any by its great strength.
18 (N)Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear Him,
On those who hope in His mercy,
19 To deliver their soul from death,
And (O)to keep them alive in famine.
20 Our soul waits for the Lord;
He is our help and our shield.
21 For our heart shall rejoice in Him,
Because we have trusted in His holy name.
22 Let Your mercy, O Lord, be upon us,
Just as we hope in You.
Jacob’s Return to Bethel
35 Then God said to Jacob, “Arise, go up to (A)Bethel and dwell there; and make an altar there to God, (B)who appeared to you (C)when you fled from the face of Esau your brother.”
2 And Jacob said to his (D)household and to all who were with him, “Put away (E)the foreign gods that are among you, (F)purify yourselves, and change your garments. 3 Then let us arise and go up to Bethel; and I will make an altar there to God, (G)who answered me in the day of my distress (H)and has been with me in the way which I have gone.” 4 So they gave Jacob all the foreign [a]gods which were in their hands, and the (I)earrings which were in their ears; and Jacob hid them under (J)the terebinth tree which was by Shechem.
5 And they journeyed, and (K)the terror of God was upon the cities that were all around them, and they did not pursue the sons of Jacob. 6 So Jacob came to (L)Luz (that is, Bethel), which is in the land of Canaan, he and all the people who were with him. 7 And he (M)built an altar there and called the place [b]El Bethel, because (N)there God appeared to him when he fled from the face of his brother.
8 Now (O)Deborah, Rebekah’s nurse, died, and she was buried below Bethel under the terebinth tree. So the name of it was called [c]Allon Bachuth.
9 Then (P)God appeared to Jacob again, when he came from Padan Aram, and (Q)blessed him. 10 And God said to him, “Your name is Jacob; (R)your name shall not be called Jacob anymore, (S)but Israel shall be your name.” So He called his name Israel. 11 Also God said to him: (T)“I am God Almighty. (U)Be fruitful and multiply; (V)a nation and a company of nations shall proceed from you, and kings shall come from your body. 12 The (W)land which I gave Abraham and Isaac I give to you; and to your descendants after you I give this land.” 13 Then God (X)went[d] up from him in the place where He talked with him. 14 So Jacob (Y)set up a pillar in the place where He talked with him, a pillar of stone; and he poured a drink offering on it, and he poured oil on it. 15 And Jacob called the name of the place where God spoke with him, (Z)Bethel.
Death of Rachel
16 Then they journeyed from Bethel. And when there was but a little distance to go to Ephrath, Rachel labored in childbirth, and she had hard labor. 17 Now it came to pass, when she was in hard labor, that the midwife said to her, “Do not fear; (AA)you will have this son also.” 18 And so it was, as her soul was departing (for she died), that she called his name [e]Ben-Oni; but his father called him [f]Benjamin. 19 So (AB)Rachel died and was buried on the way to (AC)Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem). 20 And Jacob set a pillar on her grave, which is the pillar of Rachel’s grave (AD)to this day.
11 For this is the message that you heard from the beginning, (A)that we should love one another, 12 not as (B)Cain who was of the wicked one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his works were evil and his brother’s righteous.
13 Do not marvel, my brethren, if (C)the world hates you. 14 We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love [a]his brother abides in death. 15 (D)Whoever hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that (E)no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.
The Outworking of Love
16 (F)By this we know love, (G)because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. 17 But (H)whoever has this world’s goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him?
18 My little children, (I)let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth.
The Death of Lazarus
11 Now a certain man was sick, Lazarus of Bethany, the town of (A)Mary and her sister Martha. 2 (B)It was that Mary who anointed the Lord with fragrant oil and wiped His feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick. 3 Therefore the sisters sent to Him, saying, “Lord, behold, he whom You love is sick.”
4 When Jesus heard that, He said, “This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it.”
5 Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. 6 So, when He heard that he was sick, (C)He stayed two more days in the place where He was. 7 Then after this He said to the disciples, “Let us go to Judea again.”
8 The disciples said to Him, “Rabbi, lately the Jews sought to (D)stone You, and are You going there again?”
9 Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours in the day? (E)If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the (F)light of this world. 10 But (G)if one walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him.” 11 These things He said, and after that He said to them, “Our friend Lazarus (H)sleeps, but I go that I may wake him up.”
12 Then His disciples said, “Lord, if he sleeps he will get well.” 13 However, Jesus spoke of his death, but they thought that He was speaking about taking rest in sleep.
14 Then Jesus said to them plainly, “Lazarus is dead. 15 And I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, that you may believe. Nevertheless let us go to him.”
16 Then (I)Thomas, who is called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with Him.”
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.