Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 61[a]
For the music director, to be played on a stringed instrument; written by David.
61 O God, hear my cry for help.
Pay attention to my prayer.
2 From the remotest place on earth[b]
I call out to you in my despair.[c]
Lead me[d] up to a rocky summit where I can be safe.[e]
3 Indeed,[f] you are[g] my shelter,
a strong tower that protects me from the enemy.[h]
4 I will be a permanent guest in your home;[i]
I will find shelter in the protection of your wings.[j] (Selah)
5 For you, O God, hear my vows;
you grant me the reward that belongs to your loyal followers.[k]
6 Give the king long life.
Make his lifetime span several generations.[l]
7 May he reign[m] forever before God.
Decree that your loyal love and faithfulness should protect him.[n]
8 Then I will sing praises to your name continually,[o]
as I fulfill[p] my vows day after day.
Psalm 62[q]
For the music director, Jeduthun; a psalm of David.
62 For God alone I patiently wait;[r]
he is the one who delivers me.[s]
2 He alone is my protector[t] and deliverer.
He is my refuge;[u] I will not be upended.[v]
3 How long will you threaten[w] a man like me?
All of you are murderers,[x]
as dangerous as a leaning wall or an unstable fence.[y]
4 They[z] spend all their time planning how to bring their victim[aa] down.[ab]
They love to use deceit;[ac]
they pronounce blessings with their mouths,
but inwardly they utter curses.[ad] (Selah)
5 Patiently wait for God alone, my soul![ae]
For he is the one who gives me hope.[af]
6 He alone is my protector[ag] and deliverer.
He is my refuge;[ah] I will not be shaken.
7 God delivers me and exalts me;
God is my strong protector and my shelter.[ai]
8 Trust in him at all times, you people!
Pour out your hearts before him.[aj]
God is our shelter. (Selah)
9 Men are nothing but a mere breath;
human beings are unreliable.[ak]
When they are weighed in the scales,
all of them together are lighter than air.[al]
10 Do not trust in what you can gain by oppression.[am]
Do not put false confidence in what you can gain by robbery.[an]
If wealth increases, do not become attached to it.[ao]
11 God has declared one principle;
two principles I have heard:[ap]
God is strong,[aq]
12 and you, O Lord, demonstrate loyal love.[ar]
For you repay men for what they do.[as]
Psalm 68[a]
For the music director, by David, a psalm, a song.
68 God springs into action.[b]
His enemies scatter;
his adversaries[c] run from him.[d]
2 As smoke is driven away by the wind, so you drive them away.[e]
As wax melts before fire,
so the wicked are destroyed before God.
3 But the godly[f] are happy;
they rejoice before God
and are overcome with joy.[g]
4 Sing to God! Sing praises to his name.
Exalt the one who rides on the clouds.[h]
For the Lord is his name.[i]
Rejoice before him.
5 He is a father to the fatherless
and an advocate for widows.[j]
God rules from his holy dwelling place.[k]
6 God settles in their own homes those who have been deserted;[l]
he frees prisoners and grants them prosperity.[m]
But sinful rebels live in the desert.[n]
7 O God, when you lead your people into battle,[o]
when you march through the wastelands,[p] (Selah)
8 the earth shakes.
Yes, the heavens pour down rain
before God, the God of Sinai,[q]
before God, the God of Israel.[r]
9 O God, you cause abundant showers to fall[s] on your chosen people.[t]
When they[u] are tired, you sustain them,[v]
10 for you live among them.[w]
You sustain the oppressed with your good blessings, O God.
11 The Lord speaks;[x]
many, many women spread the good news.[y]
12 Kings leading armies run away—they run away![z]
The lovely lady[aa] of the house divides up the loot.
13 When[ab] you lie down among the sheepfolds,[ac]
the wings of the dove are covered with silver
and with glittering gold.[ad]
14 When the Sovereign One[ae] scatters kings,[af]
let it snow[ag] on Zalmon.
15 The mountain of Bashan[ah] is a towering mountain;[ai]
the mountain of Bashan is a mountain with many peaks.[aj]
16 Why do you look with envy,[ak] O mountains[al] with many peaks,
at the mountain where God has decided to live?[am]
Indeed[an] the Lord will live there[ao] permanently.
17 God has countless chariots;
they number in the thousands.[ap]
The Lord comes from Sinai in holy splendor.[aq]
18 You ascend on high;[ar]
you have taken many captives.[as]
You receive tribute[at] from[au] men,
including even sinful rebels.
Indeed, the Lord God lives there.[av]
19 The Lord deserves praise.[aw]
Day after day[ax] he carries our burden,
the God who delivers us. (Selah)
20 Our God is a God who delivers;
the Lord, the Sovereign Lord, can rescue from death.[ay]
21 Indeed, God strikes the heads of his enemies,
the hairy foreheads of those who persist in rebellion.[az]
22 The Lord says,
“I will retrieve them[ba] from Bashan.
I will bring them back from the depths of the sea,
23 so that your feet may stomp[bb] in their blood,
and your dogs may eat their portion of the enemies’ corpses.”[bc]
24 They[bd] see your processions, O God—
the processions of my God, my king, who marches along in holy splendor.[be]
25 Singers walk in front;
musicians follow playing their stringed instruments,[bf]
in the midst of young women playing tambourines.[bg]
26 In your large assemblies praise God,
the Lord, in the assemblies of Israel.[bh]
27 There is little Benjamin, their ruler,[bi]
and the princes of Judah in their robes,[bj]
along with the princes of Zebulun and the princes of Naphtali.
28 God has decreed that you will be powerful.[bk]
O God, you who have acted on our behalf, demonstrate your power.
29 Because of your temple in Jerusalem,[bl]
kings bring tribute to you.
30 Sound your battle cry against[bm] the wild beast of the reeds,[bn]
and the nations that assemble like a herd of calves led by bulls.[bo]
They humble themselves[bp] and offer gold and silver as tribute.[bq]
God[br] scatters[bs] the nations that like to do battle.
31 They come with red cloth[bt] from Egypt.
Ethiopia[bu] voluntarily offers tribute[bv] to God.
32 O kingdoms of the earth, sing to God.
Sing praises to the Lord, (Selah)
33 to the one who rides through the sky from ancient times.[bw]
Look! He thunders loudly.[bx]
34 Acknowledge God’s power,[by]
his sovereignty over Israel,
and the power he reveals in the skies.[bz]
35 You are awe-inspiring, O God, as you emerge from your holy temple.[ca]
It is the God of Israel[cb] who gives the people power and strength.
God deserves praise![cc]
The Lord Recalls Israel’s Earlier Faithfulness
2 The Lord’s message came to me, 2 “Go and declare in the hearing of the people of Jerusalem: ‘This is what the Lord says: “I have fond memories of you,[a] how devoted you were to me in your early years.[b] I remember how you loved me like a new bride; you followed me through the wilderness, through a land that had never been planted. 3 Israel was set apart to the Lord; they were like the firstfruits of a harvest to him.[c] All who tried to devour them were punished; disaster came upon them,” says the Lord.’”
The Lord Reminds Them of the Unfaithfulness of Their Ancestors
4 Now listen to the Lord’s message, you descendants[d] of Jacob,
all you family groups from the nation[e] of Israel.
5 This is what the Lord says:
“What fault could your ancestors[f] have possibly found in me
that they strayed so far from me?[g]
They paid allegiance to[h] worthless idols, and so became worthless to me.[i]
6 They did not ask,
‘Where is the Lord who delivered us out of Egypt,
who brought us through the wilderness,
through a land of valleys and gorges,[j]
through a land of desert and deep darkness,[k]
through a land in which no one travels,
and where no one lives?’[l]
7 I brought you[m] into a fertile land
so you could enjoy[n] its fruits and its rich bounty.
But when you entered my land, you defiled it;[o]
you made the land I call my own[p] loathsome to me.
8 Your priests[q] did not ask, ‘Where is the Lord?’[r]
Those responsible for teaching my law[s] did not really know me.[t]
Your rulers rebelled against me.
Your prophets prophesied in the name of the god Baal.[u]
They all worshiped idols that could not help them.[v]
The Lord Charges Contemporary Israel with Spiritual Adultery
9 “So, once more I will state my case[w] against you,” says the Lord.
“I will also state it against your children and grandchildren.[x]
10 Go west[y] across the sea to the coasts of Cyprus[z] and see.
Send someone east to Kedar[aa] and have them look carefully.
See if such a thing as this has ever happened:
11 Has a nation ever changed its gods
(even though they are not really gods at all)?
But my people have exchanged me, their glorious God,[ab]
for a god that cannot help them at all![ac]
12 Be amazed at this, O heavens.[ad]
Be shocked and utterly dumbfounded,”
says the Lord.
13 “Do so because my people have committed a double wrong:
They have rejected me,
the fountain of life-giving water,[ae]
and they have dug cisterns for themselves,
cracked cisterns that cannot even hold water.
The Power of the Gospel
16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is God’s power for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.[a] 17 For the righteousness[b] of God is revealed in the gospel[c] from faith to faith,[d] just as it is written, “The righteous by faith will live.”[e]
The Condemnation of the Unrighteous
18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of people[f] who suppress the truth by their[g] unrighteousness,[h] 19 because what can be known about God is plain to them,[i] because God has made it plain to them. 20 For since the creation of the world his invisible attributes—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, because they are understood through what has been made. So people[j] are without excuse. 21 For although they knew God, they did not glorify him as God or give him thanks, but they became futile in their thoughts and their senseless hearts[k] were darkened. 22 Although they claimed[l] to be wise, they became fools 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for an image resembling mortal human beings[m] or birds or four-footed animals[n] or reptiles.
24 Therefore God gave them over[o] in the desires of their hearts to impurity,[p] to dishonor[q] their bodies among themselves.[r] 25 They[s] exchanged the truth of God for a lie[t] and worshiped and served the creation[u] rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.
Onward to Galilee
43 After the two days he departed from there to Galilee. 44 (For Jesus himself had testified that a prophet has no honor in his own country.)[a] 45 So when he came to Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him because they had seen all the things he had done in Jerusalem[b] at the feast[c] (for they themselves had gone to the feast).[d]
Healing the Royal Official’s Son
46 Now he came again to Cana in Galilee where he had made the water wine.[e] In[f] Capernaum[g] there was a certain royal official[h] whose son was sick. 47 When he heard that Jesus had come back from Judea to Galilee, he went to him and begged him[i] to come down and heal his son, who was about to die. 48 So Jesus said to him, “Unless you people[j] see signs and wonders you will never believe!”[k] 49 “Sir,” the official said to him, “come down before my child dies.” 50 Jesus told him, “Go home;[l] your son will live.” The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him, and set off for home.[m]
51 While he was on his way down,[n] his slaves[o] met him and told him that his son was going to live. 52 So he asked them the time[p] when his condition began to improve,[q] and[r] they told him, “Yesterday at one o’clock in the afternoon[s] the fever left him.” 53 Then the father realized that it was the very time[t] Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live,” and he himself believed along with his entire household. 54 Jesus did this as his second miraculous sign[u] when he returned from Judea to Galilee.
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