Book of Common Prayer
33 He turns rivers into desert,
springs into thirsty ground,(A)
34 and fruitful land into salty wasteland,
because of the wickedness of its inhabitants.(B)
35 He turns a desert into a pool,
dry land into springs.(C)
36 He causes the hungry to settle there,
and they establish a city where they can live.(D)
37 They sow fields and plant vineyards
that yield a fruitful harvest.(E)
38 He blesses them, and they multiply greatly;(F)
he does not let their livestock decrease.(G)
39 When they are diminished and are humbled
by cruel oppression and sorrow,(H)
40 he pours contempt on nobles(I)
and makes them wander in a trackless wasteland.(J)
41 But he lifts the needy out of their suffering(K)
and makes their families multiply like flocks.(L)
42 The upright see it and rejoice,(M)
and all injustice shuts its mouth.(N)
43 Let whoever is wise pay attention to these things
and consider the Lord’s acts of faithful love.(O)
A Plea for Victory
A song. A psalm of David.
108 My heart is confident, God;
I will sing; I will sing praises
with the whole of my being.[a](P)
2 Wake up, harp and lyre!
I will wake up the dawn.(Q)
3 I will praise you, Lord, among the peoples;
I will sing praises to you among the nations.(R)
4 For your faithful love is higher than the heavens,
and your faithfulness reaches to the clouds.(S)
5 God, be exalted above the heavens,(T)
and let your glory be over the whole earth.(U)
6 Save with your right hand and answer me
so that those you love may be rescued.(V)
7 God has spoken in his sanctuary:[b]
‘I will celebrate!
I will divide up Shechem.(W)
I will apportion the Valley of Succoth.(X)
8 Gilead is mine, Manasseh is mine,
and Ephraim is my helmet;(Y)
Judah is my sceptre.(Z)
9 Moab is my washbasin;(AA)
I throw my sandal on Edom.(AB)
I shout in triumph over Philistia.’(AC)
10 Who will bring me to the fortified city?
Who will lead me to Edom?(AD)
11 God, haven’t you rejected us?
God, you do not march out with our armies.(AE)
12 Give us aid against the foe,
for human help is worthless.(AF)
13 With God we will perform valiantly;(AG)
he will trample our foes.(AH)
Praise to the Creator
33 Rejoice in the Lord, you righteous ones;
praise from the upright is beautiful.(A)
2 Praise the Lord with the lyre;
make music to him with a ten-stringed harp.(B)
3 Sing a new song to him;(C)
play skilfully on the strings, with a joyful shout.(D)
4 For the word of the Lord is right,
and all his work is trustworthy.(E)
5 He loves righteousness and justice;(F)
the earth is full of the Lord’s unfailing love.(G)
6 The heavens were made by the word of the Lord,(H)
and all the stars, by the breath of his mouth.(I)
7 He gathers the water of the sea into a heap;[a]
he puts the depths into storehouses.(J)
8 Let the whole earth fear the Lord;
let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him.(K)
9 For he spoke, and it came into being;
he commanded, and it came into existence.(L)
10 The Lord frustrates the counsel of the nations;
he thwarts the plans of the peoples.(M)
11 The counsel of the Lord stands for ever,
the plans of his heart from generation to generation.(N)
12 Happy is the nation whose God is the Lord –
the people he has chosen to be his own possession!(O)
13 The Lord looks down from heaven;
he observes everyone.(P)
14 He gazes on all the inhabitants of the earth
from his dwelling place.(Q)
15 He forms the hearts of them all;
he considers all their works.(R)
16 A king is not saved by a large army;
a warrior will not be rescued by great strength.(S)
17 The horse is a false hope for safety;
it provides no escape by its great power.(T)
18 But look, the Lord keeps his eye on those who fear him –
those who depend on his faithful love(U)
19 to rescue them from death
and to keep them alive in famine.(V)
20 We wait for the Lord;(W)
he is our help and shield.(X)
21 For our hearts rejoice in him(Y)
because we trust in his holy name.(Z)
22 May your faithful love rest on us, Lord,
for we put our hope in you.(AA)
Return to Bethel
35 God said to Jacob, ‘Get up! Go to Bethel and settle there.(A) Build an altar there to the God who appeared to you when you fled from your brother Esau.’(B)
2 So Jacob said to his family and all who were with him, ‘Get rid of the foreign gods that are among you.(C) Purify yourselves and change your clothes.(D) 3 We must get up and go to Bethel. I will build an altar there to the God who answered me in my day of distress.(E) He has been with me everywhere I have gone.’(F)
4 Then they gave Jacob all their foreign gods and their earrings, and Jacob hid them under the oak near Shechem. 5 When they set out, a terror from God came over the cities around them, and they did not pursue Jacob’s sons.(G) 6 So Jacob and all who were with him came to Luz (that is, Bethel(H)) in the land of Canaan. 7 Jacob built an altar there and called the place El-bethel[a] because it was there that God had revealed himself to him when he was fleeing from his brother.
8 Deborah, the one who had nursed and brought up Rebekah,[b](I) died and was buried under the oak south of Bethel. So Jacob named it Allon-bacuth.[c]
9 God appeared to Jacob again after he returned from Paddan-aram, and he blessed him. 10 God said to him, ‘Your name is Jacob; you will no longer be named Jacob, but your name will be Israel.’(J) So he named him Israel. 11 God also said to him, ‘I am God Almighty.(K) Be fruitful and multiply.(L) A nation, indeed an assembly of nations, will come from you,(M) and kings will descend from you.[d](N) 12 I will give to you the land that I gave to Abraham and Isaac.(O) And I will give the land to your future descendants.’ 13 Then God withdrew[e](P) from him at the place where he had spoken to him.
14 Jacob set up a marker at the place where he had spoken to him – a stone marker. He poured a drink offering on it and poured oil on it.(Q) 15 Jacob named the place where God had spoken with him Bethel.
Rachel’s Death
16 They set out from Bethel. When they were still some distance from Ephrath, Rachel began to give birth, and her labour was difficult. 17 During her difficult labour, the midwife said to her, ‘Don’t be afraid, for you have another son.’(R) 18 With her last breath – for she was dying – she named him Ben-oni,[f] but his father called him Benjamin.[g] 19 So Rachel died and was buried on the way to Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem(S)). 20 Jacob set up a marker on her grave; it is the marker at Rachel’s grave still today.
Love in Action
11 For this is the message you have heard from the beginning: We should love one another, 12 unlike Cain,(A) who was of the evil one(B) and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his deeds were evil, and his brother’s were righteous.
13 Do not be surprised, brothers and sisters, if the world hates(C) you. 14 We know that we have passed from death to life because we love our brothers and sisters. The one who does not love remains in death.(D) 15 Everyone who hates his brother or sister(E) is a murderer,(F) and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing in him. 16 This is how we have come to know love: He laid down his life(G) for us.(H) We should also lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.(I) 17 If anyone has this world’s goods(J) and sees a fellow believer[a] in need(K) but withholds compassion(L) from him – how does God’s love reside in him?(M) 18 Little children, let us not love in word or speech, but in action and in truth.(N)
Lazarus Dies at Bethany
11 Now a man was ill – Lazarus from Bethany,(A) the village of Mary and her sister Martha.(B) 2 Mary was the one who anointed the Lord with perfume and wiped his feet with her hair,(C) and it was her brother Lazarus who was ill. 3 So the sisters sent a message to him: ‘Lord, the one you love is ill.’
4 When Jesus heard it, he said, ‘This sickness will not end in death but is for the glory of God,(D) so that the Son of God(E) may be glorified through it.’ 5 Now Jesus loved Martha, her sister, and Lazarus. 6 So when he heard that he was ill, he stayed two more days in the place where he was. 7 Then after that, he said to the disciples, ‘Let’s go to Judea(F) again.’
8 ‘Rabbi,’(G) the disciples told him, ‘just now the Jews tried to stone you,(H) and you’re going there again? ’
9 ‘Aren’t there twelve hours in a day? ’ Jesus answered. ‘If anyone walks during the day, he doesn’t stumble, because he sees the light of this world.(I) 10 But if anyone walks during the night,(J) he does stumble, because the light is not in him.’
11 He said this, and then he told them, ‘Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep,(K) but I’m on my way to wake him up.’
12 Then the disciples said to him, ‘Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will get well.’
13 Jesus, however, was speaking about his death, but they thought he was speaking about natural sleep. 14 So Jesus then told them plainly, ‘Lazarus has died. 15 I’m glad for you that I wasn’t there so that you may believe. But let’s go to him.’
16 Then Thomas(L) (called ‘Twin’[a]) said to his fellow disciples, ‘Let’s go too so that we may die with him.’
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