Book of Common Prayer
33 He turns rivers into a desert,
water springs into dry ground,
34 a fruitful land into salty wasteland,
because of the wickedness of those living there.
35 He turns a wilderness into pools of water,
a parched ground into springs of water.
36 There He makes the hungry dwell,
and they prepare a city to live in;
37 they sow fields and plant vineyards,
and yield a fruitful harvest.
38 He blesses them, so that they are greatly multiplied,
and He does not let their livestock decrease.
39 But when they are diminished and brought down
through oppression, affliction, and sorrow,
40 He pours contempt upon princes,
and causes them to wander in a wilderness with no road;
41 yet He raises up the poor from affliction
and cares for their families like flocks of sheep.
42 The righteous shall see it and rejoice,
and all evil people shall stop their mouth.
43 Whoever is wise let him observe these things;
let them consider the lovingkindness of the Lord.
Psalm 108(A)
A Song. A Psalm of David.
1 O God, my heart is determined;
I will sing and give praise with my whole heart.
2 Awake, O lyre and harp!
I will awake at dawn!
3 I will praise you, O Lord, among the peoples,
and I will sing praises unto You among the nations.
4 For Your mercy is great above the heavens;
Your faithfulness reaches to the clouds.
5 Be exalted, O God, above the heavens,
may Your glory be above all the earth.
6 That Your beloved ones may be delivered,
provide salvation with Your right hand and answer me.
7 God has spoken in His sanctuary:
“I will triumph and will divide up Shechem
and portion out the Valley of Sukkoth.
8 Gilead is Mine; Manasseh is Mine;
Ephraim is My helmet;
Judah is My royal scepter;
9 Moab is My washbasin;
on Edom I throw My shoe;
over Philistia I shout in triumph.”
10 Who will bring me into the fortified city?
Who will lead me into Edom?
11 Have You not rejected us, O God?
You surely do not go out, O God, with our armies.
12 Grant us help against the foe,
for the help of man is worthless.
13 Through God we shall be valiant,
for He shall tread down our enemies.
Psalm 33
The Sovereignty of the Lord.
1 Rejoice in the Lord, O you righteous,
for praise is fitting for the upright.
2 Give thanks to the Lord with the harp;
make music to Him with an instrument of ten strings.
3 Sing to Him a new song;
play an instrument skillfully with a joyful shout.
4 For the word of the Lord is upright,
and all His work is done in truth.
5 He loves righteousness and justice;
the earth is full of the lovingkindness of the Lord.
6 By the word of the Lord the heavens were made,
and all their host by the breath of His mouth.
7 He gathers the waters of the sea together as a heap;
He puts the depths in storehouses.
8 Let all the earth fear the Lord;
let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him.
9 For He spoke, and it was done;
He commanded, and it stood fast.
10 The Lord frustrates the counsel of the nations;
He restrains the purposes of the people.
11 The counsel of the Lord stands forever,
the purposes of His heart to all generations.
12 Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord,
the people whom He has chosen as His inheritance.
13 The Lord looks from heaven;
He sees all the sons of men.
14 From the place of His habitation He gazes
on all the inhabitants of the earth;
15 He fashions their hearts alike;
He considers all their works.
16 No king is saved by a great army;
a mighty man is not delivered by great strength.
17 A horse is a vain hope for safety;
it will not deliver by its great strength.
18 The eye of the Lord is on those who fear Him,
on those who hope in His lovingkindness,
19 to deliver their soul from death,
and to keep them alive in famine.
20 Our soul waits for the Lord;
He is our help and our shield.
21 For our heart will rejoice in Him,
because we have trusted in His holy name.
22 Let Your lovingkindness, O Lord, be on us,
just as we hope in You.
Jacob Returns to Bethel
35 Then God said to Jacob, “Arise, go up to Bethel, dwell there, and there make an altar to God, who appeared to you when you fled from the face of Esau your brother.”
2 So Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, “Put away the foreign gods that are among you. Purify yourselves and change your clothes. 3 Let us arise and go up to Bethel, and there I will make an altar to God, who answered me in the day of my distress and has been with me wherever I have gone.” 4 So they gave Jacob all the foreign gods which were in their possession and all their earrings which were in their ears, and Jacob hid them under the oak which was near Shechem. 5 As they traveled, the terror of God was on the cities that were around them, and they did not pursue the sons of Jacob.
6 So Jacob came to Luz (that is, Bethel), which is in the land of Canaan, he and all the people who were with him. 7 There he built an altar and called the place El Bethel, because God had appeared to him there when he fled from his brother.
8 Now Deborah, Rebekah’s nurse, died and was buried beneath Bethel under the oak. So it was called Allon Bakuth.
9 God appeared to Jacob again when he came out of Paddan Aram and blessed him. 10 God said to him, “Your name is Jacob. Your name shall not be called Jacob any more, but Israel shall be your name.” So He called his name Israel.
11 God said to him, “I am God Almighty. Be fruitful and multiply. A nation and a company of nations will come from you, and kings shall come forth from you. 12 The land that I gave Abraham and Isaac, I will give to you, and to your descendants after you I will give the land.” 13 Then God went up from him in the place where He had spoken with him.
14 Jacob set up a pillar in the place where He had spoken with him, a pillar of stone, and he poured out a drink offering on it, and he poured oil on it too. 15 So Jacob called the name of the place where God had spoken with him Bethel.
The Deaths of Rachel and Isaac(A)
16 They journeyed from Bethel, and when they were still some distance from Ephrath, Rachel went into labor, and she had a difficult labor. 17 When she was in hard labor, the midwife said to her, “Do not fear. You will have this son also.” 18 As her soul was departing (for she died), she called his name Ben-Oni, but his father called him Benjamin.
19 Rachel died and was buried on the way to Ephrath, which is Bethlehem. 20 Jacob set a pillar on her grave. It is the pillar of Rachel’s grave to this day.
Love One Another
11 For this is the message that you heard from the beginning: We should love one another, 12 not like Cain, who was of the wicked one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother’s works were righteous. 13 Do not marvel, my brothers, if the world hates you. 14 We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love his brother remains in death. 15 Whoever hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life remaining in him.
16 By this we know the love of God: that He laid down His life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. 17 Whoever has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, but closes his heart of compassion from him, how can the love of God remain in him? 18 My little children, let us love not in word and speech, but in action and truth.
The Death of Lazarus
11 Now a man was sick, Lazarus from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. 2 This was Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped His feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick. 3 So the sisters sent word to Him, saying, “Lord, he whom You love is sick.”
4 When Jesus heard this, He said, “This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified by it.” 5 Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus. 6 So when He heard that he was sick, He remained where He was two more days. 7 Then after this He said to the disciples, “Let us go into Judea again.”
8 His disciples said to Him, “Rabbi, the Jews were just trying to stone You. Are You going there again?”
9 Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours in the day? If anyone walks during the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world. 10 But if anyone walks during the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him.”
11 After He said this, He said to them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep. But I am going that I may awaken him from sleep.”
12 Then His disciples said, “Lord, if he is sleeping, he will be well.” 13 Jesus had spoken of his death. But they thought that He was speaking of getting rest through sleep.
14 So then Jesus plainly told them, “Lazarus is dead. 15 And I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, so that you may believe. Nevertheless let us go to him.”
16 Then Thomas, who is called Didymus, said to his fellow disciples, “Let us go also, that we may die with Him.”
The Holy Bible, Modern English Version. Copyright © 2014 by Military Bible Association. Published and distributed by Charisma House.