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.
Chapter 16
Samson at Gaza. 1 One day Samson went to Gaza. He saw a prostitute there, and he had sex with her. 2 The people in Gaza were told, “Samson is here.” They surrounded the place where he was staying, and they lay in wait for him all night at the city gate. They kept quiet all night, saying, “In the morning we will kill him.” 3 Samson lay there until midnight, and then at midnight he got up and took hold of the city gates with its two posts. He lifted up the gates, put them on his shoulders, and carried them to the top of the hill that faces Hebron.
Samson and Delilah. 4 Sometime later he fell in love with a woman who lived in the Valley of Sorek. Her name was Delilah. 5 The lords of the Philistines visited her and said, “Entice him and see if you can find out the source of his great strength and how we can overpower him and tie him up and subdue him. Each one of us will give you eleven hundred pieces of silver.”
6 Delilah said to Samson, “Please tell me the source of your great strength and how you could be tied up and subdued.” 7 Samson answered her, “If anyone were to tie me up with seven fresh bowstrings that have never been dried, then I would become as weak as everyone else.” 8 The lords of the Philistines brought her seven fresh bowstrings that had not been dried, and she tied him up with them. 9 There were some men hiding in the room when she cried out to him, “Samson, the Philistines are upon you.” He broke the thongs like a piece of string that snaps when it is close to a flame. Thus, the secret of his strength was not known.
10 Delilah then said to Samson, “You have mocked me and lied to me. Please, tell me now how you could be tied up.” 11 He answered, “If anyone were to bind me with new ropes that had never been used, then I would become as weak as everyone else.” 12 So Delilah took new ropes and she bound him and cried out, “Samson, the Philistines are upon you,” as the men were hiding in the room. He broke them off of his arms as if they were made of thread.
13 Delilah then said to Samson, “Until now you have mocked me and lied to me. Tell me, now, how you could be tied up.” He answered, “If you were to weave the seven locks on my head into the loom, 14 and fastened it with a pin, then I should become weak, and be like any other man.” Again she cried out, “Samson, the Philistines are upon you.” He woke up from his sleep and pulled away from the pin, the loom, and the web.
30 “After forty years had passed, an angel appeared to him in the desert near Mount Sinai in the flame of a burning bush. 31 When Moses saw it, he was amazed, and as he approached to examine it, the voice of the Lord said to him, 32 ‘I am the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.’
“Moses was terrified and did not dare to look. 33 Then the Lord said to him, ‘Take off the sandals from your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground. 34 I have seen the oppression of my people in Egypt and have heard their sighs, and I have come down to rescue them. Now come! I will send you to Egypt.’
35 “This Moses whom they rejected by saying ‘Who appointed you to be our ruler and judge?’ God now sent forth as both ruler and liberator through the angel who appeared to him in the bush. 36 It was he who led them out, performing wonders and signs in Egypt, at the Red Sea, and for forty years in the desert. 37 It was this Moses who said to the children of Israel, ‘God will raise up for you, from your own people, a prophet like me.’ 38 It was he who was in the assembly in the desert with the angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai and with our ancestors, and who received words of life to hand on to us.
39 “This is the man whom our ancestors refused to obey. Instead they thrust him aside, and in their hearts they turned back to Egypt, 40 saying to Aaron, ‘Make gods for us who will lead us on the way. As for this Moses, who led us out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has happened to him.’
41 “It was then that they made a calf, offered a sacrifice to the idol, and rejoiced over the work of their hands. 42 So God turned away from them and gave them up to worship the host of heaven, as it is written in the book of the Prophets:
‘Did you bring me sacrifices and offerings
during those forty years in the desert, O house of Israel?
43 No, you carried aloft the tent of Moloch
and the star of your god Rephan,
the images that you had made to worship.
And so I shall send you into exile beyond Babylon.’
Jesus Restores the Work of God[a]
Chapter 5
The Sign Given on a Sabbath.[b] 1 Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish feasts. 2 Now in Jerusalem, by the Sheep Gate, there is a pool that in Hebrew is called Bethesda.[c] It has five porticos, 3 and in these a large number of invalids used to lie, people who were blind, lame, and paralyzed, waiting for the movement of the water.[d] [ 4 For occasionally an angel of the Lord would come down into the pool and stir up the water. The first one into the pool after each such disturbance would be cured of whatever disease he had.][e]
5 A man who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. 6 When Jesus saw him lying there and was aware that he had been ill for a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to get well?” 7 The invalid answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up. While I am still on my way, someone else steps into the pool ahead of me.” 8 Jesus said to him, “Rise! Take up your mat and walk!” 9 Immediately, the man was cured, and he took up his mat and began to walk.
Now that day was a Sabbath. 10 Therefore, the Jews said to the man who had been cured, “Today is the Sabbath. It is not lawful for you to carry your mat.” 11 He replied, “The man who cured me said to me, ‘Take up your mat and walk!’ ” 12 They asked him, “Who is the man who told you to take it up and walk?” 13 But the man who had been cured did not know who it was, for Jesus had disappeared into the crowd that was there.
14 Later, Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, “See, you have been made well. Do not sin anymore, so that nothing worse happens to you.” 15 The man went away and told the Jews that Jesus was the man who had made him well. 16 Therefore, the Jews began to harass Jesus because he was doing such things on the Sabbath. 17 However, Jesus responded to them, saying,
“My Father is still working,
and I am at work as well.”
18 For this reason, the Jews became even more determined to kill him, because he was not only breaking the Sabbath but also calling God his own Father, making himself equal to God.
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