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.
21 This is the word that the Lord has spoken concerning him:
She despises you, she ridicules you—
virgin daughter of Zion.
Behind you, she shakes her head—
daughter of Jerusalem.
22 Whom have you taunted and blasphemed?
And against whom have you raised a voice
and lifted your eyes upward?
Against the Holy One of Israel.
23 By your messengers
you have taunted the Lord,
and have said,
‘With my many chariots
I have gone up the height of the mountains,
to farthest reaches of Lebanon,
and I will cut down its tallest cedars,
its choicest junipers.
I will enter its most remote canopies of night,
its dense forest.
24 I have dug wells
and drunk foreign waters,
and I dried up with the sole of my foot
all the streams of Egypt.’
25 “Have you not heard?
Long ago I arranged it,
in ancient times I formed it;
now I bring it to pass,
that you will turn impregnable cities
into desolate heaps of stones.
26 Their inhabitants are powerless;
they are terrified and ashamed.
They are like grass of the field
and new vegetation,
grass on the roof tops,
scorched before it stands.
27 “But I know your dwelling place,
your going out and your coming in,
and your raging against Me.
28 Because you have raged against Me,
and your self-assuredness has come up to My ears,
I will put My hook in your nose
and My bridle on your lips,
and I will turn you back
on the way by which you came.
29 “This will be the sign to you:
This year you will eat what grows itself,
and in the second year the same.
Then in the third year sow, reap,
and plant vineyards, and eat their fruits.
30 The spared of the house of Judah who remain
will again take root below, and bear fruit above.
31 For from Jerusalem a remnant will go forth,
and escapees from Mount Zion.
“The zeal of the Lord of Hosts will do this.
32 “Therefore thus says the Lord concerning the king of Assyria:
He will not enter this city,
shoot an arrow there,
approach it with shield,
or heap up a siege ramp against it.
33 By the way that he came, he will return;
he will not enter this city,
declares the Lord.
34 For I will protect this city to save it,
for My own sake and for the sake of David My servant.”
The Death of Sennacherib
35 On that night the angel of the Lord went out and struck one hundred and eighty-five thousand in the camp of the Assyrians. When others woke up early in the morning, these were all dead bodies. 36 So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed and stayed in Nineveh.
Warning Against Idolatry
10 I would not want you to be unaware that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, 2 and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea; 3 all ate the same spiritual food; 4 and all drank the same spiritual drink, for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ. 5 But with many of them God was not well pleased, and they were overthrown in the wilderness.
6 Now these things were our examples to the intent that we should not lust after evil things as they lusted. 7 Neither be idolaters as were some of them. As it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to revel.”[a] 8 Neither let us commit sexual immorality as some of them committed, when twenty-three thousand fell in one day. 9 Neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted and were destroyed by serpents. 10 Neither murmur, as some of them also murmured and were destroyed by the destroyer.
11 Now all these things happened to them for examples. They are written as an admonition to us, upon whom the end of the ages has come. 12 Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed, lest he fall. 13 No temptation has taken you except what is common to man. God is faithful, and He will not permit you to be tempted above what you can endure, but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that you may be able to bear it.
The Would-Be Followers of Jesus(A)
18 Now when Jesus saw large crowds around Him, He gave a command to depart to the other side. 19 Then a certain scribe came and said to Him, “Teacher, I will follow You wherever You go.”
20 Jesus replied, “The foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay His head.”
21 Another of His other disciples said to Him, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.”
22 But Jesus said to him, “Follow Me, and let the dead bury their dead.”
The Calming of a Storm(B)
23 Then He entered the boat, and His disciples followed Him. 24 Suddenly a great storm arose on the sea, so that the boat was covered with the waves. But He was asleep. 25 His disciples went to Him and awoke Him, saying, “Lord, save us! We are perishing!”
26 He replied, “Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?” Then He rose and rebuked the winds and the sea. And there was a great calm.
27 The men were amazed, saying, “What kind of Man is this that even the winds and the sea obey Him!”
The Holy Bible, Modern English Version. Copyright © 2014 by Military Bible Association. Published and distributed by Charisma House.