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.
Lying Prophets
9 My heart is broken within me,
because of the prophets;
all my bones shake;
I am like a drunken man,
like a man overcome by wine,
because of the Lord,
and because of His holy words.
10 For the land is full of adulterers;
for the land mourns because of the curse.
The pleasant places of the wilderness have dried up.
And their course is evil
and their might is not right.
11 For both prophet and priest are profane;
indeed, in My house I have found their wickedness,
says the Lord.
12 Therefore their way will be as slippery ways to them;
they shall be driven into the darkness
and fall in it;
for I will bring disaster upon them,
even the year of their punishment,
says the Lord.
13 In addition, I have seen folly
in the prophets of Samaria.
They prophesied by Baal
and caused My people Israel to err.
14 I have seen also among the prophets of Jerusalem
a horrible thing.
They commit adultery and walk in lies.
They also strengthen the hands of evildoers,
so that no one repents from his wickedness.
All of them are as Sodom to Me
and her inhabitants as Gomorrah.
15 Therefore thus says the Lord of Hosts concerning the prophets:
“I will feed them with wormwood
and make them drink the water of gall,
for from the prophets of Jerusalem
profaneness has gone out into all the land.”
God’s Election of Israel
9 I am speaking the truth in Christ, I am not lying; my conscience testifies with me in the Holy Spirit, 2 that I have great sorrow and continual anguish in my heart. 3 For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brothers, my kinsmen by race, 4 who are Israelites, to whom belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service of God, and the promises, 5 to whom belong the patriarchs, and from whom, according to the flesh, is Christ, who is over all, God forever blessed. Amen.
6 It is not as though the word of God has failed. For they are not all Israel who are descended from Israel, 7 nor are they all children because they are descendants of Abraham, but “In Isaac shall your descendants be called.”[a] 8 So those who are the children of the flesh are not the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as descendants. 9 For this is the word of promise, “At this time I will come, and Sarah shall have a son.”[b]
10 Not only that, but Rebekah also had conceived by one man, our father Isaac. 11 For before the children had been born, having done neither evil nor good, so that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but through Him who calls, 12 it was said to her, “The elder shall serve the younger.”[c] 13 As it is written, “Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated.”[d]
14 What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid! 15 For He says to Moses,
“I will have mercy on whom I have mercy,
and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”[e]
16 So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy. 17 For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I may show My power in you, and that My name may be proclaimed in all the earth.”[f] 18 Therefore He has mercy on whom He wills, and He hardens whom He wills.
The Words of Eternal Life
60 When they heard this, many of His disciples said, “This is a hard saying. Who can listen to it?”
61 Knowing in Himself that His disciples murmured about it, Jesus said to them, “Does this offend you? 62 Then what if you see the Son of Man ascend to where He was before? 63 It is the Spirit who gives life. The flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit and are life. 64 But there are some of you who do not believe.” For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe, and who it was who would betray Him. 65 Then He said, “For this reason I have said to you that no one can come to Me unless it were given him by My Father.”
66 From that time many of His disciples went back and walked no more with Him.
67 So Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you also want to go away?”
68 Simon Peter answered Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. 69 We have believed and have come to know that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
70 Jesus answered them, “Have I not chosen you, the twelve, and yet one of you is a devil?” 71 He spoke of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon. For it was he who would betray Him, being one of the twelve.
The Holy Bible, Modern English Version. Copyright © 2014 by Military Bible Association. Published and distributed by Charisma House.