Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 68[a]
Song of Victory
1 For the director.[b] A psalm of David. A song.
2 [c]May God rise up, and his enemies be scattered;
may his foes flee before him.
3 As smoke is blown away in the wind,
so will they be blown away.
As wax melts away before a flame,
so will the wicked perish before God.
4 But those who are righteous will rejoice;
they will exult before God,
crying out with great delight.
5 [d]Sing to God, sing praise to his name;[e]
exalt him who rides upon the clouds.
Rejoice in the presence of this God
whose name is the Lord.
6 [f]The Father of orphans and the defender of widows:
such is God in his holy dwelling place.
7 He gives a home to those who are forsaken
and leads out prisoners amid chants of exultation,
while rebels are forced to live in an arid land.
8 [g]O God, when you set out at the head of your people,
when you went marching through the wilderness, Selah
9 the earth quaked,[h]
and rain poured down from the heavens,
at the presence of God, the One of Sinai,
at the presence of God, the God of Israel.
10 [i]You poured down rain in abundance, O God,
and revived your exhausted inheritance.
11 It was there that your people settled;
and in your great goodness, O God,
you provided for those who were needy.
12 [j]The Lord issues the word,[k]
and a vast army proclaims good tidings:
13 “Kings and their armies are beating a hasty retreat;
even those who remained in camp are dividing up the spoils.
14 “While you linger by the sheepfolds,
the wings of the dove are covered[l] with silver,
its feathers brilliant with shining gold.”
15 When the Almighty[m] routed the kings there,
it was like snow fallen upon Zalmon.
16 [n]The mountains of Bashan are God’s mountains;
the mountains of Bashan are mighty peaks.
17 Why, O rugged mountains, do you gaze enviously
at the mountain[o] that God has chosen as his abode,
where the Lord himself will dwell forever?
18 The chariots of God[p] are myriad,
thousands upon thousands;
the Lord has come down from Sinai
and entered into the holy place.
19 You ascended on high,
leading captives in your train;
you accepted slaves as tribute,
so that even rebels might dwell with the Lord God.[q]
20 [r]Blessed be the Lord, day after day,
the God of our salvation, who carries our burden. Selah
21 Our God is a God who saves;
the Lord God delivers from death.[s]
22 God himself will smite the heads of his enemies,
the hairy crowns of those who persist in their sins.
23 The Lord has said:
“I will bring them back even from Bashan,
I will bring them back even from the depths of the sea,[t]
24 so that you may bathe your feet in the blood of your foes
and the tongues of your dogs may have their share.”[u]
25 [v]Your procession, O God, comes into view,
the procession of my God and King into the sanctuary.
26 The singers enter first,
with musicians trailing behind them,
while in their midst are the maidens playing tambourines.[w]
27 Bless God in the assembly;
the Lord, the source of Israel.
28 In the lead is Benjamin, the smallest in number,
with the princes of Judah in a council,
as well as the princes of Zebulun and Naphtali.
29 [x]Marshal your power once again, O God,
the power of God that you have often wielded for us.
30 For to your temple in Jerusalem
kings will come to you bearing gifts.[y]
31 Rebuke those wild beasts of the reeds,[z]
the herd of mighty bulls, the calves of nations,
who bring bars of silver and prostrate themselves;
rout the nations that delight in war.
32 Envoys will come from Egypt;
Ethiopia will stretch out its hands to God.[aa]
33 [ab]Sing to God, all you kingdoms of the earth;
sing the praises of the Lord, Selah
34 who rides the ancient heavens above[ac]
and speaks with his voice of thunder.
35 Acknowledge the power of God,
whose majesty is over Israel
and whose power is in the skies.
36 Awesome is God in his sanctuary,
the God of Israel, who gives power and strength to his people.[ad]
Blessed be God!
Psalm 72[a]
The Kingdom of the Messiah
1 Of Solomon.
O God, endow the king with your judgment,
the son of kings with your righteousness.
2 [b]He will govern your people fairly
and deal justly with your poor ones.
3 The mountains will yield peace for the people,
and the hills, righteousness.
4 He will defend the afflicted among the people,
save the children of the poor,
and overwhelm the oppressor.
5 He will reign as long as the sun,
as long as the moon, through all generations.
6 He will descend like rain on the meadow,
like showers that water the earth.
7 Justice will reign in his days,
and peace will abound
until the moon is no more.
8 His rule will extend from sea to sea,[c]
and from the river to the ends of the earth.
9 His foes[d] will bow down before him,
and his enemies will lick the dust.
10 The kings of Tarshish[e] and the Islands
will offer him tribute;
the kings of Sheba and Seba
will present him with gifts.
11 All kings will pay him homage,
and all nations will serve him.
12 For he will save the poor who cry out
and the needy who have no one to help them.
13 He will have pity on the lowly and the poor;
the lives of the needy he will save.
14 He will free them from oppression and violence,
for their blood is precious in his sight.
15 [f]Long may he live!
May the gold of Sheba be given to him.
May people pray for him unceasingly
and invoke blessings[g] on him all day long.
16 May grain abound throughout the land,
even growing abundantly on the mountain tops.
May its crops[h] be as plenteous as those of Lebanon,
and may its people flourish like the grass of the field.
17 May his name[i] be blessed forever;
may it endure as long as the sun.
May all peoples be blessed in him;
may all the nations proclaim his greatness.
18 [j]Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel,
who alone can perform such wondrous deeds.
19 May his glorious name be blessed forever,
and may the whole world be filled with his glory.
Amen. Amen.
20 The end of the psalms of David, son of Jesse.[k]
10 Jacob’s Dream at Bethel.[a] Jacob left from Beer-sheba and traveled toward Haran. 11 He came upon a certain place and spent the night there for the sun was setting. He took a stone and used it as a pillow and slept in that place. 12 He had a dream. There was a ladder resting on the earth with its top reaching to heaven. The angels of God were ascending and descending upon it.
13 And the Lord stood before him and said, “I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac. The land on which you are lying shall be given to you and your descendants. 14 Your descendants shall be like the dust of the earth and shall extend to the west and the east, the north and the south. All the nations of the earth shall be blessed through you and through your descendants. 15 I am with you and I will protect you wherever you go. I will make you return to this country, for I will not abandon you without having done all that I have promised you.”
16 Jacob woke from sleep and said, “Truly, the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.” 17 He was filled with fear and said, “How terrible this place is! This is truly the house of God, this is the gate to heaven.”
18 In the morning Jacob arose early, took the rock that he had used as a pillow, and erected it as a pillar pouring oil on top of it. 19 He named the place Bethel,[b] although the city had previously been called Luz.
20 Jacob made a vow, “If God remains with me and protects me in this journey that I am making and gives me bread to eat and clothes to cover me, 21 and if I return in peace to my father’s house, the Lord will be my God. 22 This stone that I am erecting as a pillar shall be a shrine to God. I will offer you one-tenth of everything that you give me.”
13 All these died in faith without having received what had been promised, but from a distance they saw far ahead how those promises would be fulfilled and welcomed them, and acknowledged themselves to be strangers and foreigners on the earth. 14 People who speak in this way make it clear that they are looking for a country of their own. 15 If they had been thinking of the land that they had left behind, they would have had the opportunity to return. 16 But in fact they were longing for a better country, a heavenly one. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.
17 By faith Abraham, when put to the test, offered up Isaac. He who had received the promises was ready to offer up his only son, 18 of whom he had been told, “Through Isaac descendants shall bear your name.” 19 For he reasoned that God was able even to raise someone from the dead, and in a sense he was given back Isaac from the dead.[a] 20 By faith Isaac[b] gave his blessings to Jacob and Esau for the future.
21 By faith Jacob,[c] as he was dying, blessed each one of the sons of Joseph and bowed in worship, leaning on his staff.
22 By faith Joseph,[d] near the end of his life, mentioned the Exodus of the Israelites and gave instructions about his burial.
7 Therefore, Jesus spoke to them again,
“Amen, amen, I say to you,
I am the gate of the sheepfold.
8 All who came before me
were thieves and bandits,
but the sheep did not listen to them.
9 “I am the gate.
Anyone who enters through me
will be saved.
He will go in and out
and will find pasture.
10 “A thief comes only
to steal and kill and destroy.
I have come
that they may have life,
and have it in abundance.
11 “I am the good shepherd.
The good shepherd
lays down his life for the sheep.
12 The hired hand,
who is not the shepherd
nor the owner of the sheep,
sees the wolf approaching,
and he leaves the sheep and runs away,
while the wolf catches and scatters them.
13 He runs away
because he is only a hired hand
and he has no concern for the sheep.
14 “I am the good shepherd.
I know my own,
and my own know me,
15 just as the Father knows me
and I know the Father.
And I lay down my life for the sheep.
16 “I have other sheep too
that do not belong to this fold.
I must lead them as well,
and they will hear my voice.
Thus, there will only be one flock,
one shepherd.
17 “This is why the Father loves me,
because I lay down my life
in order to take it up again.
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