Book of Common Prayer
33 He (A)turns rivers into a desert,
springs of water into thirsty ground,
34 (B)a fruitful land into a salty waste,
because of the evil of its inhabitants.
35 He (C)turns a desert into pools of water,
(D)a parched land into springs of water.
36 And there he lets the hungry dwell,
and they establish (E)a city to live in;
37 they sow fields and plant vineyards
and get a fruitful yield.
38 (F)By his blessing they multiply greatly,
and he does not let their livestock diminish.
39 When they are diminished and brought low
through oppression, evil, and sorrow,
40 (G)he pours contempt on princes
and (H)makes them wander (I)in trackless wastes;
41 but (J)he raises up the needy out of affliction
and (K)makes their families like flocks.
42 (L)The upright see it and are glad,
and (M)all wickedness shuts its mouth.
43 (N)Whoever is wise, let him attend to these things;
let them consider the steadfast love of the Lord.
With God We Shall Do Valiantly
A Song. A Psalm of David.
108 (O)My heart is steadfast, O God!
I will sing and make melody with all my being![a]
2 Awake, O harp and lyre!
I will awake the dawn!
3 I will give thanks to you, O Lord, among the peoples;
I will sing praises to you among the nations.
4 For your steadfast love is great (P)above the heavens;
your faithfulness reaches to the clouds.
5 Be exalted, O God, above the heavens!
Let your glory be over all the earth!
6 (Q)That your beloved ones may be delivered,
give salvation by your right hand and answer me!
7 God has promised in his holiness:[b]
“With exultation I will divide up Shechem
and portion out the Valley of Succoth.
8 Gilead is mine; Manasseh is mine;
Ephraim is my helmet,
Judah my scepter.
9 Moab is my washbasin;
upon Edom I cast my shoe;
(R)over Philistia I shout in triumph.”
10 Who will bring me to the fortified city?
Who will lead me to Edom?
11 Have you not rejected us, O God?
You do not go out, O God, with our armies.
12 Oh grant us help against the foe,
for vain is the salvation of man!
13 With God we shall do valiantly;
it is he who will tread down our foes.
The Steadfast Love of the Lord
33 (A)Shout for joy in the Lord, O you righteous!
(B)Praise befits the upright.
2 Give thanks to the Lord with the (C)lyre;
make melody to him with (D)the harp of (E)ten strings!
3 Sing to him (F)a new song;
play skillfully on the strings, with loud shouts.
4 For the word of the Lord is upright,
and all his work is done in (G)faithfulness.
5 He (H)loves righteousness and justice;
(I)the earth is full of the steadfast love of the Lord.
6 By (J)the word of the Lord the heavens were made,
and by (K)the breath of his mouth all (L)their host.
7 He gathers the waters of the sea as (M)a heap;
he (N)puts the deeps in storehouses.
8 Let all the earth fear the Lord;
let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him!
9 For (O)he spoke, and it came to be;
he commanded, and it stood firm.
10 The Lord (P)brings the counsel of the nations to nothing;
he frustrates the plans of the peoples.
11 (Q)The counsel of the Lord stands forever,
the plans of his heart to all generations.
12 (R)Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord,
the people whom he has (S)chosen as his heritage!
13 The Lord (T)looks down from heaven;
he sees all the children of man;
14 from (U)where he sits enthroned he (V)looks out
on all the inhabitants of the earth,
15 he who fashions the hearts of them all
and observes all their deeds.
16 (W)The king is not saved by his great army;
a warrior is not delivered by his great strength.
17 (X)The war horse is a false hope for salvation,
and by its great might it cannot rescue.
21 This is the word that the Lord has spoken concerning him:
“She despises you, she scorns you—
(A)the virgin daughter of Zion;
she (B)wags her head behind you—
the daughter of Jerusalem.
22 “Whom have you (C)mocked and (D)reviled?
Against whom have you raised your voice
and lifted your eyes to the heights?
Against (E)the Holy One of Israel!
23 (F)By your messengers you have mocked the Lord,
and you have said, (G)‘With my many chariots
I have gone up the heights of the mountains,
to the far recesses of (H)Lebanon;
I felled its tallest cedars,
its choicest cypresses;
I entered its farthest lodging place,
its most (I)fruitful forest.
24 I dug wells
and drank foreign waters,
and I dried up with the sole of my foot
all the streams (J)of Egypt.’
25 “Have you not heard
that (K)I determined it long ago?
I planned from days of old
what (L)now I bring to pass,
that you should turn fortified cities
into heaps of ruins,
26 while their inhabitants, shorn of strength,
are dismayed and confounded,
and have become (M)like plants of the field
and like tender grass,
like grass on the housetops,
blighted before it is grown.
27 “But I know your sitting down
(N)and your going out and coming in,
and your raging against me.
28 Because you have raged against me
and your complacency has come into my ears,
I will (O)put my hook in your nose
and my bit in your mouth,
and (P)I will turn you back on the way
by which you came.
29 “And this shall be (Q)the sign for you: this year eat what grows of itself, and in the second year what springs of the same. Then in the third year sow and reap and plant vineyards, and eat their fruit. 30 (R)And the surviving remnant of the house of Judah shall again take root downward and bear fruit upward. 31 For out of Jerusalem shall go a remnant, and out of Mount Zion (S)a band of survivors. (T)The zeal of the Lord will do this.
32 “Therefore thus says the Lord concerning the king of Assyria: He shall not come into this city or shoot an arrow there, or come before it with a shield or (U)cast up a siege mound against it. 33 (V)By the way that he came, by the same he shall return, and he shall not come into this city, declares the Lord. 34 (W)For I will defend this city to save it, for my own sake (X)and for the sake of my servant David.”
35 And that night (Y)the angel of the Lord went out and struck down 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians. And when people arose early in the morning, behold, these were all dead bodies. 36 Then Sennacherib king of Assyria departed and went home and lived at (Z)Nineveh.
Warning Against Idolatry
10 For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers,[a] that our fathers were all under (A)the cloud, and all (B)passed through the sea, 2 and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, 3 and (C)all ate the same (D)spiritual food, 4 and (E)all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ. 5 Nevertheless, with most of them God was not pleased, for (F)they were overthrown[b] in the wilderness.
6 Now these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as (G)they did. 7 (H)Do not be idolaters (I)as some of them were; as it is written, (J)“The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.” 8 (K)We must not indulge in sexual immorality (L)as some of them did, and (M)twenty-three thousand fell in a single day. 9 We must not put Christ[c] to the test, (N)as some of them did and (O)were destroyed by serpents, 10 nor grumble, (P)as some of them did and (Q)were destroyed by (R)the Destroyer. 11 Now these things happened to them as an example, but (S)they were written down for our instruction, (T)on whom the end of the ages has come. 12 Therefore (U)let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall. 13 No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. (V)God is faithful, and (W)he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.
The Cost of Following Jesus
18 Now (A)when Jesus saw a crowd around him, (B)he gave orders to go over to the other side. 19 (C)And a scribe came up and said to him, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.” 20 And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” 21 Another of the disciples said to him, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” 22 And Jesus said to him, “Follow me, and leave (D)the dead to bury their own dead.”
Jesus Calms a Storm
23 (E)And when he got into the boat, his disciples followed him. 24 And behold, there arose a great storm on the sea, so that the boat was being swamped by the waves; but (F)he was asleep. 25 And they went and woke him, saying, (G)“Save us, Lord; we are perishing.” 26 And he said to them, “Why are you (H)afraid, (I)O you of little faith?” Then he rose and (J)rebuked the winds and the sea, and (K)there was a great calm. 27 And the men (L)marveled, saying, “What sort of man is this, that even (M)winds and sea obey him?”
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.