Book of Common Prayer
To the Director: By the servant of the Lord, David, who spoke the words of this song to the Lord on the day when the Lord delivered him from the hands of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul.
Gratitude for Victory
18 He said:
“I love you, Lord, my strength.
2 The Lord is my rock, my fortress, my deliverer, my God,
my stronghold[a] in whom I take refuge, my shield, the glory[b]
of my salvation, and my high tower.”
3 I cried out to the Lord, who is worthy to be praised,
and I was delivered from my enemies.
4 The cords of death entangled me;
the rivers of Belial[c] made me afraid.
5 The cords of Sheol[d] surrounded me;
the snares of death confronted me.
6 In my distress I cried to the Lord;
to my God I cried for help.
From his Temple he heard my voice;
my cry reached his ears.
7 The world shook and trembled;
the foundations of the mountains quaked,
they shook because he was angry.
8 In his anger smoke poured out of his nostrils,
and consuming fire from his mouth;
coals were lit from it.
9 He bent the sky and descended,
and darkness was under his feet.
10 He rode upon a cherub and flew;
he soared upon the wings of the wind.
11 He made darkness his hiding place,
his canopy surrounding him was dark waters and thick clouds.
12 The brightness before him scattered the thick clouds,
with hail stones and flashes of fire.
13 Then the Lord thundered in[e] the heavens,
and the Most High sounded aloud,
calling for hail stones and flashes of fire.[f]
14 He shot his arrows and scattered them;
with many lightning bolts he frightened them.
15 Then the channels of the sea could be seen,
and the foundations of the earth were uncovered
because of your rebuke, Lord,
because of the blast from the breath of your nostrils.
16 He reached down and took me;
he drew me from many waters.
17 He delivered me from my strong enemies,
from those who hated me because
they were stronger than I.
18 They confronted me in the day of my calamity,
but the Lord was my support.
19 He brought me out to a spacious place;
he delivered me, for in me he takes delight.
God’s Reward to the Righteous
20 The Lord will reward me because I am righteous;
because my hands are clean he will restore me;
21 because I have kept the ways of the Lord,
and I have not wickedly departed from my God;
22 because all his judgments were always before me,
and I did not cast off his statutes.
23 I was upright[g] before him,
and I kept myself from iniquity.
24 So the Lord restored me according to my righteousness,
because my hands were clean in his sight.
25 To the holy, you show your gracious love,
to the upright, you show yourself upright;
26 to the pure, you show yourself pure,
and to the morally corrupt, you appear to be perverse.
27 Indeed, you deliver the oppressed,[h]
but you bring down those who exalt themselves
in their own eyes.
28 For you, Lord, make my lamp shine;
my God enlightens my darkness.
29 With your help[i] I will run through an army,
with help from[j] my God I leap over walls.
30 As for God, his way is upright;[k]
the word of God is pure;
he is a shield to all those who take refuge in him.
The Acts of God for the Righteous
31 For who is God but the Lord,
and who is a Rock other than our God?—
32 the God who clothes me with strength,
and who makes my way upright;[l]
33 who makes my feet swift as the deer;
who makes me stand on high places;
34 who teaches my hands to make war,
and my arms to bend a bronze bow.
35 You have given to me the shield of your deliverance,
and your right hand holds me up;
your gentleness made me great.
36 You make a broad place for my steps,
so my feet[m] won’t slip.
37 I pursued my enemies and overtook them;
I did not turn around until they were utterly defeated.
38 I struck them down,
so they are not able to rise up;
they fell under my feet.
39 You clothed me with strength for war;
you will subdue under me those who rise up against me.
40 You have made my enemies turn their back to me,
and I will destroy those who hate me.
41 They cried out for deliverance,
but there was no one to deliver;
they cried out[n] to the Lord,
but he did not answer them.
42 I ground them like wind-swept dust;
I emptied them out[o] like dirt in the street.
43 You rescued me from conflict with the people;
you made me head of the nations.
People who did not know me will serve me.
44 When they hear of me,[p] they will obey me;
foreigners will submit to me.
45 Foreigners will wilt away;
they will come trembling out of their stronghold.
46 The Lord lives!
Blessed be my Rock!
May the God of my deliverance be exalted!
47 He is the God who executes vengeance on my behalf;
who destroys peoples under me;
48 who delivers me from my enemies.
Truly you will exalt me above those who oppose me;
you will deliver me from the violent person.
49 Therefore, I will give thanks to you among the nations, Lord;
I will sing praises to your name.
50 He is the one who gives victories to his king;
who shows gracious love to his anointed,
to David and his seed forever.
From Cain to Lamech
17 Later, Cain had sexual relations with[a] his wife. She became pregnant and gave birth to Enoch. Cain[b] founded a city and named it after[c] his son Enoch. 18 Irad was born to Enoch. Irad fathered Mehujael, and Mehujael fathered Methushael, and Methushael fathered Lamech. 19 Later, Lamech married two wives. One was named Adah and the other was named[d] Zillah. 20 Adah gave birth to Jabal, who became the ancestor of those who live in tents and herd[e] livestock. 21 His brother was named Jubal; he became the ancestor of all those who play the lyre and the flute. 22 Zillah gave birth to Tubal-cain, who became a forger of bronze and iron work. Tubal-cain’s sister was Naamah. 23 Lamech told his wives,
“Adah and Zillah, listen to what I have to say:
You wives of Lamech, hear what I’m announcing!
I’ve killed a man for wounding me,
a young man for bruising me.
24 For if Cain is being avenged seven times,
then Lamech will be avenged[f] 77 times.”
25 Later on, after Adam had sexual relations with[g] his wife, she gave birth to a son and named him[h] Seth, because
“God granted[i] me another offspring to replace Abel,
since Cain murdered him.”
26 Seth also fathered a son, whom he named Enosh. At that time, profaning[j] the name of the Lord began.
The Messiah is Superior to Moses
3 Therefore, holy brothers, partners in a heavenly calling, keep your focus on Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession. 2 He was faithful to the one who appointed him, just as Moses was in all God’s[a] household, 3 because he is worthy of greater glory than Moses in the same way that the builder of a house has greater honor than the house itself. 4 After all, every house is built by someone, but God is the builder of everything. 5 Moses was faithful in all God’s[b] household as a servant who was to testify to what would be said later, 6 but the Messiah[c] was faithful[d] as the Son in charge of God’s[e] household, and we are his household if we hold on to our courage and the hope in which we rejoice.[f]
A Rest for the People of God
7 Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says,
“Today, if you hear his voice,
8 do not harden your hearts
as they did when they provoked me
during the time of testing in the wilderness.
9 There your ancestors tested me,
even though they had seen my actions 10 for 40 years.
That is why I was indignant with that generation and said,
‘They are always going astray in their hearts,
and they have not known my ways.’
11 So in my anger I swore a solemn oath
that they would never enter my rest.”[g]
Jesus Calls Philip and Nathaniel
43 The next day, Jesus decided to go away to Galilee, where he found Philip and told him, “Follow me.” 44 Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the hometown of Andrew and Peter.
45 Philip found Nathaniel and told him, “We have found the man about whom Moses in the Law and the Prophets wrote—Jesus, the son of Joseph, from Nazareth.”
46 Nathaniel asked him, “From Nazareth? Can anything good come from there?”
Philip told him, “Come and see!”
47 Jesus saw Nathaniel coming toward him and said about him, “Look, a genuine Israeli, in whom there is no deceit!”
48 Nathaniel asked him, “How do you know me?”
Jesus answered him, “Before Philip called you, while you were under the fig tree, I saw you.”
49 Nathaniel replied to him, “Rabbi,[a] you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!”
50 Jesus told him, “Do you believe because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than that.” 51 Then he told him, “Truly, I tell all of you[b] emphatically, you will see heaven standing open and the angels of God going up and coming down to the Son of Man.”
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