Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 61
A Soldier’s Prayer From the End of the Earth
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For the choir director. On a stringed instrument. By David.
A Prayer From the End of the Earth
1 Hear my cry, O God.
Pay attention to my prayer.
2 From the end of the earth I call to you
when my heart is overwhelmed.
Lead me up onto the rock that is higher than I.
3 For you have been a refuge for me,
a tower of strength in the face of the enemy.
4 I want to keep living in your tent forever. Interlude
I will take refuge under the cover of your wings.
5 For you, God, have heard my vows.
You have given me the heritage of those who fear your name.
6 Add days to the days of the king.
His years will last through all generations.
7 Let him be seated in God’s presence forever.
Appoint your mercy and truth to protect him.
8 Then will I make music to your name forever,
to fulfill my vows day after day.
Psalm 62
My Soul Rests in God Alone
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For the choir director. According to Jeduthun.[a] A psalm by David.
God Alone Is My Refuge
1 My soul rests quietly in God alone.
My salvation is from him.
2 He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress.
I will not be disturbed.
3 How long will you threaten a man?
Do all of you want to murder him,
like a leaning wall, like a fence to be pushed down?
4 Yes, they plan to push him down from his lofty place.
They are delighted with deceit.
With their mouths they bless,
but inside they curse. Interlude
God Alone Is My Refuge
5 My soul, rest quietly in God alone,
for my hope comes from him.
6 He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress.
I will not be disturbed.
7 My salvation and my honor depend on God, my strong rock.
My refuge is in God.
8 Trust in him at all times, you people.
Pour out your hearts before him. Interlude
God is a refuge for us.
Strength in God, Not in Man
9 Yes, the sons of Adam are only a breath.
The sons of man are a delusion.
On a scale they weigh nothing.
They are nothing but air.[b]
10 Do not trust in extortion.
Do not put empty confidence in stolen goods.
If your wealth grows, do not set your heart on it.
11 One thing God has spoken,
two things that I have heard:
that God has strength
12 and that you, Lord, have mercy.
Surely you will repay each person
according to what he has done.
Psalm 68
The Procession of God
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For the choir director. By David. A psalm. A song.
Judgment on God’s Enemies
1 May God arise. May his enemies scatter.
May those who hate him flee from his presence.
2 As smoke is blown away, may you blow them away.
As wax melts before the fire, may the wicked perish before God.
Blessing on God’s People
3 But the righteous rejoice and celebrate in the presence of God.
They will be happy and joyful.
4 Sing to God. Make music to his name.
Lift up a song to him who rides through the deserts.[a]
His name is the Lord.[b] Celebrate before him.
5 In his holy dwelling, God is a father for the fatherless
and a judge who defends widows.
6 God causes the lonely to dwell together as a household.
He leads out the prisoners with music,
but the rebellious dwell in a scorched land.
God Brings His People Into His Land
7 God, when you went out in front of your people,
when you marched through the wasteland, Interlude
8 the earth shook.
Yes, the heavens poured down rain,
before God, this one from Sinai,
before God, the God of Israel.
9 You dispersed plentiful showers, O God.
You strengthened your inheritance when it was weary.[c]
10 Your people settled in it.
In your goodness you provided for the oppressed, O God.
The Lord Defeats the Kings of the Land
11 The Lord provided the message.
The women who proclaimed it were a great army:[d]
12 “Kings with armies flee—they flee!”
The woman who stays home shares in the plunder.
13 Even while you lie among the campfires,
the wings of a dove are sheathed with silver,
and its feathers with yellow gold.[e]
14 When the Almighty scattered the kings there,
it snowed on Zalmon.
The Lord Makes His Dwelling in Zion
15 The mountain of Bashan is a mountain of God.
The mountain of Bashan is a mountain with many peaks.[f]
16 O mountains with many peaks, why do you look jealously
at the mountain God desires for his home?
Indeed, the Lord will dwell there forever.
17 The chariots of God are twice ten thousand,
thousands upon thousands.
Among them the Lord has come from Sinai into his sanctuary.[g]
18 You ascended on high. You led captivity captive.
You received gifts among men,
so that even among the rebellious the Lord[h] God might dwell.
God’s Daily Care
19 Blessed be the Lord.
Day by day he bears our burdens.
He is the God who saves us. Interlude
God’s Future Victories
20 Our God is a God who saves.
From God the Lord comes escape from death.
21 Surely God will crush the heads of his enemies,
the scalps of those who walk around in their guilt.
22 The Lord says, “I will bring them from Bashan.
I will bring them from the depths of the sea,
23 so that you may stomp your foot in blood.
The tongues of your dogs get their share of the enemies’ blood.”
God’s Procession Into the Temple
24 They see your processions, O God,
the processions of my God, my King, into the sanctuary.
25 The singers lead the way.
After them come the musicians.
In the middle are virgins playing hand drums.
26 In the assemblies bless God, the Lord,
who is the Fountain of Israel.[i]
27 There is little Benjamin, leading them.
The officers of Judah are their noisy crowd.
There are the officers of Zebulun and the officers of Naphtali.
Prayer for Future Victory
28 Your God commands your strength.
Show strength, O God, as you have done for us before.
God Rules the Nations
29 Because of your temple at Jerusalem kings will bring tribute to you.
30 Threaten the beast among the reeds,
the herd of strong bulls among the calves (that is, the peoples),
until they submit with bars of silver.[j]
He scatters the peoples who delight in battles.
31 Envoys[k] will come from Egypt.
Cush[l] will run to stretch out its hands to God.
32 Sing to God, you kingdoms of the earth. Interlude
Make music to the Lord,
33 to him who rides in the highest heavens,
in the ancient heavens.
Yes, he sends out his voice, his mighty voice.
34 Proclaim God’s strength.
His majesty is over Israel,
and his power is in the skies.
Closing Praise
35 You are awesome, O God, from your sanctuary.
The God of Israel, he is the one
who gives power and strength to the people.
Blessed be God!
The Birth of Isaac
21 The Lord visited[a] Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did for Sarah as he had promised. 2 Sarah conceived and gave birth to a son for Abraham in his old age, at the set time which God had announced to him. 3 Abraham named the son who was born to him—the son whom Sarah had borne to him—[b] Isaac.[c] 4 Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was eight days old, as God had commanded him. 5 Abraham was one hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him.
6 Sarah said, “God has made me laugh. Everyone who hears will laugh with me.” 7 She said, “Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne a son for him in his old age.”
8 The child grew and was weaned. Abraham made a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned. 9 Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, the son whom Hagar had borne to Abraham, laughing at Isaac. 10 Therefore, she said to Abraham, “Throw out this slave girl[d] and her son! For the son of this slave will not be heir with my son Isaac.”
11 Abraham was very distressed because of his son. 12 God said to Abraham, “Do not be so distressed because of the boy and because of your maid.[e] Listen to everything that Sarah says to you, because the family line of your descendants[f] will be traced through Isaac. 13 I will also make the son of the maid into a nation because he too is your offspring.”
14 Abraham got up early in the morning. He took bread and a waterskin, which he gave to Hagar, putting it over her shoulder. He sent her away with her child. She set out and wandered in the wilderness near Beersheba. 15 The water in the skin was used up, and she dragged the child under one of the bushes. 16 She went and sat down by herself, across from him, at a distance, about a bow shot away, because she said, “Do not let me see the death of the child.” She sat across from him and wept loudly.
17 God heard the boy’s voice, and the Angel of God called to Hagar out of heaven and said to her, “What is wrong, Hagar? Do not be afraid, for God has heard the boy’s voice right where he is. 18 Get up. Help the boy up, and take him by the hand, because I will make him into a great nation.”
19 God opened her eyes, and she saw a well with water in it. She went, filled the skin with water, and gave the boy a drink. 20 God was with the boy, and as he grew up, he lived in the wilderness and became an archer. 21 He lived in the wilderness of Paran. His mother took a wife for him from the land of Egypt.
13 One by one, all of these died in faith, without having received the things that were promised, but they saw and welcomed them from a distance. They confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. 14 Indeed, people who say things like that make it clear that they are looking for a land of their own. 15 And if they were remembering the land they had come from, they would have had an opportunity to return. 16 Instead, they were longing for a better land—a heavenly one. For that reason, God is not ashamed to be called their God, because he prepared a city for them.
17 By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered Isaac. This man, who received the promises, was ready to offer his only son, 18 about whom it was said, “Through Isaac your offspring will be traced.”[a] 19 He reasoned that God also had the ability to raise him from the dead, and in a figurative sense, Abraham did receive him back from the dead.
20 By faith Isaac also blessed Jacob and Esau about things that were going to happen.
21 By faith Jacob, when he was dying, blessed each of Joseph’s sons and worshipped as he leaned on the top of his staff.
22 By faith Joseph, as he neared the end of his life, mentioned[b] the Exodus of the sons of Israel and gave instructions about his bones.
41 So the Jews started grumbling about him, because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” 42 They asked, “Isn’t this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? So how can he say,[a] ‘I have come down from heaven’?”
43 Jesus answered them, “Stop grumbling among yourselves. 44 No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the Last Day. 45 It is written in the Prophets, ‘They will all be taught by God.’[b] Everyone who listens to the Father and learns from him comes to me. 46 I am not saying that anyone has seen the Father except the one who is from God. He is the one who has seen the Father. 47 Amen, Amen, I tell you: The one who believes in me[c] has eternal life.
48 “I am the Bread of Life. 49 Your fathers ate manna in the wilderness, and they died. 50 This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that anyone may eat it and not die. 51 I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats this bread, he will live forever. The bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.