Book of Common Prayer
Curses and Blessings
33 He turned rivers into a wilderness
and flowing springs into thirsty ground.
34 He turned fruitful land into a salt waste,
because of the wickedness of those who lived in it.
35 He turned the wilderness into pools of water
and the desert into flowing springs.
36 Then he let the hungry live there,
and they founded a city where they could live.
37 Then they sowed fields, and they planted vineyards,
which produced abundant fruit.
38 Then he blessed them, so they increased greatly in number.
He did not let their herds of cattle decrease.
39 But then their numbers decreased,
and they were humbled by oppression, disaster, and sorrow.
40 He who pours contempt on nobles made them wander in confusion
where there was no road.
41 But he lifted up the needy out of affliction
and made their families like a flock.
42 The upright see and rejoice,
but all wickedness shuts its mouth.
Application: Be Wise
43 Whoever is wise, let him keep these things.
Let them take to heart the mercies of the Lord.
Psalm 108
My Heart Is Steadfast
(Psalm 108:1-5 parallels Psalm 57:7-11)
(Psalm 108:6-13 parallels Psalm 60:5-12)
Heading
A song. A psalm by David.
David’s Confident Praise
1 My heart is steadfast, O God.
I will sing and I will make music.
Indeed, I will sing with all my being.[a]
2 Awake, harp and lyre!
I will awaken the dawn.
3 I will give you thanks among the peoples, Lord,
and I will make music to you among the nations,[b]
4 because your great mercy reaches above the heavens,
and your faithfulness to the skies.
David’s Prayer
5 Be exalted above the heavens, O God.
Let your glory be over all the earth.
6 So that the ones you love may be rescued,
bring salvation by your right hand and answer me.
David’s Confidence in God’s Help
7 God has spoken in his holiness.[c]
I will triumph. I will distribute Shechem,
and I will measure off the Valley of Succoth.
8 Gilead is mine. Manasseh is mine.
Ephraim is my helmet. Judah is my scepter.
9 Moab is my washbasin. On Edom I toss my sandal.
I shout aloud over Philistia.[d]
10 Who will bring me into the fortified city?
Who will lead me to Edom?
11 Is it not you, O God, who have rejected us?
Is it not you, O God, who no longer go out with our armies?
12 Give us help against the foe,
for human help is worthless.
13 In God we will do mighty deeds.
He is the one who will trample our foes.
Psalm 33
Blessed Is the Nation Whose God Is the Lord
Introductory Praise
1 Shout joyfully to the Lord, you righteous.
The praise of the upright is beautiful.
2 Thank the Lord with a lyre.
Make music for him with the ten-stringed harp.
3 Sing to him a new song.
Play skillfully and shout praises.
4 Yes, the word of the Lord is right,
and everything he does is trustworthy.
5 He loves righteousness and justice.
The mercy of the Lord fills the earth.
God’s Love in Creation
6 By the word of the Lord the heavens were made.
By the breath of his mouth he made the whole army of stars.[a]
7 He gathers the water of the sea into a heap.
He puts the depths into storehouses.
8 Let all the earth fear the Lord.
Let all the inhabitants of the world revere him.
9 For he said, “Let it be,” and it was!
He gave a command, and there it stood.
God’s Rule of History
10 The Lord wrecks the plan of the nations.
He hinders the intentions of the peoples.
11 The plan of the Lord stands forever.
The intentions of his heart stand through all generations.
12 How blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord,
the people he chose to be his possession.
13 From heaven the Lord observes.
He sees all the children of Adam.
14 From his throne room he looks at all the inhabitants of earth.
15 He alone is the one who shapes all their hearts.
He understands all their deeds.
16 No king is saved by the great size of his army.
No hero is rescued by his great strength.
17 You cannot rely on a horse to save you.
Its great strength will not deliver you.
18 Look, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear him,
on those who wait for his mercy.
19 He will deliver their souls from death.
He keeps them alive in famine.
Concluding Prayer
20 Our souls wait for the Lord.
He is our help and our shield.
21 Yes, in him our heart rejoices,
because we trust in his holy name.
22 May your mercy, O Lord, be on us,
even as we wait confidently for you.
God Hears Israel’s Groaning
23 After a long time, the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned because of their slavery. They cried out, and their cry for help because of their slavery went up to God. 24 So God heard their groaning, and he remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. 25 God saw the people of Israel, and God watched over them.
Moses and the Burning Bush
3 Now Moses was shepherding the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law, a priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. 2 The Angel of the Lord appeared to him in blazing fire from within a bush. Moses saw that the bush was on fire, but the bush was not burning up. 3 So he said, “I will go over and look at this amazing sight—to find out why the bush is not burning up.”
4 When the Lord saw that Moses had gone over to take a look, God called to him from the middle of the bush and said, “Moses! Moses!”
Moses said, “I am here.”
5 The Lord said, “Do not come any closer. Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.” 6 He then said, “I am the God of your fathers,[a] the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.”
Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God.
7 The Lord said, “I have certainly seen the misery of my people in Egypt, and I have heard their cry for help because of their slave drivers. Yes, I am aware of their suffering. 8 So I have come down to deliver them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and spacious land, to a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. 9 Now indeed, the Israelites’ cry for help has come to me. Yes, I have seen how the Egyptians are oppressing them. 10 Come now, I will send you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.”
11 But Moses said to God, “Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the Israelites out of Egypt?”
12 So he said, “I will certainly be with you. This will be the sign to you that I have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will serve God on this mountain.”
13 But Moses said to God, “If I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what should I say to them?”
14 So God replied to Moses, “I am who I am.”[b] He also said, “You will say this to the Israelites: I am has sent me to you.”
15 God also told Moses, “Say this to the Israelites: ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob—has sent me to you. This is my name forever, and this is how I am to be remembered from generation to generation.’
Love Matters More Than the Other Gifts
13 If I speak in the tongues[a] of men and of angels but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and know all the mysteries and have all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away everything I own, and if I give up my body that I may be burned[b] but do not have love, I gain nothing.
4 Love is patient. Love is kind. Love does not envy. It does not brag. It is not arrogant. 5 It does not behave indecently. It is not selfish. It is not irritable. It does not keep a record of wrongs. 6 It does not rejoice over unrighteousness but rejoices with the truth. 7 It bears[c] all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.[d]
8 Love never comes to an end. But if there are prophetic gifts, they will be done away with; if tongues, they will cease; if knowledge, it will be done away with. 9 For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part, 10 but when that which is complete has come, that which is partial will be done away with. 11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put away childish things. 12 Now we see indirectly using a mirror, but then we will see face to face. Now I know in part, but then I will know fully, just as I was fully known.
13 So now these three remain: faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.
Jesus Heals a Boy With a Demon
14 When they returned to the other disciples, they saw a large crowd around them, and some experts in the law were arguing with them. 15 As soon as all the people in the crowd saw Jesus, they were very excited and ran to greet him. 16 He asked them, “What are you arguing about with them?”
17 One man from the crowd answered him, “Teacher, I brought you my son, who has a spirit that makes him unable to speak. 18 Wherever it seizes him, it throws him down, and he foams at the mouth, grinds his teeth, and becomes rigid. I asked your disciples to drive it out, but they could not.”
19 “O unbelieving generation,” Jesus replied. “How long will I be with you? How long will I put up with you? Bring him to me.”
20 They brought the boy to Jesus. As soon as the spirit saw him, it threw the boy into a convulsion. He fell on the ground and rolled around, foaming at the mouth.
21 Jesus asked the boy’s father, “How long has this been happening to him?”
“From childhood,” he said. 22 “It has often thrown him into the fire and into the water to kill him. But if you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.”
23 “If you can?”[a] Jesus said to him. “All things are possible for the one who believes.”
24 The child’s father immediately cried out and said with tears,[b] “I do believe. Help me with my unbelief!”
25 When Jesus saw that a crowd was quickly gathering, he rebuked the unclean spirit. “You mute and deaf spirit,” he said, “I command you to come out of him and never enter him again!”
26 The spirit screamed, shook the boy violently, and came out. The boy looked so much like a corpse that many of them said, “He’s dead!” 27 But Jesus took him by the hand, raised him up, and he stood up.
28 When Jesus went into a house, his disciples asked him privately, “Why were we not able to drive it out?”
29 He said to them, “This kind cannot be driven out, except by prayer and fasting.”[c]
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.