Book of Common Prayer
33 He (A)turns rivers into a wilderness,
And the watersprings into dry ground;
34 A (B)fruitful land into [a]barrenness,
For the wickedness of those who dwell in it.
35 (C)He turns a wilderness into pools of water,
And dry land into watersprings.
36 There He makes the hungry dwell,
That they may establish a city for a dwelling place,
37 And sow fields and plant vineyards,
That they may yield a fruitful harvest.
38 (D)He also blesses them, and they multiply greatly;
And He does not let their cattle (E)decrease.
39 When they are (F)diminished and brought low
Through oppression, affliction, and sorrow,
40 (G)He pours contempt on princes,
And causes them to wander in the wilderness where there is no way;
41 (H)Yet He sets the poor on high, far from affliction,
And (I)makes their families like a flock.
42 (J)The righteous see it and rejoice,
And all (K)iniquity stops its mouth.
43 (L)Whoever is wise will observe these things,
And they will understand the lovingkindness of the Lord.
Assurance of God’s Victory over Enemies(M)
A Song. A Psalm of David.
108 O (N)God, my heart is steadfast;
I will sing and give praise, even with my glory.
2 (O)Awake, lute and harp!
I will awaken the dawn.
3 I will praise You, O Lord, among the peoples,
And I will sing praises to You among the nations.
4 For Your mercy is great above the [b]heavens,
And Your truth reaches to the clouds.
5 (P)Be exalted, O God, above the heavens,
And Your glory above all the earth;
6 (Q)That Your beloved may be delivered,
Save with Your right hand, and [c]hear me.
7 God has spoken in His holiness:
“I will rejoice;
I will divide Shechem
And measure out the Valley of Succoth.
8 Gilead is Mine; Manasseh is Mine;
Ephraim also is the [d]helmet for My head;
(R)Judah is My lawgiver.
9 Moab is My washpot;
Over Edom I will cast My shoe;
Over Philistia I will triumph.”
10 (S)Who will bring me into the strong city?
Who will lead me to Edom?
11 Is it not You, O God, who cast us off?
And You, O God, who did not go out with our armies?
12 Give us help from trouble,
For the help of man is useless.
13 (T)Through God we will do valiantly,
For it is He who shall tread down our enemies.
The Sovereignty of the Lord in Creation and History
33 Rejoice (A)in the Lord, O you righteous!
For praise from the upright is beautiful.
2 Praise the Lord with the harp;
[a]Make melody to Him with an instrument of ten strings.
3 Sing to Him a new song;
Play skillfully with a shout of joy.
4 For the word of the Lord is right,
And all His work is done in truth.
5 He loves righteousness and justice;
The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord.
6 (B)By the word of the Lord the heavens were made,
And all the (C)host of them (D)by the breath of His mouth.
7 (E)He gathers the waters of the sea together [b]as a heap;
He lays up the deep in storehouses.
8 Let all the earth fear the Lord;
Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him.
9 For (F)He spoke, and it was done;
He commanded, and it stood fast.
10 (G)The Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing;
He makes the plans of the peoples of no effect.
11 (H)The counsel of the Lord stands forever,
The plans of His heart to all generations.
12 Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord,
The people He has (I)chosen as His own inheritance.
13 (J)The Lord looks from heaven;
He sees all the sons of men.
14 From the place of His dwelling He looks
On all the inhabitants of the earth;
15 He fashions their hearts individually;
(K)He [c]considers all their works.
16 (L)No king is saved by the multitude of an army;
A mighty man is not delivered by great strength.
17 (M)A horse is a [d]vain hope for safety;
Neither shall it deliver any by its great strength.
18 (N)Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear Him,
On those who hope in His mercy,
19 To deliver their soul from death,
And (O)to keep them alive in famine.
20 Our soul waits for the Lord;
He is our help and our shield.
21 For our heart shall rejoice in Him,
Because we have trusted in His holy name.
22 Let Your mercy, O Lord, be upon us,
Just as we hope in You.
Samson and Delilah
16 Now Samson went to (A)Gaza and saw a harlot there, and went in to her. 2 When the Gazites were told, “Samson has come here!” they (B)surrounded the place and lay in wait for him all night at the gate of the city. They were quiet all night, saying, “In the morning, when it is daylight, we will kill him.” 3 And Samson lay low till midnight; then he arose at midnight, took hold of the doors of the gate of the city and the two gateposts, pulled them up, bar and all, put them on his shoulders, and carried them to the top of the hill that faces Hebron.
4 Afterward it happened that he loved a woman in the Valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah. 5 And the (C)lords of the Philistines came up to her and said to her, (D)“Entice him, and find out where his great strength lies, and by what means we may overpower him, that we may bind him to afflict him; and every one of us will give you eleven hundred pieces of silver.”
6 So Delilah said to Samson, “Please tell me where your great strength lies, and with what you may be bound to afflict you.”
7 And Samson said to her, “If they bind me with seven fresh bowstrings, not yet dried, then I shall become weak, and be like any other man.”
8 So the lords of the Philistines brought up to her seven fresh bowstrings, not yet dried, and she bound him with them. 9 Now men were lying in wait, staying with her in the room. And she said to him, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” But he broke the bowstrings as a strand of yarn breaks when it touches fire. So the secret of his strength was not known.
10 Then Delilah said to Samson, “Look, you have mocked me and told me lies. Now, please tell me what you may be bound with.”
11 So he said to her, “If they bind me securely with (E)new ropes [a]that have never been used, then I shall become weak, and be like any other man.”
12 Therefore Delilah took new ropes and bound him with them, and said to him, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” And men were lying in wait, staying in the room. But he broke them off his arms like a thread.
13 Delilah said to Samson, “Until now you have mocked me and told me lies. Tell me what you may be bound with.”
And he said to her, “If you weave the seven locks of my head into the web of the loom”—
14 So she wove it tightly with the batten of the loom, and said to him, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” But he awoke from his sleep, and pulled out the batten and the web from the loom.
30 (A)“And when forty years had passed, an Angel [a]of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire in a bush, in the wilderness of Mount Sinai. 31 When Moses saw it, he marveled at the sight; and as he drew near to observe, the voice of the Lord came to him, 32 saying, (B)‘I am the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ And Moses trembled and dared not look. 33 (C)‘Then the Lord said to him, “Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground. 34 I have surely (D)seen the oppression of My people who are in Egypt; I have heard their groaning and have come down to deliver them. And now come, I will (E)send you to Egypt.” ’
35 “This Moses whom they rejected, saying, (F)‘Who made you a ruler and a judge?’ is the one God sent to be a ruler and a deliverer (G)by the hand of the Angel who appeared to him in the bush. 36 (H)He brought them out, after he had (I)shown wonders and signs in the land of Egypt, (J)and in the Red Sea, (K)and in the wilderness forty years.
Israel Rebels Against God
37 “This is that Moses who said to the children of Israel, (L)‘The Lord your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your brethren. (M)Him[b] you shall hear.’
38 (N)“This is he who was in the [c]congregation in the wilderness with (O)the Angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and with our fathers, (P)the one who received the living (Q)oracles[d] to give to us, 39 whom our fathers (R)would not obey, but rejected. And in their hearts they turned back to Egypt, 40 (S)saying to Aaron, ‘Make us gods to go before us; as for this Moses who brought us out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.’ 41 (T)And they made a calf in those days, offered sacrifices to the idol, and (U)rejoiced in the works of their own hands. 42 Then (V)God turned and gave them up to worship (W)the host of heaven, as it is written in the book of the Prophets:
A Man Healed at the Pool of Bethesda
5 After (A)this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus (B)went up to Jerusalem. 2 Now there is in Jerusalem (C)by the Sheep Gate a pool, which is called in Hebrew, [a]Bethesda, having five porches. 3 In these lay a great multitude of sick people, blind, lame, [b]paralyzed, [c]waiting for the moving of the water. 4 For an angel went down at a certain time into the pool and stirred up the water; then whoever stepped in first, after the stirring of the water, was made well of whatever disease he had. 5 Now a certain man was there who had an infirmity thirty-eight years. 6 When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he already had been in that condition a long time, He said to him, “Do you want to be made well?”
7 The sick man answered Him, “Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; but while I am coming, another steps down before me.”
8 Jesus said to him, (D)“Rise, take up your bed and walk.” 9 And immediately the man was made well, took up his bed, and walked.
And (E)that day was the Sabbath. 10 The Jews therefore said to him who was cured, “It is the Sabbath; (F)it is not lawful for you to carry your bed.”
11 He answered them, “He who made me well said to me, ‘Take up your bed and walk.’ ”
12 Then they asked him, “Who is the Man who said to you, ‘Take up your bed and walk’?” 13 But the one who was (G)healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn, a multitude being in that place. 14 Afterward Jesus found him in the temple, and said to him, “See, you have been made well. (H)Sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon you.”
15 The man departed and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well.
Honor the Father and the Son
16 For this reason the Jews (I)persecuted Jesus, [d]and sought to kill Him, because He had done these things on the Sabbath. 17 But Jesus answered them, (J)“My Father has been working until now, and I have been working.”
18 Therefore the Jews (K)sought all the more to kill Him, because He not only broke the Sabbath, but also said that God was His Father, (L)making Himself equal with God.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.