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Psalm 131

Song of Quiet Trust

A Song of Ascents. Of David.
¹ O Lord, my heart is not lifted up,
   my eyes are not raised too high;
I do not occupy myself with things
   too great and too marvellous for me.
² But I have calmed and quieted my soul,
   like a weaned child with its mother;
   my soul is like the weaned child that is with me.^*

³ O Israel, hope in the Lord
   from this time on and for evermore.

Psalm 132

The Eternal Dwelling of God in Zion

A Song of Ascents.
¹ O Lord, remember in David’s favour
   all the hardships he endured;
² how he swore to the Lord
   and vowed to the Mighty One of Jacob,
³ ‘I will not enter my house
   or get into my bed;
⁴ I will not give sleep to my eyes
   or slumber to my eyelids,
⁵ until I find a place for the Lord,
   a dwelling-place for the Mighty One of Jacob.’

⁶ We heard of it in Ephrathah;
   we found it in the fields of Jaar.
⁷ ‘Let us go to his dwelling-place;
   let us worship at his footstool.’

⁸ Rise up, O Lord, and go to your resting-place,
   you and the ark of your might.
⁹ Let your priests be clothed with righteousness,
   and let your faithful shout for joy.
¹⁰ For your servant David’s sake
   do not turn away the face of your anointed one.

¹¹ The Lord swore to David a sure oath
   from which he will not turn back:
‘One of the sons of your body
   I will set on your throne.
¹² If your sons keep my covenant
   and my decrees that I shall teach them,
their sons also, for evermore,
   shall sit on your throne.’

¹³ For the Lord has chosen Zion;
   he has desired it for his habitation:
¹⁴ ‘This is my resting-place for ever;
   here I will reside, for I have desired it.
¹⁵ I will abundantly bless its provisions;
   I will satisfy its poor with bread.
¹⁶ Its priests I will clothe with salvation,
   and its faithful will shout for joy.
¹⁷ There I will cause a horn to sprout up for David;
   I have prepared a lamp for my anointed one.
¹⁸ His enemies I will clothe with disgrace,
   but on him, his crown will gleam.’

11 Then Balak said to Balaam, ‘What have you done to me? I brought you to curse my enemies, but now you have done nothing but bless them.’ ¹²He answered, ‘Must I not take care to say what the Lord puts into my mouth?’

Balaam’s Second Oracle

13 So Balak said to him, ‘Come with me to another place from which you may see them; you shall see only part of them, and shall not see them all; then curse them for me from there.’ ¹⁴So he took him to the field of Zophim, to the top of Pisgah. He built seven altars, and offered a bull and a ram on each altar. ¹⁵Balaam said to Balak, ‘Stand here beside your burnt-offerings, while I meet the Lord over there.’ ¹⁶The Lord met Balaam, put a word into his mouth, and said, ‘Return to Balak, and this is what you shall say.’ ¹⁷When he came to him, he was standing beside his burnt-offerings with the officials of Moab. Balak said to him, ‘What has the Lord said?’ ¹⁸Then Balaam uttered his oracle, saying:
‘Rise, Balak, and hear;
   listen to me, O son of Zippor:
¹⁹ God is not a human being, that he should lie,
   or a mortal, that he should change his mind.
Has he promised, and will he not do it?
   Has he spoken, and will he not fulfil it?
²⁰ See, I received a command to bless;
   he has blessed, and I cannot revoke it.
²¹ He has not beheld misfortune in Jacob;
   nor has he seen trouble in Israel.
The Lord their God is with them,
   acclaimed as a king among them.
²² God, who brings them out of Egypt,
   is like the horns of a wild ox for them.
²³ Surely there is no enchantment against Jacob,
   no divination against Israel;
now it shall be said of Jacob and Israel,
   “See what God has done!”
²⁴ Look, a people rising up like a lioness,
   and rousing itself like a lion!
It does not lie down until it has eaten the prey
   and drunk the blood of the slain.’

25 Then Balak said to Balaam, ‘Do not curse them at all, and do not bless them at all.’ ²⁶But Balaam answered Balak, ‘Did I not tell you, “Whatever the Lord says, that is what I must do”?’

Life in the Spirit

8There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. ²For the law of the Spirit^* of life in Christ Jesus has set you^* free from the law of sin and of death. ³For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do: by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and to deal with sin,^* he condemned sin in the flesh, ⁴so that the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.^{* 5}For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit^* set their minds on the things of the Spirit.^{* 6}To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit^* is life and peace. ⁷For this reason the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law—indeed it cannot, ⁸and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

9 But you are not in the flesh; you are in the Spirit,^* since the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. ¹⁰But if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit^* is life because of righteousness. ¹¹If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ^* from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through^* his Spirit that dwells in you.

The Parable of the Wedding Banquet

22Once more Jesus spoke to them in parables, saying: ²‘The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding banquet for his son. ³He sent his slaves to call those who had been invited to the wedding banquet, but they would not come. ⁴Again he sent other slaves, saying, “Tell those who have been invited: Look, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready; come to the wedding banquet.” ⁵But they made light of it and went away, one to his farm, another to his business, ⁶while the rest seized his slaves, maltreated them, and killed them. ⁷The king was enraged. He sent his troops, destroyed those murderers, and burned their city. ⁸Then he said to his slaves, “The wedding is ready, but those invited were not worthy. ⁹Go therefore into the main streets, and invite everyone you find to the wedding banquet.” ¹⁰Those slaves went out into the streets and gathered all whom they found, both good and bad; so the wedding hall was filled with guests.

11 ‘But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing a wedding robe, ¹²and he said to him, “Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding robe?” And he was speechless. ¹³Then the king said to the attendants, “Bind him hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” ¹⁴For many are called, but few are chosen.’