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Psalm 102

Prayer to the Eternal King for Help

A prayer of one afflicted, when faint and pleading before the Lord.
¹ Hear my prayer, O Lord;
   let my cry come to you.
² Do not hide your face from me
   on the day of my distress.
Incline your ear to me;
   answer me speedily on the day when I call.

³ For my days pass away like smoke,
   and my bones burn like a furnace.
⁴ My heart is stricken and withered like grass;
   I am too wasted to eat my bread.
⁵ Because of my loud groaning
   my bones cling to my skin.
⁶ I am like an owl of the wilderness,
   like a little owl of the waste places.
⁷ I lie awake;
   I am like a lonely bird on the housetop.
⁸ All day long my enemies taunt me;
   those who deride me use my name for a curse.
⁹ For I eat ashes like bread,
   and mingle tears with my drink,
¹⁰ because of your indignation and anger;
   for you have lifted me up and thrown me aside.
¹¹ My days are like an evening shadow;
   I wither away like grass.

¹² But you, O Lord, are enthroned for ever;
   your name endures to all generations.
¹³ You will rise up and have compassion on Zion,
   for it is time to favour it;
   the appointed time has come.
¹⁴ For your servants hold its stones dear,
   and have pity on its dust.
¹⁵ The nations will fear the name of the Lord,
   and all the kings of the earth your glory.
¹⁶ For the Lord will build up Zion;
   he will appear in his glory.
¹⁷ He will regard the prayer of the destitute,
   and will not despise their prayer.

¹⁸ Let this be recorded for a generation to come,
   so that a people yet unborn may praise the Lord:
¹⁹ that he looked down from his holy height,
   from heaven the Lord looked at the earth,
²⁰ to hear the groans of the prisoners,
   to set free those who were doomed to die;
²¹ so that the name of the Lord may be declared in Zion,
   and his praise in Jerusalem,
²² when peoples gather together,
   and kingdoms, to worship the Lord.

²³ He has broken my strength in mid-course;
   he has shortened my days.
²⁴ ‘O my God,’ I say, ‘do not take me away
   at the mid-point of my life,
you whose years endure
   throughout all generations.’

²⁵ Long ago you laid the foundation of the earth,
   and the heavens are the work of your hands.
²⁶ They will perish, but you endure;
   they will all wear out like a garment.
You change them like clothing, and they pass away;
²⁷   but you are the same, and your years have no end.
²⁸ The children of your servants shall live secure;
   their offspring shall be established in your presence.

Jacob Wrestles at Peniel

22 The same night he got up and took his two wives, his two maids, and his eleven children, and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. ²³He took them and sent them across the stream, and likewise everything that he had. ²⁴Jacob was left alone; and a man wrestled with him until daybreak. ²⁵When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he struck him on the hip socket; and Jacob’s hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him. ²⁶Then he said, ‘Let me go, for the day is breaking.’ But Jacob said, ‘I will not let you go, unless you bless me.’ ²⁷So he said to him, ‘What is your name?’ And he said, ‘Jacob.’ ²⁸Then the man^* said, ‘You shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel,^* for you have striven with God and with humans,^* and have prevailed.’ ²⁹Then Jacob asked him, ‘Please tell me your name.’ But he said, ‘Why is it that you ask my name?’ And there he blessed him. ³⁰So Jacob called the place Peniel,^* saying, ‘For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life is preserved.’ ³¹The sun rose upon him as he passed Penuel, limping because of his hip. ³²Therefore to this day the Israelites do not eat the thigh muscle that is on the hip socket, because he struck Jacob on the hip socket at the thigh muscle.

Jacob and Esau Meet

33Now Jacob looked up and saw Esau coming, and four hundred men with him. So he divided the children among Leah and Rachel and the two maids. ²He put the maids with their children in front, then Leah with her children, and Rachel and Joseph last of all. ³He himself went on ahead of them, bowing himself to the ground seven times, until he came near his brother.

4 But Esau ran to meet him, and embraced him, and fell on his neck and kissed him, and they wept. ⁵When Esau looked up and saw the women and children, he said, ‘Who are these with you?’ Jacob said, ‘The children whom God has graciously given your servant.’ ⁶Then the maids drew near, they and their children, and bowed down; ⁷Leah likewise and her children drew near and bowed down; and finally Joseph and Rachel drew near, and they bowed down. ⁸Esau said, ‘What do you mean by all this company that I met?’ Jacob answered, ‘To find favour with my lord.’ ⁹But Esau said, ‘I have enough, my brother; keep what you have for yourself.’ ¹⁰Jacob said, ‘No, please; if I find favour with you, then accept my present from my hand; for truly to see your face is like seeing the face of God—since you have received me with such favour. ¹¹Please accept my gift that is brought to you, because God has dealt graciously with me, and because I have everything I want.’ So he urged him, and he took it.

12 Then Esau said, ‘Let us journey on our way, and I will go alongside you.’ ¹³But Jacob said to him, ‘My lord knows that the children are frail and that the flocks and herds, which are nursing, are a care to me; and if they are overdriven for one day, all the flocks will die. ¹⁴Let my lord pass on ahead of his servant, and I will lead on slowly, according to the pace of the cattle that are before me and according to the pace of the children, until I come to my lord in Seir.’

15 So Esau said, ‘Let me leave with you some of the people who are with me.’ But he said, ‘Why should my lord be so kind to me?’ ¹⁶So Esau returned that day on his way to Seir. ¹⁷But Jacob journeyed to Succoth,^* and built himself a house, and made booths for his cattle; therefore the place is called Succoth.

3¹See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. ²Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is this: when he^* is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is. ³And all who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.

4 Everyone who commits sin is guilty of lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. ⁵You know that he was revealed to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. ⁶No one who abides in him sins; no one who sins has either seen him or known him. ⁷Little children, let no one deceive you. Everyone who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous. ⁸Everyone who commits sin is a child of the devil; for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The Son of God was revealed for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil. ⁹Those who have been born of God do not sin, because God’s seed abides in them;^* they cannot sin, because they have been born of God. ¹⁰The children of God and the children of the devil are revealed in this way: all who do not do what is right are not from God, nor are those who do not love their brothers and sisters.^*

31 The Jews took up stones again to stone him. ³²Jesus replied, ‘I have shown you many good works from the Father. For which of these are you going to stone me?’ ³³The Jews answered, ‘It is not for a good work that we are going to stone you, but for blasphemy, because you, though only a human being, are making yourself God.’ ³⁴Jesus answered, ‘Is it not written in your law,^* “I said, you are gods”? ³⁵If those to whom the word of God came were called “gods”—and the scripture cannot be annulled— ³⁶can you say that the one whom the Father has sanctified and sent into the world is blaspheming because I said, “I am God’s Son”? ³⁷If I am not doing the works of my Father, then do not believe me. ³⁸But if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, so that you may know and understand^* that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.’ ³⁹Then they tried to arrest him again, but he escaped from their hands.

40 He went away again across the Jordan to the place where John had been baptizing earlier, and he remained there. ⁴¹Many came to him, and they were saying, ‘John performed no sign, but everything that John said about this man was true.’ ⁴²And many believed in him there.