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Psalm 30

1  I will exalt you, O Lord,
      because you have raised me up ♦︎
   and have not let my foes triumph over me.
2  O Lord my God, I cried out to you ♦︎
   and you have healed me.
3  You brought me up, O Lord, from the dead; ♦︎
   you restored me to life from among those that go down to the Pit.
4  Sing to the Lord, you servants of his; ♦︎
   give thanks to his holy name.
5  For his wrath endures but the twinkling of an eye,
      his favour for a lifetime. ♦︎
   Heaviness may endure for a night,
      but joy comes in the morning.
6  In my prosperity I said,
      ‘I shall never be moved. ♦︎
   You, Lord, of your goodness,
      have made my hill so strong.’
7  Then you hid your face from me ♦︎
   and I was utterly dismayed.
8  To you, O Lord, I cried; ♦︎
   to the Lord I made my supplication:
9  ‘What profit is there in my blood,
      if I go down to the Pit? ♦︎
   Will the dust praise you or declare your faithfulness?
10  ‘Hear, O Lord, and have mercy upon me; ♦︎
   O Lord, be my helper.’
11  You have turned my mourning into dancing; ♦︎
   you have put off my sackcloth and girded me with gladness;
12  Therefore my heart sings to you without ceasing; ♦︎
   O Lord my God, I will give you thanks for ever.

Psalm 148

1  Alleluia.
      Praise the Lord from the heavens; ♦︎
   praise him in the heights.
2  Praise him, all you his angels; ♦︎
   praise him, all his host.
3  Praise him, sun and moon; ♦︎
   praise him, all you stars of light.
4  Praise him, heaven of heavens, ♦︎
   and you waters above the heavens.
5  Let them praise the name of the Lord, ♦︎
   for he commanded and they were created.
6  He made them fast for ever and ever; ♦︎
   he gave them a law which shall not pass away.
7  Praise the Lord from the earth, ♦︎
   you sea monsters and all deeps;
8  Fire and hail, snow and mist, ♦︎
   tempestuous wind, fulfilling his word;
9  Mountains and all hills, ♦︎
   fruit trees and all cedars;
10  Wild beasts and all cattle, ♦︎
   creeping things and birds on the wing;
11  Kings of the earth and all peoples, ♦︎
   princes and all rulers of the world;
12  Young men and women,
      old and young together; ♦︎
   let them praise the name of the Lord.
13  For his name only is exalted, ♦︎
   his splendour above earth and heaven.
14  He has raised up the horn of his people
      and praise for all his faithful servants, ♦︎
   the children of Israel, a people who are near him.
      Alleluia.

The Valley of Dry Bones

37The hand of the Lord came upon me, and he brought me out by the spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. ²He led me all round them; there were very many lying in the valley, and they were very dry. ³He said to me, ‘Mortal, can these bones live?’ I answered, ‘O Lord God, you know.’ ⁴Then he said to me, ‘Prophesy to these bones, and say to them: O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. ⁵Thus says the Lord God to these bones: I will cause breath^* to enter you, and you shall live. ⁶I will lay sinews on you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath^* in you, and you shall live; and you shall know that I am the Lord.’

7 So I prophesied as I had been commanded; and as I prophesied, suddenly there was a noise, a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone. ⁸I looked, and there were sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had covered them; but there was no breath in them. ⁹Then he said to me, ‘Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, mortal, and say to the breath:^* Thus says the Lord God: Come from the four winds, O breath,^* and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.’ ¹⁰I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood on their feet, a vast multitude.

11 Then he said to me, ‘Mortal, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They say, “Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are cut off completely.” ¹²Therefore prophesy, and say to them, Thus says the Lord God: I am going to open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people; and I will bring you back to the land of Israel. ¹³And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people. ¹⁴I will put my spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you on your own soil; then you shall know that I, the Lord, have spoken and will act, says the Lord.’

12 ‘This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. ¹³No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. ¹⁴You are my friends if you do what I command you. ¹⁵I do not call you servants^* any longer, because the servant^* does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father. ¹⁶You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name. ¹⁷I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another.

The World’s Hatred

18 ‘If the world hates you, be aware that it hated me before it hated you. ¹⁹If you belonged to the world,^* the world would love you as its own. Because you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world—therefore the world hates you. ²⁰Remember the word that I said to you, “Servants^* are not greater than their master.” If they persecuted me, they will persecute you; if they kept my word, they will keep yours also. ²¹But they will do all these things to you on account of my name, because they do not know him who sent me. ²²If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin. ²³Whoever hates me hates my Father also. ²⁴If I had not done among them the works that no one else did, they would not have sin. But now they have seen and hated both me and my Father. ²⁵It was to fulfil the word that is written in their law, “They hated me without a cause.”

26 ‘When the Advocate^* comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who comes from the Father, he will testify on my behalf. ²⁷You also are to testify because you have been with me from the beginning.