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Psalm 123

1  To you I lift up my eyes, ♦︎
   to you that are enthroned in the heavens.
2  As the eyes of servants look to the hand of their master, ♦︎
   or the eyes of a maid to the hand of her mistress,
3  So our eyes wait upon the Lord our God, ♦︎
   until he have mercy upon us.
4  Have mercy upon us, O Lord, have mercy upon us, ♦︎
   for we have had more than enough of contempt.
5  Our soul has had more than enough of the scorn of the arrogant, ♦︎
   and of the contempt of the proud.

Psalm 128

1  Blessed are all those who fear the Lord, ♦︎
   and walk in his ways.
2  You shall eat the fruit of the toil of your hands; ♦︎
   it shall go well with you, and happy shall you be.
3  Your wife within your house
      shall be like a fruitful vine; ♦︎
   your children round your table,
      like fresh olive branches.
4  Thus shall the one be blest ♦︎
   who fears the Lord.
5  The Lord from out of Zion bless you, ♦︎
   that you may see Jerusalem in prosperity
      all the days of your life.
6  May you see your children’s children, ♦︎
   and may there be peace upon Israel.

¹⁴ But Zion said, ‘The Lord has forsaken me,
   my Lord has forgotten me.’
¹⁵ Can a woman forget her nursing-child,
   or show no compassion for the child of her womb?
Even these may forget,
   yet I will not forget you.
¹⁶ See, I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands;
   your walls are continually before me.
¹⁷ Your builders outdo your destroyers,^*
   and those who laid you waste go away from you.
¹⁸ Lift up your eyes all around and see;
   they all gather, they come to you.
As I live, says the Lord,
   you shall put all of them on like an ornament,
   and like a bride you shall bind them on.

¹⁹ Surely your waste and your desolate places
   and your devastated land—
surely now you will be too crowded for your inhabitants,
   and those who swallowed you up will be far away.
²⁰ The children born in the time of your bereavement
   will yet say in your hearing:
‘The place is too crowded for me;
   make room for me to settle.’
²¹ Then you will say in your heart,
   ‘Who has borne me these?
I was bereaved and barren,
   exiled and put away—
   so who has reared these?
I was left all alone—
   where then have these come from?’

²² Thus says the Lord God:
I will soon lift up my hand to the nations,
   and raise my signal to the peoples;
and they shall bring your sons in their bosom,
   and your daughters shall be carried on their shoulders.
²³ Kings shall be your foster-fathers,
   and their queens your nursing-mothers.
With their faces to the ground they shall bow down to you,
   and lick the dust of your feet.
Then you will know that I am the Lord;
   those who wait for me shall not be put to shame.

²⁴ Can the prey be taken from the mighty,
   or the captives of a tyrant^* be rescued?
²⁵ But thus says the Lord:
Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken,
   and the prey of the tyrant be rescued;
for I will contend with those who contend with you,
   and I will save your children.

Jesus Blesses Little Children

13 People were bringing little children to him in order that he might touch them; and the disciples spoke sternly to them. ¹⁴But when Jesus saw this, he was indignant and said to them, ‘Let the little children come to me; do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs. ¹⁵Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it.’ ¹⁶And he took them up in his arms, laid his hands on them, and blessed them.