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Psalm 64

1  Hear my voice, O God, in my complaint; ♦︎
   preserve my life from fear of the enemy.
2  Hide me from the conspiracy of the wicked, ♦︎
   from the gathering of evildoers.
3  They sharpen their tongue like a sword ♦︎
   and aim their bitter words like arrows,
4  That they may shoot at the blameless from hiding places; ♦︎
   suddenly they shoot, and are not seen.
5  They hold fast to their evil course; ♦︎
   they talk of laying snares, saying, ‘Who will see us?’
6  They search out wickedness and lay a cunning trap, ♦︎
   for deep are the inward thoughts of the heart.
7  But God will shoot at them with his swift arrow, ♦︎
   and suddenly they shall be wounded.
8  Their own tongues shall make them fall, ♦︎
   and all who see them shall wag their heads in scorn.
9  All peoples shall fear and tell what God has done, ♦︎
   and they will ponder all his works.
10  The righteous shall rejoice in the Lord
      and put their trust in him, ♦︎
   and all that are true of heart shall exult.

Psalm 65

1  Praise is due to you, O God, in Zion; ♦︎
   to you that answer prayer shall vows be paid.
2  To you shall all flesh come to confess their sins; ♦︎
   when our misdeeds prevail against us,
      you will purge them away.
3  Happy are they whom you choose
      and draw to your courts to dwell there. ♦︎
   We shall be satisfied with the blessings of your house,
      even of your holy temple.
4  With wonders you will answer us in your righteousness,
      O God of our salvation, ♦︎
   O hope of all the ends of the earth
      and of the farthest seas.
5  In your strength you set fast the mountains ♦︎
   and are girded about with might.
6  You still the raging of the seas, ♦︎
   the roaring of their waves
      and the clamour of the peoples.
7  Those who dwell at the ends of the earth
      tremble at your marvels; ♦︎
   the gates of the morning and evening sing your praise.
8  You visit the earth and water it; ♦︎
   you make it very plenteous.
9  The river of God is full of water; ♦︎
   you prepare grain for your people,
      for so you provide for the earth.
10  You drench the furrows and smooth out the ridges; ♦︎
   you soften the ground with showers and bless its increase.
11  You crown the year with your goodness, ♦︎
   and your paths overflow with plenty.
12  May the pastures of the wilderness flow with goodness ♦︎
   and the hills be girded with joy.
13  May the meadows be clothed with flocks of sheep ♦︎
   and the valleys stand so thick with corn
      that they shall laugh and sing.

⁸ The Lord determined to lay in ruins
   the wall of daughter Zion;
he stretched the line;
   he did not withhold his hand from destroying;
he caused rampart and wall to lament;
   they languish together.

⁹ Her gates have sunk into the ground;
   he has ruined and broken her bars;
her king and princes are among the nations;
   guidance is no more,
and her prophets obtain
   no vision from the Lord.

¹⁰ The elders of daughter Zion
   sit on the ground in silence;
they have thrown dust on their heads
   and put on sackcloth;
the young girls of Jerusalem
   have bowed their heads to the ground.

¹¹ My eyes are spent with weeping;
   my stomach churns;
my bile is poured out on the ground
   because of the destruction of my people,
because infants and babes faint
   in the streets of the city.

¹² They cry to their mothers,
   ‘Where is bread and wine?’
as they faint like the wounded
   in the streets of the city,
as their life is poured out
   on their mothers’ bosom.

¹³ What can I say for you, to what compare you,
   O daughter Jerusalem?
To what can I liken you, that I may comfort you,
   O virgin daughter Zion?
For vast as the sea is your ruin;
   who can heal you?

¹⁴ Your prophets have seen for you
   false and deceptive visions;
they have not exposed your iniquity
   to restore your fortunes,
but have seen oracles for you
   that are false and misleading.

¹⁵ All who pass along the way
   clap their hands at you;
they hiss and wag their heads
   at daughter Jerusalem;
‘Is this the city that was called
   the perfection of beauty,
   the joy of all the earth?’

Plucking Grain on the Sabbath

12At that time Jesus went through the cornfields on the sabbath; his disciples were hungry, and they began to pluck heads of grain and to eat. ²When the Pharisees saw it, they said to him, ‘Look, your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the sabbath.’ ³He said to them, ‘Have you not read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? ⁴He entered the house of God and ate the bread of the Presence, which it was not lawful for him or his companions to eat, but only for the priests. ⁵Or have you not read in the law that on the sabbath the priests in the temple break the sabbath and yet are guiltless? ⁶I tell you, something greater than the temple is here. ⁷But if you had known what this means, “I desire mercy and not sacrifice”, you would not have condemned the guiltless. ⁸For the Son of Man is lord of the sabbath.’

The Man with a Withered Hand

9 He left that place and entered their synagogue; ¹⁰a man was there with a withered hand, and they asked him, ‘Is it lawful to cure on the sabbath?’ so that they might accuse him. ¹¹He said to them, ‘Suppose one of you has only one sheep and it falls into a pit on the sabbath; will you not lay hold of it and lift it out? ¹²How much more valuable is a human being than a sheep! So it is lawful to do good on the sabbath.’ ¹³Then he said to the man, ‘Stretch out your hand.’ He stretched it out, and it was restored, as sound as the other. ¹⁴But the Pharisees went out and conspired against him, how to destroy him.