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Psalm 118

A Song of Victory

¹ O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;
   his steadfast love endures for ever!

² Let Israel say,
   ‘His steadfast love endures for ever.’
³ Let the house of Aaron say,
   ‘His steadfast love endures for ever.’
⁴ Let those who fear the Lord say,
   ‘His steadfast love endures for ever.’

⁵ Out of my distress I called on the Lord;
   the Lord answered me and set me in a broad place.
⁶ With the Lord on my side I do not fear.
   What can mortals do to me?
⁷ The Lord is on my side to help me;
   I shall look in triumph on those who hate me.
⁸ It is better to take refuge in the Lord
   than to put confidence in mortals.
⁹ It is better to take refuge in the Lord
   than to put confidence in princes.

¹⁰ All nations surrounded me;
   in the name of the Lord I cut them off!
¹¹ They surrounded me, surrounded me on every side;
   in the name of the Lord I cut them off!
¹² They surrounded me like bees;
   they blazed^* like a fire of thorns;
   in the name of the Lord I cut them off!
¹³ I was pushed hard,^* so that I was falling,
   but the Lord helped me.
¹⁴ The Lord is my strength and my might;
   he has become my salvation.

¹⁵ There are glad songs of victory in the tents of the righteous:
‘The right hand of the Lord does valiantly;
¹⁶   the right hand of the Lord is exalted;
   the right hand of the Lord does valiantly.’
¹⁷ I shall not die, but I shall live,
   and recount the deeds of the Lord.
¹⁸ The Lord has punished me severely,
   but he did not give me over to death.

¹⁹ Open to me the gates of righteousness,
   that I may enter through them
   and give thanks to the Lord.

²⁰ This is the gate of the Lord;
   the righteous shall enter through it.

²¹ I thank you that you have answered me
   and have become my salvation.
²² The stone that the builders rejected
   has become the chief cornerstone.
²³ This is the Lord’s doing;
   it is marvellous in our eyes.
²⁴ This is the day that the Lord has made;
   let us rejoice and be glad in it.^*
25 Save us, we beseech you, O Lord!
   O Lord, we beseech you, give us success!

²⁶ Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.^*
   We bless you from the house of the Lord.
²⁷ The Lord is God,
   and he has given us light.
Bind the festal procession with branches,
   up to the horns of the altar.^*

²⁸ You are my God, and I will give thanks to you;
   you are my God, I will extol you.

²⁹ O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good,
   for his steadfast love endures for ever.

Jesus the Way to the Father

14‘Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe^* in God, believe also in me. ²In my Father’s house there are many dwelling-places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?^{* 3}And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also. ⁴And you know the way to the place where I am going.’^{* 5}Thomas said to him, ‘Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?’ ⁶Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. ⁷If you know me, you will know^* my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.’

13¹And I saw a beast rising out of the sea, having ten horns and seven heads; and on its horns were ten diadems, and on its heads were blasphemous names. ²And the beast that I saw was like a leopard, its feet were like a bear’s, and its mouth was like a lion’s mouth. And the dragon gave it his power and his throne and great authority. ³One of its heads seemed to have received a death-blow, but its mortal wound^* had been healed. In amazement the whole earth followed the beast. ⁴They worshipped the dragon, for he had given his authority to the beast, and they worshipped the beast, saying, ‘Who is like the beast, and who can fight against it?’

5 The beast was given a mouth uttering haughty and blasphemous words, and it was allowed to exercise authority for forty-two months. ⁶It opened its mouth to utter blasphemies against God, blaspheming his name and his dwelling, that is, those who dwell in heaven. ⁷Also, it was allowed to make war on the saints and to conquer them.^* It was given authority over every tribe and people and language and nation, ⁸and all the inhabitants of the earth will worship it, everyone whose name has not been written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb that was slaughtered.^*

9 Let anyone who has an ear listen:
¹⁰ If you are to be taken captive,
   into captivity you go;
if you kill with the sword,
   with the sword you must be killed.
Here is a call for the endurance and faith of the saints.

The Second Beast

11 Then I saw another beast that rose out of the earth; it had two horns like a lamb and it spoke like a dragon. ¹²It exercises all the authority of the first beast on its behalf, and it makes the earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast, whose mortal wound^* had been healed. ¹³It performs great signs, even making fire come down from heaven to earth in the sight of all; ¹⁴and by the signs that it is allowed to perform on behalf of the beast, it deceives the inhabitants of earth, telling them to make an image for the beast that had been wounded by the sword^* and yet lived; ¹⁵and it was allowed to give breath^* to the image of the beast, so that the image of the beast could even speak and cause those who would not worship the image of the beast to be killed. ¹⁶Also it causes all, both small and great, both rich and poor, both free and slave, to be marked on the right hand or the forehead, ¹⁷so that no one can buy or sell who does not have the mark, that is, the name of the beast or the number of its name. ¹⁸This calls for wisdom: let anyone with understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a person. Its number is six hundred and sixty-six.^*

Psalm 120

Prayer for Deliverance from Slanderers

A Song of Ascents.
¹ In my distress I cry to the Lord,
   that he may answer me:
² ‘Deliver me, O Lord,
   from lying lips,
   from a deceitful tongue.’

³ What shall be given to you?
   And what more shall be done to you,
   you deceitful tongue?
⁴ A warrior’s sharp arrows,
   with glowing coals of the broom tree!

⁵ Woe is me, that I am an alien in Meshech,
   that I must live among the tents of Kedar.
⁶ Too long have I had my dwelling
   among those who hate peace.
⁷ I am for peace;
   but when I speak,
   they are for war.

Psalm 121

Assurance of God’s Protection

A Song of Ascents.
¹ I lift up my eyes to the hills—
   from where will my help come?
² My help comes from the Lord,
   who made heaven and earth.

³ He will not let your foot be moved;
   he who keeps you will not slumber.
⁴ He who keeps Israel
   will neither slumber nor sleep.

⁵ The Lord is your keeper;
   the Lord is your shade at your right hand.
⁶ The sun shall not strike you by day,
   nor the moon by night.

⁷ The Lord will keep you from all evil;
   he will keep your life.
⁸ The Lord will keep
   your going out and your coming in
   from this time on and for evermore.

64O that you would tear open the heavens and come down,
   so that the mountains would quake at your presence—
^{2 *}as when fire kindles brushwood
   and the fire causes water to boil—
to make your name known to your adversaries,
   so that the nations might tremble at your presence!
³ When you did awesome deeds that we did not expect,
   you came down, the mountains quaked at your presence.
⁴ From ages past no one has heard,
   no ear has perceived,
no eye has seen any God besides you,
   who works for those who wait for him.
⁵ You meet those who gladly do right,
   those who remember you in your ways.
But you were angry, and we sinned;
   because you hid yourself we transgressed.^*
6 We have all become like one who is unclean,
   and all our righteous deeds are like a filthy cloth.
We all fade like a leaf,
   and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.
⁷ There is no one who calls on your name,
   or attempts to take hold of you;
for you have hidden your face from us,
   and have delivered^* us into the hand of our iniquity.
⁸ Yet, O Lord, you are our Father;
   we are the clay, and you are our potter;
   we are all the work of your hand.
⁹ Do not be exceedingly angry, O Lord,
   and do not remember iniquity for ever.
   Now consider, we are all your people.
¹⁰ Your holy cities have become a wilderness,
   Zion has become a wilderness,
   Jerusalem a desolation.
¹¹ Our holy and beautiful house,
   where our ancestors praised you,
has been burned by fire,
   and all our pleasant places have become ruins.
¹² After all this, will you restrain yourself, O Lord?
   Will you keep silent, and punish us so severely?

The Authority of Jesus Questioned

20One day, as he was teaching the people in the temple and telling the good news, the chief priests and the scribes came with the elders ²and said to him, ‘Tell us, by what authority are you doing these things? Who is it who gave you this authority?’ ³He answered them, ‘I will also ask you a question, and you tell me: ⁴Did the baptism of John come from heaven, or was it of human origin?’ ⁵They discussed it with one another, saying, ‘If we say, “From heaven”, he will say, “Why did you not believe him?” ⁶But if we say, “Of human origin”, all the people will stone us; for they are convinced that John was a prophet.’ ⁷So they answered that they did not know where it came from. ⁸Then Jesus said to them, ‘Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things.’

The Parable of the Wicked Tenants

9 He began to tell the people this parable: ‘A man planted a vineyard, and leased it to tenants, and went to another country for a long time. ¹⁰When the season came, he sent a slave to the tenants in order that they might give him his share of the produce of the vineyard; but the tenants beat him and sent him away empty-handed. ¹¹Next he sent another slave; that one also they beat and insulted and sent away empty-handed. ¹²And he sent yet a third; this one also they wounded and threw out. ¹³Then the owner of the vineyard said, “What shall I do? I will send my beloved son; perhaps they will respect him.” ¹⁴But when the tenants saw him, they discussed it among themselves and said, “This is the heir; let us kill him so that the inheritance may be ours.” ¹⁵So they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. What then will the owner of the vineyard do to them? ¹⁶He will come and destroy those tenants and give the vineyard to others.’ When they heard this, they said, ‘Heaven forbid!’ ¹⁷But he looked at them and said, ‘What then does this text mean:
“The stone that the builders rejected
   has become the cornerstone”?^*
18Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces; and it will crush anyone on whom it falls.’ ¹⁹When the scribes and chief priests realized that he had told this parable against them, they wanted to lay hands on him at that very hour, but they feared the people.

The Question about Paying Taxes

20 So they watched him and sent spies who pretended to be honest, in order to trap him by what he said, so as to hand him over to the jurisdiction and authority of the governor. ²¹So they asked him, ‘Teacher, we know that you are right in what you say and teach, and you show deference to no one, but teach the way of God in accordance with truth. ²²Is it lawful for us to pay taxes to the emperor, or not?’ ²³But he perceived their craftiness and said to them, ²⁴‘Show me a denarius. Whose head and whose title does it bear?’ They said, ‘The emperor’s.’ ²⁵He said to them, ‘Then give to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.’ ²⁶And they were not able in the presence of the people to trap him by what he said; and being amazed by his answer, they became silent.