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| Jesus Stills the Storm (Matthew 8:23-27) |
This is the word that the LORD has spoken concerning him: She despises you, she scorns you-- virgin daughter Zion; she tosses her head-- behind your back, daughter Jerusalem. Whom have you mocked and reviled? Against whom have you raised your voice and haughtily lifted your eyes? Against the Holy One of Israel! By your messengers you have mocked the Lord, and you have said, 'With my many chariots I have gone up the heights of the mountains, to the far recesses of Lebanon; I felled its tallest cedars, its choicest cypresses; I entered its farthest retreat, its densest forest. I dug wells and drank foreign waters, I dried up with the sole of my foot all the streams of Egypt.' Have you not heard that I determined it long ago? I planned from days of old what now I bring to pass, that you should make fortified cities crash into heaps of ruins, while their inhabitants, shorn of strength, are dismayed and confounded; they have become like plants of the field and like tender grass, like grass on the housetops, blighted before it is grown. "But I know your rising and your sitting, your going out and coming in, and your raging against me. Because you have raged against me and your arrogance has come to my ears, I will put my hook in your nose and my bit in your mouth; I will turn you back on the way by which you came. "And this shall be the sign for you: This year you shall eat what grows of itself, and in the second year what springs from that; then in the third year sow, reap, plant vineyards, and eat their fruit. The surviving remnant of the house of Judah shall again take root downward, and bear fruit upward; for from Jerusalem a remnant shall go out, and from Mount Zion a band of survivors. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this. "Therefore thus says the LORD concerning the king of Assyria: He shall not come into this city, shoot an arrow there, come before it with a shield, or cast up a siege ramp against it. By the way that he came, by the same he shall return; he shall not come into this city, says the LORD. For I will defend this city to save it, for my own sake and for the sake of my servant David." That very night the angel of the LORD set out and struck down one hundred eighty-five thousand in the camp of the Assyrians; when morning dawned, they were all dead bodies. Then King Sennacherib of Assyria left, went home, and lived at Nineveh.
1 Corinthians 10:1-13
I do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, that our ancestors were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ. Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them, and they were struck down in the wilderness. Now these things occurred as examples for us, so that we might not desire evil as they did. Do not become idolaters as some of them did; as it is written, "The people sat down to eat and drink, and they rose up to play." We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in a single day. We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did, and were destroyed by serpents. And do not complain as some of them did, and were destroyed by the destroyer. These things happened to them to serve as an example, and they were written down to instruct us, on whom the ends of the ages have come. So if you think you are standing, watch out that you do not fall. No testing has overtaken you that is not common to everyone. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tested beyond your strength, but with the testing he will also provide the way out so that you may be able to endure it.
Matthew 8:18-27
Now when Jesus saw great crowds around him, he gave orders to go over to the other side. A scribe then approached and said, "Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go." And Jesus said to him, "Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head." Another of his disciples said to him, "Lord, first let me go and bury my father." But Jesus said to him, "Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead." And when he got into the boat, his disciples followed him. A windstorm arose on the sea, so great that the boat was being swamped by the waves; but he was asleep. And they went and woke him up, saying, "Lord, save us! We are perishing!" And he said to them, "Why are you afraid, you of little faith?" Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the sea; and there was a dead calm. They were amazed, saying, "What sort of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him?"
Morning Psalms
Psalm 107: Part II Posuit flumina
33 The LORD changed rivers into deserts, and water-springs into thirsty ground,
34 A fruitful land into salt flats, because of the wickedness of those who dwell there.
35 He changed deserts into pools of water and dry land into water-springs.
36 He settled the hungry there, and they founded a city to dwell in.
37 They sowed fields, and planted vineyards, and brought in a fruitful harvest.
38 He blessed them, so that they increased greatly; he did not let their herds decrease.
39 Yet when they were diminished and brought low, through stress of adversity and sorrow,
40 (He pours contempt on princes and makes them wander in trackless wastes)
41 He lifted up the poor out of misery and multiplied their families like flocks of sheep.
42 The upright will see this and rejoice, but all wickedness will shut its mouth.
43 Whoever is wise will ponder these things, and consider well the mercies of the LORD.
Psalm 108 Paratum cor meum
1 My heart is firmly fixed, O God, my heart is fixed; I will sing and make melody.
2 Wake up, my spirit; awake, lute and harp; I myself will waken the dawn.
3 I will confess you among the peoples, O LORD; I will sing praises to you among the nations.
4 For your loving-kindness is greater than the heavens, and your faithfulness reaches to the clouds.
5 Exalt yourself above the heavens, O God, and your glory over all the earth.
6 So that those who are dear to you may be delivered, save with your right hand and answer me.
7 God spoke from his holy place and said, "I will exult and parcel out Shechem; I will divide the valley of Succoth.
8 Gilead is mine and Manasseh is mine; Ephraim is my helmet and Judah my scepter.
9 Moab is my washbasin, on Edom I throw down my sandal to claim it, and over Philistia will I shout in triumph."
10 Who will lead me into the strong city? who will bring me into Edom?
11 Have you not cast us off, O God? you no longer go out, O God, with our armies.
12 Grant us your help against the enemy, for vain is the help of man.
13 With God we will do valiant deeds, and he shall tread our enemies under foot.
Evening Psalms
Psalm 33 Exultate, justi
1 Rejoice in the LORD, you righteous; it is good for the just to sing praises.
2 Praise the LORD with the harp; play to him upon the psaltery and lyre.
3 Sing for him a new song; sound a fanfare with all your skill upon the trumpet.
4 For the word of the LORD is right, and all his works are sure.
5 He loves righteousness and justice; the loving-kindness of the LORD fills the whole earth.
6 By the word of the LORD were the heavens made, by the breath of his mouth all the heavenly hosts.
7 He gathers up the waters of the ocean as in a water-skin and stores up the depths of the sea.
8 Let all the earth fear the LORD; let all who dwell in the world stand in awe of him.
9 For he spoke, and it came to pass; he commanded, and it stood fast.
10 The LORD brings the will of the nations to naught; he thwarts the designs of the peoples.
11 But the LORD'S will stands fast for ever, and the designs of his heart from age to age.
12 Happy is the nation whose God is the LORD! happy the people he has chosen to be his own!
13 The LORD looks down from heaven, and beholds all the people in the world.
14 From where he sits enthroned he turns his gaze on all who dwell on the earth.
15 He fashions all the hearts of them and understands all their works.
16 There is no king that can be saved by a mighty army; a strong man is not delivered by his great strength.
17 The horse is a vain hope for deliverance; for all its strength it cannot save.
18 Behold, the eye of the LORD is upon those who fear him, on those who wait upon his love,
19 To pluck their lives from death, and to feed them in time of famine.
20 Our soul waits for the LORD; he is our help and our shield.
21 Indeed, our heart rejoices in him, for in his holy Name we put our trust.
22 Let your loving-kindness, O LORD, be upon us, as we have put our trust in you.
New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved. The New Revised Standard Version Bible may be quoted and/or reprinted up to and inclusive of five hundred (500) verses without express written permission of the publisher, provided the verses quoted do not amount to a complete book of the Bible or account for fifty percent (50%) of the total work in which they are quoted.
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