Psalm 102

[1] Hear my prayer, O LORD;   

         let my cry come to you.   

[2] Do not hide your face from me   

         in the day of my distress.   

    Incline your ear to me;   

         answer me speedily in the day when I call.

[3] For my days pass away like smoke,   

         and my bones burn like a furnace.   

[4] My heart is stricken and withered like grass;   

         I am too wasted to eat my bread.   

[5] Because of my loud groaning   

         my bones cling to my skin.   

[6] I am like an owl of the wilderness,   

         like a little owl of the waste places.   

[7] I lie awake;   

         I am like a lonely bird on the housetop.   

[8] All day long my enemies taunt me;   

         those who deride me use my name for a curse.   

[9] For I eat ashes like bread,   

         and mingle tears with my drink,   

[10] because of your indignation and anger;   

         for you have lifted me up and thrown me aside.   

[11] My days are like an evening shadow;   

         I wither away like grass.

[12] But you, O LORD, are enthroned forever;   

         your name endures to all generations.   

[13] You will rise up and have compassion on Zion,   

         for it is time to favor it;   

         the appointed time has come.   

[14] For your servants hold its stones dear,   

         and have pity on its dust.   

[15] The nations will fear the name of the LORD,   

         and all the kings of the earth your glory.   

[16] For the LORD will build up Zion;   

         he will appear in his glory.   

[17] He will regard the prayer of the destitute,   

         and will not despise their prayer.   

[18] Let this be recorded for a generation to come,   

         so that a people yet unborn may praise the LORD:   

[19] that he looked down from his holy height,   

         from heaven the LORD looked at the earth,   

[20] to hear the groans of the prisoners,   

         to set free those who were doomed to die;   

[21] so that the name of the LORD may be declared in Zion,   

         and his praise in Jerusalem,   

[22] when peoples gather together,   

         and kingdoms, to worship the LORD.

[23] He has broken my strength in midcourse;   

         he has shortened my days.   

[24] "O my God," I say, "do not take me away   

         at the mid-point of my life,   

    you whose years endure   

         throughout all generations."

[25] Long ago you laid the foundation of the earth,   

         and the heavens are the work of your hands.   

[26] They will perish, but you endure;   

         they will all wear out like a garment.   

    You change them like clothing, and they pass away;   

[27] but you are the same, and your years have no end.   

[28] The children of your servants shall live secure;   

         their offspring shall be established in your presence.

Psalm 27

[1]   The LORD is my light and my salvation;  
          whom shall I fear?  
     The LORD is the stronghold of my life;  
          of whom shall I be afraid?

[2]   When evildoers assail me  
          to devour my flesh --  
     my adversaries and foes --  
          they shall stumble and fall.

[3]   Though an army encamp against me,  
          my heart shall not fear;  
     though war rise up against me,  
          yet I will be confident.

[4]   One thing I asked of the LORD,  
          that will I seek after:  
     to live in the house of the LORD  
          all the days of my life,  
     to behold the beauty of the LORD,  
          and to inquire in his temple.

[5]   For he will hide me in his shelter  
          in the day of trouble;  
     he will conceal me under the cover of his tent;  
          he will set me high on a rock.

[6]   Now my head is lifted up  
          above my enemies all around me,  
     and I will offer in his tent  
          sacrifices with shouts of joy;  
     I will sing and make melody to the LORD.

[7]   Hear, O LORD, when I cry aloud,  
          be gracious to me and answer me!  
[8]   "Come," my heart says, "seek his face!"  
          Your face, LORD, do I seek.  
[9]        Do not hide your face from me.

     Do not turn your servant away in anger,  
          you who have been my help.  
     Do not cast me off, do not forsake me,  
          O God of my salvation!  
[10]   If my father and mother forsake me,  
          the LORD will take me up.

[11]  Teach me your way, O LORD,  
          and lead me on a level path  
          because of my enemies.  
[12]  Do not give me up to the will of my adversaries,  
          for false witnesses have risen against me,  
          and they are breathing out violence.

[13]  I believe that I shall see the goodness of the LORD  
          in the land of the living.  
[14]   Wait for the LORD;  
          be strong, and let your heart take courage;  
          wait for the LORD!

John 4:43-54

[43]When the two days were over, he went from that place to Galilee [44](for Jesus himself had testified that a prophet has no honor in the prophet's own country). [45]When he came to Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him, since they had seen all that he had done in Jerusalem at the festival; for they too had gone to the festival.

[46]Then he came again to Cana in Galilee where he had changed the water into wine. Now there was a royal official whose son lay ill in Capernaum. [47]When he heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went and begged him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death. [48]Then Jesus said to him, "Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe." [49]The official said to him, "Sir, come down before my little boy dies." [50]Jesus said to him, "Go; your son will live." The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and started on his way. [51]As he was going down, his slaves met him and told him that his child was alive. [52]So he asked them the hour when he began to recover, and they said to him, "Yesterday at one in the afternoon the fever left him." [53]The father realized that this was the hour when Jesus had said to him, "Your son will live." So he himself believed, along with his whole household. [54]Now this was the second sign that Jesus did after coming from Judea to Galilee.

Psalm 121

[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.

John 4:1-26

[1]Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard, "Jesus is making and baptizing more disciples than John" -- [2]although it was not Jesus himself

but his disciples who baptized -- [3]he left Judea and started back to Galilee. [4]But he had to go through Samaria. [5]So he came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. [6]Jacob's well was there, and Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well. It was about noon.

[7]A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, "Give me a drink." [8](His disciples had gone to the city to buy food.) [9]The Samaritan woman said to him, "How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?" (Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.) [10]Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, 'Give me a drink,' you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water." [11]The woman said to him, "Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? [12]Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well, and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?" [13]Jesus said to her, "Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, [14]but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life." [15]The woman said to him, "Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water."

[16]Jesus said to her, "Go, call your husband, and come back." [17]The woman answered him, "I have no husband." Jesus said to her, "You are right in saying, 'I have no husband'; [18]for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true!" [19]The woman said to him, "Sir, I see that you are a prophet. [20]Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem." [21]Jesus said to her, "Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. [22]You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. [23]But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him. [24]God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth." [25]The woman said to him, "I know that Messiah is coming" (who is called Christ). "When he comes, he will proclaim all things to us." [26]Jesus said to her, "I am he, the one who is speaking to you."

 

Deuteronomy 10:12-22

[12]So now, O Israel, what does the LORD your God require of you? Only to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, [13]and to keep the commandments of the LORD your God and his decrees that I am commanding you today, for your own well-being. [14]Although heaven and the heaven of heavens belong to the LORD your God, the earth with all that is in it, [15]yet the LORD set his heart in love on your ancestors alone and chose you, their descendants after them, out of all the peoples, as it is today. [16]Circumcise, then, the foreskin of your heart, and do not be stubborn any longer. [17]For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who is not partial and takes no bribe, [18]who executes justice for the orphan and the widow, and who loves the strangers, providing them with food and clothing. [19]You shall also love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt. [20]You shall fear the LORD your God; him alone you shall worship; to him you shall hold fast, and by his name you shall swear. [21]He is your praise; he is your God, who has done for you these great and awesome things that your own eyes have seen. [22]Your ancestors went down to Egypt seventy persons; and now the LORD your God has made you as numerous as the stars in heaven.

  

Psalm 126

[1]   When the LORD restored the fortunes of Zion,  

          we were like those who dream.  

[2]   Then our mouth was filled with laughter,  

          and our tongue with shouts of joy;  

     then it was said among the nations,  

          "The LORD has done great things for them."   

[3]   The LORD has done great things for us,  

          and we rejoiced.

[4]   Restore our fortunes, O LORD,  

          like the watercourses in the Negeb.  

[5]   May those who sow in tears  

          reap with shouts of joy.  

[6]   Those who go out weeping,  

          bearing the seed for sowing,  

     shall come home with shouts of joy,  

          carrying their sheaves.