A congregation of the PCA in Franklin, NC
1: O LORD, my heart is not lifted up;
my eyes are not raised too high;
I do not occupy myself with things too great
and too marvelous for me.
2: But I have calmed and quieted my soul,
like a weaned child with its mother;
like a weaned child is my soul within me.
3: O Israel, hope in the LORD
from this time forth and forevermore.
1: Bless the Lord, O my soul! O Lord my God, you are very great! You are clothed with splendor and majesty,
2: covering yourself with light as with a garment, stretching out the heavens like a tent.
3: He lays the beams of his chambers on the waters; he makes the clouds his chariot; he rides on the wings of the wind;
4: he makes his messengers winds, his ministers a flaming fire.
5: He set the earth on its foundations, so that it should never be moved.
6: You covered it with the deep as with a garment; the waters stood above the mountains.
7: At your rebuke they fled; at the sound of your thunder they took to flight.
8: The mountains rose, the valleys sank down to the place that you appointed for them.
9: You set a boundary that they may not pass, so that they might not again cover the earth.
10: You make springs gush forth in the valleys; they flow between the hills;
11: they give drink to every beast of the field; the wild donkeys quench their thirst.
12: Beside them the birds of the heavens dwell; they sing among the branches.
13: From your lofty abode you water the mountains; the earth is satisfied with the fruit of your work.
14: You cause the grass to grow for the livestock and plants for man to cultivate, that he may bring forth food from the earth
15: and wine to gladden the heart of man, oil to make his face shine, and bread to strengthen man’s heart.
16: The trees of the Lord are watered abundantly, the cedars of Lebanon that he planted.
17: In them the birds build their nests; the stork has her home in the fir trees.
18: The high mountains are for the wild goats; the rocks are a refuge for the rock badgers.
19: He made the moon to mark the seasons; the sun knows its time for setting.
20: You make darkness, and it is night, when all the beasts of the forest creep about.
21: The young lions roar for their prey, seeking their food from God.
22: When the sun rises, they steal away and lie down in their dens.
23: Man goes out to his work and to his labor until the evening.
24: O Lord, how manifold are your works! In wisdom have you made them all; the earth is full of your creatures.
25: Here is the sea, great and wide, which teems with creatures innumerable, living things both small and great.
26: There go the ships, and Leviathan, which you formed to play in it.
27: These all look to you, to give them their food in due season.
28: When you give it to them, they gather it up; when you open your hand, they are filled with good things.
29: When you hide your face, they are dismayed; when you take away their breath, they die and return to their dust.
30: When you send forth your Spirit, they are created, and you renew the face of the ground.
31: May the glory of the Lord endure forever; may the Lord rejoice in his works,
32: who looks on the earth and it trembles, who touches the mountains and they smoke!
33: I will sing to the Lord as long as I live; I will sing praise to my God while I have being.
34: May my meditation be pleasing to him, for I rejoice in the Lord.
35: Let sinners be consumed from the earth, and let the wicked be no more! Bless the Lord, O my soul! Praise the Lord!
1: O God, why do you cast us off forever? Why does your anger smoke against the sheep of your pasture?
2: Remember your congregation, which you have purchased of old, which you have redeemed to be the tribe of your heritage! Remember Mount Zion, where you have dwelt.
3: Direct your steps to the perpetual ruins; the enemy has destroyed everything in the sanctuary!
4: Your foes have roared in the midst of your meeting place; they set up their own signs for signs.
5: They were like those who swing axes in a forest of trees.
6: And all its carved wood they broke down with hatchets and hammers.
7: They set your sanctuary on fire; they profaned the dwelling place of your name, bringing it down to the ground.
8: They said to themselves, “We will utterly subdue them”; they burned all the meeting places of God in the land.
9: We do not see our signs; there is no longer any prophet, and there is none among us who knows how long.
10: How long, O God, is the foe to scoff? Is the enemy to revile your name forever?
11: Why do you hold back your hand, your right hand? Take it from the fold of your garment and destroy them!
12: Yet God my King is from of old, working salvation in the midst of the earth.
13: You divided the sea by your might; you broke the heads of the sea monsters on the waters.
14: You crushed the heads of Leviathan; you gave him as food for the creatures of the wilderness.
15: You split open springs and brooks; you dried up ever-flowing streams.
16: Yours is the day, yours also the night; you have established the heavenly lights and the sun.
17: You have fixed all the boundaries of the earth; you have made summer and winter.
18: Remember this, O Lord, how the enemy scoffs, and a foolish people reviles your name.
19: Do not deliver the soul of your dove to the wild beasts; do not forget the life of your poor forever.
20: Have regard for the covenant, for the dark places of the land are full of the habitations of violence.
21: Let not the downtrodden turn back in shame; let the poor and needy praise your name.
22: Arise, O God, defend your cause; remember how the foolish scoff at you all the day!
23: Do not forget the clamor of your foes, the uproar of those who rise against you, which goes up continually!
1: Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.
2: Blessed is the man against whom the LORD counts no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit.
3: For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long.
4: For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer.
5: I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity; I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the LORD,” and you forgave the iniquity of my sin.
6: Therefore let everyone who is godly offer prayer to you at a time when you may be found; surely in the rush of great waters, they shall not reach him.
7: You are a hiding place for me; you preserve me from trouble; you surround me with shouts of deliverance.
8: I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my eye upon you.
9: Be not like a horse or a mule, without understanding, which must be curbed with bit and bridle, or it will not stay near you.
10: Many are the sorrows of the wicked, but steadfast love surrounds the one who trusts in the LORD.
11: Be glad in the LORD, and rejoice, O righteous, and shout for joy, all you upright in heart!
1: It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and it shall be lifted up above the hills; and peoples shall flow to it,
2: and many nations shall come, and say: “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.” For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
3: He shall judge between many peoples, and shall decide for strong nations far away; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore;
4: but they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree, and no one shall make them afraid, for the mouth of the Lord of hosts has spoken.
5: For all the peoples walk each in the name of its god, but we will walk in the name of the Lord our God forever and ever.
6: In that day, declares the Lord, I will assemble the lame and gather those who have been driven away and those whom I have afflicted;
7: and the lame I will make the remnant, and those who were cast off, a strong nation; and the Lord will reign over them in Mount Zion from this time forth and forevermore.
8: And you, O tower of the flock, hill of the daughter of Zion, to you shall it come, the former dominion shall come, kingship for the daughter of Jerusalem.
9: Now why do you cry aloud? Is there no king in you? Has your counselor perished, that pain seized you like a woman in labor?
10: Writhe and groan, O daughter of Zion, like a woman in labor, for now you shall go out from the city and dwell in the open country; you shall go to Babylon. There you shall be rescued; there the Lord will redeem you from the hand of your enemies.
11: Now many nations are assembled against you, saying, “Let her be defiled, and let our eyes gaze upon Zion.”
12: But they do not know the thoughts of the Lord; they do not understand his plan, that he has gathered them as sheaves to the threshing floor.
13: Arise and thresh, O daughter of Zion, for I will make your horn iron, and I will make your hoofs bronze; you shall beat in pieces many peoples; and shall devote their gain to the Lord, their wealth to the Lord of the whole earth.
20: Peter turned and saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following them, the one who also had leaned back against him during the supper and had said, “Lord, who is it that is going to betray you?”
21: When Peter saw him, he said to Jesus, “Lord, what about this man?”
22: Jesus said to him, “If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow me!”
23: So the saying spread abroad among the brothers that this disciple was not to die; yet Jesus did not say to him that he was not to die, but, “If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you?”
24: This is the disciple who is bearing witness about these things, and who has written these things, and we know that his testimony is true.
25: Now there are also many other things that Jesus did. Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.
15: When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Feed my lambs.”
16: He said to him a second time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Tend my sheep.”
17: He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, “Do you love me?” and he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep.”
18: Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young, you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted, but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go.”
19: (This he said to show by what kind of death he was to glorify God.) And after saying this he said to him, “Follow me.”
1: After this Jesus revealed himself again to the disciples by the Sea of Tiberias, and he revealed himself in this way.
2: Simon Peter, Thomas (called the Twin), Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two others of his disciples were together.
3: Simon Peter said to them, “I am going fishing.” They said to him, “We will go with you.” They went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing.
4: Just as day was breaking, Jesus stood on the shore; yet the disciples did not know that it was Jesus.
5: Jesus said to them, “Children, do you have any fish?” They answered him, “No.”
6: He said to them, “Cast the net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some.” So they cast it, and now they were not able to haul it in, because of the quantity of fish.
7: That disciple whom Jesus loved therefore said to Peter, “It is the Lord!” When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on his outer garment, for he was stripped for work, and threw himself into the sea.
8: The other disciples came in the boat, dragging the net full of fish, for they were not far from the land, but about a hundred yards off.
9: When they got out on land, they saw a charcoal fire in place, with fish laid out on it, and bread.
10: Jesus said to them, “Bring some of the fish that you have just caught.”
11: So Simon Peter went aboard and hauled the net ashore, full of large fish, 153 of them. And although there were so many, the net was not torn.
12: Jesus said to them, “Come and have breakfast.” Now none of the disciples dared ask him, “Who are you?” They knew it was the Lord.
13: Jesus came and took the bread and gave it to them, and so with the fish.
14: This was now the third time that Jesus was revealed to the disciples after he was raised from the dead.
John 20:24-31 (ESV)
Doubt’s Distrust
24: Now Thomas, one of the twelve, called the Twin, was not with them when Jesus came.
25: So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe.”
Doubt’s Defeat
26: Eight days later, his disciples were inside again, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.”
27: Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe.”
28: Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!”
Faith’s Triumph
29: Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
30: Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book;
31: but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.
11: But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb, and as she wept she stooped to look into the tomb.
12: And she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had lain, one at the head and one at the feet.
13: They said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.”
14: Having said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing, but she did not know that it was Jesus.
15: Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?” Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.”
16: Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She turned and said to him in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means Teacher).
17: Jesus said to her, “Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”
18: Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord”—and that he had said these things to her.
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