Saturday, August 17 | St. Andrew's Anglican Church

Psalm 33

¹ Shout for joy in the Lord, O you righteous!
    Praise befits the upright.
²Give thanks to the Lord with the lyre;
    make melody to him with the harp of ten strings!
³Sing to him a new song;
    play skillfully on the strings, with loud shouts.
⁴For the word of the Lord is upright,
    and all his work is done in faithfulness.
⁵He loves righteousness and justice;
    the earth is full of the steadfast love of the Lord.
⁶By the word of the Lord the heavens were made,
    and by the breath of his mouth all their host.
⁷He gathers the waters of the sea as a heap;
    he puts the deeps in storehouses.
⁸Let all the earth fear the Lord;
    let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him!
⁹For he spoke, and it came to be;
    he commanded, and it stood firm.
¹⁰The Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing;
    he frustrates the plans of the peoples.
¹¹The counsel of the Lord stands forever,
    the plans of his heart to all generations.
¹²Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord,
    the people whom he has chosen as his heritage!
¹³The Lord looks down from heaven;
    he sees all the children of man;
¹⁴from where he sits enthroned he looks out
    on all the inhabitants of the earth,
¹⁵he who fashions the hearts of them all
    and observes all their deeds.
¹⁶The king is not saved by his great army;
    a warrior is not delivered by his great strength.
¹⁷The war horse is a false hope for salvation,
    and by its great might it cannot rescue.
¹⁸Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear him,
    on those who hope in his steadfast love,
¹⁹that he may deliver their soul from death
    and keep them alive in famine.
²⁰Our soul waits for the Lord;
    he is our help and our shield.
²¹For our heart is glad in him,
    because we trust in his holy name.
²²Let your steadfast love, O Lord, be upon us,
    even as we hope in you.

Psalm 107:33-43

³³He turns rivers into a desert,
    springs of water into thirsty ground,
³⁴a fruitful land into a salty waste,
    because of the evil of its inhabitants.
³⁵He turns a desert into pools of water,
    a parched land into springs of water.
³⁶And there he lets the hungry dwell,
    and they establish a city to live in;
³⁷they sow fields and plant vineyards
    and get a fruitful yield.
³⁸By his blessing they multiply greatly,
    and he does not let their livestock diminish.
³⁹When they are diminished and brought low
    through oppression, evil, and sorrow,
⁴⁰he pours contempt on princes
    and makes them wander in trackless wastes;
⁴¹but he raises up the needy out of affliction
    and makes their families like flocks.
⁴²The upright see it and are glad,
    and all wickedness shuts its mouth.
⁴³Whoever is wise, let him attend to these things;
    let them consider the steadfast love of the Lord.

Psalm 108

¹ My heart is steadfast, O God!
    I will sing and make melody with all my being!
²Awake, O harp and lyre!
    I will awake the dawn!
³I will give thanks to you, O Lord, among the peoples;
    I will sing praises to you among the nations.
⁴For your steadfast love is great above the heavens;
    your faithfulness reaches to the clouds.
⁵Be exalted, O God, above the heavens!
    Let your glory be over all the earth!
⁶That your beloved ones may be delivered,
    give salvation by your right hand and answer me!
⁷God has promised in his holiness:
    “With exultation I will divide up Shechem
    and portion out the Valley of Succoth.
⁸Gilead is mine; Manasseh is mine;
    Ephraim is my helmet,
    Judah my scepter.
⁹Moab is my washbasin;
    upon Edom I cast my shoe;
    over Philistia I shout in triumph.”
¹⁰Who will bring me to the fortified city?
    Who will lead me to Edom?
¹¹Have you not rejected us, O God?
    You do not go out, O God, with our armies.
¹²Oh grant us help against the foe,
    for vain is the salvation of man!
¹³With God we shall do valiantly;
    it is he who will tread down our foes.

Judges 16:1-14

¹ Samson went to Gaza, and there he saw a prostitute, and he went in to her. ²The Gazites were told, “Samson has come here.” And they surrounded the place and set an ambush for him all night at the gate of the city. They kept quiet all night, saying, “Let us wait till the light of the morning; then we will kill him.” ³But Samson lay till midnight, and at midnight he arose and took hold of the doors of the gate of the city and the two posts, and pulled them up, bar and all, and put them on his shoulders and carried them to the top of the hill that is in front of Hebron. ⁴After this he loved a woman in the Valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah. ⁵And the lords of the Philistines came up to her and said to her, “Seduce him, and see where his great strength lies, and by what means we may overpower him, that we may bind him to humble him. And we will each give you 1,100 pieces of silver.” ⁶So Delilah said to Samson, “Please tell me where your great strength lies, and how you might be bound, that one could subdue you.” ⁷Samson said to her, “If they bind me with seven fresh bowstrings that have not been dried, then I shall become weak and be like any other man.” ⁸Then the lords of the Philistines brought up to her seven fresh bowstrings that had not been dried, and she bound him with them. ⁹Now she had men lying in ambush in an inner chamber. And she said to him, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” But he snapped the bowstrings, as a thread of flax snaps when it touches the fire. So the secret of his strength was not known. ¹⁰Then Delilah said to Samson, “Behold, you have mocked me and told me lies. Please tell me how you might be bound.” ¹¹And he said to her, “If they bind me with new ropes that have not been used, then I shall become weak and be like any other man.” ¹²So Delilah took new ropes and bound him with them and said to him, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” And the men lying in ambush were in an inner chamber. But he snapped the ropes off his arms like a thread. ¹³Then Delilah said to Samson, “Until now you have mocked me and told me lies. Tell me how you might be bound.” And he said to her, “If you weave the seven locks of my head with the web and fasten it tight with the pin, then I shall become weak and be like any other man.” ¹⁴So while he slept, Delilah took the seven locks of his head and wove them into the web. And she made them tight with the pin and said to him, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” But he awoke from his sleep and pulled away the pin, the loom, and the web.

Acts 7:30-43

³⁰“Now when forty years had passed, an angel appeared to him in the wilderness of Mount Sinai, in a flame of fire in a bush. ³¹When Moses saw it, he was amazed at the sight, and as he drew near to look, there came the voice of the Lord: ³²‘I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob.’ And Moses trembled and did not dare to look. ³³Then the Lord said to him, ‘Take off the sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy ground. ³⁴I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt, and have heard their groaning, and I have come down to deliver them. And now come, I will send you to Egypt.’ ³⁵“This Moses, whom they rejected, saying, ‘Who made you a ruler and a judge?’—this man God sent as both ruler and redeemer by the hand of the angel who appeared to him in the bush. ³⁶This man led them out, performing wonders and signs in Egypt and at the Red Sea and in the wilderness for forty years. ³⁷This is the Moses who said to the Israelites, ‘God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers.’ ³⁸This is the one who was in the congregation in the wilderness with the angel who spoke to him at Mount Sinai, and with our fathers. He received living oracles to give to us. ³⁹Our fathers refused to obey him, but thrust him aside, and in their hearts they turned to Egypt, ⁴⁰saying to Aaron, ‘Make for us gods who will go before us. As for this Moses who led us out from the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.’ ⁴¹And they made a calf in those days, and offered a sacrifice to the idol and were rejoicing in the works of their hands. ⁴²But God turned away and gave them over to worship the host of heaven, as it is written in the book of the prophets:
    “‘Did you bring to me slain beasts and sacrifices,
    during the forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel?
⁴³You took up the tent of Moloch
    and the star of your god Rephan,
    the images that you made to worship;
    and I will send you into exile beyond Babylon.’

John 5:1-18

¹ After this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. ²Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, in Aramaic called Bethesda, which has five roofed colonnades. ³In these lay a multitude of invalids—blind, lame, and paralyzed. ⁵One man was there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. ⁶When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be healed?” ⁷The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, and while I am going another steps down before me.” ⁸Jesus said to him, “Get up, take up your bed, and walk.” ⁹And at once the man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked. Now that day was the Sabbath. ¹⁰So the Jews said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath, and it is not lawful for you to take up your bed.” ¹¹But he answered them, “The man who healed me, that man said to me, ‘Take up your bed, and walk.’” ¹²They asked him, “Who is the man who said to you, ‘Take up your bed and walk’?” ¹³Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn, as there was a crowd in the place. ¹⁴Afterward Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, “See, you are well! Sin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you.” ¹⁵The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him. ¹⁶And this was why the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because he was doing these things on the Sabbath. ¹⁷But Jesus answered them, “My Father is working until now, and I am working.” ¹⁸This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.