Psalm 64    Exaudi, Deus

Isaiah 38:10-14,17-20

I said: In the noontide of my days
   I must depart;
I am consigned to the gates of Sheol
   for the rest of my years.
I said, I shall not see the Lord
   in the land of the living;
I shall look upon mortals no more
   among the inhabitants of the world.
My dwelling is plucked up and removed from me
   like a shepherd’s tent;
like a weaver I have rolled up my life;
   he cuts me off from the loom;
from day to night you bring me to an end;
   I cry for help until morning;
like a lion he breaks all my bones;
   from day to night you bring me to an end.

Like a swallow or a crane I clamour,
   I moan like a dove.
My eyes are weary with looking upwards.
   O Lord, I am oppressed; be my security!
Surely it was for my welfare
   that I had great bitterness;
but you have held back my life
   from the pit of destruction,
for you have cast all my sins
   behind your back.
For Sheol cannot thank you,
   death cannot praise you;
those who go down to the Pit cannot hope
   for your faithfulness.
The living, the living, they thank you,
   as I do this day;
fathers make known to children
   your faithfulness.

The Lord will save me,
   and we will sing to stringed instruments
all the days of our lives,
   at the house of the Lord.

Psalm 150    Laudate Domi

Job 19:21-27a

Have pity on me, have pity on me, O you my friends,
   for the hand of God has touched me!
Why do you, like God, pursue me,
   never satisfied with my flesh?

‘O that my words were written down!
   O that they were inscribed in a book!
O that with an iron pen and with lead
   they were engraved on a rock for ever!
For I know that my Redeemer lives,
   and that at the last he will stand upon the earth;
and after my skin has been thus destroyed,
   then in my flesh I shall see God,
whom I shall see on my side,
   and my eyes shall behold, and not another.
   My heart faints within me!

Heb. 4:1-16

Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest is still open, let us take care that none of you should seem to have failed to reach it. For indeed the good news came to us just as to them; but the message they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened. For we who have believed enter that rest, just as God has said,
‘As in my anger I swore,
“They shall not enter my rest” ’,
though his works were finished at the foundation of the world. For in one place it speaks about the seventh day as follows: ‘And God rested on the seventh day from all his works.’ And again in this place it says, ‘They shall not enter my rest.’ Since therefore it remains open for some to enter it, and those who formerly received the good news failed to enter because of disobedience, again he sets a certain day—‘today’—saying through David much later, in the words already quoted,
‘Today, if you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts.’
For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not speak later about another day. So then, a sabbath rest still remains for the people of God; for those who enter God’s rest also cease from their labours as God did from his. Let us therefore make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one may fall through such disobedience as theirs.

 Indeed, the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing until it divides soul from spirit, joints from marrow; it is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And before him no creature is hidden, but all are naked and laid bare to the eyes of the one to whom we must render an account.

 Since, then, we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast to our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.