Psalm 17:6–15

⁶I call upon you, for you will answer me, O God;
incline your ear to me; hear my words.
⁷Wondrously show your steadfast love,
O Savior of those who seek refuge
from their adversaries at your right hand.
⁸Keep me as the apple of your eye;
hide me in the shadow of your wings,
⁹from the wicked who do me violence,
my deadly enemies who surround me.
¹⁰They close their hearts to pity;
with their mouths they speak arrogantly.
¹¹They have now surrounded our steps;
they set their eyes to cast us to the ground.
¹²He is like a lion eager to tear,
as a young lion lurking in ambush.
¹³Arise, O Lord!
Confront him, subdue him!
Deliver my soul from the wicked by your sword,
¹⁴from men by your hand, O Lord,
from men of the world whose portion is in this life.
You fill their womb with treasure;
they are satisfied with children,
and they leave their abundance to their infants.
¹⁵As for me, I shall behold your face in righteousness;
when I awake, I shall be satisfied with your likeness.

Old Testament Reading Isaiah 26:1–19

¹In that day this song will be sung in the land of Judah:

“We have a strong city;
he sets up salvation
as walls and bulwarks.
²Open the gates,
that the righteous nation that keeps faith may enter in.
³You keep him in perfect peace
whose mind is stayed on you,
because he trusts in you.
⁴Trust in the Lord forever,
for the Lord God is an everlasting rock.
⁵For he has humbled
the inhabitants of the height,
the lofty city.
He lays it low, lays it low to the ground,
casts it to the dust.
⁶The foot tramples it,
the feet of the poor,
the steps of the needy.”
⁷The path of the righteous is level;
you make level the way of the righteous.
⁸In the path of your judgments,
O Lord, we wait for you;
your name and remembrance
are the desire of our soul.
⁹My soul yearns for you in the night;
my spirit within me earnestly seeks you.
For when your judgments are in the earth,
the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness.
¹⁰If favor is shown to the wicked,
he does not learn righteousness;
in the land of uprightness he deals corruptly
and does not see the majesty of the Lord.
¹¹O Lord, your hand is lifted up,
but they do not see it.
Let them see your zeal for your people, and be ashamed.
Let the fire for your adversaries consume them.
¹²O Lord, you will ordain peace for us;
you have done for us all our works.
¹³O Lord our God,
other lords besides you have ruled over us,
but your name alone we bring to remembrance.
¹⁴They are dead, they will not live;
they are shades, they will not arise;
to that end you have visited them with destruction
and wiped out all remembrance of them.
¹⁵But you have increased the nation, O Lord,
you have increased the nation; you are glorified;
you have enlarged all the borders of the land.
¹⁶O Lord, in distress they sought you;
they poured out a whispered prayer
when your discipline was upon them.
¹⁷Like a pregnant woman
who writhes and cries out in her pangs
when she is near to giving birth,
so were we because of you, O Lord;
¹⁸we were pregnant, we writhed,
but we have given birth to wind.
We have accomplished no deliverance in the earth,
and the inhabitants of the world have not fallen.
¹⁹Your dead shall live; their bodies shall rise.
You who dwell in the dust, awake and sing for joy!
For your dew is a dew of light,
and the earth will give birth to the dead.”

New Testament Reading 1 John 3

¹See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. ²Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. ³And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.

⁴Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. ⁵You know that he appeared to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. ⁶No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him. ⁷Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous. ⁸Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. ⁹No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God. ¹⁰By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother.

¹¹For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. ¹²We should not be like Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil and his brother’s righteous. ¹³Do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you. ¹⁴We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death. ¹⁵Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.

¹⁶By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. ¹⁷But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? ¹⁸Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.

¹⁹By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him; ²⁰for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything. ²¹Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; ²²and whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him. ²³And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us. ²⁴Whoever keeps his commandments abides in him, and he in them. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us.