Psalm 18:1–22

¹I love you,
O Lord, my strength.
²The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer,
my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge,
my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.
³I call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised,
and I am saved from my enemies.
⁴The cords of death encompassed me;
the torrents of destruction assailed me;
⁵the cords of Sheol entangled me;
the snares of death confronted me.
⁶In my distress I called upon the Lord;
to my God I cried for help.
From his temple he heard my voice,
and my cry to him reached his ears.
⁷Then the earth reeled and rocked;
the foundations also of the mountains trembled
and quaked, because he was angry.
⁸Smoke went up from his nostrils,
and devouring fire from his mouth;
glowing coals flamed forth from him.
⁹He bowed the heavens and came down;
thick darkness was under his feet.
¹⁰He rode on a cherub and flew;
he came swiftly on the wings of the wind.
¹¹He made darkness his covering, his canopy around him,
thick clouds dark with water.
¹²Out of the brightness before him
hailstones and coals of fire broke through his clouds.
¹³The Lord also thundered in the heavens,
and the Most High uttered his voice,
hailstones and coals of fire.
¹⁴And he sent out his arrows and scattered them;
he flashed forth lightnings and routed them.
¹⁵Then the channels of the sea were seen,
and the foundations of the world were laid bare
at your rebuke, O Lord,
at the blast of the breath of your nostrils.
¹⁶He sent from on high, he took me;
he drew me out of many waters.
¹⁷He rescued me from my strong enemy
and from those who hated me,
for they were too mighty for me.
¹⁸They confronted me in the day of my calamity,
but the Lord was my support.
¹⁹He brought me out into a broad place;
he rescued me, because he delighted in me.
²⁰The Lord dealt with me according to my righteousness;
according to the cleanness of my hands he rewarded me.
²¹For I have kept the ways of the Lord,
and have not wickedly departed from my God.
²²For all his just decrees were before me,
and his statutes I did not put away from me.

Old Testament Reading Deuteronomy 18

¹“The Levitical priests, all the tribe of Levi, shall have no portion or inheritance with Israel. They shall eat the Lord’s food offerings as their inheritance. ²They shall have no inheritance among their brothers; the Lord is their inheritance, as he promised them. ³And this shall be the priests’ due from the people, from those offering a sacrifice, whether an ox or a sheep: they shall give to the priest the shoulder and the two cheeks and the stomach. ⁴The firstfruits of your grain, of your wine and of your oil, and the first fleece of your sheep, you shall give him. ⁵For the Lord your God has chosen him out of all your tribes to stand and minister in the name of the Lord, him and his sons for all time.

⁶“And if a Levite comes from any of your towns out of all Israel, where he lives—and he may come when he desires—to the place that the Lord will choose, ⁷and ministers in the name of the Lord his God, like all his fellow Levites who stand to minister there before the Lord, ⁸then he may have equal portions to eat, besides what he receives from the sale of his patrimony.

⁹“When you come into the land that the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the abominable practices of those nations. ¹⁰There shall not be found among you anyone who burns his son or his daughter as an offering, anyone who practices divination or tells fortunes or interprets omens, or a sorcerer ¹¹or a charmer or a medium or a wizard or a necromancer, ¹²for whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord. And because of these abominations the Lord your God is driving them out before you. ¹³You shall be blameless before the Lord your God, ¹⁴for these nations, which you are about to dispossess, listen to fortune-tellers and to diviners. But as for you, the Lord your God has not allowed you to do this.

¹⁵“The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers—it is to him you shall listen— ¹⁶just as you desired of the Lord your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly, when you said, ‘Let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God or see this great fire any more, lest I die.’ ¹⁷And the Lord said to me, ‘They are right in what they have spoken. ¹⁸I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. And I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him. ¹⁹And whoever will not listen to my words that he shall speak in my name, I myself will require it of him. ²⁰But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in my name that I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that same prophet shall die.’ ²¹And if you say in your heart, ‘How may we know the word that the Lord has not spoken?’— ²²when a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the word does not come to pass or come true, that is a word that the Lord has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You need not be afraid of him.”

New Testament Reading Matthew 14:22–36

²²Immediately [Jesus] made the disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds. ²³And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone, ²⁴but the boat by this time was a long way from the land, beaten by the waves, for the wind was against them. ²⁵And in the fourth watch of the night he came to them, walking on the sea. ²⁶But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified, and said, “It is a ghost!” and they cried out in fear. ²⁷But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, “Take heart; it is I. Do not be afraid.”

²⁸And Peter answered him, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.” ²⁹He said, “Come.” So Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water and came to Jesus. ³⁰But when he saw the wind, he was afraid, and beginning to sink he cried out, “Lord, save me.” ³¹Jesus immediately reached out his hand and took hold of him, saying to him, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” ³²And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased. ³³And those in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.”

³⁴And when they had crossed over, they came to land at Gennesaret. ³⁵And when the men of that place recognized him, they sent around to all that region and brought to him all who were sick ³⁶and implored him that they might only touch the fringe of his garment. And as many as touched it were made well.