Psalm 42; Psalm 43; Jeremiah 3:19–25; John 9:1–23

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Psalm 42

Book Two

Why Are You Cast Down, O My Soul?

To the choirmaster. A Maskil1 of sthe Sons of Korah.

tAs a deer pants for flowing streams,

so pants my soul for you, O God.

uMy soul thirsts for God,

for vthe living God.

When shall I come and wappear before God?2

xMy tears have been my food

day and night,

ywhile they say to me all the day long,

Where is your God?

These things I remember,

as I zpour out my soul:

ahow I would go bwith the throng

and lead them in procession to the house of God

with glad shouts and songs of praise,

ca multitude keeping festival.

dWhy are you cast down, O my soul,

and why are you ein turmoil within me?

fHope in God; for I shall again praise him,

my salvation3 and my God.

My soul is cast down within me;

therefore I gremember you

hfrom the land of Jordan and of iHermon,

from Mount Mizar.

Deep calls to deep

at the roar of your waterfalls;

jall your breakers and your kwaves

have gone over me.

By day the Lord lcommands his steadfast love,

and at mnight his song is with me,

a prayer to the God of my life.

I say to God, nmy rock:

Why have you forgotten me?

oWhy do I go mourning

because of the oppression of the enemy?

10  As with a deadly wound in my bones,

my adversaries taunt me,

pwhile they say to me all the day long,

Where is your God?

11  qWhy are you cast down, O my soul,

and why are you in turmoil within me?

Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,

my salvation and my God.


Psalm 43

Send Out Your Light and Your Truth

rVindicate me, O God, and sdefend my cause

against an ungodly people,

from tthe deceitful and unjust man

deliver me!

For you are uthe God in whom I take refuge;

why have you vrejected me?

Why do I wgo about mourning

because of the oppression of the enemy?

xSend out your light and your truth;

let them lead me;

let them bring me to your yholy hill

and to your zdwelling!

Then I will go to the altar of God,

to God my exceeding joy,

and I will praise you with the lyre,

O God, my God.

aWhy are you cast down, O my soul,

and why are you in turmoil within me?

bHope in God; for I shall again praise him,

my salvation and my God.


Jeremiah 3:19–25

19  I said,

How I would set you among my sons,

and give you a pleasant land,

a heritage most beautiful of all nations.

And I thought you would ncall me, My Father,

and would not turn from following me.

20  oSurely, as a treacherous wife leaves her husband,

so have you been treacherous to me, O house of Israel,

declares the Lord.

21  A voice on the pbare heights is heard,

qthe weeping and pleading of Israel’s sons

because they have perverted their way;

they have forgotten the Lord their God.

22  rReturn, O faithless sons;

sI will heal your faithlessness.

Behold, we come to you,

for you are the Lord our God.

23  Truly tthe hills are a delusion,

the orgies1 on the mountains.

uTruly in the Lord our God

is the salvation of Israel.

24 But from our youth the shameful thing has devoured all for which our fathers labored, their flocks and their herds, their sons and their daughters. 25 vLet us lie down in our shame, and let our dishonor cover us. For wwe have sinned against the Lord our God, we and our fathers, from our youth even to this day, and we have not obeyed the voice of the Lord our God.


John 9:1–23

Jesus Heals a Man Born Blind

As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. And his disciples asked him, cRabbi, dwho sinned, ethis man or fhis parents, that he was born blind? Jesus answered, It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but gthat the works of God might be displayed in him. We must hwork the works of him who sent me iwhile it is day; night is coming, when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, jI am the light of the world. Having said these things, khe spit on the ground and made mud with the saliva. lThen he anointed the man’s eyes with the mud and said to him, Go, wash in mthe pool of Siloam (which means Sent). So he went and washed and ncame back seeing.

The neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar were saying, oIs this not the man who used to sit and beg? Some said, It is he. Others said, No, but he is like him. He kept saying, I am the man. 10 So they said to him, Then how were your eyes opened? 11 He answered, pThe man called Jesus made mud and anointed my eyes and said to me, Go to Siloam and wash. So I went and washed and received my sight. 12 They said to him, Where is he? He said, I do not know.

13 They brought to the Pharisees the man who had formerly been blind. 14 qNow it was a Sabbath day when Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes. 15 rSo the Pharisees again asked him how he had received his sight. And he said to them, He put mud on my eyes, and I washed, and I see. 16 Some of the Pharisees said, This man is not sfrom God, tfor he does not keep the Sabbath. But others said, uHow can a man who is a sinner do such signs? And vthere was a division among them. 17 So they said again to the blind man, What do you say about him, since he has opened your eyes? He said, wHe is a prophet.

18 xThe Jews1 did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight, until they called the parents of the man who had received his sight 19 and asked them, Is this your son, who you say was born blind? How then does he now see? 20 His parents answered, We know that this is our son and that he was born blind. 21 But how he now sees we do not know, nor do we know who opened his eyes. Ask him; he is of age. He will speak for himself. 22 (His parents said these things ybecause they feared the Jews, for zthe Jews had already agreed that if anyone should aconfess Jesus2 to be Christ, bhe was to be put out of the synagogue.) 23 Therefore his parents said, cHe is of age; ask him.