How good it is to sing praises to our God,
    how pleasant and fitting to praise him!

² The Lord builds up Jerusalem;
    he gathers the exiles of Israel.
³ He heals the brokenhearted
    and binds up their wounds.
⁴ He determines the number of the stars
    and calls them each by name.
⁵ Great is our Lord and mighty in power;
    his understanding has no limit.
⁶ The Lord sustains the humble
    but casts the wicked to the ground.

⁷ Sing to the Lord with grateful praise;
    make music to our God on the harp.

⁸ He covers the sky with clouds;
    he supplies the earth with rain
    and makes grass grow on the hills.
⁹ He provides food for the cattle
    and for the young ravens when they call.

¹⁰ His pleasure is not in the strength of the horse,
    nor his delight in the legs of the warrior;
¹¹ the Lord delights in those who fear him,
    who put their hope in his unfailing love.

¹² Extol the Lord, Jerusalem;
    praise your God, Zion.

¹³ He strengthens the bars of your gates
    and blesses your people within you.
¹⁴ He grants peace to your borders
    and satisfies you with the finest of wheat.

¹⁵ He sends his command to the earth;
    his word runs swiftly.
¹⁶ He spreads the snow like wool
    and scatters the frost like ashes.
¹⁷ He hurls down his hail like pebbles.
    Who can withstand his icy blast?
¹⁸ He sends his word and melts them;
    he stirs up his breezes, and the waters flow.

¹⁹ He has revealed his word to Jacob,
    his laws and decrees to Israel.
²⁰ He has done this for no other nation;
    they do not know his laws.

Praise the Lord.

John 7:37-52

³⁷ On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. ³⁸ Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” ³⁹ By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.

⁴⁰ On hearing his words, some of the people said, “Surely this man is the Prophet.”

⁴¹ Others said, “He is the Messiah.”

Still others asked, “How can the Messiah come from Galilee? ⁴² Does not Scripture say that the Messiah will come from David’s descendants and from Bethlehem, the town where David lived?” ⁴³ Thus the people were divided because of Jesus. ⁴⁴ Some wanted to seize him, but no one laid a hand on him.

Unbelief of the Jewish Leaders

⁴⁵ Finally the temple guards went back to the chief priests and the Pharisees, who asked them, “Why didn’t you bring him in?”

⁴⁶ “No one ever spoke the way this man does,” the guards replied.

⁴⁷ “You mean he has deceived you also?” the Pharisees retorted. ⁴⁸ “Have any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed in him? ⁴⁹ No! But this mob that knows nothing of the law—there is a curse on them.”

⁵⁰ Nicodemus, who had gone to Jesus earlier and who was one of their own number, asked, ⁵¹ “Does our law condemn a man without first hearing him to find out what he has been doing?”

⁵² They replied, “Are you from Galilee, too? Look into it, and you will find that a prophet does not come out of Galilee.”