Psalm 145

1  I will extol you, my God and King,
    and bless your name forever and ever.
2  Every day I will bless you,
    and praise your name forever and ever.
3  Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised;
    his greatness is unsearchable.
4  One generation shall laud your works to another,
    and shall declare your mighty acts.
5  On the glorious splendor of your majesty,
    and on your wondrous works, I will meditate.
6  The might of your awesome deeds shall be proclaimed,
    and I will declare your greatness.
7  They shall celebrate the fame of your abundant goodness,
    and shall sing aloud of your righteousness.
8  The LORD is gracious and merciful,
    slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
9  The LORD is good to all,
    and his compassion is over all that he has made.
10  All your works shall give thanks to you, O LORD,
    and all your faithful shall bless you.
11  They shall speak of the glory of your kingdom,
    and tell of your power,
12  to make known to all people your [a]  mighty deeds,
    and the glorious splendor of your [b]  kingdom.

13  Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom,
    and your dominion endures throughout all generations.
The LORD is faithful in all his words,
    and gracious in all his deeds. [c]
14  The LORD upholds all who are falling,
    and raises up all who are bowed down.
15  The eyes of all look to you,
    and you give them their food in due season.
16  You open your hand,
    satisfying the desire of every living thing.
17  The LORD is just in all his ways,
    and kind in all his doings.
18  The LORD is near to all who call on him,
    to all who call on him in truth.
19  He fulfills the desire of all who fear him;
    he also hears their cry, and saves them.
20  The LORD watches over all who love him,
    but all the wicked he will destroy.
21  My mouth will speak the praise of the LORD,
    and all flesh will bless his holy name forever and ever.

2 Samuel 11:1-15

11 In the spring of the year, the time when kings go out to battle, David
sent Joab with his officers and all Israel with him; they ravaged the
Ammonites, and besieged Rabbah. But David remained at Jerusalem.
2  It happened, late one afternoon, when David rose from his couch and
was walking about on the roof of the king’s house, that he saw from the
roof a woman bathing; the woman was very beautiful.  3  David sent
someone to inquire about the woman. It was reported, “This is
Bathsheba daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite.”  4  So David
sent messengers to get her, and she came to him, and he lay with her.
(Now she was purifying herself after her period.) Then she returned to
her house.  5  The woman conceived; and she sent and told David, “I am
pregnant.”
6  So David sent word to Joab, “Send me Uriah the Hittite.” And Joab sent
Uriah to David.  7  When Uriah came to him, David asked how Joab and
the people fared, and how the war was going.  8  Then David said to
Uriah, “Go down to your house, and wash your feet.” Uriah went out of
the king’s house, and there followed him a present from the king.  9  But
Uriah slept at the entrance of the king’s house with all the servants of
his lord, and did not go down to his house.  10  When they told David,
“Uriah did not go down to his house,” David said to Uriah, “You have
just come from a journey. Why did you not go down to your
house?”  11  Uriah said to David, “The ark and Israel and Judah remain in
booths; [a]  and my lord Joab and the servants of my lord are camping in
the open field; shall I then go to my house, to eat and to drink, and to
lie with my wife? As you live, and as your soul lives, I will not do such a

thing.”  12  Then David said to Uriah, “Remain here today also, and
tomorrow I will send you back.” So Uriah remained in Jerusalem that
day. On the next day,  13  David invited him to eat and drink in his
presence and made him drunk; and in the evening he went out to lie on
his couch with the servants of his lord, but he did not go down to his
house.
14  In the morning David wrote a letter to Joab, and sent it by the hand of
Uriah.  15  In the letter he wrote, “Set Uriah in the forefront of the hardest
fighting, and then draw back from him, so that he may be struck down
and die.”

Ephesians 3:14-21

14  For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, [a]   15  from whom
every family [b]  in heaven and on earth takes its name.  16  I pray that,
according to the riches of his glory, he may grant that you may be
strengthened in your inner being with power through his Spirit,  17  and
that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being
rooted and grounded in love.  18  I pray that you may have the power to
comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and
height and depth,  19  and to know the love of Christ that surpasses
knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
20  Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish
abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine,  21  to him be glory in
the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever.
Amen.