3Set a guard, O Lord, over my mouth;

Keep watch over the door of my lips.

4Do not incline my heart to any evil thing,

To practice deeds of wickedness

With men who do iniquity;

And do not let me eat of their delicacies.

13All these died in faith, without receiving the promises, but having seen them and having welcomed them from a distance, and having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. 14For those who say such things make it clear that they are seeking a country of their own. 15And indeed if they had been thinking of that country from which they went out, they would have had opportunity to return. 16But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; for He has prepared a city for them.

1) How does the sounding of trumpets call believers to remembrance and readiness?

2) Why must worship begin with purity of heart and speech?

3) How does longing for a heavenly homeland shape earthly obedience?

PSALM 36

Wickedness of Men and Lovingkindness of God.

For the choir director. A Psalm of David the servant of the Lord.

1Transgression speaks to the ungodly within his heart;

There is no fear of God before his eyes.

2For it flatters him in his own eyes

Concerning the discovery of his iniquity and the hatred of it.

3The words of his mouth are wickedness and deceit;

He has ceased to be wise and to do good.

4He plans wickedness upon his bed;

He sets himself on a path that is not good;

He does not despise evil.

5Your lovingkindness, O Lord, extends to the heavens,

Your faithfulness reaches to the skies.

6Your righteousness is like the mountains of God;

Your judgments are like a great deep.

O Lord, You preserve man and beast.

7How precious is Your lovingkindness, O God!

And the children of men take refuge in the shadow of Your wings.

8They drink their fill of the abundance of Your house;

And You give them to drink of the river of Your delights.

9For with You is the fountain of life;

In Your light we see light.

10O continue Your lovingkindness to those who know You,

And Your righteousness to the upright in heart.

11Let not the foot of pride come upon me,

And let not the hand of the wicked drive me away.

12There the doers of iniquity have fallen;

They have been thrust down and cannot rise.

Jonah’s Prayer

1Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the stomach of the fish, 2and he said,

“I called out of my distress to the Lord,

And He answered me.

I cried for help from the depth of Sheol;

You heard my voice.

3For You had cast me into the deep,

Into the heart of the seas,

And the current engulfed me.

All Your breakers and billows passed over me.

4So I said, ‘I have been expelled from Your sight.

Nevertheless I will look again toward Your holy temple.’

5Water encompassed me to the point of death.

The great deep engulfed me,

Weeds were wrapped around my head.

6I descended to the roots of the mountains.

The earth with its bars was around me forever,

But You have brought up my life from the pit, O Lord my God.

7While I was fainting away,

I remembered the Lord,

And my prayer came to You,

Into Your holy temple.

8Those who regard vain idols

Forsake their faithfulness,

9But I will sacrifice to You

With the voice of thanksgiving.

That which I have vowed I will pay.

Salvation is from the Lord.”

10Then the Lord commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah up onto the dry land.