Sermon for March 3rd, 2013

Matthew 22:34-40

34 When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, 35and one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. 36‘Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?’ 37He said to him, ‘ “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.” 38This is the greatest and first commandment. 39And a second is like it: “You shall love your neighbour as yourself.” 40On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.’

Psalm 63

A Psalm of David, when he was in the Wilderness of Judah. 1 O God, you are my God, I seek you,

  my soul thirsts for you;

my flesh faints for you,

  as in a dry and weary land where there is no water. 

2 So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary,

  beholding your power and glory. 

3 Because your steadfast love is better than life,

  my lips will praise you. 

4 So I will bless you as long as I live;

  I will lift up my hands and call on your name. 

5 My soul is satisfied as with a rich feast,

  and my mouth praises you with joyful lips 

6 when I think of you on my bed,

  and meditate on you in the watches of the night; 

7 for you have been my help,

  and in the shadow of your wings I sing for joy. 

8 My soul clings to you;

  your right hand upholds me. 

9 But those who seek to destroy my life

  shall go down into the depths of the earth; 

10 they shall be given over to the power of the sword,

  they shall be prey for jackals. 

11 But the king shall rejoice in God;

  all who swear by him shall exult,
  for the mouths of liars will be stopped.