Psalm 67

Your Kingdom Come

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For the choir director. With stringed instruments. A psalm. A song.

The Prayer

No Greater Love—in Good Fruit

15 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener.^{[a] 2} Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he is going to cut off. And he prunes every branch that does bear fruit, so that it will bear more fruit.

³ “You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. ⁴ Remain in me, and I am going to remain in you. A branch cannot bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Likewise, you cannot bear fruit unless you remain in me.

⁵ “I am the Vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in me and I in him is the one who bears much fruit, because without me you can do nothing. ⁶ If anyone does not remain in me, he is thrown away like a branch and withers. Such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. ⁷ If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. ⁸ My Father is glorified by this: that you continue to bear much fruit and prove to be^[b] my disciples.

Philip and the Ethiopian Eunuch

²⁶ Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Get up and go south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” (This is an isolated area.) ²⁷ So he got up and went. And there was a man, an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official of Candace, Queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of all her treasury. He had come to Jerusalem to worship. ²⁸ He was on his way home, sitting in his chariot and reading the prophet Isaiah.

²⁹ The Spirit told Philip, “Go over there and stay close to that chariot.” ³⁰ Philip ran up to it and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet.

Philip asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?”

³¹ The man replied, “How can I unless someone explains it to me?” And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him.

³² Now the passage of Scripture the eunuch was reading was this:

³⁴ The eunuch said to Philip, “I ask you, who is the prophet talking about—himself or someone else?” ³⁵ Then Philip began to speak. Starting with that very passage of Scripture, he told him the good news about Jesus. ³⁶ As they were traveling along the road, they came to some water, and the eunuch said, “Look, here is water. What is there to prevent me from being baptized?”^[c]

³⁸ He ordered the chariot to stop. Then both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water, and Philip baptized him. ³⁹ When they stepped up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord carried Philip away. The eunuch did not see him anymore, but went on his way rejoicing.

⁴⁰ Philip, however, found himself at Azotus. And as he went from place to place, he preached the gospel in all the towns until he came to Caesarea.

¹⁸ Dear children, let us love not only with word or with our tongue, but also in action and truth.

¹⁹ This is how we know that we are of the truth and how we will set our hearts at rest in his presence: ²⁰ If our hearts condemn us, God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. ²¹ Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God. ²² We also receive from him whatever we ask, because we keep his commands and do what is pleasing in his sight. ²³ This then is his command: that we believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and that we love one another just as he commanded us. ²⁴ The one who keeps his commands remains in God^[a] and God^[b] in him. This is how we know that he remains in us: We know it from the Spirit, whom he has given to us.