Psalm 30
{1} I will extol you, O LORD, for you have drawn me up, and did not let my foes rejoice over me. {2} O LORD my God, I cried to you for help, and you have healed me. {3} O LORD, you brought up my soul from Sheol, restored me to life from among those gone down to the Pit. {4} Sing praises to the LORD, O you his faithful ones, and give thanks to his holy name. {5} For his anger is but for a moment; his favor is for a lifetime. Weeping may linger for the night, but joy comes with the morning. {6} As for me, I said in my prosperity, "I shall never be moved." {7} By your favor, O LORD, you had established me as a strong mountain; you hid your face; I was dismayed. {8} To you, O LORD, I cried, and to the LORD I made supplication: {9} "What profit is there in my death, if I go down to the Pit? Will the dust praise you? Will it tell of your faithfulness? {10} Hear, O LORD, and be gracious to me! O LORD, be my helper!" {11} You have turned my mourning into dancing; you have taken off my sackcloth and clothed me with joy, {12} so that my soul may praise you and not be silent. O LORD my God, I will give thanks to you forever.

     Psalm 30 is a song of thanksgiving of an individual. The title calls it "A Song at the dedication of the temple, which indicates that it was attached to the festival of Hanukkah.
1: The singer declares his/her intention to praise Yahweh for his intervention in the singers misfortunes; his/her enemies have not rejoiced over him/her.
3. soul: The word is nephesh, the breath that sustains life. Here, by synecdoche, it encompasses life itself.
Sheol: The place of the dead. A "soulless, shadowy existence which is far, far removed from God." [3]
the Pit: "[bor] is a figurative expression that allows the concepts of grave and [sheol] to coincide." [4]
4: The exhortation to the "saints" to sing praises to Yahweh refers to the setting of the Psalm in the Temple where other worshippers witnessed the performance of the thanksgiving song (perhaps with more explicit details of both the singer’s situation and Yahweh’s help) and then joined in praising God for his help.
5: Time is relative to the activity which fills it. "Once Yahweh has granted help, the time in which God was angry, in which he ‘hid his face’ (v. 7) and let the psalmist suffer in the ‘realm of death,’ shrinks down to a brief moment (rg'), whereas the extension of grace fills and determines the duration of a lifetime (cf. Isa. 54:7-8)…. Distress and weeping turn out to be events of yesterday, of the past. With the new morning, the point in time of Yahweh’s intervention (cf. Ps. 46:5; 90:14; 143:8), jubilation breaks out as the spirit that determines the meaning of life henceforth. A person’s relation to time is in the OT definitely determined by his nearness to God (Ps. 84:10)." [5]
6-8.I shall never be moved: The singer describes his/her confidence, because of Yahweh’s favor, and his/her dismay when Yahweh "hid his face," withdrew that favor. Complacency belongs to the fool (Proverbs 1:32). Though the singer had apparently done nothing wrong, Yahweh still withheld his support.
9. What profit…tell of your faithfulness?: "This unique motive for intervening presented to God in the plea reveals the psalmist’s understanding of his life. The purpose of his existence is the praise of God. The only reason advanced for Yahweh’s rescue…is that this praise should not be extinguished." [6]
12: The praise which would have been lost is now expressed, and the singer vows ongoing thanksgiving.

Revelation 5:11-14
{11} Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels surrounding the throne and the living creatures and the elders; they numbered myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, {12} singing with full voice, "Worthy is the Lamb that was slaughtered to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!" {13} Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, singing, "To the one seated on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!" {14} And the four living creatures said, "Amen!" And the elders fell down and worshiped.

11. angels…living creatures…elders: These are the personages gathered around the throne of God. "Angels, 1:20; "living creatures," 4:6-9; "elders," 4:4, 10-11.
12. worthy is the Lamb: The members of the heavenly court sing the answer to the question "Who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals?" (Revelation 5:2).
13. every creature in heaven…on earth…under the earth…in the sea: In Revelation 5:3 "no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or to look into it," taken by "the Lion of the tribe of Judah, of the Root of Jesse," from the hand of "the one seated on the throne."
singing, "To the one seated on the throne and to the Lamb": All earthly creatures glorify the Lord and the Lamb.
And the four living creatures said, "Amen!" And the elders fell down and worshipped: The four living creatures are described in Revelation 4:6-8; they are the cherubim and seraphim non-human created beings who carry Yahweh’s throne and sing his praises (Ezekiel 10:20; Isaiah 6:2-3).
    "This reads like a dramatization of the conclusion of the hymn in Phil 2:5-11, where in verse 10 it is said that ‘at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth’ (cf. the enumeration of these categories of creatures in v 13a)." [7]

John 21:1-19
{1} After these things Jesus showed himself again to the disciples by the Sea of Tiberias; and he showed himself in this way. {2} Gathered there together were Simon Peter, Thomas called the Twin, Nathaniel of Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two others of his disciples. {3} Simon Peter said to them, "I am going fishing." They said to him, "We will go with you." They went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing. {4} Just after daybreak, Jesus stood on the beach; but the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. {5} Jesus said to them, "Children, you have no fish, have you?" They answered him, "No." {6} He said to them, "Cast the net to the right side of the boat, and you will find some." So they cast it, and now they were not able to haul it in because there were so many fish. {7} That disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, "It is the Lord!" When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on some clothes, for he was naked, and jumped into the sea. {8} But the other disciples came in the boat, dragging the net full of fish, for they were not far from the land, only about a hundred yards off. {9} When they had gone ashore, they saw a charcoal fire there, with fish on it, and bread. {10} Jesus said to them, "Bring some of the fish that you have just caught." {11} So Simon Peter went aboard and hauled the net ashore, full of large fish, a hundred fifty-three of them; and though there were so many, the net was not torn. {12} Jesus said to them, "Come and have breakfast." Now none of the disciples dared to ask him, "Who are you?" because they knew it was the Lord. {13} Jesus came and took the bread and gave it to them, and did the same with the fish. {14} This was now the third time that Jesus appeared to the disciples after he was raised from the dead. {15} When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, "Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?" He said to him, "Yes, Lord; you know that I love you." Jesus said to him, "Feed my lambs." {16} A second time he said to him, "Simon son of John, do you love me?" He said to him, "Yes, Lord; you know that I love you." Jesus said to him, "Tend my sheep." {17} He said to him the third time, "Simon son of John, do you love me?" Peter felt hurt because he said to him the third time, "Do you love me?" And he said to him, "Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you." Jesus said to him, "Feed my sheep. {18} Very truly, I tell you, when you were younger, you used to fasten your own belt and to go wherever you wished. But when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will fasten a belt around you and take you where you do not wish to go." {19} (He said this to indicate the kind of death by which he would glorify God.) After this he said to him, "Follow me."

1: The verse is an editorial transition that is needed to reopen the Gospel after the colophon in 20:30-31. It was the third time Jesus appeared to the disciples after the resurrection (verse 14).
2. Simon Peter, Thomas called the Twin, Nathaniel of Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two others of his disciples: One of the "two others" is the "disciple whom Jesus loved" (verse 7).
3. Simon Peter said to them, "I am going fishing." They said to him, "We will go with you." In the face of the incomprehensibility of everything that had happened the disciples turned to something with which they were familiar and accustomed.
4-7a: Jesus appears and tells them how to catch some fish. They do what he said and make a great catch. The Beloved Disciple identifies the unknown figure on the beach as "the Lord." The "disciple whom [Jesus] loved" appears in 19:26; 20:3; 21:7, 20.
7b-8: Peter dresses and jumps into the sea, the other disciples come ashore in the boat.
11. a hundred fifty-three [fish]: Some suggest that 153 is the number of fish known at that time, or the varieties of peoples. Others point out that it is the 17^th triangular number, that is 1+2+3+…+17 = 153, which is then assigned a meaning of perfection and completion.
the net was not torn: One of the differences with the similar story in Luke when a second boat was necessary to bring the catch to shore because, "their nets were beginning to break." It is clear that John has some reason for calling attention to the number of fish, because Jesus asked Peter to bring some of the fish they had caught (verse 10) though he already had fish cooking on a charcoal fire (verse 9).
13: The description of Jesus’ serving bread and fish is similar to the feeding of the 5000 in John 6:11. Some see a eucharistic emphasis.
15-17: The three-fold question and three-fold answer. In the first two questions the verb agapao, "love" is used and Peter answers with the verb phileo, "love." In the last question both the question and answer use the verb phileo. Jesus and Peter would have been speaking in Aramaic where there is only one verb for the various kinds of love, so we should not make too much of the different Greek verbs. Even in Greek there is no real difference between agapao and phileo until much later. The three-fold repetition of the question may be a reflection of Peter’s triple denial. "It is not merely a private scene, but a public, ritual scene, the threefold character of which is conceived as a counterpart to the threefold denial of Peter…. It has to do…with the fact that Peter forfeited his prerogative to lead the community of Jesus by his threefold denial. Now, however, he is again expressly acknowledged as that leader…. as the leader of the Jerusalem community, which was orphaned by Jesus’ death." [8]
18-19: Jesus’ picture of what will happen when Peter is old: "you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will fasten a belt around you and take you where you do not wish to go" is explained as an indication of "the kind of death by which he would glorify God." However, there is no explicit explanation of "the kind of death" that is illustrated by this picture.
     Though the reading ends here, the chapter goes on for several verses in which Peter calls attention to the Beloved Disciple, asks what his fate is to be, and is told to mind his own business. The second to the last verse implies that the Beloved Disciple as the author of the Gospel. 

Reflection
     The central focus of the Gospel is the three-fold question to Peter, "Do you love me," and the three-fold admonition, "feed/tend my sheep/lambs." The chapter, though not the reading, ends with a prophecy concerning the Beloved Disciple and the identification of that disciple as the author of the Gospel. "Believing in Jesus" is not a gift given for its own sake, but it is intended to enable us not only to love Jesus but to love and care for those who are still outside the sheep-fold.
     In the first lesson Ananias is required by God to baptize Saul, an enemy of the early church. In a similar fashion we may be called on to love our enemies as Jesus taught us to do. God will not let us be overwhelmed if we dare to follow his leading.
      The reading from Revelation is part of a larger context which deals with John’s vision of the investiture of the Lamb. "The entire chapter is dominated by the heavenly liturgy consisting of the two hymns of praise found in 5:2, 9-10; 5:12, the doxology in 5:13, and the amen in 5:14." The Lamb is worthy, and he receives power and wealth and wisdom, might and honor and glory and blessing both from many angels and from all creation. There is a connection between this lesson and the Gospel in the use of the imagery of the lambs.

Hymns [9]
With One Voice (e.g. 762v), Hymnal Supplement 1991 (e.g. 725s) and LBW (e.g. 32).
E=Entrance; D=Hymn of the Day; I=First Lesson, P=Psalm; II=Second Lesson; G=Gospel