Book of Common Prayer
A Song Celebrating the King’s Marriage.
To the Chief Musician; set to the [tune of] “Lilies.” A Psalm of the sons of Korah. A skillful song, or a didactic or reflective poem. A Song of Love.
45 [a]My heart overflows with a good theme;
I address my psalm to the King.
My tongue is like the pen of a skillful writer.
2
You are fairer than the sons of men;
Graciousness is poured upon Your lips;
Therefore God has blessed You forever.
3
Strap Your sword on Your thigh, O mighty One,
In Your splendor and Your majesty!
4
And in Your majesty ride on triumphantly
For the cause of truth and humility and righteousness;
Let Your right hand guide You to awesome things.
5
Your arrows are sharp;
The peoples (nations) fall under You;
Your arrows pierce the hearts of the King’s enemies.
6
[b]Your throne, O God, is forever and ever;
The scepter of uprightness is the scepter of Your kingdom.
7
You have loved righteousness (virtue, morality, justice) and hated wickedness;
Therefore God, your God, has anointed You
Above Your companions with the oil of jubilation.(A)
8
All Your garments are fragrant with myrrh, aloes and cassia;
From ivory palaces stringed instruments have made You glad.
9
Kings’ daughters are among Your noble ladies;
At Your right hand stands the queen in gold from Ophir.
10
Hear, O daughter, consider and incline your ear [to my instruction]:
Forget your people and your father’s house;
11
Then the King will desire your beauty;
Because He is your Lord, bow down and honor Him.
12
The daughter of Tyre will come with a gift;
The rich among the people will seek your favor.
13
Glorious is the King’s daughter within [the palace];
Her robe is interwoven with gold.(B)
14
She will be brought to the King in embroidered garments;
The virgins, her companions who follow her,
Will be brought to You.
15
With gladness and rejoicing will they be led;
They will enter into the King’s palace.
16
In place of your fathers will be [c]your sons;
You shall make princes in all the land.
17
I will make Your name to be remembered in all generations;
Therefore the peoples will praise and give You thanks forever and ever.
God the King of the Earth.
To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of the sons of Korah.
47 O clap your hands, all you people;
Shout to God with the voice of triumph and songs of joy.
2
For the Lord Most High is to be feared [and worshiped with awe-inspired reverence and obedience];
He is a great King over all the earth.
3
He subdues peoples under us
And nations under our feet.
4
He chooses our inheritance for us,
The glory and excellence of Jacob whom He loves.(A) Selah.
5
God has ascended amid shouting,
The Lord with the sound of a trumpet.
6
Sing praises to God, sing praises;
Sing praises to our King, sing praises.
7
For God is the King of all the earth;
Sing praises in a skillful psalm and with understanding.
8
God reigns over the nations;
God sits on His holy throne.
9
The princes of the people have gathered together as the people of the God of Abraham,
For the shields of the earth belong to God;
He is highly exalted.
The Beauty and Glory of Zion.
A Song; a Psalm of the sons of Korah.
48 Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised,
In the city of our God, His holy mountain.
2
Fair and beautiful in elevation, the joy of all the earth,
Is Mount Zion [the City of David] in the far north,
The city of the great King.(B)
3
God, in her palaces,
Has made Himself known as a stronghold.
4
For, lo, the kings assembled themselves,
They [came and] passed by together.
5
They saw it, then they were amazed;
They were stricken with terror, they fled in alarm.
6
Panic seized them there,
And pain, as that of a woman in childbirth.
7
With the east wind
You shattered the ships of Tarshish.
8
As we have heard, so have we seen
In the city of the Lord of hosts, in the city of our God:
God will establish her forever. Selah.
9
We have thought of Your lovingkindness, O God,
In the midst of Your temple.
10
As is Your name, O God,
So is Your praise to the ends of the earth;
Your right hand is full of righteousness (rightness, justice).
11
Let Mount Zion be glad,
Let the daughters of Judah rejoice
Because of Your [righteous] judgments.
12
Walk about Zion, go all around her;
Count her towers,
13
Consider her ramparts,
Go through her palaces,
That you may tell the next generation [about her glory].
14
For this is God,
Our God forever and ever;
He will be our guide even until death.
14 The second woe is past; behold, the third woe is coming quickly.
The Seventh Trumpet—Christ’s Reign Foreseen
15 Then the seventh angel sounded [his trumpet]; and there were loud voices in heaven, saying,
“The kingdom (dominion, rule) of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ; and He will reign forever and ever.”(A) 16 And the twenty-four elders, who sit on their thrones before God, fell face downward and worshiped God, 17 saying,
“To You we give thanks, O Lord God Almighty [the Omnipotent, the Ruler of all], Who are and Who were, because You have taken Your great power and the sovereignty [which is rightly Yours] and have [now] begun to reign. 18 And the nations (Gentiles) became enraged, and Your wrath and indignation came, and the time came for the dead to be judged, and [the time came] to reward Your bond-servants the prophets and the saints (God’s people) and those who fear Your name, the small and the great, and [the time came] to destroy the destroyers of the earth.”(B)
19 And the temple of God which is in heaven was opened; and the ark of His covenant appeared in His temple, and there were flashes of lightning, loud rumblings and peals of thunder and an earthquake and a great hailstorm.(C)
27 Now while Jesus was saying these things, one of the women in the crowd raised her voice and said to Him, “Blessed (happy, favored by God) is the womb that gave birth to You and the breasts at which You nursed!” 28 But He said, “On the contrary, blessed (happy, favored by God) are those who hear the word of God and continually observe it.”
The Sign of Jonah
29 Now as the crowds were increasing [in number], He began to say, “This [present] generation is a wicked generation; it seeks a sign (attesting miracle), but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah [the prophet].(A) 30 For just as [a]Jonah became a sign to the people of Nineveh, so will the Son of Man also be [a sign] to this generation.(B) 31 The Queen of the South (the kingdom of Sheba) will rise up in the judgment with the men of this generation and condemn them, because she came from the ends of the earth to listen to the wisdom of Solomon, and look, something greater than Solomon is here.(C) 32 The men of Nineveh will stand up [as witnesses] at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and look, something greater than Jonah is here.(D)
33 “No one lights a lamp and then puts it in a cellar nor under a basket [hiding the light], but [instead it is put] on the lampstand, so that those who come in may see the light.(E) 34 The eye is the lamp of your body. When your eye is clear [spiritually perceptive, focused on God], your whole body also is full of light [benefiting from God’s precepts]. But when it is bad [spiritually blind], your body also is full of darkness [devoid of God’s word]. 35 Be careful, therefore, that the light that is in you is not darkness. 36 So if your whole body is illuminated, with no dark part, it will be entirely bright [with light], as when the lamp gives you light with its bright rays.”
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