Book of Common Prayer
49 Remember [fervently] the word and promise to Your servant, in which You have caused me to hope.
50 This is my comfort and consolation in my affliction: that Your word has revived me and given me life.(A)
51 The proud have had me greatly in derision, yet have I not declined in my interest in or turned aside from Your law.
52 When I have [earnestly] recalled Your ordinances from of old, O Lord, I have taken comfort.
53 Burning indignation, terror, and sadness seize upon me because of the wicked, who forsake Your law.
54 Your statutes have been my songs in the house of my pilgrimage.
55 I have [earnestly] remembered Your name, O Lord, in the night, and I have observed Your law.
56 This I have had [as the gift of Your grace and as my reward]: that I have kept Your precepts [hearing, receiving, loving, and obeying them].
57 You are my portion, O Lord; I have promised to keep Your words.
58 I entreated Your favor with my whole heart; be merciful and gracious to me according to Your promise.
59 I considered my ways; I turned my feet to [obey] Your testimonies.
60 I made haste and delayed not to keep Your commandments.
61 Though the cords of the wicked have enclosed and ensnared me, I have not forgotten Your law.
62 At midnight I will rise to give thanks to You because of Your righteous ordinances.
63 I am a companion of all those who fear, revere, and worship You, and of those who observe and give heed to Your precepts.
64 The earth, O Lord, is full of Your mercy and loving-kindness; teach me Your statutes.
65 You have dealt well with Your servant, O Lord, according to Your promise.
66 Teach me good judgment, wise and right discernment, and knowledge, for I have believed (trusted, relied on, and clung to) Your commandments.
67 Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now Your word do I keep [hearing, receiving, loving, and obeying it].
68 You are good and kind and do good; teach me Your statutes.
69 The arrogant and godless have put together a lie against me, but I will keep Your precepts with my whole heart.
70 Their hearts are as fat as grease [their minds are dull and brutal], but I delight in Your law.
71 It is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I might learn Your statutes.
72 The law from Your mouth is better to me than thousands of gold and silver pieces.
Psalm 49
To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of the sons of Korah.
1 Hear this, all you peoples; give ear, all you inhabitants of the world,
2 Both low and high, rich and poor together:
3 My mouth shall speak wisdom; and the meditation of my heart shall be understanding.
4 I will submit and consent to a parable or proverb; to the music of a lyre I will unfold my riddle (my problem).
5 Why should I fear in the days of evil, when the iniquity of those who would supplant me surrounds me on every side,
6 Even of those who trust in and lean on their wealth and boast of the abundance of their riches?
7 None of them can by any means redeem [either himself or] his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him—
8 For the ransom of a life is too costly, and [the price one can pay] can never suffice—
9 So that he should live on forever and never see the pit (the grave) and corruption.
10 For he sees that even wise men die; the [self-confident] fool and the stupid alike perish and leave their wealth to others.
11 Their inward thought is that their houses will continue forever, and their dwelling places to all generations; they call their lands their own [apart from God] and after their own names.
12 But man, with all his honor and pomp, does not remain; he is like the beasts that perish.
13 This is the fate of those who are foolishly confident, yet after them men approve their sayings. Selah [pause, and calmly think of that]!
14 Like sheep they are appointed for Sheol (the place of the dead); death shall be their shepherd. And the upright shall have dominion over them in the morning; and their form and beauty shall be consumed, for Sheol shall be their dwelling.
15 But God will redeem me from the power of Sheol (the place of the dead); for He will receive me. Selah [pause, and calmly think of that]!
16 Be not afraid when [an ungodly] one is made rich, when the wealth and glory of his house are increased;
17 For when he dies he will carry nothing away; his glory will not descend after him.
18 Though while he lives he counts himself happy and prosperous, and though a man gets praise when he does well [for himself],
19 He will go to the generation of his fathers, who will nevermore see the light.
20 A man who is held in honor and understands not is like the beasts that perish.
Psalm 53
To the Chief Musician; in a mournful strain. A skillful song, or didactic or reflective poem of David.
1 The [empty-headed] fool has said in his heart, There is no God. Corrupt and evil are they, and doing abominable iniquity; there is none who does good.
2 God looked down from heaven upon the children of men to see if there were any who understood, who sought (inquired after and desperately required) God.
3 Every one of them has gone back [backslidden and fallen away]; they have altogether become filthy and corrupt; there is none who does good, no, not one.(A)
4 Have those who work evil no knowledge (no understanding)? They eat up My people as they eat bread; they do not call upon God.
5 There they are, in terror and dread, where there was [and had been] no terror and dread! For God has scattered the bones of him who encamps against you; you have put them to shame, because God has rejected them.
6 Oh, that the salvation and deliverance of Israel would come out of Zion! When God restores the fortunes of His people, then will Jacob rejoice and Israel be glad.
23 When Abigail saw David, she hastened and lighted off the donkey, and fell before David on her face and did obeisance.
24 Kneeling at his feet she said, Upon me alone let this guilt be, my lord. And let your handmaid, I pray you, speak in your presence, and hear the words of your handmaid.
25 Let not my lord, I pray you, regard this foolish and wicked fellow Nabal, for as his name is, so is he—Nabal [foolish, wicked] is his name, and folly is with him. But I, your handmaid, did not see my lord’s young men whom you sent.
26 So now, my lord, as the Lord lives and as your soul lives, seeing that the Lord has prevented you from bloodguiltiness and from avenging yourself with your own hand, now let your enemies and those who seek to do evil to my lord be as Nabal.
27 And now this gift, which your handmaid has brought my lord, let it be given to the young men who follow my lord.
28 Forgive, I pray you, the trespass of your handmaid, for the Lord will certainly make my lord a sure house, because my lord is fighting the Lord’s battles, and evil has not been found in you all your days.
29 Though man is risen up to pursue you and to seek your life, yet the life of my lord shall be bound in the living bundle with the Lord your God. And the lives of your enemies—them shall He sling out as out of the center of a sling.
30 And when the Lord has done to my lord according to all the good that He has promised concerning you and has made you ruler over Israel,
31 This shall be no staggering grief to you or cause for pangs of conscience to my lord, either that you have shed blood without cause or that my lord has avenged himself. And when the Lord has dealt well with my lord, then [[a]earnestly] remember your handmaid.
32 And David said to Abigail, Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, Who sent you this day to meet me.
33 And blessed be your discretion and advice, and blessed be you who have kept me today from bloodguiltiness and from avenging myself with my own hand.
34 For as the Lord, the God of Israel, lives, Who has prevented me from hurting you, if you had not hurried and come to meet me, surely by morning there would not have been left so much as one male to Nabal.
35 So David accepted what she had brought him and said to her, Go up in peace to your house. See, I have hearkened to your voice and have granted your petition.
36 And Abigail came to Nabal, and behold, he was holding a feast in his house like the feast of a king. And [his] heart was merry, for he was very drunk; so she told him nothing at all until the morning light.
37 But in the morning, when the wine was gone out of Nabal, and his wife told him these things, his heart died within him and he became [paralyzed, helpless as] a stone.
38 And about ten days after that, the Lord smote Nabal and he died.
39 When David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, Blessed be the Lord, Who has pleaded the cause of my reproach at the hand of Nabal, and kept His servant from evil. For the Lord has returned the wickedness of Nabal upon his own head. And David sent and communed with Abigail, to take her to him as his wife.
40 And when the servants of David had come to Abigail at Carmel, they said to her, David sent us to you to take you to him to be his wife.
41 And she arose and bowed herself to the earth and said, Behold, let your handmaid be a servant to wash the feet of the servants of my lord.
42 And Abigail hastened and arose and rode on a donkey, with five of her maids who followed her, and she went after the messengers of David and became his wife.
43 David also took Ahinoam of Jezreel, and they both became his wives.
44 Saul had given Michal his daughter, David’s wife, to Phalti son of Laish, who was of Gallim.
19 But some Jews arrived there from Antioch and Iconium; and having persuaded the people and won them over, they stoned Paul and [[a]afterward] dragged him out of the town, thinking that he was dead.
20 But the disciples formed a circle about him, and he got up and went back into the town; and on the morrow he went on with Barnabas to Derbe.
21 When they had preached the good news (Gospel) to that town and made disciples of many of the people, they went back to Lystra and Iconium and Antioch,
22 Establishing and strengthening the souls and the hearts of the disciples, urging and warning and encouraging them to stand firm in the faith, and [telling them] that it is through many hardships and tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God.
23 And when they had appointed and ordained elders for them in each church with prayer and fasting, they committed them to the Lord in Whom they had come to believe [being full of joyful trust that He is the Christ, the Messiah].
24 Then they went through Pisidia and arrived at Pamphylia.
25 And when they had spoken the Word in Perga [the doctrine concerning the attainment through Christ of salvation in the kingdom of God], they went down to Attalia;
26 And from there they sailed back to Antioch, where they had [first] been commended to the grace of God for the work which they had [now] completed.
27 Arriving there, they gathered the church together and declared all that God had accomplished with them and how He had opened to the Gentiles a door of faith [in Jesus as the Messiah, through Whom we obtain salvation in the kingdom of God].
28 And there they stayed no little time with the disciples.
35 On that same day [when] evening had come, He said to them, Let us go over to the other side [of the lake].
36 And leaving the throng, they took Him with them, [just] as He was, in the boat [in which He was sitting]. And other boats were with Him.
37 And a furious storm of wind [[a]of hurricane proportions] arose, and the waves kept beating into the boat, so that it was already becoming filled.
38 But He [Himself] was in the stern [of the boat], asleep on the [leather] cushion; and they awoke Him and said to Him, Master, do You not care that we are perishing?
39 And He arose and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, Hush now! Be still (muzzled)! And the wind ceased ([b]sank to rest as if exhausted by its beating) and there was [immediately] a great calm ([c]a perfect peacefulness).
40 He said to them, Why are you so timid and fearful? How is it that you have no faith (no [d]firmly relying trust)?
41 And they were filled with great awe and [e]feared exceedingly and said one to another, Who then is this, that even wind and sea obey Him?
Copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation