Book of Common Prayer
Davidic[a]
Patiently Trust in God
37 Don’t be angry because of those who do evil,
do not be jealous because of those who commit iniquity.
2 Indeed, they soon will wither like grass,
and like green herbs they will fade away.
3 Trust in the Lord and do good.
Dwell in the land and feed on faithfulness.
4 Delight yourself in the Lord,
and he will give you the desires of your heart.
5 Commit your way to the Lord;
Trust him, and he will act.
6 He will bring forth your righteousness as a light,
and your justice as the noonday sun.[b]
7 Be silent in the Lord’s presence
and wait patiently for him.
Don’t be angry because of the one whose way prospers
or the one who implements evil schemes.
8 Calm your anger and abandon wrath.
Don’t be angry—
it only leads to evil.
9 Those who do evil will perish.
But those who wait[c] on the Lord will inherit the land.
10 Yet a little while longer,
and the wicked will be no more.
You will search for his place,
but he will not be there.
11 The humble will inherit the land;
they will take in abundant peace.
12 The wicked person plots against the righteous,
and grinds his teeth at him.
13 But the Lord laughs at him
because he sees that his day is coming!
14 The wicked take out a sword and bend the bow,
to bring down the humble and the poor
to slay those who are righteous in conduct.
15 But their sword will pierce their own heart,
and their bows will be broken!
16 Better is the little that the righteous have
than the abundance of many wicked people.
17 For the arms of the wicked will be broken,
but the Lord upholds the righteous.
18 The Lord knows the day of the blameless,
and their inheritance will last forever.
19 They will not experience shame in times of trouble;
in times of famine they will have plenty.
20 Indeed, the wicked will perish.
The Lord’s enemies will be consumed like flowers[d] in the fields.
They will vanish like[e] smoke.
21 The wicked borrow but never pay back;
but the righteous are generous and give.
22 For those blessed by God[f] will inherit the land,
but those cursed by him will be cut off.
23 A man’s steps are established by the Lord,
and the Lord[g] delights in his way.
24 Though he stumbles,
he will not fall down flat,
for the Lord will hold up his hand.
25 I once was young and now I am old,
but I have not seen a righteous person forsaken
or his descendants begging for bread.
26 Every day he is generous, lending freely,
and his descendants are blessed.
27 Depart from evil, and do good,
and you will live in the land[h] forever.
28 Indeed, the Lord loves justice,
and he will not abandon his godly ones.
They are kept safe forever,
but the lawless will be chased away,[i]
and the descendants of the wicked will be cut off.
29 The righteous will inherit the land,
and they will dwell in it forever.
30 The mouth of the righteous one produces wisdom;
his tongue speaks justice.
31 The instruction[j] of his God is in his heart;
his steps will not slip.
32 The wicked stalks the righteous person, seeking to kill him,
33 but the Lord will not let him fall into his hands.
He will not be condemned when he is put on trial.
34 Wait on the Lord,
Keep faithful to his way,
and he will exalt you to possess the land.
You will see the wicked cut off.
35 I once observed a wicked and oppressive person,
flourishing like a green tree in native soil.
36 But then he[k] passed away;[l]
in fact, he simply was not there.
When I looked for him,
he could not be found.
37 Observe the blameless!
Take note of the upright!
Indeed, the future of that man is peace.
38 Sinners will be destroyed together;
the future of the wicked will be cut off.
39 But deliverance for the righteous one comes from the Lord;
he is their strength in times of distress.
40 The Lord helps and delivers them;
he will deliver them from the wicked,
and he will save them because they have sought refuge in him.
Solomon’s Forbidden Marriages and Idolatry(A)
11 But King Solomon married[a] many foreign women besides the daughter of Pharaoh: women from Moab, Ammon, Edom, and Sidonia, along with Hittite women, too, 2 all of them from nations that the Lord had ordered the Israelis, “You are not to associate with[b] them and they are not to associate with you, because they will most certainly turn your affections[c] away to follow their gods.” Solomon became deeply attached to them by falling in love. 3 He had 700 princess wives and 300 mistresses[d] who[e] turned his heart away from the Lord,[f] 4 because as Solomon grew older, his wives turned his affections away after other gods, and his heart was not fully as devoted to the Lord his God as his father David’s heart had been. 5 Solomon pursued Astarte, the Sidonian goddess, and Milcom, that detestable Ammonite idol. 6 Solomon practiced what the Lord considered to be evil by not fully following the Lord, as had his father David. 7 Later, Solomon even constructed a high place on the mountain east of Jerusalem that was dedicated to Chemosh, that detestable Moabite idol, and to Molech, the detestable Ammonite idol. 8 Solomon[g] did this for all of his foreign wives, who burned incense and sacrificed to their own gods.
9 The Lord became angry at Solomon because his heart wandered away from the Lord God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice[h] 10 and warned him about this so he would not pursue other gods. But he did not obey what the Lord had commanded, 11 so the Lord told Solomon, “Because you have done this and haven’t kept my covenant and statutes that I commanded you, I’m going to tear the kingdom from you and give it to your servant. 12 I’m not going to do this during your lifetime, for the sake of your father David, but I will tear it out of your son’s control.[i] 13 For the sake of my servant David and for the sake of Jerusalem, I won’t tear away the entire kingdom. I’ll leave one tribe for your son to govern.”[j]
Live Wisely
13 Who among you is wise and understanding? Let him show by his noble conduct that his actions are done humbly and wisely. 14 But if you have bitter jealousy and rivalry in your hearts, stop boasting and slandering the truth. 15 That kind of wisdom does not come from above. No, it is worldly, self-centered, and demonic. 16 For wherever jealousy and rivalry exist, there is disorder and every kind of evil.
17 However, the wisdom that comes from above is first of all pure, then peace-loving, gentle, willing to yield, full of compassion and good deeds,[a] and without a trace of partiality or hypocrisy. 18 And a harvest of righteousness is grown from the seed of peace[b] planted by peacemakers.
Stop Fighting with Each Other
4 Where do those fights and quarrels among you come from? They come from your selfish desires that are at war in your bodies, don’t they? 2 You want something but do not get it, so you commit murder. You covet something but cannot obtain it, so you quarrel and fight. You do not get things because you do not ask for them! 3 You ask for something but do not get it because you ask for it for the wrong reason—for your own pleasure.
4 You adulterers! Don’t you know that friendship with the world means hostility with God? So whoever wants to be a friend of this world is an enemy of God. 5 Or do you think the Scripture means nothing when it says that the Spirit that God[c] caused to live in us jealously yearns for us?[d] 6 But he gives all the more grace. And so he says,
“God opposes the arrogant
but gives grace to the humble.”[e]
7 Therefore, submit yourselves to God. Resist the Devil, and he will run away from you. 8 Come close to God, and he will come close to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Be miserable, mourn, and cry. Let your laughter be turned into mourning, and your joy into gloom. 10 Humble yourselves in the Lord’s presence, and he will exalt you.
Do Not Criticize Each Other
11 Do not criticize each other, brothers. Whoever makes it his habit to criticize his brother or to judge his brother is judging the Law and condemning the Law. But if you condemn the Law, you are not a practicer of the Law but its judge. 12 There is only one Lawgiver and Judge—the one who can save and destroy. So who are you to judge your neighbor?
12 So Pilate asked them again, “Then what should I do with the man you call[a] ‘the King of the Jews’?”
13 “Crucify him!” they shouted back.
14 “Why?” Pilate asked them. “What has he done wrong?”
But they shouted even louder, “Crucify him!”
15 So Pilate, wanting to satisfy the crowd, released Barabbas for them, but he had Jesus whipped and handed over to be crucified.
The Soldiers Make Fun of Jesus(A)
16 The soldiers led Jesus[b] into the courtyard of the palace (that is, the governor’s headquarters)[c] and called out the whole guard. 17 They dressed him in a purple robe, twisted some thorns into a victor’s crown, and placed it on his head.[d] 18 They began to greet him, “Long live the king of the Jews!” 19 They kept hitting him on the head with a stick, spitting on him, kneeling in front of him, and worshiping him. 20 When they had finished making fun of him, they stripped him of the purple robe, put his own clothes back on him, and led him away to crucify him.
Jesus is Crucified(B)
21 They forced a certain passer-by named[e] Simon of Cyrene, the father of Alexander and Rufus, who happened to be coming in from the country, to carry Jesus’[f] cross.
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