Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 50[a]
The Worship Acceptable to God
1 A psalm of Asaph.[b]
[c]The Lord, the God of gods,[d]
has spoken and summoned the earth
from the rising of the sun to its setting.
2 From Zion, perfect in beauty,
God shines forth.
3 Our God is coming, and he will not be silent;
he is preceded by a devouring fire,
and a raging tempest surrounds him.[e]
4 He summons the heavens above
and the earth to judge his people:
5 “Gather before me my faithful servants
who made a covenant with me by sacrifice.”[f]
6 The heavens proclaim his saving justice,
for God himself is the judge.[g] Selah
7 [h]“Listen, my people, and I will speak.
O Israel, I will testify against you.
I am God, your God.
8 I do not rebuke you for your sacrifices,
for your burnt offerings are constantly before me.
9 “I will not accept a young bull from your homes
or goats from your folds.
10 For all the living creatures of the forest are mine,
animals by the thousands on my hills.
11 I know every bird of the air,
and whatever moves in the fields belongs to me.
12 “If I were hungry, I would not tell you,
for the world is mine, and all that it holds.
13 Do I eat the flesh of bulls
or drink the blood of goats?
14 “Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving
and fulfill your vows to the Most High.
15 Then if you cry out to me in time of trouble,
I will rescue you, and you will honor me.”
16 [i]But to the wicked God says:
“How can you recite my statutes
or profess my covenant on your lips?
17 For you loathe my instruction
and cast my words behind you.
18 “When you meet a thief, you join him;
you revel in the company of adulterers.
19 You employ your mouth for evil,
and your tongue frames deceit.
20 “You willingly speak against your brother
and slander the child of your own mother.
21 When you do such things, can I remain silent?
Do you think that I am[j] like you?
I will correct you
and set the charge before your face.
22 “Remember this, you who forget God,[k]
lest I tear you to pieces
and there be no one to rescue you.
23 He who offers a sacrifice of thanksgiving honors me;
to him who follows my way
I will show the salvation of God.”
Psalm 59[a]
Against Wicked Enemies
1 For the director.[b] According to “Do not destroy.” A miktam of David. When Saul sent people to watch David’s house in order to kill him.
2 Rescue me, O my God, from my enemies;
defend me[c] against those who rise up against me.
3 Deliver me from those who do evil;
save me from the violence of the bloodthirsty.
4 They are lying in wait to take my life;
the powerful gather together against me.
For no offense or sin of mine, O Lord,
5 for no guilt of mine,
they stand ready to attack me.
Rise up to help me, and look on my plight;
6 you, Lord, God of hosts,[d] are the God of Israel.
Rouse yourself and punish all the nations;
show no mercy to these wicked deceivers. Selah
7 They return each evening,
snarling like dogs
as they prowl through the city.
8 [e]See what spews from their mouths—
they spew forth from their lips,
and they assert, “Who is there to hear us?”
9 However, you laugh at them, O Lord;
you show your disdain for all the nations.
10 [f]O my strength, I will keep watch for you,
for you, O God, are my fortress,
11 O God of mercy.
May God go before me
and allow me to have my way with my enemies.
12 Do not put them to death,
lest my people forget.[g]
Scatter them in your power
and bring them to their knees,
O Lord, our shield.[h]
13 For the sins of their mouths
and the words of their lips,
let them be trapped in their pride.
For the curses and lies they speak,
14 put an end to them in your wrath;
put an end to them until they are no more.
Then it will be known to the ends of the earth
that God is the ruler over Jacob.[i] Selah
15 [j]They return each evening,
snarling like dogs
as they prowl through the city.
16 They roam about searching for food,
and they growl if they do not have their fill.
17 But I will sing of your strength;
when morning dawns, I will proclaim your kindness.[k]
For you have been my fortress,
my refuge in times of trouble.
18 O my Strength, I will sing your praises,
for you, O God, are my fortress,
the God who shows me love.[l]
Psalm 60[m]
Prayer To End Wars
1 For the director.[n] According to “The Lily of. . . .” A miktam of David (for teaching), 2 when he fought against Aram-naharaim and Aram-zobah; and when Joab, coming back, slew twelve thousand Edomites in the Valley of Salt.
3 O God, you have turned away from us
and left us defenseless.
Although your anger was aroused,
now come to our aid.
4 You shook the earth[o] and split it apart;
repair its cracks, for it continues to shake.
5 You have inflicted hardships on your people;
you have given us wine that made us stagger.[p]
6 But for those who fear you,
you have raised up a banner
to unfurl against the bow.[q] Selah
7 [r]With your right hand come to our aid and answer us
so that those you love may be delivered.
8 [s]God has promised from his sanctuary,
“In triumph I will apportion Shechem
and measure out the Valley of Succoth.
9 Gilead is mine, and Manasseh is mine;
Ephraim is my helmet,[t]
Judah is my scepter.
10 Moab is my washbasin;[u]
upon Edom I will plant my sandal;
over Philistia I will shout in triumph.”
11 [v]Who will lead me into the fortified city?[w]
Who will guide me into Edom?
12 Is it not you, O God, who have rejected us
and no longer go forth with our armies?
13 Grant us your help against our enemies,
for any human assistance is worthless.
14 With God’s help we will be victorious,
for he will overwhelm our foes.
Psalm 93[a]
Glory of the Lord’s Kingdom
1 The Lord is King,[b] adorned in splendor;
the Lord has clothed and girded himself with strength.
[c]He has made the world firm,
never to be moved.
2 Your throne has stood firm from the beginning;
you have existed throughout eternity, O Lord.
3 The waters[d] have lifted up, O Lord;
the waters have lifted up their voice;
the waters have lifted up their roar.
4 More powerful than the roar of mighty waters,
more powerful than the crashing waves of the sea,
mighty on high is the Lord.[e]
5 Your decrees[f] are firmly established;
holiness adorns your house,
O Lord, throughout the ages.
Psalm 96[a]
God, Sovereign and Judge of the Universe
1 Sing to the Lord a new song;[b]
sing to the Lord, all the earth.
2 Sing to the Lord and bless his name;
proclaim his salvation[c] day after day.
3 Declare his glory[d] among the nations,
his wondrous deeds to every people.
4 For great is the Lord and worthy of all praise;
he is more to be feared[e] than all other gods.
5 The gods of the nations are merely idols,
but it was the Lord who made the heavens.[f]
6 Majesty and splendor surround him;
power and beauty[g] are in his sanctuary.
7 Render to the Lord, you families of nations,
render to the Lord glory and power.[h]
8 Render to the Lord the glory due to his name;
bring an offering and enter his courts.[i]
9 Worship[j] the Lord in the splendor of his holiness;
tremble before him, all the earth.
10 Say among the nations, “The Lord is King.[k]
The world is firmly established, never to be moved.
He will judge the peoples fairly.”
11 Let the heavens exult and the earth be glad;
let the sea resound and all that fills it.
12 Let the fields rejoice and all that is in them;
let all the trees[l] of the forest shout for joy
13 before the Lord, for he is coming,
coming to judge the earth.
He will judge the world with justice
and the nations with equity.[m]
Chapter 18
Elijah and Ahab. 1 Now after quite some time, the word of the Lord came to Elijah in the third year saying, “Go, show yourself to Ahab, and I will send rain upon the earth.” 2 Elijah went and showed himself to Ahab. There was a severe famine in Samaria.
3 Ahab summoned Obadiah, the major-domo of his household. (Now Obadiah greatly feared the Lord. 4 When Jezebel cut down the prophets of the Lord, Obadiah took one hundred of the prophets and he hid them by fifties in a cave, and he provided them with bread and water.) 5 Ahab said to Obadiah, “Go through the land where there are springs of water and through all the wadis. Perhaps you will find some green grass for the horses and donkeys so that we might not lose all of the animals.”
6 They divided the land between them, and they went through it. Ahab went in one direction, and Obadiah went in the other direction by himself. 7 As Obadiah was going along, he met Elijah. He recognized him and fell on his face and said, “Is that you, my lord, Elijah?” 8 He said to him, “It is I. Go and tell your lord: ‘Behold, Elijah is here.’ ”
9 But he answered, “How have I sinned that you would hand your servant over to Ahab so that he will kill me? 10 As the Lord, your God, lives, there is no land or kingdom into which my lord has not sent to search for you. When they said, ‘he is not here,’ he made the kingdom and the nation swear an oath that they could not find you. 11 And now you are telling me, ‘Go tell your lord: “Behold, Elijah is here.” ’ 12 When I have left you, the Spirit of the Lord will carry you off to some unknown place. When I go and tell Ahab, and he cannot find you, he will kill your servant who has feared the Lord from my youth. 13 Has it not been reported to my lord what I did when Jezebel killed the prophets of the Lord, how I hid one hundred of the Lord’s prophets by fifties in a cave and provided them with bread and water? 14 But now you are telling me, ‘Go, tell your lord: “Behold, Elijah is here.” ’ He will kill me.”
15 Elijah answered, “As the Lord of hosts before whom I stand lives, I will surely show myself to him today.”
16 So Obadiah went to Ahab and told him, and Ahab went to meet Elijah. 17 When Ahab saw Elijah, Ahab said to him, “Is that you, O troubler of Israel?” 18 He answered, “It is not I who have troubled Israel. It is you and your father’s household who have abandoned the commandments of the Lord and have followed after Baal. 19 Now send word, and gather together all of Israel for me on Mount Carmel, along with four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal and four hundred prophets of Asherah, those who eat at Jezebel’s table.”
12 Innocence of the Children of God.[a] Therefore, my beloved, just as you have always been obedient when I am present, you must be so all the more now when I am absent, as you work out your salvation in fear and trembling.[b] 13 For it is God who is at work in you, enabling you both to desire and to act for his chosen purpose.
14 Do everything without grumbling or arguing, 15 so that you may show yourselves blameless and beyond reproach, children of God without spot in the midst of an evil and depraved generation, among which you shine like lights in the world 16 as you hold fast tenaciously to the word of life. Then I will have cause to boast of you on the day of Christ that I did not run in vain or labor to no purpose.
17 But even if my blood is to be poured out as a libation upon the sacrifice and the offering of your faith, I rejoice, and I share my joy with all of you. 18 In the same way, you too must rejoice and share your joy with me.
19 Timothy Commended.[c]I hope, in the Lord Jesus, to send Timothy to you soon, so that I may be cheered by hearing news of you. 20 I have no one else like him in his genuine concern for your welfare. 21 All the others serve their own interests more than those of Jesus Christ.
22 His reputation is well known to you. Like a son helping his father, he has worked with me in the service of the gospel. 23 I hope to send him to you as soon as I see how things will go with me. 24 And I am confident in the Lord that I myself shall also come before long.
25 Epaphroditus Praised. I have also decided that it is necessary to send you Epaphroditus, my brother and coworker and fellow soldier, who was your messenger and ministered to my needs. 26 He has missed all of you and been greatly distressed because you heard that he was ill. 27 And indeed he was dangerously ill and close to death. However, God had mercy on him—and not merely on him but on me as well, so that I would not have to endure one sorrow on top of another.
28 Therefore, I am all the more eager to send him in order that you may rejoice on seeing him again and I may thereby feel less anxious. 29 Receive him joyfully in the Lord, and value people like him very highly. 30 For he came perilously close to death for the work of Christ, risking his life to render me those services that you were unable to provide.
13 The Flight into Egypt. After the wise men had left, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and instructed him, “Arise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt. Remain there until I tell you. Herod seeks the child to kill him.” 14 Therefore, he got up, took the child and his mother, and departed that night for Egypt, 15 where they remained until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken through the prophet: “Out of Egypt I called my son.”[a]
16 The Slaughter of the Innocents at Bethlehem. When Herod realized that the wise men had deceived him, he flew into a rage and issued an order to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and the surrounding area who were two years old or less, in accordance with the information that he had obtained from the wise men. 17 [b]Thus were fulfilled the words that had been spoken through the prophet Jeremiah:
18 “A voice was heard in Ramah,
lamenting and sobbing bitterly:
Rachel weeping for her children,
and refusing to be consoled,
because they were no more.”
19 The Return to the Land of Israel.[c] After the death of Herod, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt 20 and said, “Arise, take the child and his mother, and go to the land of Israel, for those who sought to kill the child are dead.”[d] 21 He got up, took the child and his mother, and returned to the land of Israel.
22 But when Joseph learned that Archelaus[e] had succeeded his father Herod in Judea, he was afraid to go there. After he had been warned in a dream concerning this, he withdrew to the region of Galilee. 23 He settled in a town called Nazareth,[f] so that what had been spoken through the Prophets might be fulfilled: “He shall be called a Nazorean.”
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