Book of Common Prayer
To the Director: A Davidic Psalm.
When Things Go Wrong
41 Blessed is the one who is considerate of the destitute;[a]
the Lord will deliver him when the times are evil.
2 The Lord will protect him and keep him alive;
he will be blessed in the land;
and he will not be handed over to the desires of his enemies.
3 The Lord will uphold him even on his sickbed;
you will transform his bed of illness into health.
4 As for me, I said,
“Lord, be gracious to me!
Heal me, for I have sinned against you!”
5 As for my enemies, with malice they said,
“When will he die and memory of[b] his name perish?”
6 The one who comes to visit me speaks lies;
in his heart he thinks slanderous things about me
and goes around spreading them.
7 As for all who hate me,
they whisper together against me;
they desire to do me harm.
8 They say, “Wickedness is entrenched in him.
Once he is brought low,
he will not rise again.”
9 As for my best friend,
the one in whom I trusted,
the one who ate my bread,
even he has insulted[c] me!
10 But you, Lord, be gracious to me and raise me up
so that I may pay them back!
11 In this way I will know that you are pleased with me,
and that my enemies will not shout in triumph over me.
12 As for me, you will maintain my just cause,
and you will cause me to stand in your presence forever.
13 Blessed be the Lord God of Israel,
from eternity to eternity.
Amen and amen!
To the Director: A Davidic instruction[a] about Doeg, the Edomite, when he went to Saul and told him, “David went to the house of Abimelech.”
A Rebuke to the Deceitful
52 Why do you make evil
the foundation of your boasting, mighty one?[b]
God’s gracious love never ceases.[c]
2 Your tongue, like a sharp razor, devises wicked things
and crafts treachery.
3 You love evil rather than good,
falsehood rather than speaking uprightly.
4 You love all words that destroy, you deceitful tongue!
5 But God will tear you down forever;
he will take you away,
even snatching you out of your tent!
He will uproot you from the land of the living.
6 The righteous will fear when they see this,
but then they will laugh at him, saying,
7 “Look, here is a young man who refused to make God his strength;
instead, he trusted in his great wealth
and made his wickedness his strength.
8 But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God;
I trust in the gracious love of God forever and ever.
9 Therefore I will praise you forever
because of what you did;
I will proclaim that your name is good
in the midst of your faithful ones.
To the Director: An instruction[a] of the Sons of Korah.
A Prayer in Times of Defeat
44 God, we heard it with our ears;
our ancestors told us about what you did in their day—
a long time ago.
2 With your hand you expelled the nations
and established our ancestors.[b]
You afflicted nations
and cast them out.
3 It was not with their sword that they inherited the land,
nor did their own arm deliver them.
But it was by your power,[c] your strength,
and by the light of your face;
because you were pleased with them.
4 You are my king, God,
command[d] victories[e] for Jacob.
5 Through you we will knock down our oppressors;
through your name we will tread down those who rise up against us.
6 For I place no confidence in my bow,
nor will my sword deliver me.
7 For you delivered us from our oppressors
and put to shame those who hate us.
8 We will praise God all day long;
and to your name we will give thanks forever.
9 However, you cast us off and made us ashamed!
You did not even march with our armies!
10 You made us retreat from our oppressors.
Our enemies ransacked us.
11 You handed us over to be slaughtered like sheep
and you scattered us among the nations.
12 You sold out your people for nothing,
and made no profit at that price.
13 You made us a laughing stock to our neighbors,
a source of mockery and derision to those around us.
14 You made us an object lesson among the nations;
people shake their heads at us.[f]
15 My dishonor tortures[g] me continuously;[h]
the shame on my face overwhelms[i] me
16 because of the voice of the one who mocks and reviles,
because of the enemy and the avenger.
17 All this came upon us,
yet we did not forsake you,
and we have not dealt falsely with your covenant;
18 Our hearts have not turned away;
our steps have not swerved from your path.
19 Nevertheless, you crushed us in the lair of jackals,
and covered us in deep darkness.[j]
20 If we had forgotten the name of our God
or lifted our hands to a foreign god,
21 wouldn’t God find out
since he knows the secrets of the heart?
22 For your sake we are being killed all day long.
We are thought of as sheep to be slaughtered.
23 Wake up! Why are you asleep, Lord?
Get up! Don’t cast us off forever!
24 Why are you hiding your face?
Why are you ignoring our affliction and oppression?
25 For we[k] have collapsed in the dust;
our bodies cling to the ground.
26 Arise! Deliver us!
Redeem us according to your gracious love!
Abram Battles Kings for Lot
14 At the time when Amraphel was king of Shinar, Arioch was king of Ellasar, Chedorlaomer was king of Elam, and Tidal was king of the Goiim, 2 they engaged in war against King Bera of Sodom, King Birsha of Gomorrah, King Shinab of Admah, King Shemeber of Zeboiim, along with the king of Bela (which was also known as Zoar). 3 All of this latter group of kings[a] allied together in the Valley of Siddim (that is, the Salt Sea[b]). 4 They were subject to Chedorlaomer for twelve years, but they rebelled in the thirteenth year.
5 In the fourteenth year, Chedorlaomer and the kings with him came and defeated the Rephaim in Ashteroth-karnaim, the Zuzites in Ham, the Emites in Shaveh-kiriathaim, 6 and the Horites in the hill country of Seir, near El-paran by the desert. 7 Next they turned back and came to En-mishpat (which was also known as Kadesh) and conquered all the territory of the Amalekites, along with the Amorites who lived in Hazazon-tamar.
8 Then the kings of Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboiim, and Bela (which was also known as Zoar) prepared for battle in the Valley of Siddim 9 against King Chedorlaomer of Elam, King Tidal of Goiim, King Amraphel of Shinar, and King Arioch of Ellasar—four kings against five.
10 Now the Valley of Siddim was full of tar pits, so when the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled, some of their people[c] fell into them, while the rest fled to the hill country. 11 The conquerors[d] captured all the possessions of Sodom and Gomorrah, including their entire food supply, and then left. 12 They also took Abram’s nephew Lot captive, and confiscated[e] his possessions, since he was living in Sodom.
13 Someone escaped, arrived, and reported what had happened[f] to Abram the Hebrew, who was living by the oaks belonging to Mamre the Amorite, whose brothers Eshcol and Aner were allied with Abram. 14 When Abram heard that his nephew[g] had been taken prisoner, he gathered together 318 of his trained men, who had been born in his household, and they went out in pursuit as far as Dan. 15 During the night, Abram[h] and his servants divided his forces,[i] conquered his enemies,[j] and pursued them as far as Hobah, north of Damascus. 16 He recovered all the goods and brought back his nephew Lot, together with his possessions, the women, and the other[k] people.
The Blessing of Melchizedek
17 After Abram’s return[l] from defeating Chedorlaomer and the kings who were with them, the king of Sodom went out to meet with him in the Shaveh Valley (that is, the King’s Valley). 18 King Melchizedek of Salem brought out bread and wine, since he was serving as[m] the priest of God Most High. 19 Melchizedek[n] blessed Abram[o] and said,
“Abram is blessed by God Most High,
Creator of heaven and earth,
20 and blessed be God Most High,
who has delivered your enemies
into your control.”
Then Abram gave him a tenth of everything.
Conversation with the King of Sodom
21 The king of Sodom told Abram, “Return the people to me, and you take the possessions for yourself.”
22 But Abram answered the king of Sodom, “I have made an oath to the Lord God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth, 23 that I will not take a thread or a sandal strap or anything that belongs to you, so you won’t be able to say, ‘I made Abram rich.’ 24 I will take nothing except what my warriors have eaten. But as for what belongs to the men who were allied[p] with me, including Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre, let them take their share.”
The Messiah Has a Better Ministry
8 Now the main point in what we are saying is this: we do have this kind of high priest, who sat down at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven 2 and who serves in the sanctuary, the true tent set up by the Lord and not by any human. 3 For every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices. Therefore, this high priest[a] had to offer something, too. 4 Now if he were on earth, he would not even be a priest, because other men offer the gifts prescribed by the Law. 5 They serve in a sanctuary that is a copy, a shadow of the heavenly one. This is why Moses was warned when he was about to build the tent: “See to it that you make everything according to the pattern that was shown you on the mountain.”[b] 6 However, Jesus[c] has now obtained a more superior ministry, since the covenant he mediates is founded on better promises.
The New Covenant is Better than the Old
7 If the first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no need to look for a second one, 8 but God[d] found something wrong with his people[e] when he said,
“Look! The days are coming, declares the Lord,[f]
when I will establish a new covenant
with the house of Israel
and with the house of Judah.
9 It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors at the time
when I took them by the hand
and brought them out of the land of Egypt.
Because they did not remain loyal to my covenant,
I ignored them, declares the Lord.[g]
10 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel
after that time, declares the Lord:[h]
I will put my laws in their minds
and write them on their hearts.
I will be their God,
and they will be my people.
11 Never again will everyone teach his neighbor
or his brother by saying, ‘Know the Lord,’[i]
because all of them will know me,
from the least important to the most important.
12 For I will be merciful regarding their wrong deeds,
and I will never again remember their sins.”[j]
13 In speaking of a “new” covenant, he has made the first one obsolete, and what is obsolete and aging will soon disappear.
Jesus Heals an Official’s Son(A)
43 Two days later, Jesus[a] left for Galilee from there, 44 since Jesus himself had testified that a prophet has no honor in his own country. 45 When he arrived in Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him because they had seen everything that he had done in Jerusalem during the festival and because they, too, had gone to the festival. 46 So Jesus[b] returned to Cana in Galilee, where he had turned the water into wine. Meanwhile, in Capernaum there was a government official whose son was ill. 47 When this man heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went to him and asked him repeatedly to come down and heal his son, because he was about to die.
48 Jesus told him, “Unless you people[c] see signs and wonders, you will never believe.”
49 The official told him, “Sir,[d] please come down before my little boy dies.”
50 Jesus told him, “Go home. Your son will live.” The man believed what Jesus told him and started back home.
51 While he was on his way, his servants met him and told him that his child[e] was alive. 52 So he asked them at what hour he had begun to recover, and they told him, “The fever left him yesterday at one o’clock in the afternoon.”[f]
53 Then the father realized that this was the very hour when Jesus had told him, “Your son will live.” So he himself believed, along with his whole family.
54 Now this was the second sign that Jesus did after coming from Judea to Galilee.
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