Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 41
To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David.
1 Blessed (happy, fortunate, to be envied) is he who considers the weak and the poor; the Lord will deliver him in the time of evil and trouble.
2 The Lord will protect him and keep him alive; he shall be called blessed in the land; and You will not deliver him to the will of his enemies.
3 The Lord will sustain, refresh, and strengthen him on his bed of languishing; all his bed You [O Lord] will turn, change, and transform in his illness.
4 I said, Lord, be merciful and gracious to me; heal my inner self, for I have sinned against You.
5 My enemies speak evil of me, [saying], When will he die and his name perish?
6 And when one comes to see me, he speaks falsehood and empty words, while his heart gathers mischievous gossip [against me]; when he goes away, he tells it abroad.
7 All who hate me whisper together about me; against me do they devise my hurt [imagining the worst for me].
8 An evil disease, say they, is poured out upon him and cleaves fast to him; and now that he is bedfast, he will not rise up again.
9 Even my own familiar friend, in whom I trusted (relied on and was confident), who ate of my bread, has lifted up his heel against me.(A)
10 But You, O Lord, be merciful and gracious to me, and raise me up, that I may requite them.
11 By this I know that You favor and delight in me, because my enemy does not triumph over me.
12 And as for me, You have upheld me in my integrity and set me in Your presence forever.
13 Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, from everlasting and to everlasting [from this age to the next, and forever]! Amen and Amen (so be it).
Psalm 52
To the Chief Musician. A skillful song, or a didactic or reflective poem. [A Psalm] of David, when Doeg the Edomite came and told Saul, David has come to the house of Ahimelech.
1 Why boast you of mischief done against the loving-kindness of God [and the godly], O mighty [sinful] man, day after day?
2 Your tongue devises wickedness; it is like a sharp razor, working deceitfully.
3 You love evil more than good, and lying rather than to speak righteousness, justice, and right. Selah [pause, and calmly think of that]!
4 You love all destroying and devouring words, O deceitful tongue.
5 God will likewise break you down and destroy you forever; He will lay hold of you and pluck you out of your tent and uproot you from the land of the living. Selah [pause, and calmly think of that]!
6 The [uncompromisingly] righteous also shall see [it] and be in reverent fear and awe, but about you they will [scoffingly] laugh, saying,
7 See, this is the man who made not God his strength (his stronghold and high tower) but trusted in and confidently relied on the abundance of his riches, seeking refuge and security for himself through his wickedness.
8 But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God; I trust in and confidently rely on the loving-kindness and the mercy of God forever and ever.
9 I will thank You and confide in You forever, because You have done it [delivered me and kept me safe]. I will wait on, hope in and expect in Your name, for it is good, in the presence of Your saints (Your kind and pious ones).
Psalm 44
To the Chief Musician. [A Psalm] of the sons of Korah. A skillful song, or a didactic or reflective poem.
1 We have heard with our ears, O God; our fathers have told us [what] work You did in their days, in the days of old.
2 You drove out the nations with Your hand and it was Your power that gave [Israel] a home by rooting out the [heathen] peoples, but [Israel] You spread out.
3 For they got not the land [of Canaan] in possession by their own sword, neither did their own arm save them; but Your right hand and Your arm and the light of Your countenance [did it], because You were favorable toward and did delight in them.
4 You are my King, O God; command victories and deliverance for Jacob (Israel).
5 Through You shall we push down our enemies; through Your name shall we tread them under who rise up against us.
6 For I will not trust in and lean on my bow, neither shall my sword save me.
7 But You have saved us from our foes and have put them to shame who hate us.
8 In God we have made our boast all the day long, and we will give thanks to Your name forever. Selah [pause, and calmly think of that]!
9 But now You have cast us off and brought us to dishonor, and You go not out with our armies.
10 You make us to turn back from the enemy, and they who hate us take spoil for themselves.
11 You have made us like sheep intended for mutton and have scattered us in exile among the nations.
12 You sell Your people for nothing, and have not increased Your wealth by their price.
13 You have made us the taunt of our neighbors, a scoffing and a derision to those who are round about us.
14 You make us a byword among the nations, a shaking of the heads among the people.
15 My dishonor is before me all day long, and shame has covered my face
16 At the words of the taunter and reviler, by reason of the enemy and the revengeful.
17 All this is come upon us, yet have we not forgotten You, neither have we been false to Your covenant [which You made with our fathers].
18 Our hearts are not turned back, neither have our steps declined from Your path,
19 Though You have distressingly broken us in the place of jackals and covered us with deep darkness, even with the shadow of death.
20 If we had forgotten the name of our God or stretched out our hands to a strange god,
21 Would not God discover this? For He knows the secrets of the heart.
22 No, but for Your sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.(A)
23 Awake! Why do You sleep, O Lord? Arouse Yourself, cast us not off forever!
24 Why do You hide Your face and forget our affliction and our oppression?
25 For our lives are bowed down to the dust; our bodies cleave to the ground.
26 Rise up! Come to our help, and deliver us for Your mercy’s sake and because of Your steadfast love!
14 In the days of the kings Amraphel of Shinar, Arioch of Ellasar, Chedorlaomer of Elam, and Tidal of Goiim,
2 They made war on the kings Bera of Sodom, Birsha of Gomorrah, Shinab of Admah, Shemeber of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela, [a]that is, Zoar.
3 The latter kings joined together [as allies] in the Valley of Siddim, which is [now] the [Dead] Sea of Salt.
4 Twelve years they had served Chedorlaomer, but in the thirteenth year they rebelled.
5 And in the fourteenth year, Chedorlaomer and the kings who were with him attacked and subdued the Rephaim in Ashteroth-karnaim, the Zuzim in Ham, and the Emim in Shaveh-kiriathaim,
6 And the Horites in their Mount Seir as far as El-paran, which is on the border of the wilderness.
7 Then they turned back and came to En-mishpat, which [now] is Kadesh, and subdued all the country of the Amalekites, and also the Amorites who dwelt in Hazazon-tamar.
8 Then the kings of Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboiim, and Bela, that is, Zoar, went out and [together] they joined battle [with those kings] in the Valley of Siddim,
9 With the kings Chedorlaomer of Elam, Tidal of Goiim, Amraphel of Shinar, and Arioch of Ellasar—four kings against five.
10 Now the Valley of Siddim was full of slime or bitumen pits, and as the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled, they fell (were overthrown) there and the remainder [of the kings] fled to the mountain.
11 [The victors] took all the wealth of Sodom and Gomorrah and all the supply of provisions and departed.
12 And they also took Lot, Abram’s brother’s son, who dwelt in Sodom, and his goods away with them.
13 Then one who had escaped came and told Abram the Hebrew [one from the other side], who was living by the oaks or terebinths of Mamre the Amorite, a brother of Eshcol and of Aner—these were allies of Abram.
14 When Abram heard that [his nephew] had been captured, he armed (led forth) the 318 trained servants born in his own house and pursued the enemy as far as Dan.
15 He divided his forces against them by night, he and his servants, and attacked and routed them, and pursued them as far as Hobah, which is north of Damascus.
16 And he brought back all the goods and also brought back his kinsman Lot and his possessions, the women also and the people.
17 After his [Abram’s] return from the defeat and slaying of Chedorlaomer and the kings who were with him, the king of Sodom went out to meet him at the Valley of Shaveh, that is, the King’s Valley.
18 Melchizedek king of Salem [later called Jerusalem] brought out bread and wine [for their nourishment]; he was the priest of God Most High,
19 And he blessed him and said, Blessed (favored with blessings, made blissful, joyful) be Abram by God Most High, Possessor and Maker of heaven and earth,
20 And blessed, praised, and glorified be God Most High, Who has given your foes into your hand! And [Abram] gave him a tenth of all [he had taken].(A)
21 And the king of Sodom said to Abram, Give me the persons and keep the goods for yourself.
22 But Abram said to the king of Sodom, I have lifted up my hand and sworn to the Lord, God Most High, the Possessor and Maker of heaven and earth,
23 That I would not take a thread or a shoelace or anything that is yours, lest you should say, I have made Abram rich.
24 [Take all] except only what my young men have eaten and the share of the men [allies] who went with me—Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre; let them take their portion.
8 Now the main point of what we have to say is this: We have such a High Priest, One Who is seated at the right hand of the majestic [God] in heaven,(A)
2 As officiating Priest, a Minister in the holy places and in the true tabernacle which is erected not by man but by the Lord.
3 For every high priest is appointed to offer up gifts and sacrifices; so it is essential for this [High Priest] to have some offering to make also.
4 If then He were still living on earth, He would not be a priest at all, for there are [already priests] who offer the gifts in accordance with the Law.
5 [But these offer] service [merely] as a pattern and as a foreshadowing of [what has its true existence and reality in] the heavenly sanctuary. For when Moses was about to erect the tabernacle, he was warned by God, saying, See to it that you make it all [exactly] according to the copy (the model) which was shown to you on the mountain.(B)
6 But as it now is, He [Christ] has acquired a [priestly] ministry which is as much superior and more excellent [than the old] as the covenant (the agreement) of which He is the Mediator (the Arbiter, Agent) is superior and more excellent, [because] it is enacted and rests upon more important (sublimer, higher, and nobler) promises.
7 For if that first covenant had been without defect, there would have been no room for another one or an attempt to institute another one.
8 However, He finds fault with them [showing its inadequacy] when He says, Behold, the days will come, says the Lord, when I will make and ratify a new covenant or agreement with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.
9 It will not be like the covenant that I made with their forefathers on the day when I grasped them by the hand to help and relieve them and to lead them out from the land of Egypt, for they did not abide in My agreement with them, and so I withdrew My favor and disregarded them, says the Lord.
10 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will imprint My laws upon their minds, even upon their innermost thoughts and understanding, and engrave them upon their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.
11 And it will nevermore be necessary for each one to teach his neighbor and his fellow citizen or each one his brother, saying, Know (perceive, have knowledge of, and get acquainted by experience with) the Lord, for all will know Me, from the smallest to the greatest of them.
12 For I will be merciful and gracious toward their sins and I will remember their deeds of unrighteousness no more.(C)
13 When God speaks of a new [covenant or agreement], He makes the first one obsolete (out of use). And what is obsolete (out of use and annulled because of age) is ripe for disappearance and to be dispensed with altogether.
43 But after these two days Jesus went on from there into Galilee—
44 Although He Himself declared that a prophet has no honor in his own country.
45 However, when He came into Galilee, the Galileans also welcomed Him and took Him to their hearts eagerly, for they had seen everything that He did in Jerusalem during the Feast; for they too had attended the Feast.
46 So Jesus came again to Cana of Galilee, where He had turned the water into wine. And there was a certain royal official whose son was lying ill in Capernaum.
47 Having heard that Jesus had come back from Judea into Galilee, he went away to meet Him and began to beg Him to come down and cure his son, for he was lying at the point of death.
48 Then Jesus said to him, Unless you see signs and miracles happen, you [people] never will believe (trust, have faith) at all.
49 The king’s officer pleaded with Him, Sir, do come down at once before my little child is dead!
50 Jesus answered him, Go in peace; your son will live! And the man put his trust in what Jesus said and started home.
51 But even as he was on the road going down, his servants met him and reported, saying, Your son lives!
52 So he asked them at what time he had begun to get better. They said, Yesterday during the seventh hour (about one o’clock in the afternoon) the fever left him.
53 Then the father knew that it was at that very hour when Jesus had said to him, Your son will live. And he and his entire household believed (adhered to, trusted in, and relied on Jesus).
54 This is the second sign (wonderwork, miracle) that Jesus performed after He had come out of Judea into Galilee.
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