Book of Common Prayer
A song of Asaph.
The Acceptable Sacrifice
50 God, the Lord,[a] has spoken.
He has summoned the earth
from the rising of the sun to its setting place.
2 From Zion, the perfection of beauty,
God has shined forth.
3 Our God has appeared and he has not been silent;
a devouring fire blazed before him,
and a mighty storm swirled around him.
4 He summoned the heavens above
and the earth below,[b]
to sit in judgment on his people.
5 “Assemble before me, my saints,
who have entered into my covenant by sacrifice.”
6 The heavens revealed his justice,
for God is himself the judge.
7 “Listen, my people,
for I am making a pronouncement:
Israel, I, God, your God, am testifying against you.
8 I do not rebuke you because of your sacrifices;
indeed, your burnt offerings are continuously before me.
9 I will no longer accept a sacrificial[c] bull from your household;
nor goats from your pens.
10 Indeed, every animal of the forest is mine,
even the cattle on a thousand hills.
11 I know all the birds in the mountains;
indeed, everything that moves in the field is mine.
12 “If I were hungry, I would not tell you;
for the world is mine along with everything in it.
13 Why should I eat the flesh of oxen
or drink the blood of goats?
14 Offer to God a thanksgiving praise;
pay your vows to the Most High.
15 Call on me in the day of distress;
I will deliver you, and you will glorify me.”
16 As for the wicked, God says,
“How dare you recite my statutes
or speak about my covenant with your lips!
17 You hate instruction
and toss my words behind you.
18 When you see a thief, you befriend him,
and you keep company with adulterers.
19 You give your mouth free reign for evil,
and your tongue devises deceit.
20 You sit and speak against your brother;
you slander your own mother’s son.
21 These things you did, and I kept silent,
because you assumed that I was like you.
But now I am going to rebuke you,
and I will set forth my case before your very own eyes.”
22 Consider this, you who have forgotten God—
Otherwise, I will tear you in pieces
and there will be no deliverer:
23 Whoever offers a sacrifice of thanksgiving glorifies me,
and I will reveal the salvation of God
to whomever continues in my way.”[d]
To the Director: A special Davidic psalm[a] to the tune of[b] “Do Not Destroy,” when Saul sent men to watch the house in order to kill him.
A Prayer for Deliverance and Justice
59 Save me from my enemies, my God!
Keep me safe from those who rise up against me.
2 Save me from those who practice evil;
deliver me from bloodthirsty men.
3 Look, they lie in ambush for my life;
these violent men gather together against me,
but not because of any transgression or sin of mine, Lord.
4 Without any fault on my part,
they rush together and prepare themselves.
Get up!
Come help me!
Pay attention!
5 You, Lord God of the Heavenly Armies, God of Israel,
stir yourself up to punish all the nations.
Show no mercy to those wicked transgressors.
6 At night they return like howling dogs;
they prowl around the city.
7 Look what pours out of their mouths!
They use their lips like swords,
saying[c] “Who will hear us?”
8 But you, Lord, will laugh at them;
you will mock all the nations.
9 My Strength, I will watch for you,
for God is my fortress.
10 My God of Gracious Love will meet me;
God will enable me to see what happens[d] to my enemies.
11 Don’t kill them!
Otherwise, my people may forget.
By your power make them stumble around;
bring them down low,
Lord, our Shield.
12 The sin of their mouth is the word on their lips.
They will be caught in their own conceit;
for they speak curses and lies.
13 Go ahead and destroy them in anger!
Wipe them out,
and they will know to the ends of the earth
that God rules over Jacob.[e]
14 At night they return like howling dogs;
they prowl around the city.
15 They scavenge for food.
If they find nothing,
they become hungry and growl.
16 But I will sing of your power
and in the morning I will shout for joy about your gracious love.
For you have been a fortress for me;
and a refuge when I am distressed.[f]
17 My Strength, I will sing praises to you,
for you, God of Gracious Love, are my fortress.
To the Director: A special Davidic psalm to the tune of[g] “Lily of The Covenant,” for teaching about his battle with Aram-naharaim and Aram-zobah, when Joab returned and attacked 12,000 Edomites in the Salt Valley.[h]
A Prayer for God’s Help against Adversaries
60 God, you have cast us off;
you have breached our defenses
and you have become enraged.
Return to us!
2 You made the earth quake;
you broke it open.
Repair its fractures,
because it has shifted.
3 You made your people go through hard times;
you had us drink wine that makes us stagger.
4 But you have given a banner to those who fear you,
so they may display it in honor of truth.[i]
5 So your loved ones may be delivered,
save us by your power[j]
and answer us quickly!
6 Then God spoke in his holiness,
“I will rejoice—
I will divide Shechem;
I will portion out the Succoth Valley.
7 Gilead belongs to me,
and Manasseh is mine.
Ephraim is my helmet,
and Judah my scepter.
8 Moab is my wash basin;
over Edom I will throw my shoes;
over Philistia I will celebrate my triumph.”
9 Who will lead me to the fortified city?
Who will lead me to Edom?
10 Aren’t you the one, God, who has cast us off?
Didn’t you refuse, God, to accompany our armies?
To the Director: A Davidic Psalm.
God’s Revelation in the Heavens
19 The heavens are declaring the glory of God,
and their expanse shows the work of his hands.
2 Day after day they pour forth speech,
night after night they reveal knowledge.
3 There is no speech nor are there words—
their voice is not heard—
4 yet their message[a] goes out into all the world,
and their words to the ends of the earth.
He has set up a tent for the sun in the heavens,[b]
5 which is like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber,
or like a champion who rejoices at the beginning of a race.
6 Its circuit is from one end of the sky to the other,
and nothing is hidden from its heat.
God’s Revelation in the Law
7 The Law of the Lord is perfect,
restoring life.
The testimony of the Lord is steadfast,
making foolish people wise.
8 The precepts of the Lord are upright,
making the heart rejoice.
The commandment of the Lord is pure,
giving light to the eyes.
9 The fear of the Lord is clean,
standing forever.
The judgments of the Lord are true;
they are altogether righteous.
10 They are more desirable than gold,
even much fine gold.
They are sweeter than honey,
even the drippings from a honeycomb.
11 Moreover your servant is warned by them;
and there is great reward in keeping them.
12 Who can detect his own[c] mistake?
Cleanse me from hidden sin.
13 Preserve your servant from arrogant people;[d]
do not let them rule over me.
Then I will be upright[e]
and acquitted of great wickedness.
14 May the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart
be acceptable in your sight, Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer.
To the Director: A song by the Sons of Korah, to the tune of[a] “The Maidens”.
God is the Refuge of His People
46 God is our refuge and strength,
a great help in times of distress.
2 Therefore we will not be frightened
when the earth roars,
when the mountains shake in the depths of the seas,
3 when its waters roar and rage,
when the mountains tremble despite their pride.[b]
4 Look! There is a river
whose streams make the city of God rejoice,
even the Holy Place of the Most High.
5 Since God is in her midst,
she will not be shaken.
God will help her
at the break of dawn.
6 The nations roared;
the kingdoms were shaken.
His voice boomed;
the earth melts.
7 The Lord of the heavenly armies is with us;
our refuge is the God of Jacob.
8 Come, observe the mighty works of the Lord,
who causes desolation in the earth.
9 He causes wars to cease all over[c] the earth,
he causes the bow to break, the spear to snap,
the chariots to ignite and burn.
10 Be in awe and know that I am God.
I will be exalted among the nations.
I will be exalted throughout the earth.
11 The Lord of the heavenly armies is with us;
the God of Jacob is our refuge.
Joseph is Delivered to Potiphar
39 Meanwhile, Joseph had been delivered to Egypt and turned over to Potiphar, one of Pharaoh’s court officials and the Commander-in-Chief of the imperial guards. An Egyptian, he bought Joseph from the Ishmaelites, who had brought him down there.
2 But the Lord was with Joseph. He became a very prosperous man while in the house of his Egyptian master, 3 who could see that the Lord was with Joseph,[a] because the Lord made everything prosper that Joseph[b] did. 4 That’s how Joseph pleased Potiphar[c] as he served him. Eventually, Potiphar appointed Joseph as overseer of his entire household. Moreover, he entrusted everything that he owned into his care.[d] 5 From the time he appointed Joseph to be overseer over his entire household and everything that he owned, the Lord blessed the household of the Egyptian because of Joseph. The Lord’s blessing rested on Joseph,[e] whether in Potiphar’s household or in Potiphar’s fields. 6 Everything that he owned, he entrusted into Joseph’s care. He never concerned himself about anything, except for the food he ate.
Potiphar’s Wife Accuses Joseph
Now Joseph was well built and good looking. 7 That’s why, sometime later, Joseph’s master’s wife looked straight at Joseph and propositioned him: “Come on! Let’s have a little sex!”[f]
8 But he refused, telling his master’s wife, “Look! My master doesn’t have to worry about anything in the house with me in charge, and he has entrusted everything into my care. 9 No one has more authority in this house than I do. He has withheld nothing from me, except you, and that’s because you’re his wife. So how can I commit such a horrible evil? How can I sin against God?”
10 She kept on talking to him like this day after day, but he wouldn’t listen to her. Not only would he refuse to have sex with her, he refused even to stay around her. 11 One day, though,[g] he went into the house to do his work. None of the household servants[h] were inside, 12 so she grabbed Joseph[i] by his outer garment and demanded “Let’s have some sex!”
Instead, Joseph ran outside, leaving his outer garment still in her hand. 13 When she realized that he had left his outer garment right there in her hand, she ran outside 14 and yelled for her household servants. “Look!” she cried out. “My husband[j] brought in a Hebrew man to humiliate us. He came in here to have sex with me, but I screamed out loud! 15 When he heard me starting to scream, he left his outer garment with me and fled outside.” 16 She kept his outer garment by her side until Joseph’s master came home, 17 and then this is what she told him: “That Hebrew slave whom you brought to us came in here to rape[k] me. 18 But when I started to scream, he left his outer garment with me and ran outside.”
Joseph is Locked in Prison
19 When Joseph’s master heard his wife’s claim to the effect that “This is how your servant treated me,” he flew into a rage, 20 arrested Joseph, and locked him up in the same prison where the king’s prisoners were confined. So Joseph remained there in prison.
21 But the Lord was with Joseph. He extended gracious love to him, causing the prison warden to be pleased with Joseph.[l] 22 So the prison warden entrusted into Joseph’s care all the prisoners who were confined in prison. Whatever they did, Joseph was in charge of the work detail.[m] 23 The prison warden did not have to worry about anything under Joseph’s care, because the Lord was with him. That’s why Joseph prospered in everything he did.
14 A person who isn’t spiritual doesn’t accept the things of God’s Spirit, for they are nonsense to him. He can’t understand them because they are spiritually evaluated. 15 The spiritual person evaluates everything but is subject to no one else’s evaluation. 16 For
However, we have the mind of the Messiah.[c]
Spiritual Immaturity
3 Brothers, I couldn’t talk to you as spiritual people but as worldly people, as mere infants in the Messiah.[d] 2 I gave you milk to drink, not solid food, because you weren’t ready for it. And you’re still not ready! 3 That’s because you are still worldly. As long as there is jealousy and quarreling among you, you are worldly and living by human standards, aren’t you? 4 For when one person says, “I follow Paul,” and another person says, “I follow Apollos,” you’re following[e] your own human nature, aren’t you?
5 Who is Apollos, anyhow? Or who is Paul? They’re merely servants through whom you came to believe, as the Lord gave to each of us his task. 6 I planted, Apollos watered, but God kept everything growing. 7 So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is significant, but God, who keeps everything growing, is the one who matters. 8 The one who plants and the one who waters have the same goal, and each will receive a reward for his own action. 9 For we are God’s co-workers. You are God’s farmland and God’s building.
The Messiah is Our Foundation
10 As an expert builder using the grace that God gave me, I laid the foundation, and someone else is building on it. But each person must be careful how he builds on it. 11 After all, no one can lay any other foundation than the one that is already laid, and that is Jesus the Messiah.[f] 12 Whether a person builds on this foundation with gold, silver, expensive stones, wood, hay, or straw, 13 the workmanship of each person will become evident, for the day of judgment[g] will show what it is, because it will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person’s action. 14 If what a person has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward.[h] 15 If his work is burned up, he will suffer loss. However, he himself will be saved, but it will be like going through fire.
Jesus Heals a Paralyzed Man(A)
2 Several days later, Jesus[a] returned to Capernaum and it was reported that he was at home. 2 Such a large crowd gathered that there wasn’t room for them, even in front of the door. Jesus[b] was speaking his message to them 3 when some people[c] came and brought him a paralyzed man being carried by four men. 4 Since they couldn’t bring him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof over the place where he was. They dug through it and let down the mat on which the paralyzed man was lying.
5 When Jesus saw their faith, he told the paralyzed man, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”
6 Now some scribes were sitting there, arguing among themselves,[d] 7 “Why does this man talk this way? He is blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?”
8 At once, Jesus knew in his spirit what they were saying to themselves. “Why are you arguing about such things among yourselves?”[e] he asked them. 9 “Which is easier: to say to the paralyzed man, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or ‘Get up, pick up your mat, and walk’? 10 But I want you to know[f] that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins…” Then he told the paralyzed man, 11 “I say to you, get up, pick up your mat, and go home!” 12 So the man[g] got up, immediately picked up his mat, and went out in front of all of them.
As a result, all of the people were amazed and began to glorify God as they kept on saying, “We have never seen anything like this!”
Copyright © 1995-2014 by ISV Foundation. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED INTERNATIONALLY. Used by permission of Davidson Press, LLC.