Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 41
Victory in Spite of Betrayal
For the choir director. A Davidic psalm.
1 Happy is one who cares for the poor;
the Lord will save him in a day of adversity.(A)
2 The Lord will keep him and preserve him;
he will be blessed in the land.(B)
You will not give him over to the desire of his enemies.(C)
3 The Lord will sustain him on his sickbed;
You will heal him on the bed where he lies.(D)
4 I said, “Lord, be gracious to me;
heal me, for I have sinned against You.”(E)
5 My enemies speak maliciously about me:
“When will he die and be forgotten?”(F)
6 When one of them comes to visit, he speaks deceitfully;
he stores up evil in his heart;
he goes out and talks.(G)
7 All who hate me whisper together about me;
they plan to harm me.(H)
8 “Lethal poison has been poured into him,
and he won’t rise again from where he lies!”(I)
9 Even my friend[a] in whom I trusted,
one who ate my bread,
has raised his heel against me.(J)
10 But You, Lord, be gracious to me and raise me up;
then I will repay them.(K)
11 By this I know that You delight in me:(L)
my enemy does not shout in triumph over me.(M)
12 You supported me because of my integrity(N)
and set me in Your presence forever.(O)
13 May Yahweh, the God of Israel, be praised
from everlasting to everlasting.
Amen and amen.(P)
Psalm 52
God Judges the Proud
For the choir director. A Davidic Maskil. When Doeg the Edomite went and reported to Saul, telling him, “David went to Ahimelech’s house.”(A)
1 Why brag about evil, you hero!(B)
God’s faithful love is constant.(C)
2 Like a sharpened razor,
your tongue devises destruction,
working treachery.(D)
3 You love evil instead of good,
lying instead of speaking truthfully.(E)
4 You love any words that destroy,
you treacherous tongue!(F)
5 This is why God will bring you down forever.
He will take you, ripping you out of your tent;
He will uproot you from the land of the living.(G)
6 The righteous will look on with awe
and will ridicule him:(H)
7 “Here is the man
who would not make God his refuge,
but trusted in the abundance of his riches,
taking refuge in his destructive behavior.”[a](I)
Psalm 44
Israel’s Complaint
For the choir director. A Maskil of the sons of Korah.
1 God, we have heard with our ears—
our ancestors have told us—
the work You accomplished in their days,
in days long ago:(A)
2 to plant them,
You drove out the nations with Your hand;
to settle them,
You crushed the peoples.(B)
3 For they did not take the land by their sword—
their arm did not bring them victory—
but by Your right hand, Your arm,
and the light of Your face,
for You were pleased with them.(C)
4 You are my King, my God,
who ordains[a] victories for Jacob.(D)
5 Through You we drive back our foes;
through Your name we trample our enemies.(E)
6 For I do not trust in my bow,
and my sword does not bring me victory.(F)
7 But You give us victory over our foes
and let those who hate us be disgraced.(G)
8 We boast in God all day long;
we will praise Your name forever.(H)
9 But You have rejected and humiliated us;
You do not march out with our armies.(I)
10 You make us retreat from the foe,
and those who hate us
have taken plunder for themselves.(J)
11 You hand us over to be eaten like sheep
and scatter us among the nations.(K)
12 You sell Your people for nothing;
You make no profit from selling them.(L)
13 You make us an object of reproach to our neighbors,
a source of mockery and ridicule to those around us.(M)
14 You make us a joke among the nations,
a laughingstock[b] among the peoples.(N)
15 My disgrace is before me all day long,
and shame has covered my face,(O)
16 because of the voice of the scorner and reviler,
because of the enemy and avenger.(P)
17 All this has happened to us,
but we have not forgotten You
or betrayed Your covenant.(Q)
18 Our hearts have not turned back;
our steps have not strayed from Your path.(R)
19 But You have crushed us in a haunt of jackals
and have covered us with deepest darkness.(S)
20 If we had forgotten the name of our God
and spread out our hands to a foreign god,(T)
21 wouldn’t God have found this out,
since He knows the secrets of the heart?(U)
22 Because of You we are slain all day long;
we are counted as sheep to be slaughtered.(V)
The Emptiness of Pleasure
2 I said to myself, “Go ahead, I will test you with pleasure;(A) enjoy what is good.” But it turned out to be futile. 2 I said about laughter,(B) “It is madness,” and about pleasure, “What does this accomplish?” 3 I explored with my mind how to let my body enjoy life[a] with wine(C) and how to grasp folly(D)—my mind still guiding me with wisdom—until I could see what is good for people to do under heaven[b] during the few days of their lives.(E)
The Emptiness of Possessions
4 I increased my achievements. I built houses(F) and planted vineyards(G) for myself. 5 I made gardens(H) and parks for myself and planted every kind of fruit tree in them. 6 I constructed reservoirs of water for myself from which to irrigate a grove of flourishing trees.(I) 7 I acquired male and female servants and had slaves who were born in my house.(J) I also owned many herds of cattle and flocks, more than all who were before me in Jerusalem.(K) 8 I also amassed silver and gold for myself, and the treasure of kings and provinces.(L) I gathered male and female singers for myself,(M) and many concubines, the delights of men.[c][d] 9 So I became great and surpassed all who were before me in Jerusalem;(N) my wisdom also remained with me. 10 All that my eyes desired, I did not deny them.(O) I did not refuse myself any pleasure, for I took pleasure in all my struggles. This was my reward for all my struggles.(P) 11 When I considered all that I had accomplished[e] and what I had labored to achieve, I found everything to be futile and a pursuit of the wind.(Q) There was nothing to be gained under the sun.(R)
The Relative Value of Wisdom
12 Then I turned to consider wisdom,(S) madness, and folly, for what will the man be like who comes after the king? He[f] will do what has already been done.(T) 13 And I realized that there is an advantage to wisdom over folly, like the advantage of light over darkness.(U)
14 The wise man has eyes in his head,
but the fool walks in darkness.(V)
Yet I also knew that one fate comes to them both.(W) 15 So I said to myself, “What happens to the fool will also happen to me. Why then have I been overly wise?”(X) And I said to myself that this is also futile.
Greeting
1 Paul,(A) an apostle—not from men or by man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father(B) who raised Him from the dead(C)— 2 and all the brothers who are with me:
To the churches of Galatia.[a](D)
3 Grace to you and peace from God the Father and our Lord[b] Jesus Christ, 4 who gave Himself for our sins(E) to rescue us from this present evil age,(F) according to the will of our God and Father.(G) 5 To whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.
No Other Gospel
6 I am amazed that you are so quickly turning away from Him who called(H) you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— 7 not that there is another gospel,(I) but there are some(J) who are troubling you and want to change the good news[c] about the Messiah. 8 But even if we or an angel(K) from heaven should preach to you a gospel other than what we have preached to you,(L) a curse be on him![d] 9 As we have said before, I now say again: If anyone preaches to you a gospel contrary to what you received,(M) a curse be on him!
10 For am I now trying to win the favor of people, or God?(N) Or am I striving to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a slave of Christ.
Paul Defends His Apostleship
11 Now I want you to know, brothers, that the gospel preached by me is not based on human thought.[e] 12 For I did not receive it from a human source and I was not taught it, but it came by a revelation(O) from Jesus Christ.(P)
13 For you have heard about my former way of life(Q) in Judaism:(R) I persecuted(S) God’s church to an extreme degree and tried to destroy it. 14 I advanced in Judaism beyond many contemporaries among my people, because I was extremely zealous for the traditions of my ancestors.(T) 15 But when God, who from my birth set me apart and called(U) me by His grace, was pleased 16 to reveal His Son(V) in me, so that I could preach Him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult with anyone.[f] 17 I did not go up to Jerusalem(W) to those who had become apostles(X) before me; instead I went to Arabia(Y) and came back to Damascus.(Z)
The Parables of the Hidden Treasure and of the Priceless Pearl
44 “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure, buried in a field, that a man found and reburied. Then in his joy he goes and sells everything he has and buys that field.(A)
45 “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls. 46 When he found one priceless[a] pearl, he went and sold everything he had, and bought it.(B)
The Parable of the Net
47 “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a large net thrown into the sea. It collected every kind of fish,(C) 48 and when it was full, they dragged it ashore, sat down, and gathered the good fish into containers, but threw out the worthless ones. 49 So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will go out, separate the evil people from the righteous,(D) 50 and throw them into the blazing furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.(E)
The Storehouse of Truth
51 “Have you understood all these things?”[b]
“Yes,” they told Him.
52 “Therefore,” He said to them, “every student of Scripture[c] instructed in the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who brings out of his storeroom what is new and what is old.”(F)
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