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!
11 A reed [as a measuring rod] was then given to me, [shaped] like a staff, and I was told: Rise up and measure the sanctuary of God and the altar [of incense], and [number] those who worship there.(A)
2 But leave out of your measuring the court outside the sanctuary of God; omit that, for it is given over to the Gentiles (the nations), and they will trample the holy city underfoot for 42 months (three and one-half years).(B)
3 And I will grant the power of prophecy to My two witnesses for 1,260 (42 months; three and one-half years), dressed in sackcloth.
4 These [witnesses] are the two olive trees and the two lampstands which stand before the Lord of the earth.(C)
5 And if anyone attempts to injure them, fire pours from their mouth and consumes their enemies; if anyone should attempt to harm them, thus he is doomed to be slain.(D)
6 These [two witnesses] have power to shut up the sky, so that no rain may fall during the days of their prophesying (their [a]prediction of events relating to Christ’s kingdom and its speedy triumph); and they also have power to turn the waters into blood and to smite and scourge the earth with all manner of plagues as often as they choose.(E)
7 But when they have finished their testimony and their evidence is all in, the beast (monster) that comes up out of the Abyss (bottomless pit) will wage war on them, and conquer them and kill them.(F)
8 And their dead bodies [will lie exposed] in the open street ([b]a public square) of the great city which is in a spiritual sense called [by the mystical and allegorical names of] Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified.(G)
9 For three and a half days men from the races and tribes and languages and nations will gaze at their dead bodies and will not allow them to be put in a tomb.
10 And those who dwell on the earth will gloat and exult over them and rejoice exceedingly, taking their ease and sending presents [in congratulation] to one another, because these two prophets had been such a vexation and trouble and torment to all the dwellers on the earth.
11 But after three and a half days, by God’s gift the breath of life again entered into them, and they rose up on their feet, and great dread and terror fell on those who watched them.(H)
12 Then [the two witnesses] heard a strong voice from heaven calling to them, Come up here! And before the very eyes of their enemies they ascended into heaven in a cloud.(I)
13 And at that [very] hour there was a tremendous earthquake and one tenth of the city was destroyed (fell); seven thousand people perished in the earthquake, and those who remained were filled with dread and terror and were awe-struck, and they glorified the God of heaven.
14 The second woe (calamity) has passed; now the third woe is speedily to come.
14 Now Jesus was driving out a demon that was dumb; and it occurred that when the demon had gone out, the dumb man spoke. And the crowds marveled.
15 But some of them said, He drives out demons [because He is in league with and] by Beelzebub, the prince of demons,
16 While others, to try and test and tempt Him, demanded a sign of Him from heaven.
17 But He, [well] aware of their intent and purpose, said to them, Every kingdom split up against itself is doomed and brought to desolation, and so house falls upon house. [The disunited household will collapse.]
18 And if Satan also is divided against himself, how will his kingdom last? For you say that I expel demons with the help of and by Beelzebub.
19 Now if I expel demons with the help of and by Beelzebub, with whose help and by whom do your sons drive them out? Therefore they shall be your judges.
20 But if I drive out the demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has [already] come upon you.
21 When the strong man, fully armed, [[a]from his courtyard] guards his own dwelling, his belongings are undisturbed [his property is at peace and is secure].
22 But when one stronger than he attacks him and conquers him, he robs him of his whole armor on which he had relied and divides up and distributes all his goods as plunder (spoil).
23 He who is not with Me [siding and believing with Me] is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me [engage in My interest], scatters.
24 When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it roams through waterless places in search [of a place] of rest (release, refreshment, ease); and finding none it says, I will go back to my house from which I came.
25 And when it arrives, it finds [the place] swept and put in order and furnished and decorated.
26 And it goes and brings other spirits, seven [of them], more evil than itself, and they enter in, settle down, and dwell there; and the last state of that person is worse than the first.
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