Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 63
Praise God Who Satisfies
A Davidic psalm. When he was in the Wilderness of Judah.(A)
1 God, You are my God; I eagerly seek You.
I thirst for You;
my body faints for You
in a land that is dry, desolate, and without water.(B)
2 So I gaze on You in the sanctuary
to see Your strength and Your glory.(C)
3 My lips will glorify You
because Your faithful love is better than life.(D)
4 So I will praise You as long as I live;
at Your name, I will lift up my hands.(E)
5 You satisfy me as with rich food;[a](F)
my mouth will praise You with joyful lips.(G)
Psalm 98
Praise the King
A psalm.
1 Sing a new song to the Lord,(A)
for He has performed wonders;
His right hand and holy arm
have won Him victory.(B)
2 The Lord has made His victory known;
He has revealed His righteousness
in the sight of the nations.(C)
3 He has remembered His love
and faithfulness to the house of Israel;
all the ends of the earth
have seen our God’s victory.(D)
Psalm 103
The Forgiving God
Davidic.
1 My soul, praise Yahweh,
and all that is within me, praise His holy name.(A)
2 My soul, praise the Lord,
and do not forget all His benefits.(B)
3 He forgives all your sin;(C)
He heals all your diseases.(D)
4 He redeems your life from the Pit;(E)
He crowns you with faithful love and compassion.(F)
5 He satisfies you[a] with goodness;(G)
your youth is renewed like the eagle.(H)
6 The Lord executes acts of righteousness
and justice for all the oppressed.(I)
7 He revealed His ways to Moses,(J)
His deeds to the people of Israel.(K)
8 The Lord is compassionate and gracious,
slow to anger and rich in faithful love.(L)
9 He will not always accuse us
or be angry forever.(M)
10 He has not dealt with us as our sins deserve
or repaid us according to our offenses.(N)
11 For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
so great is His faithful love
toward those who fear Him.(O)
12 As far as the east is from the west,
so far has He removed
our transgressions from us.(P)
13 As a father has compassion on his children,
so the Lord has compassion on those who fear Him.(Q)
14 For He knows what we are made of,
remembering that we are dust.(R)
15 As for man, his days are like grass—
he blooms like a flower of the field;(S)
16 when the wind passes over it, it vanishes,
and its place is no longer known.[b](T)
17 But from eternity to eternity
the Lord’s faithful love is toward those who fear Him,
and His righteousness toward the grandchildren(U)
18 of those who keep His covenant,
who remember to observe His precepts.(V)
19 The Lord has established His throne in heaven,
and His kingdom rules over all.(W)
Remember the Lord
8 “You must carefully follow every command I am giving you today, so that you may live and increase, and may enter and take possession of the land(A) the Lord swore to your fathers. 2 Remember that the Lord your God led you on the entire journey these 40 years in the wilderness, so that He might humble you and test you to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep His commands. 3 He humbled you by letting you go hungry; then He gave you manna to eat, which you and your fathers had not known, so that you might learn that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.(B) 4 Your clothing did not wear out, and your feet did not swell these 40 years.(C) 5 Keep in mind that the Lord your God has been disciplining you just as a man disciplines his son. 6 So keep the commands of the Lord your God by walking in His ways and fearing Him. 7 For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land,(D) a land with streams of water, springs, and deep water sources, flowing in both valleys and hills; 8 a land of wheat, barley, vines, figs, and pomegranates; a land of olive oil and honey; 9 a land where you will eat food without shortage, where you will lack nothing; a land whose rocks are iron and from whose hills you will mine copper. 10 When you eat and are full,(E) you will praise the Lord your God for the good land(F) He has given you.
17 For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to evangelize—not with clever words, so that the cross(A) of Christ will not be emptied of its effect.
Christ the Power and Wisdom of God
18 For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but it is God’s power to us who are being saved.(B) 19 For it is written:
20 Where is the philosopher?[b] Where is the scholar? Where is the debater of this age?(D) Hasn’t God made the world’s wisdom foolish? 21 For since, in God’s wisdom, the world did not know God through wisdom, God was pleased to save those who believe through the foolishness of the message preached. 22 For the Jews ask for signs(E) and the Greeks seek wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified,(F) a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Gentiles.[c] 24 Yet to those who are called,(G) both Jews and Greeks, Christ is God’s power and God’s wisdom, 25 because God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.
Boasting Only in the Lord
26 Brothers, consider your calling: Not many are wise from a human perspective,[d] not many powerful,(H) not many of noble birth. 27 Instead, God has chosen(I) what is foolish in the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen what is weak in the world to shame the strong. 28 God has chosen what is insignificant and despised in the world(J)—what is viewed as nothing—to bring to nothing what is viewed as something, 29 so that no one[e] can boast in His presence.(K) 30 But it is from Him that you are in Christ Jesus, who became God-given wisdom for us—our righteousness,(L) sanctification,(M) and redemption,(N) 31 in order that, as it is written:(O) The one who boasts must boast in the Lord.(P)[f]
A Question about Fasting
18 Now(A) John’s(B) disciples(C) and the Pharisees[a](D) were fasting.(E) People came and asked Him, “Why do John’s disciples and the Pharisees’ disciples fast, but Your disciples do not fast?”
19 Jesus said to them, “The wedding guests[b] cannot fast while the groom(F) is with them, can they? As long as they have the groom with them, they cannot fast. 20 But the time[c] will come(G) when the groom is taken away from them,(H) and then they will fast(I) in that day. 21 No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. Otherwise, the new patch pulls away from the old cloth,(J) and a worse tear is made. 22 And no one puts new wine(K) into old wineskins. Otherwise, the wine will burst(L) the skins, and the wine is lost as well as the skins.[d] But new wine is for fresh wineskins.”
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