Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 30
A Psalm of David. A Song at the dedication of the temple.
1 I will extol You, O Lord, for You have drawn me up,
and have not caused my foes to rejoice over me.
2 O Lord my God, I cried to You,
and You healed me.
3 O Lord, You have brought up my soul from the grave;
You have kept me alive, that I should not go down to the pit.
4 Sing to the Lord, O you saints of His,
and give thanks at the remembrance of His holiness.
5 For His anger endures but a moment,
in His favor is life;
weeping may endure for a night,
but joy comes in the morning.
6 In my prosperity I said,
“I will never be moved.”
7 Lord, by Your favor
You had set me strong as a mountain;
You hid Your face,
and I was terrified.
8 I cried to You, O Lord,
and to the Lord I made supplication:
9 “What profit is there in my death,
if I go down to the pit?
Will the dust give You thanks?
Will it declare Your truth?
10 Hear, O Lord, and be gracious to me;
Lord, be my helper.”
11 For You have turned my mourning into dancing;
You have put off my sackcloth and girded me with gladness,
12 so that my glory may sing praise to You and not be silent.
O Lord my God, I will give thanks to You forever.
Psalm 32
A Psalm of David. A Contemplative Maskil.
1 Blessed is he
whose transgression is forgiven,
whose sin is covered.
2 Blessed is the man
against whom the Lord does not count iniquity,
and in whose spirit there is no deceit.
3 When I kept silent,
my bones wasted away
through my groaning all day long.
4 For day and night
Your hand was heavy on me;
my strength was changed
into the drought of summer. Selah
5 I acknowledged my sin to You,
and my iniquity I did not conceal.
I said, “I will confess
my transgressions to the Lord,”
and You forgave
the iniquity of my sin. Selah
6 For this cause everyone who is godly will pray to You
in a time when You may be found;
surely in the floods of great waters
they will not reach him.
7 You are my hiding place;
You will preserve me from trouble;
You will surround me with shouts of deliverance. Selah
8 I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go;
I will counsel you with my eye on you.
9 Do not be as the horse or as the mule
that are without understanding,
that must be restrained with bit and bridle,
or they will not come near you.
10 Many sorrows come to the wicked,
but lovingkindness will surround
the man who trusts in the Lord.
11 Be glad in the Lord, and rejoice, you righteous one;
and shout for joy, all you who are upright in heart!
BOOK TWO
Psalms 42–72
Psalm 42
For the Music Director. A Contemplative Maskil of the sons of Korah.
1 As the deer pants after the water brooks,
so my soul pants after You, O God.
2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
When will I come and appear before God?
3 My tears have been my food
day and night,
while they always say to me,
“Where is your God?”
4 When I remember these things,
I pour out my soul within me.
For I would travel with the throng of people;
I proceeded with them to the house of God,
with the voice of joy and thanks,
with a multitude making a pilgrimage.
5 Why are you cast down, O my soul?
And why are you disquieted in me?
Hope in God,
for I will yet thank Him
for the help of His presence.
6 O my God, my soul is cast down within me;
therefore I will remember You
from the land of Jordan,
and of the Hermon, from the hill of Mizar.
7 Deep calls to deep
at the noise of Your waterfalls;
all Your waves and Your billows
passed over me.
8 Yet the Lord will command His lovingkindness in the daytime,
and in the night His song will be with me,
a prayer to the God of my life.
9 I will say to God, my rock,
“Why have You forgotten me?
Why do I go mourning
because of the oppression of the enemy?”
10 With shattering in my bones,
those harassing me reproach me,
when they say to me every day,
“Where is your God?”
11 Why, my soul, are you cast down?
Why do you groan within me?
Wait for God;
I will yet thank Him,
For He is my deliverance and my God.
Psalm 43
1 Vindicate me, O God,
and plead my cause against an ungodly nation;
deliver me from the deceitful and unjust man.
2 For You are the God of my refuge;
why have You rejected me?
Why do I walk about mourning
because of the oppression of the enemy?
3 Send out Your light and Your truth.
Let them lead me;
let them bring me to Your holy hill,
and to Your dwelling place.
4 Then I will go to the altar of God,
to the God of my joyful gladness;
with the harp I will give thanks to You,
O God, my God.
5 Why are you cast down, O my soul?
And why are you disquieted within me?
Hope in God;
for I will yet give Him thanks,
the salvation of my countenance and my God.
22 These are the words the Lord spoke to all your assembly at the mountain out from the midst of the fire, the cloud, and the thick darkness with a great voice, and He added no more. He wrote them on two tablets of stone and gave them to me.
23 When you heard the voice out of the midst of the darkness, while the mountain did burn with fire, you came near to me, all the heads of your tribes, and your elders. 24 You said, “See, the Lord our God has shown us His glory and His greatness, and we have heard His voice from the midst of the fire. We have seen this day that God speaks with man, yet he lives. 25 Now, therefore, why should we die? For this great fire will consume us. If we hear the voice of the Lord our God any more, then we will die. 26 For who is there of all flesh who has heard the voice of the living God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as we have, and lived? 27 Go near and hear all that the Lord our God will say. Then speak to us all that the Lord our God will speak to you, and we will hear and do it.”
28 The Lord heard the sound of your words when you spoke to me, and the Lord said to me, “I have heard the sound of the words of this people which they have spoken to you. They have done well in all that they have spoken. 29 O that there were such a heart in them that they would fear Me and always keep all My commandments, that it might be well with them and with their children forever!
30 “Go say to them, ‘Return to your tents.’ 31 But as for you, stand here by Me, so that I may speak to you all the commandments, and the statutes, and the ordinances which you shall teach them, that they may keep them in the land which I am giving them to possess.”
32 Therefore, be careful to do as the Lord your God has commanded you. You shall not turn aside to the right hand or to the left. 33 You shall walk in all the ways which the Lord your God has commanded you, so that you may live and that it may be well with you, and that you may prolong your days in the land which you shall possess.
13 We have the same spirit of faith. As it is written, “I believed, and therefore I have spoken.”[a] So we also believe and therefore speak, 14 knowing that He who raised the Lord Jesus will also raise us through Jesus and will present us with you. 15 All these things are for your sakes, so that the abundant grace through the thanksgiving of many might overflow to the glory of God.
Living by Faith
16 For this reason we do not lose heart: Even though our outward man is perishing, yet our inward man is being renewed day by day. 17 Our light affliction, which lasts but for a moment, works for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, 18 while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.
5 We know that if our earthly house, this tent, were to be destroyed, we have an eternal building of God in the heavens, a house not made with hands. 2 In this one we groan, earnestly desiring to be sheltered with our house which is from heaven. 3 Thus being sheltered, we shall not be found unsheltered. 4 For we who are in this tent groan, being burdened, not because we wish to be unclothed, but to be further clothed, so that what is mortal might be swallowed up by life. 5 Now He who has created us for this very thing is God, who also has given to us the guarantee of the Spirit.
6 Therefore we are always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord. 7 For we walk by faith, not by sight. 8 Instead, I say that we are confident and willing to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord. 9 So whether present or absent, we labor that we may be accepted by Him. 10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive his recompense in the body, according to what he has done, whether it was good or bad.
The Rich Man and Lazarus
19 “There was a rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and fared sumptuously every day. 20 There was also a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores, who had been placed at his gate, 21 desiring to be fed the crumbs falling from the rich man’s table. Moreover the dogs came and licked his sores.
22 “It came to pass that the beggar died and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s presence. The rich man also died and was buried. 23 In Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham from a distance and Lazarus in his presence. 24 So he cried out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue. For I am tormented in this flame.’
25 “But Abraham said, ‘Son, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner evil things. But now he is comforted and you are tormented. 26 And besides all this, between us and you there is a great gulf, so that those who would pass from here to you cannot, nor can those from there pass to us.’
27 “He said, ‘Then I pray you, father, to send him to my father’s house, 28 for I have five brothers, to testify to them, lest they also come to this place of torment.’
29 “Abraham said to him, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets. Let them hear them.’
30 “He said, ‘No, father Abraham. But if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’
31 “He said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be persuaded if someone should rise from the dead.’ ”
The Holy Bible, Modern English Version. Copyright © 2014 by Military Bible Association. Published and distributed by Charisma House.