Book of Common Prayer
Zayin.
49 Remember the word to Your servant,
[a]In which You have made me hope.
50 This is my (A)comfort in my affliction,
That Your word has [b]revived me.
51 The arrogant (B)utterly deride me,
Yet I do not (C)turn aside from Your law.
52 I have (D)remembered Your ordinances from [c]of old, O Lord,
And comfort myself.
53 Burning (E)indignation has seized me because of the wicked,
Who (F)forsake Your law.
54 Your statutes are my songs
In the house of my (G)pilgrimage.
55 O Lord, I (H)remember Your name (I)in the night,
And keep Your law.
56 This has become mine,
[d]That I (J)observe Your precepts.
Heth.
57 The Lord is my (K)portion;
I have [e]promised to (L)keep Your words.
58 I (M)sought Your favor (N)with all my heart;
(O)Be gracious to me (P)according to Your [f]word.
59 I (Q)considered my ways
And turned my feet to Your testimonies.
60 I hastened and did not delay
To keep Your commandments.
61 The (R)cords of the wicked have encircled me,
But I have (S)not forgotten Your law.
62 At (T)midnight I shall rise to give thanks to You
Because of Your (U)righteous ordinances.
63 I am a (V)companion of all those who [g]fear You,
And of those who keep Your precepts.
64 (W)The earth is full of Your lovingkindness, O Lord;
(X)Teach me Your statutes.
Teth.
65 You have dealt well with Your servant,
O Lord, according to Your word.
66 Teach me good [h](Y)discernment and knowledge,
For I believe in Your commandments.
67 (Z)Before I was afflicted I went astray,
But now I keep Your word.
68 You are (AA)good and (AB)do good;
(AC)Teach me Your statutes.
69 The arrogant [i]have (AD)forged a lie against me;
With all my heart I will (AE)observe Your precepts.
70 Their heart is [j](AF)covered with fat,
But I (AG)delight in Your law.
71 It is (AH)good for me that I was afflicted,
That I may learn Your statutes.
72 The (AI)law of Your mouth is better to me
Than thousands of gold and silver pieces.
The Folly of Trusting in Riches.
For the choir director. A Psalm of the sons of Korah.
49 (A)Hear this, all peoples;
Give ear, all (B)inhabitants of the world,
2 Both (C)low and high,
Rich and poor together.
3 My mouth will (D)speak wisdom,
And the meditation of my heart will be (E)understanding.
4 I will incline my ear to (F)a proverb;
(G)I will [a]express my (H)riddle on the harp.
5 Why should I (I)fear in days of adversity,
When the iniquity of my [b]foes surrounds me,
6 Even those who (J)trust in their wealth
And boast in the abundance of their riches?
7 No man can by any means (K)redeem his brother
Or give to God a (L)ransom for him—
8 For (M)the redemption of [c]his soul is costly,
And he should cease trying forever—
9 That he should (N)live on eternally,
That he should not [d](O)undergo decay.
10 For he sees that even (P)wise men die;
The (Q)stupid and the senseless alike perish
And (R)leave their wealth to others.
11 Their [e](S)inner thought is that their houses (T)are forever
And their dwelling places to all generations;
They have (U)called their lands after their own names.
12 But (V)man in his [f]pomp will not endure;
He is like the [g]beasts that [h]perish.
13 This is the (W)way of those who are foolish,
And of those after them who (X)approve their words. [i]Selah.
14 As sheep they are appointed (Y)for [j]Sheol;
Death shall be their shepherd;
And the (Z)upright shall rule over them in the morning,
And their form shall be for [k]Sheol (AA)to consume
[l]So that they have no habitation.
15 But God will (AB)redeem my soul from the [m]power of [n]Sheol,
For (AC)He will receive me. Selah.
16 Do not be afraid (AD)when a man becomes rich,
When the [o]glory of his house is increased;
17 For when he dies he will (AE)carry nothing away;
His [p]glory will not descend after him.
18 Though while he lives he (AF)congratulates [q]himself—
And though men praise you when you do well for yourself—
19 [r]He shall (AG)go to the generation of his fathers;
They will never see (AH)the light.
20 (AI)Man in his [s]pomp, yet without understanding,
Is (AJ)like the [t]beasts that [u]perish.
Folly and Wickedness of Men.
For the choir director; according to [a]Mahalath. A [b]Maskil of David.
53 (A)The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God,”
They are corrupt, and have committed abominable injustice;
(B)There is no one who does good.
2 God has looked down from heaven upon the sons of men
To see if there is (C)anyone who [c]understands,
Who (D)seeks after God.
3 (E)Every one of them has turned aside; together they have become corrupt;
There is no one who does good, not even one.
4 Have the workers of wickedness (F)no knowledge,
Who eat up My people as though they ate bread
And have not called upon God?
5 There they were in great [d]fear (G)where no [e]fear had been;
For God (H)scattered the bones of [f]him who encamped against you;
You (I)put them to shame, because (J)God had rejected them.
6 Oh, that (K)the salvation of Israel [g]would come out of Zion!
When God [h]restores His captive people,
[i]Let Jacob rejoice, let Israel be glad.
Shun Idolatry
13 “[a](A)If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder, 2 and the sign or the wonder comes true, concerning which he spoke to you, saying, ‘(B)Let us go after other gods (whom you have not known) and let us serve them,’ 3 you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams; for the Lord your God is (C)testing you to find out if (D)you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. 4 (E)You shall follow the Lord your God and fear Him; and you shall keep His commandments, listen to His voice, serve Him, and (F)cling to Him. 5 But that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be (G)put to death, because he has [b]counseled [c]rebellion against the Lord your God who brought you from the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of [d]slavery, (H)to seduce you from the way in which the Lord your God commanded you to walk. (I)So you shall purge the evil from among you.
6 “(J)If your brother, your mother’s son, or your son or daughter, or the wife [e]you cherish, or your friend who is as your own soul, entice you secretly, saying, ‘(K)Let us go and serve other gods’ (whom neither you nor your fathers have known, 7 of the gods of the peoples who are around you, near you or far from you, from one end of the earth to the other end), 8 (L)you shall not yield to him or listen to him; (M)and your eye shall not pity him, nor shall you spare or conceal him. 9 (N)But you shall surely kill him; (O)your hand shall be first against him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people. 10 So you shall stone him [f]to death because he has sought (P)to seduce you from the Lord your God who brought you out from the land of Egypt, out of the house of [g]slavery. 11 Then (Q)all Israel will hear and be afraid, and will never again do such a wicked thing among you.
2 (A)Make room for us in your hearts; we wronged no one, we corrupted no one, we took advantage of no one. 3 I do not speak to condemn you, for I have said (B)before that you are (C)in our hearts to die together and to live together. 4 Great is my (D)confidence [a]in you; great is my (E)boasting on your behalf. I am filled with (F)comfort; I am overflowing with (G)joy in all our affliction.
5 For even when we came into (H)Macedonia our flesh had no rest, but we were (I)afflicted on every side: (J)conflicts without, fears within. 6 But (K)God, who comforts the [b]depressed, (L)comforted us by the coming of (M)Titus; 7 and not only by his coming, but also by the comfort with which he was comforted in you, as he reported to us your longing, your mourning, your zeal for me; so that I rejoiced even more. 8 For though I (N)caused you sorrow by my letter, I do not regret it; though I did regret it—for I see that that letter caused you sorrow, though only for a while— 9 I now rejoice, not that you were made sorrowful, but that you were made sorrowful to the point of repentance; for you were made sorrowful according to the will of God, so that you might not suffer loss in anything [c]through us. 10 For the sorrow that is according to the will of God produces a (O)repentance [d]without regret, leading to salvation, but the sorrow of the world produces death. 11 For behold what earnestness this very thing, this [e]godly sorrow, has produced in you: what vindication of yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what (P)longing, what zeal, what (Q)avenging of wrong! In everything you (R)demonstrated yourselves to be innocent in the matter. 12 So although (S)I wrote to you, it was not for the sake of (T)the offender nor for the sake of the one offended, but that your earnestness on our behalf might be made known to you in the sight of God. 13 For this reason we have been (U)comforted.
And besides our comfort, we rejoiced even much more for the joy of (V)Titus, because his (W)spirit has been refreshed by you all. 14 For if in anything I have (X)boasted to him about you, I was not put to shame; but as we spoke all things to you in truth, so also our boasting before (Y)Titus proved to be the truth. 15 His [f]affection abounds all the more toward you, as he remembers the (Z)obedience of you all, how you received him with (AA)fear and trembling. 16 I rejoice that in everything (AB)I have confidence in you.
20 Now having been questioned by the Pharisees (A)as to when the kingdom of God was coming, He answered them and said, “The kingdom of God is not coming with [a](B)signs to be observed; 21 nor will (C)they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or, ‘There it is!’ For behold, the kingdom of God is [b]in your midst.”
Second Coming Foretold
22 And He said to the disciples, “(D)The days will come when you will long to see one of the days of the Son of Man, and you will not see it. 23 (E)They will say to you, ‘Look there! Look here!’ Do not go away, and do not run after them. 24 (F)For just like the lightning, when it flashes out of one part [c]of the sky, shines to the other part [d]of the sky, so will the Son of Man be in His day. 25 (G)But first He must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation. 26 (H)And just as it happened (I)in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man: 27 they were eating, they were drinking, they were marrying, they were being given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. 28 [e]It was the same as happened in (J)the days of Lot: they were eating, they were drinking, they were buying, they were selling, they were planting, they were building; 29 but on the day that Lot went out from Sodom it rained fire and [f]brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all. 30 It will be [g]just the same on the day that the Son of Man (K)is revealed. 31 On that day, the one who is (L)on the housetop and whose goods are in the house must not go down to take them out; and likewise the one who is in the field must not turn back. 32 (M)Remember Lot’s wife. 33 (N)Whoever seeks to keep his [h]life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it. 34 I tell you, on that night there will be two in one bed; one will be taken and the other will be left. 35 (O)There will be two women grinding at the same place; one will be taken and the other will be left. 36 [[i](P)Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other will be left.”] 37 And answering they *said to Him, “Where, Lord?” And He said to them, “(Q)Where the body is, there also the [j]vultures will be gathered.”
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