Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 72
Of Solomon.
72 God, give your judgments to the king.
Give your righteousness to the king’s son.
2 Let him judge your people with righteousness
and your poor ones with justice.
3 Let the mountains bring peace to the people;
let the hills bring righteousness.
4 Let the king bring justice to people who are poor;
let him save the children of those who are needy,
but let him crush oppressors!
5 Let the king live[a] as long as the sun,
as long as the moon,
generation to generation.
6 Let him fall like rain upon fresh-cut grass,
like showers that water the earth.
7 Let the righteous flourish throughout their lives,
and let peace prosper until the moon is no more.
8 Let the king rule from sea to sea,
from the river to the ends of the earth.
9 Let the desert dwellers bow low before him;
let his enemies lick the dust.
10 Let the kings of Tarshish and the islands bring tribute;
let the kings of Sheba and Seba present gifts.
11 Let all the kings bow down before him;
let all the nations serve him.
12 Let it be so, because he delivers the needy who cry out,
the poor, and those who have no helper.
13 He has compassion on the weak and the needy;
he saves the lives of those who are in need.
14 He redeems their lives from oppression and violence;
their blood is precious in his eyes.
15 Let the king live long!
Let Sheba’s gold be given to him!
Let him be prayed for always!
Let him be blessed all day long!
16 Let there be abundant grain in the land.
Let it wave on the mountaintops.
Let its fruit flourish like Lebanon.
Let it thrive like grass on the land.
17 Let the king’s name last forever.
Let his name endure as long as the sun.
Let all the nations be blessed through him and call him happy.
18 Bless the Lord God, the God of Israel—
the only one who does wondrous things!
19 Bless God’s glorious name forever;
let his glory fill all the earth!
Amen and Amen!
20 The prayers of David, Jesse’s son, are ended.
י yod
73 Your hands have made me and set me in place.
Help me understand so I can learn your commandments.
74 Then those who honor you will see me and be glad
because I have waited for your promise.
75 Lord, I know that your rules are right
and that you rightly made me suffer.
76 Please let your faithful love comfort me,
according to what you’ve said to your servant.
77 Let your compassion come to me so I can live again,
because your Instruction is my joy!
78 But let the arrogant be ashamed
because they oppressed me with lies—
meanwhile, I will be contemplating your precepts!
79 Let the people who honor you come back to me;
let those who know your precepts return to me.
80 Let my heart be blameless in your statutes
so that I am not put to shame.
כ kaf
81 My whole being yearns for your saving help!
I wait for your promise.
82 My eyes are worn out looking for your word.
“When will you comfort me?” I ask,
83 because I’ve become like a bottle dried up by smoke,
though I haven’t forgotten your statutes.
84 How much more time does your servant have?
When will you bring my oppressors to justice?
85 The arrogant have dug pits for me—
those people who act against your Instruction.
86 All your commandments are true,
but people harass me for no reason.
Help me!
87 They’ve almost wiped me off the face of the earth!
Meanwhile, I haven’t abandoned your precepts!
88 Make me live again according to your faithful love
so I can keep the law you’ve given!
ל lamed
89 Your word, Lord,
stands firm in heaven forever!
90 Your faithfulness extends from one generation to the next!
You set the earth firmly in place, and it is still there.
91 Your rules endure to this day
because everything serves you.
92 If your Instruction hadn’t been my delight,
I would have died because of my suffering.
93 I will never forget your precepts
because through them you gave me life again.
94 I’m yours—save me
because I’ve pursued your precepts!
95 The wicked wait for me,
wanting to kill me, but I’m studying your laws.
96 I’ve seen that everything,
no matter how perfect, has a limit,[a]
but your commandment is boundless.
Jehoshaphat and Ahab
22 For three years there was no war between Aram and the Israelites. 2 In the third year, Judah’s King Jehoshaphat visited Israel’s king. 3 Israel’s king said to his servants, “You know, don’t you, that Ramoth-gilead is ours? But we aren’t doing anything to take it back from the king of Aram.” 4 He said to Jehoshaphat, “Will you go with me into battle at Ramoth-gilead?”
Jehoshaphat said to Israel’s king, “I am with you, and my troops and my horses are united with yours. 5 But,” Jehoshaphat said to Israel’s king, “first let’s see what the Lord has to say.”
6 So Israel’s king gathered about four hundred prophets, and he asked them, “Should I go to war with Ramoth-gilead or not?”
“Attack!” the prophets answered. “The Lord will hand it over to the king.”
7 But Jehoshaphat said, “Isn’t there any other prophet of the Lord whom we could ask?”
8 “There is one other man who could ask the Lord for us,” Israel’s king told Jehoshaphat, “but I hate him because he never prophesies anything good about me, only bad. His name is Micaiah, Imlah’s son.”
“The king shouldn’t speak like that!” Jehoshaphat said.
9 So Israel’s king called an officer and ordered, “Bring Micaiah, Imlah’s son, right away.”
10 Now Israel’s king and Judah’s King Jehoshaphat were sitting on their thrones, dressed in their royal robes at the threshing floor beside the entrance to the gate of Samaria. All the prophets were prophesying in front of them. 11 Zedekiah, Chenaanah’s son, made iron horns for himself and said, “This is what the Lord says: With these horns you will gore the Arameans until there’s nothing left of them!”
12 All the other prophets agreed: “Attack Ramoth-gilead and win! The Lord will hand it over to the king!”
13 Meanwhile, the messenger who had gone to summon Micaiah said to him, “Listen, the prophets all agree that the king will succeed. You should say the same thing they say and prophesy success.”
14 But Micaiah answered, “As surely as the Lord lives, I will say only what the Lord tells me to say.”
15 When Micaiah arrived, the king asked him, “Micaiah, should we go to war with Ramoth-gilead or not?”
“Attack and win!” Micaiah answered. “The Lord will hand it over to the king!”
16 But the king said, “How many times must I demand that you tell me the truth when you speak in the name of the Lord?”
17 Then Micaiah replied, “I saw all Israel scattered on the hills like sheep without a shepherd! And then the Lord said: They have no master. Let them return safely to their own homes.”
18 Then Israel’s king said to Jehoshaphat, “Didn’t I tell you? He never prophesies anything good about me, only bad.”
19 Then Micaiah said, “Listen now to the Lord’s word: I saw the Lord enthroned with all the heavenly forces stationed beside him, at his right and at his left. 20 The Lord said, ‘Who will persuade Ahab so that he attacks Ramoth-gilead and dies there?’ There were many suggestions 21 until one particular spirit approached the Lord and said, ‘I’ll persuade him.’ ‘How?’ the Lord asked. 22 ‘I will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets,’ he said. The Lord agreed, ‘You will succeed in persuading him! Go ahead!’ 23 So now, since the Lord has placed a lying spirit in the mouths of every one of these prophets of yours, it is the Lord who has pronounced disaster against you!”
24 Zedekiah, Chenaanah’s son, approached Micaiah and slapped him on the cheek. “Just how did the Lord’s spirit leave me to speak to you?” he asked.
25 Micaiah answered, “You will find out on the day you try to hide in an inner room.”
26 “Arrest him,” ordered Israel’s king, “and turn him over to Amon the city official and to Joash the king’s son. 27 Tell them, ‘The king says: Put this man in prison and feed him minimum rations of bread and water until I return safely.’”
28 “If you ever return safely,” Micaiah replied, “then the Lord wasn’t speaking through me.” Then he added, “Pay attention, every last one of you!”
2 When I came to you, brothers and sisters, I didn’t come preaching God’s secrets to you like I was an expert in speech or wisdom. 2 I had made up my mind not to think about anything while I was with you except Jesus Christ, and to preach him as crucified. 3 I stood in front of you with weakness, fear, and a lot of shaking. 4 My message and my preaching weren’t presented with convincing wise words but with a demonstration of the Spirit and of power. 5 I did this so that your faith might not depend on the wisdom of people but on the power of God.
Definition of wisdom
6 What we say is wisdom to people who are mature. It isn’t a wisdom that comes from the present day or from today’s leaders who are being reduced to nothing. 7 We talk about God’s wisdom, which has been hidden as a secret. God determined this wisdom in advance, before time began, for our glory. 8 It is a wisdom that none of the present-day rulers have understood, because if they did understand it, they would never have crucified the Lord of glory! 9 But this is precisely what is written: God has prepared things for those who love him that no eye has seen, or ear has heard, or that haven’t crossed the mind of any human being.[a] 10 God has revealed these things to us through the Spirit. The Spirit searches everything, including the depths of God. 11 Who knows a person’s depths except their own spirit that lives in them? In the same way, no one has known the depths of God except God’s Spirit. 12 We haven’t received the world’s spirit but God’s Spirit so that we can know the things given to us by God. 13 These are the things we are talking about—not with words taught by human wisdom but with words taught by the Spirit—we are interpreting spiritual things to spiritual people.
Calling of the first disciples
18 As Jesus walked alongside the Galilee Sea, he saw two brothers, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew, throwing fishing nets into the sea, because they were fishermen. 19 “Come, follow me,” he said, “and I’ll show you how to fish for people.” 20 Right away, they left their nets and followed him. 21 Continuing on, he saw another set of brothers, James the son of Zebedee and his brother John. They were in a boat with Zebedee their father repairing their nets. Jesus called them and 22 immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him.
Ministry to the crowds
23 Jesus traveled throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues. He announced the good news of the kingdom and healed every disease and sickness among the people. 24 News about him spread throughout Syria. People brought to him all those who had various kinds of diseases, those in pain, those possessed by demons, those with epilepsy, and those who were paralyzed, and he healed them. 25 Large crowds followed him from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea, and from the areas beyond the Jordan River.
Copyright © 2011 by Common English Bible