Book of Common Prayer
49 Remember the word you gave me.
Through it you gave me hope.
50 This is my comfort in my misery:
Your promise gave me a new life.
51 Arrogant people have mocked me with cruelty,
yet I have not turned away from your teachings.
52 I remembered your regulations from long ago, O Yahweh,
and I found comfort in them.
53 I am burning with anger because of wicked people,
who abandon your teachings.
54 Your laws have become like psalms to me
in this place where I am only a foreigner.
55 At night I remember your name, O Yahweh,
and I follow your teachings.
56 This has happened to me
because I have obeyed your guiding principles.
57 You are my inheritance, O Yahweh.
I promised to hold on to your words.
58 With all my heart I want to win your favor.
Be kind to me as you promised.
59 I have thought about my life,
and I have directed my feet back to your written instructions.
60 Without any hesitation I hurry to obey your commandments.
61 Though the ropes of wicked people are tied around me,
I never forget your teachings.
62 At midnight I wake up to give thanks to you
for the regulations, which are based on your righteousness.
63 I am a friend to everyone who fears you
and to everyone who follows your guiding principles.
64 Your mercy, O Yahweh, fills the earth.
Teach me your laws.
65 You have treated me well, O Yahweh,
as you promised.
66 Teach me to use good judgment and knowledge,
because I believe in your commandments.
67 Before you made me suffer, I used to wander off,
but now I hold on to your word.
68 You are good, and you do good things.
Teach me your laws.
69 Arrogant people have smeared me with lies,
yet I obey your guiding principles with all my heart.
70 Their hearts are cold and insensitive,
yet I am happy with your teachings.
71 It was good that I had to suffer
in order to learn your laws.
72 The teachings that come from your mouth are worth more to me
than thousands in gold or silver.
Psalm 49
For the choir director; a psalm by Korah’s descendants.
1 Listen to this, all you people.
Open your ears, all who live in the world—
2 common people and important ones,
rich people and poor ones.
3 My mouth will speak wise sayings,
the insights I have carefully considered.
4 I will turn my attention to a proverb.
I will explain my riddle with the music of a lyre.
5 Why should I be afraid in times of trouble,
when slanderers surround me with evil?
6 They trust their riches
and brag about their abundant wealth.
7 No one can ever buy back another person
or pay Elohim a ransom for his life.
8 The price to be paid for his soul is too costly.
He must always give up
9 in order to live forever and never see the pit.
10 Indeed, one can see that wise people die,
that foolish and stupid people meet the same end.
They leave their riches to others.
11 Although they named their lands after themselves,
their graves[a] have become their homes for ages to come,
their dwelling places throughout every generation.
12 But mortals will not continue here with what they treasure.
They are like animals that die.
13 This is the final outcome for fools and their followers
who are delighted by what they say: Selah
14 Like sheep, they are driven to hell
with death as their shepherd.
(Decent people will rule them in the morning.)
Their forms will decay in the grave,
far away from their comfortable homes.
15 But Elohim will buy me back from the power of hell
because he will take me. Selah
16 Do not be afraid when someone becomes rich,
when the greatness of his house increases.
17 He will not take anything with him when he dies.
His greatness cannot follow him.
18 Even though he blesses himself while he is alive
(and they praise you when you do well for yourself),
19 he must join the generation of his ancestors,
who will never see light again.
20 Mortals, with what they treasure, still don’t have understanding.
They are like animals that die.
Psalm 53[a]
For the choir director; according to mahalath,[b] a maskil by David.
1 Godless fools say in their hearts,
“There is no Elohim.”
They are corrupt.
They do disgusting things.
There is no one who does good things.
2 Elohim looks down from heaven on Adam’s descendants
to see if there is anyone who acts wisely,
if there is anyone who seeks help from Elohim.
3 Everyone has fallen away.
Together they have become rotten to the core.
No one, not even one person, does good things.
4 Are all those troublemakers,
those who devour my people as if they were devouring food,
so ignorant that they do not call on Elohim?
5 There they are—panic-stricken—
but there was no reason to panic,
because Elohim has scattered the bones
of those who set up camp against you.[c]
You put them to shame.
After all, Elohim has rejected them.
6 If only salvation for Israel would come from Zion!
When Elohim restores the fortunes of his people,
Jacob will rejoice.
Israel will be glad.
25 As they sat down to eat, they saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead. Their camels were carrying the materials for cosmetics, medicine, and embalming. They were on their way to take them to Egypt.
26 Judah asked his brothers, “What will we gain by killing our brother and covering up his death? 27 Let’s sell him to the Ishmaelites. Let’s not hurt him, because he is our brother, our own flesh and blood.” His brothers agreed.
28 As the Midianite merchants were passing by, the brothers pulled Joseph out of the cistern. They sold him to the Ishmaelites for eight ounces of silver. The Ishmaelites took him to Egypt.
29 When Reuben came back to the cistern and saw that Joseph was no longer there, he tore his clothes in grief. 30 He went back to his brothers and said, “The boy isn’t there! What am I going to do?”
31 So they took Joseph’s robe, killed a goat, and dipped the robe in the blood. 32 Then they brought the special robe with long sleeves to their father and said, “We found this. You better examine it to see whether it’s your son’s robe or not.”
33 He recognized it and said, “It is my son’s robe! A wild animal has eaten him! Joseph must have been torn to pieces!” 34 Then, to show his grief, Jacob tore his clothes, put sackcloth around his waist, and mourned for his son a long time. 35 All his other sons and daughters came to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted. He said, “No, I will mourn for my son until I die.” This is how Joseph’s father cried over him.
36 Meanwhile, in Egypt the Midianites sold Joseph to Potiphar, one of Pharaoh’s officials and captain of the guard.
2 Brothers and sisters, when I came to you, I didn’t speak about God’s mystery[a] as if it were some kind of brilliant message or wisdom. 2 While I was with you, I decided to deal with only one subject—Yeshua Christ, who was crucified. 3 When I came to you, I was weak. I was afraid and very nervous. 4 I didn’t speak my message with persuasive intellectual arguments. I spoke my message with a show of spiritual power 5 so that your faith would not be based on human wisdom but on God’s power.
6 However, we do use wisdom to speak to those who are mature. It is a wisdom that doesn’t belong to this world or to the rulers of this world who are in power today and gone tomorrow. 7 We speak about the mystery of God’s wisdom. It is a wisdom that has been hidden, which God had planned for our glory before the world began. 8 Not one of the rulers of this world has known it. If they had, they wouldn’t have crucified the Lord of glory. 9 But as Scripture says:
“No eye has seen,
no ear has heard,
and no mind has imagined
the things that God has prepared
for those who love him.”
10 God has revealed those things to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches everything, especially the deep things of God. 11 After all, who knows everything about a person except that person’s own spirit? In the same way, no one has known everything about God except God’s Spirit. 12 Now, we didn’t receive the spirit that belongs to the world. Instead, we received the Spirit who comes from God so that we could know the things which God has freely given us. 13 We don’t speak about these things using teachings that are based on intellectual arguments like people do. Instead, we use the Spirit’s teachings. We explain spiritual things to those who have the Spirit.[b]
Jesus Cures Simon’s Mother-in-Law and Many Others(A)
29 After they left the synagogue, they went directly to the house of Simon and Andrew. James and John went with them. 30 Simon’s mother-in-law was in bed with a fever. The first thing they did was to tell Yeshua about her. 31 Yeshua went to her, took her hand, and helped her get up. The fever went away, and she prepared a meal for them.
32 In the evening, when the sun had set, people brought to him everyone who was sick and those possessed by demons. 33 The whole city had gathered at his door. 34 He cured many who were sick with various diseases and forced many demons out of people. However, he would not allow the demons to speak. After all, they knew who he was.
Spreading the Good News in Galilee(B)
35 In the morning, long before sunrise, Yeshua went to a place where he could be alone to pray. 36 Simon and his friends searched for him. 37 When they found him, they told him, “Everyone is looking for you.”
38 Yeshua said to them, “Let’s go somewhere else, to the small towns that are nearby. I have to spread the Good News in them also. This is why I have come.”
39 So he went to spread the Good News in the synagogues all over Galilee, and he forced demons out of people.
Jesus Cures a Man with a Skin Disease(C)
40 Then a man with a serious skin disease came to him. The man fell to his knees and begged Yeshua, “If you’re willing, you can make me clean.”[a]
41 Yeshua felt sorry for him, reached out, touched him, and said, “I’m willing. So be clean!”
42 Immediately, his skin disease went away, and he was clean.
43 Yeshua sent him away at once and warned him, 44 “Don’t tell anyone about this! Instead, show yourself to the priest. Then offer the sacrifices which Moses commanded as proof to people that you are clean.”
45 When the man left, he began to talk freely. He spread his story so widely that Yeshua could no longer enter any city openly. Instead, he stayed in places where he could be alone. But people still kept coming to him from everywhere.
The Names of God Bible (without notes) © 2011 by Baker Publishing Group.