Book of Common Prayer

Psalm 82

A Psalm of Asaph.

¹ God stands in the assembly [of the representatives] of God; in the midst of the magistrates or judges He gives judgment [as] among the gods.

² How long will you [magistrates or judges] judge unjustly and show partiality to the wicked? Selah [pause, and calmly think of that]!

³ Do justice to the weak (poor) and fatherless; maintain the rights of the afflicted and needy.

⁴ Deliver the poor and needy; rescue them out of the hand of the wicked.

⁵ [The magistrates and judges] know not, neither will they understand; they walk on in the darkness [of complacent satisfaction]; all the foundations of the earth [the fundamental principles upon which rests the administration of justice] are shaking.

⁶ I said, You are gods [since you judge on My behalf, as My representatives]; indeed, all of you are children of the Most High.^(A)

⁷ But you shall die as men and fall as one of the princes.

⁸ Arise, O God, judge the earth! For to You belong all the nations.^(B)

Psalm 87

A Psalm of the sons of Korah. A song.

¹ On the holy hills stands the city [of Jerusalem and the temple] God founded.

² The Lord loves the gates of Zion [through which the crowds of pilgrims enter from all nations] more than all the dwellings of Jacob (Israel).

³ Glorious things are spoken of you, O city of God. Selah [pause, and calmly realize what that means]!

⁴ I will make mention of Rahab [the poetic name for Egypt] and Babylon as among those who know [the city of God]—behold, Philistia and Tyre, with Ethiopia (Cush)—[saying], This man was born there.

⁵ Yes, of Zion it shall be said, This man and that man were born in her, for the Most High Himself will establish her.

⁶ The Lord shall count, when He registers the peoples, that this man was born there. Selah [pause, and calmly think of that]!

⁷ The singers as well as the players on instruments shall say, All my springs (my sources of life and joy) are in you [city of our God].

⁷ How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good tidings, who publishes peace, who brings good tidings of good, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, Your God reigns!^(A)

⁸ Hark, your watchmen lift up their voices; together they sing for joy; for they shall see eye to eye the return of the Lord to Zion.

⁹ Break forth joyously, sing together, you waste places of Jerusalem, for the Lord has comforted His people, He has redeemed Jerusalem!

¹⁰ The Lord has made bare His holy arm before the eyes of all the nations [revealing Himself as the One by Whose direction the redemption of Israel from captivity is accomplished], and all the ends of the earth shall witness the salvation of our God.^(B)

¹¹ Depart, depart, go out from there [the lands of exile]! Touch no unclean thing! Go out of the midst of her [Babylon]; cleanse yourselves and be clean, you who bear the vessels of the Lord [on your journey from there].^(C)

¹² For you will not go out with haste, nor will you go in flight [as was necessary when Israel left Egypt]; for the Lord will go before you, and the God of Israel will be your rear guard.

⁵ For it was not to angels that God subjected the habitable world of the future, of which we are speaking.

⁶ It has been solemnly and earnestly said in a certain place, What is man that You are mindful of him, or the son of man that You graciously and helpfully care for and visit and look after him?

⁷ For some little time You have ranked him lower than and inferior to the angels; You have crowned him with glory and honor and set him over the works of Your hands,^(A)

⁸ For You have put everything in subjection under his feet. Now in putting everything in subjection to man, He left nothing outside [of man’s] control. But at present we do not yet see all things subjected to him [man].

⁹ But we are able to see Jesus, Who was ranked lower than the angels for a little while, crowned with glory and honor because of His having suffered death, in order that by the grace (unmerited favor) of God [to us sinners] He might experience death for every individual person.

¹⁰ For it was an act worthy [of God] and fitting [to the divine nature] that He, for Whose sake and by Whom all things have their existence, in bringing many sons into glory, should make the Pioneer of their salvation perfect [should bring to maturity the human experience necessary to be perfectly equipped for His office as High Priest] through suffering.

Psalm 110

A Psalm of David.

¹ The Lord (God) says to my Lord (the Messiah), Sit at My right hand, until I make Your adversaries Your footstool.^(A)

² The Lord will send forth from Zion the scepter of Your strength; rule, then, in the midst of Your foes.^(B)

³ Your people will offer themselves willingly in the day of Your power, in the beauty of holiness and in holy array out of the womb of the morning; to You [will spring forth] Your young men, who are as the dew.

⁴ The Lord has sworn and will not revoke or change it: You are a priest forever, after the manner and order of Melchizedek.^(C)

⁵ The Lord at Your right hand will shatter kings in the day of His indignation.

⁶ He will execute judgment [in overwhelming punishment] upon the nations; He will fill the valleys with the dead bodies, He will crush the [chief] heads over lands many and far extended.^(D)

⁷ He will drink of the brook by the way; therefore will He lift up His head [triumphantly].

Psalm 132

A Song of ^[a]Ascents.

¹ Lord, [earnestly] remember to David’s credit all his humiliations and hardships and endurance—

² How he swore to the Lord and vowed to the Mighty One of Jacob:

³ Surely I will not enter my dwelling house or get into my bed—

⁴ I will not permit my eyes to sleep or my eyelids to slumber,

⁵ Until I have found a place for the Lord, a habitation for the Mighty One of Jacob.^(A)

⁶ Behold, at Ephratah we [first] heard of [the discovered ark]; we found it in the fields of the wood [at Kiriath-jearim].^(B)

⁷ Let us go into His tabernacle; let us worship at His footstool.

⁸ Arise, O Lord, to Your resting-place, You and the ark [the symbol] of Your strength.

⁹ Let Your priests be clothed with righteousness (right living and right standing with God); and let Your saints shout for joy!

¹⁰ For Your servant David’s sake, turn not away the face of Your anointed and reject not Your own king.

¹¹ The Lord swore to David in truth; He will not turn back from it: One of the fruit of your body I will set upon your throne.^(C)

¹² If your children will keep My covenant and My testimony that I shall teach them, their children also shall sit upon your throne forever.

¹³ For the Lord has chosen Zion, He has desired it for His habitation:

¹⁴ This is My resting-place forever [says the Lord]; here will I dwell, for I have desired it.

¹⁵ I will surely and abundantly bless her provision; I will satisfy her poor with bread.

¹⁶ Her priests also will I clothe with salvation, and her saints shall shout aloud for joy.

¹⁷ There will I make a horn spring forth and bud for David; I have ordained and prepared a lamp for My anointed [fulfilling the promises of old].^(D)

¹⁸ His enemies will I clothe with shame, but upon himself shall his crown flourish.

⁹ There it was—the true Light [was then] coming into the world [the genuine, perfect, steadfast Light] that illumines every person.^(A)

¹⁰ He came into the world, and though the world was made through Him, the world did not recognize Him [did not know Him].

¹¹ He came to that which belonged to Him [to His own—His domain, creation, things, world], and they who were His own did not receive Him and did not welcome Him.

¹² But to as many as did receive and welcome Him, He gave the authority (power, privilege, right) to become the children of God, that is, to those who believe in (adhere to, trust in, and rely on) His name—^(B)

¹³ Who owe their birth neither to ^[a]bloods nor to the will of the flesh [that of physical impulse] nor to the will of man [that of a natural father], but to God. [They are born of God!]

¹⁴ And the Word (Christ) became flesh (human, incarnate) and tabernacled (fixed His tent of flesh, lived awhile) among us; and we [actually] saw His glory (His honor, His majesty), such glory as an only begotten son receives from his father, full of grace (favor, loving-kindness) and truth.^(C)