Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 40(A)
For the Music Director. A Psalm of David.
1 I waited patiently for the Lord,
and He turned to me, and heard my cry.
2 He also brought me up out of a horrible pit,
out of the miry clay,
and set my feet on a rock,
and established my steps.
3 He has put a new song in my mouth,
even praise to our God;
many will see it, and fear,
and will trust in the Lord.
4 Blessed is the man
who places trust in the Lord,
but does not turn toward the proud,
nor those falling away to falsehood.
5 O Lord my God,
You have done many wonderful works,
and Your thoughts toward us
cannot be compared;
if I would declare and speak of them,
they are more than can be numbered.
6 Sacrifice and offering You did not desire;
You have opened up my ears to listen.
Burnt offering and sin offering
You have not required.
7 Then I said, “Behold, I have come;
in the scroll of the book it is written of me,
8 I delight to do Your will, O my God;
Your law is within my inward parts.”
9 I have proclaimed righteousness in the great congregation;
I have not held back my lips,
O Lord, You know.
10 I have not hidden Your righteousness within my heart;
I have declared Your faithfulness and Your salvation;
I have not concealed Your lovingkindness and Your truth
from the great congregation.
11 Do not withhold Your compassion from me, O Lord;
may Your lovingkindness and Your truth always guard me.
12 For innumerable evils have surrounded me;
my iniquities have overtaken me, so that I am not able to look up;
they are more than the hairs of my head
so that my heart fails me.
13 Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me;
O Lord, make haste to help me.
14 May those seeking to snatch away my life
be ashamed and confounded together;
may those who desire my harm
be driven backward and dishonored.
15 May those who say to me “Aha, aha!”
be appalled on account of their shame.
16 May all those who seek You
rejoice and be glad in You;
may those who love Your salvation say continually,
“The Lord is magnified.”
17 But I am poor and needy;
yet the Lord thinks about me.
You are my help and my deliverer;
do not delay, O my God.
Psalm 54
For the Music Director. With stringed instruments. A Contemplative Maskil of David, when the Ziphites went and told Saul, “Is David not hiding among us?”
1 O God, save me by Your name,
and judge me by Your strength.
2 O God, hear my prayer;
give ear to the words of my mouth.
3 For strangers rise up against me,
and formidable adversaries seek my life;
they do not set God before them. Selah
4 God is my helper;
the Lord is with those who support my life.
5 He will repay my enemies for their evil.
In Your faithfulness, destroy them.
6 I will sacrifice a freewill offering to You;
I will give thanks to Your name, O Lord, for it is good.
7 For He has delivered me out of all trouble;
and my eye has looked down on my enemies.
Psalm 51
For the Music Director. A Psalm of David, when Nathan the Prophet came to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba.
1 Have mercy on me, O God,
according to Your lovingkindness;
according to the abundance of Your compassion,
blot out my transgressions.
2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
and cleanse me from my sin.
3 For I acknowledge my transgressions,
and my sin is ever before me.
4 Against You, You only, have I sinned,
and done this evil in Your sight,
so that You are justified when You speak,
and You are blameless when You judge.
5 I was brought forth in iniquity,
and in sin my mother conceived me.
6 You desire truth in the inward parts,
and in the hidden part You make me to know wisdom.
7 Purify me with hyssop, and I will be clean;
wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.
8 Make me to hear joy and gladness,
that the bones that You have broken may rejoice.
9 Hide Your face from my sins,
and blot out all my iniquities.
10 Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and renew a right spirit within me.
11 Do not cast me away from Your presence,
and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.
12 Restore to me the joy of Your salvation,
and uphold me with Your willing spirit.
13 Then I will teach transgressors Your ways,
and sinners will return to You.
14 Deliver me from blood guiltiness, O God,
God of my salvation,
and my tongue will sing aloud of Your righteousness.
15 O Lord, open my lips,
and my mouth will declare Your praise.
16 For You do not desire sacrifice, or I would give it;
You do not delight in burnt offering.
17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;
a broken and a contrite heart,
O God, You will not despise.
18 Do good to Zion in Your good pleasure;
build the walls of Jerusalem.
19 Then You will be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness,
with burnt offering and whole burnt offering;
then they will offer young bulls on Your altar.
Job’s Final Defense
29 Moreover Job continued his discourse:
24 “If I have made gold my hope,
or have said to the fine gold, ‘You are my confidence’;
25 if I rejoiced because my wealth was great,
and because my hand had gained much;
26 if I saw the sun when it shined,
or the moon moving in brightness;
27 and my heart has been secretly enticed,
or my mouth has kissed my hand;
28 this also would be an iniquity to be punished by the judge,
for I would have denied the God who is above.
29 “If I rejoiced at the destruction of him who hated me,
or lifted up myself when disaster found him
30 (nor have I allowed my mouth to sin
by wishing for a curse on his soul);
31 if the men of my tent have not said,
‘Who is there who has not been satisfied with his meat?’
32 (the stranger has not lodged in the street,
but I opened my doors to the traveler);
33 if I covered my transgressions as any man,
by hiding my iniquity in my heart,
34 did I fear a great multitude,
or did the contempt of families terrify me,
so that I kept silence, and did not go out of the door?
35 “Oh, that one would hear me!
Behold, my desire is that the Almighty would answer me,
and that the One who contends against me had written a book!
36 Surely I would carry it on my shoulder
and bind it on me like a crown.
37 I would declare to Him the number of my steps;
like a prince I would approach Him.
38 “If my land cries out against me,
and its furrows also weep together;
39 if I have eaten its fruit without money,
or have caused its owners to lose their life;
40 let thistles grow instead of wheat,
and weeds instead of barley.”
The words of Job are ended.
12 The entire assembly remained silent and listened to Barnabas and Paul declaring what signs and wonders God had done through them among the Gentiles. 13 After they had become silent, James answered, “Brothers, listen to me. 14 Simon has declared how God first visited the Gentiles to take from among them a people for His name. 15 With this the words of the prophets agree. As it is written:
16 ‘After this I will return,
and I will rebuild the tabernacle of David, which has fallen;
I will rebuild its ruins,
and I will set it up;[a]
17 that the rest of men may seek the Lord,
and all the Gentiles who are called by My name,[b]
says the Lord who does all these things.’[c]
18 Known to God are all His works since the beginning of the world.
19 “Therefore my judgment is that we should not trouble those of the Gentiles who are turning to God, 20 but that we write to them to abstain from food offered to idols, from sexual immorality, from strangled animals, and from blood. 21 For Moses has had in every city since early generations those who preach him, being read in the synagogues every Sabbath.”
30 Now Jesus had not yet entered the village, but was in the place where Martha met Him. 31 When the Jews who were with Mary in the house, comforting her, saw that she quickly rose up and went out, they followed her, saying, “She is going to the tomb to weep there.”
32 When Mary came to where Jesus was, and saw Him, she fell down at His feet, saying to Him, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died.”
33 When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her weeping, He groaned in the spirit and was troubled. 34 He said, “Where have you laid him?”
They said to Him, “Lord, come and see.”
35 Jesus wept.
36 Then the Jews said, “See how He loved him.”
37 But some of them said, “Could not this Man, who opened the eyes of the blind man, have also kept this man from dying?”
Lazarus Brought to Life
38 Then Jesus, again groaning within Himself, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone was lying against it. 39 Jesus said, “Take away the stone.”
Martha, the sister of him who was dead, said to Him, “Lord, by this time there is a stench, for he has been dead four days.”
40 Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?”
41 So they took away the stone from the place where the dead man was lying. Jesus lifted up His eyes and said, “Father, I thank You that You have heard Me. 42 I know that You always hear Me. But because of the people standing around, I said this, that they may believe that You sent Me.”
43 When He had said this, He cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” 44 He who was dead came out, his hands and feet wrapped with grave clothes, and his face wrapped with a cloth.
Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”
The Holy Bible, Modern English Version. Copyright © 2014 by Military Bible Association. Published and distributed by Charisma House.