Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 18[a]
For the music leader. Of David the Lord’s servant, who spoke the words of this song to the Lord after the Lord delivered him from the power of all his enemies and from Saul.
18 He said: I love you, Lord, my strength.
2 The Lord is my solid rock,
my fortress, my rescuer.
My God is my rock—
I take refuge in him!—
he’s my shield,
my salvation’s strength,
my place of safety.
3 Because he is praiseworthy,[b]
I cried out to the Lord,
and I was saved from my enemies.
4 Death’s cords were wrapped around me;
rivers of wickedness terrified me.
5 The cords of the grave[c] surrounded me;
death’s traps held me tight.
6 In my distress I cried out to the Lord;
I called to my God for help.
God heard my voice from his temple;
I called to him for help,
and my call reached his ears.
7 The earth rocked and shook;
the bases of the mountains trembled and reeled
because of God’s anger.
8 Smoke went up from God’s nostrils;
out of his mouth came a devouring fire;
flaming coals blazed out in front of him!
9 God parted the skies and came down;
thick darkness was beneath his feet.
10 God mounted the heavenly creatures and flew;
he soared on the wings of the wind.
11 God made darkness cloak him;
his covering was dark water and dense cloud.
12 God’s clouds went ahead
of the brightness before him;
hail and coals of fire went too.
13 The Lord thundered in heaven;
the Most High made his voice heard
with hail and coals of fire.
14 God shot his arrows, scattering the enemy;
he sent the lightning and threw them into confusion.
15 The seabeds were exposed;
the earth’s foundations were laid bare
at your rebuke, Lord,
at the angry blast of air coming from your nostrils.
16 From on high God reached down and grabbed me;
he took me out of all that water.
17 God saved me from my powerful enemy,
saved me from my foes,
who were too much for me.
18 They came at me on the very day of my distress,
but the Lord was my support.
19 He brought me out to wide-open spaces;
he pulled me out safe
because he is pleased with me.
20 The Lord rewarded me for my righteousness;
he restored me because my hands are clean,
21 because I have kept the Lord’s ways.
I haven’t acted wickedly against my God.
22 All his rules are right in front of me;
I haven’t turned away from any of his laws.
23 I have lived with integrity before him;
I’ve kept myself from wrongdoing.
24 And so the Lord restored me for my righteousness
because my hands are clean in his eyes.
25 You deal faithfully with the faithful;
you show integrity
toward the one who has integrity.
26 You are pure toward the pure,
but toward the crooked, you are tricky.
27 You are the one who saves people who suffer
and brings down those with proud eyes.
28 You are the one who lights my lamp—
the Lord my God illumines my darkness.
29 With you I can charge into battle;
with my God I can leap over a wall.
30 God! His way is perfect;
the Lord’s word is tried and true.
He is a shield for all who take refuge in him.
31 Now really, who is divine except the Lord?
And who is a rock but our God?
32 Only God! The God who equips me with strength
and makes my way perfect,
33 who makes my step as sure as the deer’s,
who lets me stand securely on the heights,
34 who trains my hands for war
so my arms can bend a bronze bow.
35 You’ve given me the shield of your salvation;
your strong hand has supported me;
your help has made me great.
36 You’ve let me walk fast and safe,
without even twisting an ankle.
37 I chased my enemies and caught them!
I didn’t come home until I finished them off.
38 I struck them down;
they couldn’t get up again;
they fell under my feet.
39 You equipped me with strength for war;
you brought my adversaries down underneath me.
40 You made my enemies turn tail from me;
I destroyed my foes.
41 They cried for help,
but there was no one to save them.
They cried for help to the Lord,
but he wouldn’t answer them.
42 I crushed them
like dust blown away by the wind;
I threw them out
like mud dumped in the streets.
43 You delivered me from struggles with many people;
you appointed me the leader of many nations.
Strangers come to serve me.
44 After hearing about me, they obey me;
foreigners grovel before me.
45 Foreigners lose their nerve;
they come trembling out of their fortresses.[d]
46 The Lord lives! Bless God, my rock!
Let the God of my salvation be lifted high!
47 This is the God who avenges on my behalf,
who subdues people before me,
48 who delivers me from my enemies.
Yes, you lifted me high above my adversaries;
you delivered me from violent people.
49 That’s why I thank you, Lord,
in the presence of the nations.
That’s why I sing praises to your name.
50 You are the one who gives great victories to your king,
who shows faithful love to your anointed one—
to David and to his descendants forever.
Hymn of trust
12 You will say on that day:
“I thank you, Lord.
Though you were angry with me,
your anger turned away and you comforted me.
2 God is indeed my salvation;
I will trust and won’t be afraid.
Yah, the Lord, is my strength and my shield;
he has become my salvation.”
3 You will draw water with joy from the springs of salvation.
4 And you will say on that day:
“Thank the Lord; call on God’s name;
proclaim God’s deeds among the peoples;
declare that God’s name is exalted.
5 Sing to the Lord, who has done glorious things;
proclaim this throughout all the earth.”
6 Shout and sing for joy, city of Zion,
because the holy one of Israel is great among you.
Greetings
1 A revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants what must soon take place. Christ made it known by sending it through his angel to his servant John, 2 who bore witness to the word of God and to the witness of Jesus Christ, including all that John saw. 3 Favored is the one who reads the words of this prophecy out loud, and favored are those who listen to it being read, and keep what is written in it, for the time is near.
4 John, to the seven churches that are in Asia:
Grace and peace to you from the one who is and was and is coming, and from the seven spirits that are before God’s throne, 5 and from Jesus Christ—the faithful witness, the firstborn from among the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth.
To the one who loves us and freed us from our sins by his blood, 6 who made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father—to him be glory and power forever and always. Amen.
7 Look, he is coming with the clouds! Every eye will see him, including those who pierced him, and all the tribes of the earth will mourn because of him. This is so. Amen. 8 “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “the one who is and was and is coming, the Almighty.”
37 On the last and most important day of the festival, Jesus stood up and shouted,
“All who are thirsty should come to me!
38 All who believe in me should drink!
As the scriptures said concerning me,[a]
Rivers of living water will flow out from within him.”
39 Jesus said this concerning the Spirit. Those who believed in him would soon receive the Spirit, but they hadn’t experienced the Spirit yet since Jesus hadn’t yet been glorified.
40 When some in the crowd heard these words, they said, “This man is truly the prophet.” 41 Others said, “He’s the Christ.” But others said, “The Christ can’t come from Galilee, can he? 42 Didn’t the scripture say that the Christ comes from David’s family and from Bethlehem, David’s village?” 43 So the crowd was divided over Jesus. 44 Some wanted to arrest him, but no one grabbed him.
45 The guards returned to the chief priests and Pharisees, who asked, “Why didn’t you bring him?”
46 The guards answered, “No one has ever spoken the way he does.”
47 The Pharisees replied, “Have you too been deceived? 48 Have any of the leaders believed in him? Has any Pharisee? 49 No, only this crowd, which doesn’t know the Law. And they are under God’s curse!”
50 Nicodemus, who was one of them and had come to Jesus earlier, said, 51 “Our Law doesn’t judge someone without first hearing him and learning what he is doing, does it?”
52 They answered him, “You are not from Galilee too, are you? Look it up and you will see that the prophet doesn’t come from Galilee.”
Copyright © 2011 by Common English Bible