Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 18(A)
For the Music Director. A Psalm of David the servant of the Lord. He spoke to the Lord the words of this song on the day that the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul. He said:
1 I love You, O Lord, my strength.
2 The Lord is my pillar, and my fortress, and my deliverer;
my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge;
my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my high tower.
3 I will call on the Lord, who is worthy to be praised,
and I will be saved from my enemies.
4 The cords of death encircled me,
and the torrents of destruction terrified me.
5 The cords of Sheol surrounded me;
the snares of death confronted me.
6 In my distress I called on the Lord,
and cried for help to my God;
He heard my voice from His temple,
and my cry for help came before Him to His ears.
7 Then the earth shook and quaked;
the foundations of the hills also moved;
they reeled because His anger burned.
8 Smoke went up out of His nostrils,
and fire from His mouth devoured;
coals were kindled by it.
9 He bent the heavens and came down,
and darkness was under His feet.
10 He rode on a cherub, and flew;
He flew swiftly on the wings of the wind.
11 He made darkness His secret place;
His pavilion was surrounding Him,
dark waters and thick clouds of the skies.
12 At the brightness before Him His thick clouds passed by,
hailstones and coals of fire.
13 The Lord also thundered in the heavens,
and the Most High gave His voice,
hailstones and coals of fire.
14 He sent out His arrows and scattered them,
and He shot out lightning and distressed them.
15 Then the channels of waters appeared,
and the foundations of the world were discovered
at Your rebuke, O Lord,
at the blast of the breath of Your nostrils.
16 He sent from above, He took me;
He drew me out of many waters.
17 He delivered me from my strong enemy,
and from those who hated me,
for they were too strong for me.
18 They confronted me in the day of my calamity,
but the Lord was my support.
19 He also brought me forth into a large place;
He delivered me because He delighted in me.
20 The Lord rewarded me according to my righteousness;
according to the cleanness of my hands He has repaid me.
21 For I have kept the ways of the Lord,
and have not wickedly departed from my God.
22 For all His judgments were before me,
and I did not put away His statutes from me.
23 I was also upright before Him,
and I kept myself from my iniquity.
24 Therefore the Lord has repaid me according to my righteousness,
according to the cleanness of my hands in His view.
25 With the merciful You will show Yourself merciful;
with the blameless man You will show Yourself blameless;
26 with the pure You will show Yourself pure;
and with the crooked You will show Yourself crooked.
27 For You will save the afflicted people,
but will bring down prideful eyes.
28 For You will cause my lamp to shine;
the Lord my God will enlighten my darkness.
29 For by You I can run through a troop,
and by my God I can leap a wall.
30 As for God, His way has integrity;
the word of the Lord is proven;
He is a shield
to all those who take refuge in Him.
31 For who is God except the Lord?
Or who is a rock besides our God?
32 It is God who clothes me with strength,
and gives my way integrity.
33 He makes my feet like the feet of a deer,
and causes me to stand on my high places.
34 He trains my hands for war,
so that my arms bend a bow of bronze.
35 You have given me the shield of Your salvation,
and Your right hand has held me up,
and Your gentleness has made me great.
36 You have lengthened my stride under me,
so that my feet did not slip.
37 I pursued my enemies and overtook them;
I did not return until they were destroyed.
38 I wounded them, and they were not able to rise;
they are fallen under my feet.
39 For You clothed me with strength for the battle;
You subdued under me those who rose up against me.
40 You gave me the necks of my enemies,
and I destroyed those who hate me.
41 They cried for help, but there was none to save them;
even to the Lord, but He did not answer them.
42 Then I beat them small as the dust before the wind;
I cast them out as the dirt in the streets.
43 You have delivered me from the hostilities of the people,
and You have made me the head of nations;
a people whom I have not known serve me.
44 At hearing a report, they obey me;
foreigners come cringing to me.
45 Foreigners fade away,
and come quaking out of their prisons.
46 The Lord lives! And blessed be my Rock!
May the God of my salvation be exalted.
47 It is God who avenges me
and subdues the people under me;
48 He delivers me from my enemies.
You lift me up above those who rise up against me;
You have delivered me from the violent man.
49 Therefore I will give thanks to You, O Lord, among the nations,
and sing praises to Your name.
50 He gives great deliverance to His king,
and shows lovingkindness to His anointed,
to David and to his descendants for evermore.
17 When the poor and needy seek water,
and there is none,
and their tongues fail for thirst,
I, the Lord, will hear them,
I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them.
18 I will open rivers in high places,
and fountains in the midst of the valleys;
I will make the wilderness a pool of water,
and the dry land springs of water.
19 I will plant in the wilderness
the cedar, the acacia, the myrtle, and the olive tree;
I will set in the desert
the fir tree, and the pine, and the box tree together,
20 that they may see, and know,
and consider, and understand together,
that the hand of the Lord has done this,
and the Holy One of Israel has created it.
The Futility of Idols
21 Present your case, says the Lord.
Bring forth your arguments, says the King of Jacob.
22 Let them bring them forth, and show us
what shall happen;
let them show the former things, what they were,
that we may consider them
and know their outcome,
or declare to us things to come.
23 Show the things that are to come hereafter,
that we may know that you are gods;
do good, or do evil,
that we may be dismayed and see it together.
24 Indeed you are nothing,
and your work amounts to nothing;
he who chooses you is an abomination.
25 I have raised up one from the north, and he shall come;
from the rising of the sun he shall call on My name;
and he shall come on princes as on mortar,
and as the potter treads clay.
26 Who has declared from the beginning, that we may know?
And from former times, that we may say, “He is right!”?
There is no one who shows,
no one who declares,
no one who hears your words.
27 Formerly I said to Zion, “Look, here they are,”
and to Jerusalem, “I will give one who brings good news.”
28 But when I look, there is no man,
even among them, and there is no counselor
who, when I ask of them, could answer a word.
29 See, they all are vanity;
their works are nothing;
their molded images are wind and emptiness.
One in Christ
11 Therefore remember that formerly you, the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called the “uncircumcision” by the so-called “circumcision” in the flesh by human hands, 12 were at that time apart from Christ, alienated from the citizenship of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, without hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who were formerly far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
14 For He is our peace, who has made both groups one and has broken down the barrier of the dividing wall, 15 by abolishing in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of the commandments contained in ordinances, that in Himself He might make the two into one new man, thus making peace, 16 and that He might reconcile both to God into one body through the cross, thereby slaying the enmity. 17 And He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. 18 For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father.
19 Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, 20 having been built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, 21 in whom the entire building, tightly framed together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, 22 in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling place of God through the Spirit.
The Healing of a Paralytic(A)
2 Again, He entered Capernaum after some days. And it was reported that He was in the house. 2 Immediately many were gathered together, so that there was no room to receive them, not even at the door. And He preached the word to them. 3 They came to Him bringing one sick with paralysis, who was carried by four men. 4 When they could not come near Him due to the crowding, they uncovered the roof where He was. When they had broken it open, they let down the bed on which the paralytic lay. 5 When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven you.”
6 But some of the scribes were sitting there, reasoning in their hearts, 7 “Why does this Man speak such blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God alone?”
8 Immediately, when Jesus perceived in His spirit that they so reasoned within themselves, He said to them, “Why do you contemplate these things in your hearts? 9 Which is easier to say to the paralytic: ‘Your sins are forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Rise, take up your bed and walk’? 10 But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins,” He said to the paralytic, 11 “I say to you, rise, and take up your bed, and go your way to your house.” 12 Immediately he rose, picked up the bed, and went out in front of them all, so that they were all amazed and glorified God, saying, “We never saw anything like this!”
The Holy Bible, Modern English Version. Copyright © 2014 by Military Bible Association. Published and distributed by Charisma House.