Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 41
For the Music Director. A Psalm of David.
1 Blessed are those who consider the poor;
the Lord will deliver them in the day of trouble.
2 The Lord will preserve them and keep them alive,
and they will be blessed on the earth,
and You will not deliver them to the will of their enemies.
3 The Lord will sustain them on the sickbed;
You will restore all his lying down in his illness.
4 I said, “Lord, be gracious to me;
heal my soul, for I have sinned against You.”
5 My enemies speak evil of me:
“When will he die, and his name perish?”
6 And if people come to see me, they speak insincerely;
their heart gathers iniquity to itself,
when they go outside, they tell it.
7 All who hate me whisper together against me;
they devise harm against me.
8 “An evil disease clings to him.
And now that he lies down, he will not rise up again.”
9 Yes, my own close friend,
in whom I trusted, who ate of my bread,
has lifted up the heel against me.
10 But You, O Lord, be gracious to me,
and raise me up, that I may repay them.
11 By this I know that You favor me,
because my enemy does not triumph over me.
12 As for me, You uphold me in my integrity,
and set me before You forever.
13 Blessed be the Lord God of Israel
from everlasting and to everlasting.
Amen and Amen.
Psalm 52
For the Music Director. A Contemplative Maskil. A Psalm of David, when Doeg the Edomite came and told Saul, “David has come to the house of Ahimelek.”
1 Why do you boast in evil, O mighty man?
The goodness of God endures continually.
2 Your tongue devises calamities,
like a sharp razor, you worker of treachery.
3 You love evil more than good,
and lying rather than speaking righteousness. Selah
4 You love all devouring words,
O you deceitful tongue.
5 God will likewise break you down forever;
He will snatch you away and pluck you from your home,
and uproot you from the land of the living. Selah
6 The righteous also will see and fear,
and will laugh in contempt,
7 “See, this is the man
who did not make God his refuge,
but trusted in the abundance of riches,
and grew strong in his own wickedness.”
8 But I am like a green olive tree
in the house of God;
I trust in the mercy of God
forever and ever.
9 I will give thanks to You forever, because You have acted;
and I will wait on Your name,
for it is good before Your saints.
Psalm 44
For the Music Director. A Contemplative Maskil of the sons of Korah.
1 We have heard with our ears, O God,
our fathers have told us
what work You did in their days,
in the days of old:
2 how You drove out the nations with Your hand,
and planted others instead;
how You afflicted peoples,
and sent them away.
3 For they did not take possession of the land by their own sword,
nor did their own arm save them;
but it was Your right hand, and Your arm,
and the light of Your countenance, because You had favor on them.
4 You are my King, O God;
command deliverances for Jacob.
5 Through You we will push down our opponents;
through Your name we will trample those who rise up against us.
6 For I will not trust in my bow,
nor will my sword save me.
7 But You have saved us from our opponents,
and have put to shame those who hate us.
8 In God we boast all the day long,
and give thanks to Your name forever. Selah
9 But You have rejected us and put us to shame,
and do not go out with our armies.
10 You make us to turn back from the opponent,
and those who hate us make us their spoil.
11 You have placed us like sheep for prey,
and have scattered us among the nations.
12 You sell Your people for nothing,
and do not increase Your wealth by their sale.
13 You make us a reproach to our neighbors,
a scorn and a derision to those who surround us.
14 You make us a byword among the nations,
a shaking of the head among the people.
15 All day long my reproach is before me,
and the shame of my face covers me,
16 from the voice of him who reproaches and reviles,
by reason of the enemy and avenger.
17 All this is come on us,
yet we have not forgotten You,
nor have we dealt falsely in Your covenant.
18 Our heart is not turned back,
nor have our steps deviated from Your way,
19 though You have crushed us in the place of jackals,
and covered us with the shadow of death.
20 If we have forgotten the name of our God,
or stretched out our hands to a strange god,
21 would not God search this out?
For He knows the secrets of the heart.
22 Yes, for Your sake we are killed all the day long;
we are considered like sheep for the slaughter.
23 Awake; why do You sleep, O Lord?
Arise; do not reject us forever.
24 Why do You hide Your face,
and forget our affliction and our oppression?
25 For our soul is bowed down to the dust;
our body cleaves to the earth.
26 Arise, be our help,
and redeem us for the sake of Your lovingkindness.
Israel Refined for God’s Glory
48 Hear this, O house of Jacob,
who are called by the name of Israel,
and have come forth from the waters of Judah;
who swear by the name of the Lord,
and invoke the God of Israel,
but not in truth or in righteousness;
2 for they call themselves after the holy city,
and lean on the God of Israel;
the Lord of Hosts is His name:
3 I have declared the former things from the beginning;
and they went forth from My mouth, and I announced them.
Suddenly I did them, and they came to pass.
4 Because I knew that you are obstinate,
and your neck is an iron sinew,
and your brow bronze;
5 I have even from the beginning declared it to you;
before it came to pass I announced it to you,
lest you should say,
“My idol has done them,
and my carved image and my molded image has commanded them.”
6 You have heard; see all this.
And will you not declare it?
I have shown you new things from this time,
even hidden things, and you did not know them.
7 They are created now and not from the beginning;
even before the day when you did not hear them,
lest you should say,
“Yes, I knew them.”
8 You have not heard, you have not known,
indeed, from long ago your ear has not been open.
For I knew that you would deal very treacherously,
and that from birth you have been called a rebel.
9 For My name’s sake I will defer My anger,
and for My praise I will restrain it for you
so that you are not cut off.
10 See, I have refined you, but not with silver;
I have chosen you in the furnace of affliction.
11 For My own sake, even for My own sake, I will do it;
for how can My name be polluted?
And I will not give My glory to another.
Salutation
1 Paul, an apostle (not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised Him from the dead), 2 and all the brothers who are with me,
To the churches of Galatia:
3 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, 4 who gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, 5 to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.
There Is No Other Gospel
6 I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace of Christ to a different gospel, 7 which is not a gospel. But there are some who trouble you and would pervert the gospel of Christ. 8 Although if we or an angel from heaven preach any other gospel to you than the one we have preached to you, let him be accursed. 9 As we said before, so I say now again: If anyone preaches any other gospel to you than the one you have received, let him be accursed.
10 For am I now seeking the approval of men or of God? Or am I trying to please men? For if I were still trying to please men, I would not be the servant of Christ.
How Paul Became an Apostle
11 But I reveal to you, brothers, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man. 12 For I neither received it from man, neither was I taught it, except by a revelation of Jesus Christ.
13 For you have heard of my former life in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God beyond measure and tried to destroy it, 14 and progressed in Judaism above many of my equals in my own heritage, being more exceedingly zealous for the traditions of my fathers. 15 But when it pleased God, who set me apart since I was in my mother’s womb and called me by His grace, 16 to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the nations, I did not immediately confer with flesh and blood, 17 nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me. But I went into Arabia, and returned again to Damascus.
Jairus’ Daughter and the Woman Who Touched Jesus’ Garment(A)
21 When Jesus had crossed again by boat to the other side, many people gathered to Him. And He was beside the sea. 22 One of the rulers of the synagogue, named Jairus, saw Jesus and came and fell at His feet 23 and earnestly asked Him, “My little daughter is lying at the point of death. I ask You, come and lay Your hands on her, so that she may be healed. And she will live.” 24 So Jesus went with him.
And many people followed Him and pressed in on Him. 25 And a certain woman had a hemorrhage for twelve years, 26 and had suffered much under many physicians. She had spent all that she had, and was not better but rather grew worse. 27 When she had heard of Jesus, she came in the crowd behind Him and touched His garment. 28 For she said, “If I may touch His garments, I shall be healed.” 29 And immediately her hemorrhage dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of the affliction.
30 At once, Jesus knew within Himself that power had gone out of Him. He turned around in the crowd and said, “Who touched My garments?”
31 His disciples said to Him, “You see the crowd pressing against You, and You say, ‘Who touched Me?’ ”
32 And He looked around to see her who had done it. 33 But the woman, fearing and trembling, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell down before Him and told Him the entire truth. 34 He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace, and be healed of your affliction.”
35 While He was still speaking, some came from the house of the synagogue ruler and said, “Your daughter is dead. Why trouble the Teacher any further?”
36 As soon as Jesus heard the word that was spoken, He said to the ruler of the synagogue, “Do not be afraid, only believe.”
37 He let no one follow Him, except Peter, and James, and John the brother of James. 38 He came to the house of the ruler of the synagogue, and saw the tumult, and those who wept and wailed loudly. 39 When He came in, He said to them, “Why make this uproar and weep? The girl is not dead, but sleeping.” 40 They laughed at Him in ridicule.
But when He had put them all out, He took the father and the mother of the girl and those who were with Him and entered where the girl was lying. 41 He took the girl by the hand and said to her, “Talitha cumi,” which means, “Little girl, I say to you, arise.” 42 Immediately the girl arose and walked, for she was twelve years of age. And they were greatly astonished. 43 He strictly ordered them to let no one know of it and directed them to give her something to eat.
The Holy Bible, Modern English Version. Copyright © 2014 by Military Bible Association. Published and distributed by Charisma House.