Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 45
The Wedding of the Victorious King
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For the choir director. According to “Lilies.”[a]
By the Sons of Korah. A maskil. A love song.
Introduction
1 My heart is bubbling over with a beautiful theme.
I am reciting my works for the King.
My tongue is the pen of a rapid writer.
The Glory of the Royal Groom
2 You are the most beautiful of the sons of Adam.
Grace is poured out on your lips.
Therefore God has blessed you forever.
3 Strap your sword on your thigh, you mighty warrior,
in your splendor and your majesty.
4 In your majesty advance successfully.
Ride forward in the cause of truth, humility, and righteousness.
Let your right hand teach you awesome deeds.
5 Your arrows are sharpened.
Let peoples fall beneath you.
Your arrows are in the heart of the king’s enemies.
6 Your throne, O God, is forever and ever.
The scepter of your kingdom is a scepter of justice.
7 You love righteousness and hate wickedness.
Therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of joy
more than any of your companions.
8 Myrrh, aloes, and cassia perfume all your garments.
From ivory palaces stringed instruments make you glad.
9 Daughters of kings are among your honored attendants.
The royal wife[b] stands at your right hand in gold from Ophir.
The Beauty of the Bride
10 Hear, O daughter, look and listen.
Forget your people and your father’s house,
11 because the king desires your beauty.
Because he is your lord, bow down to him.
12 Then the daughter of Tyre will come with a gift.
The richest people will seek your favor.
13 The princess, who waits inside, is all glorious.
Her dress is interwoven with gold.
14 In embroidered garments she is led to the king.
Virgins who follow her as attendants are brought to you.
15 They are brought with joyful celebration.
They enter the palace of the king.
The Glory of the King’s Children
16 Your sons will take the place of your fathers.
You will make them princes in all the earth.
17 I will preserve the memory of your name through all generations.
Therefore peoples will praise you forever and ever.
Psalm 47
The King’s Empire
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For the choir director. By the Sons of Korah. A psalm.
Praise the Great King of All the Earth!
1 All you peoples, clap your hands!
Shout to God! Sing a loud song!
2 Yes, the Lord Most High is awesome.
He is the great King over all the earth!
3 He subdues peoples under us
and nations under our feet.
4 He chooses our inheritance for us.
It is the pride of Jacob, whom he loves. Interlude
5 God has ascended with a joyful shout.
The Lord goes up with the sound of the ram’s horn.
6 Make music for God! Make music!
Make music for our King! Make music!
7 For God is the King of all the earth.
Make music for him with a wise song.
8 God reigns as king over the nations.
God is seated on his holy throne.
9 The nobles of the peoples come together
as the people of the God of Abraham.
Yes, the shields of the earth[a] belong to God.
He is greatly exalted.
Psalm 48
The Security of the King’s Holy City
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A song. A psalm by the Sons of Korah.
Call to Praise
1 The Lord is great. He deserves to be praised
in the city of our God, on his holy mountain.
2 His mountain is lofty and beautiful, the joy of the whole earth.
Mount Zion, the northern mountain, is the city of the Great King.
3 God is in her citadels.
He is famous as her fortress.
Defeat of the Enemies
4 Look! See! The kings came together.
They advanced together.
5 They saw. Yes, they were amazed.
They were terrified. They were put to flight.
6 Trembling seized them there,
pain like a woman giving birth.
7 You shattered them with an east wind, like ships of Tarshish.
Thanksgiving
8 What we have heard, we now have also seen:
In the city of the Lord of Armies,
in the city of our God, Interlude
God establishes her forever.
9 Inside your temple, O God, we meditate on your mercy.
10 Your praise, O God, reaches to the ends of the earth,
just as your fame does.
Righteousness fills your right hand.
11 Mount Zion rejoices.
The daughters of Judah[b] celebrate because of your judgments.
12 Go around Zion. Yes, go all the way around her.
Count her towers. 13 Consider her rampart.[c]
View her citadels, so that you may tell the next generation about them.
14 For this God is our God forever and ever.
He will guide us beyond death.[d]
12 Listen to me, Jacob.
Listen to me, Israel, whom I called.
I am he. I am the first.
I am also the last.
13 It was my hand that laid the foundation of the earth,
and my right hand spread out the heavens.
I summon them and they stand together.
14 Gather together, all of you, and listen.
Who among them announced these things?
The Lord’s Servant Cyrus
The Lord loves him.
He will carry out his desire against Babylon,
and his arm is against Chaldea.
15 I, yes I, have spoken. I am the one who called him.
I have brought him, and his mission will succeed.
16 Come close to me and hear this.
From the beginning, I have not spoken in secret.
From the time it first existed, I was there.
And now God the Lord has sent me with his Spirit.
17 This is what the Lord says, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel.
I am the Lord your God,
who teaches you how to succeed,
who leads you in the way you should walk.
18 If only you would have listened carefully to my commandments!
Then your peace would have been like a river,
and your righteousness like the waves of the sea.
19 Your descendants[a] would have been like sand,
and the children from your body like grains of sand.
Their name would never have been cut off or destroyed
from my presence.
20 Get out of Babylon. Flee from Chaldea.
With a joyful voice declare and announce this.
Send it out to the end of the earth.
Say, “The Lord has redeemed his servant Jacob.”
21 They did not suffer thirst in the desolate places
through which he led them.
He made water flow for them from a rock.
He split open a rock, and water gushed out.
18 Next, after three years, I went up to Jerusalem to meet Cephas[a] and stayed with him fifteen days. 19 But I saw none of the other apostles, except James, the Lord’s brother. 20 (Now about the things I am writing to you—look, I assure you in the presence of God that I am not lying.) 21 Then I went to the regions of Syria and Cilicia. 22 I was still personally unknown to the churches of Judea that are in Christ. 23 They heard only: “The one who was once persecuting us is now preaching the faith that he once tried to destroy.” 24 And they were praising God for what happened to me.
Paul’s Fellowship With Those in Jerusalem
2 Then, after fourteen years, I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, also taking Titus with me. 2 I went up in keeping with a revelation, and I laid before them the gospel that I preach among the Gentiles. But I did this privately before those who were considered important, in order to make sure that I was not running—or had not run—in vain. 3 But Titus, who was with me, was not compelled to be circumcised, even though he is Greek. 4 This was an issue because of the false brothers, who slipped in under false pretenses to spy on the freedom we have in Christ Jesus. Their goal was to make us slaves. 5 We refused to give in to them even for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel would continue with you.
6 But as for those who were considered to be important (what sort of people they once were makes no difference to me; God shows no partiality), indeed, those who were considered to be important added nothing to my gospel. 7 On the contrary, they saw that I had been entrusted with the gospel for the uncircumcised, just as Peter was entrusted with the gospel for the circumcised. 8 For God, who worked effectively in Peter to serve as an apostle to the circumcised, also worked effectively in me to serve as an apostle to the Gentiles. 9 And because James, Cephas, and John, who were considered to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given to me, they gave Barnabas and me the right hand of fellowship. They agreed that we were to go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised. 10 The only thing they asked was that we remember the poor, the very thing that I was also eager to do.
A Prophet Without Honor
6 Jesus left there and went to his hometown. His disciples followed him. 2 When the Sabbath came, he began to teach in the synagogue. Many who heard him were amazed. They asked, “Where did this man learn these things? What is this wisdom that has been given to this man? How is it that miracles such as these are performed by his hands? 3 Isn’t this the carpenter, the son of Mary and the brother of James, Joses, Judas, and Simon? And aren’t his sisters here with us?” And they took offense at him.
4 Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his hometown and among his own relatives and in his own house.” 5 He could not do any miracles there except to lay his hands on a few sick people and heal them. 6 He was amazed at their unbelief. Then he went around the villages teaching.
Jesus Sends Out the Twelve
7 Jesus called the Twelve and began to send them out two by two. He gave them authority over the unclean spirits. 8 He instructed them to take nothing for their journey except a staff—no bread, no bag, no money in their money belts. 9 They were to put on sandals but not to wear two coats. 10 He said to them, “Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave that area. 11 Any place that will not receive you or listen to you, as you leave there, shake off the dust that is under your feet as a testimony against them.”
12 They went out and preached that people should repent. 13 They also drove out many demons. They anointed many sick people with oil and healed them.
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.