Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 45
For the Music Director. To the melody of “Lilies.” A Contemplative Maskil of the sons of Korah. A love song.
1 My heart is overflowing with a good thought;
I am speaking my works for the king;
my tongue is the pen of a skilled scribe.
2 You are fairer than all the sons of men;
favor is poured on your lips;
therefore God has blessed you forever.
3 Gird your sword on your thigh, O mighty one,
with your splendor and your majesty.
4 In your majesty ride prosperously
because of truth and meekness and righteousness;
and your right hand will teach you awesome things.
5 Your arrows are sharp in the heart of the king’s enemies;
peoples will fall under you.
6 Your throne, O God, is forever and ever;
the scepter of Your kingdom is an upright scepter.
7 You love righteousness and hate wickedness;
therefore God, your God, anointed you
with the oil of gladness above your companions.
8 All your garments are fragrant with myrrh and aloes and cassia;
from the ivory palaces stringed instruments make you glad.
9 Kings’ daughters are among your honorable women;
at your right hand stands the queen in gold of Ophir.
10 Listen, O daughter, consider and incline your ear;
forget your own people, and your father’s house,
11 and the king will desire your beauty.
Since he is your lord, bow to him.
12 The daughter of Tyre will be there with a gift;
even the rich among the people will entreat your favor.
13 The royal daughter is all glorious within her chamber;
her clothing is plaited gold.
14 She shall be brought to the king in embroidered garments;
the virgins, her companions who follow her,
shall be brought to you.
15 With gladness and rejoicing they shall be brought;
they shall enter into the king’s palace.
16 Your sons shall succeed your fathers;
you will make them princes in all the land.
17 I will cause your name to be remembered in all generations;
therefore the people will praise you forever and ever.
Psalm 47
For the Music Director. A Psalm of the sons of Korah.
1 Clap your hands, all you people!
Shout to God with a joyful voice.
2 For the Lord Most High is awesome;
He is a great King over all the earth.
3 He subdued peoples under us,
and nations under our feet.
4 He chose our inheritance for us,
the excellency of Jacob whom He loved. Selah
5 God went up with a shout,
the Lord with the sound of a trumpet.
6 Sing praises to God, sing praises;
sing praises to our King, sing praises.
7 For God is the King of all the earth;
sing praises with understanding.
8 God reigns over the nations;
God sits on His holy throne.
9 The princes of peoples are gathered together,
even the people of the God of Abraham.
For the shields of the earth belong to God;
He is greatly exalted.
Psalm 48
A Song. A Psalm of the sons of Korah.
1 Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised
in the city of our God, in His holy mountain.
2 Beautiful in elevation,
the joy of the whole earth,
is Mount Zion, on the sides of the north,
the city of the great King.
3 God is known in her citadels
as a refuge.
4 For the kings were assembled,
they passed by together.
5 They saw it, and so they were astounded;
they were alarmed, they hurried away.
6 Trembling seized them there,
and pain like a woman in labor;
7 You break the ships of Tarshish
with an east wind.
8 As we have heard,
so have we seen
in the city of the Lord of Hosts,
in the city of our God;
God will establish it forever. Selah
9 We have thought of Your lovingkindness, O God,
in the midst of Your temple.
10 According to Your name, O God,
so is Your praise to the ends of the earth;
Your right hand is full of righteousness.
11 May Mount Zion rejoice,
may the daughters of Judah be glad,
because of Your judgments.
12 Walk about Zion, and go round about her;
count her towers;
13 mark well her bulwarks;
consider her citadels;
that you may tell it to the generation following.
14 For this God is our God forever and ever;
He will be our guide even to death.
The Lord’s Call to Israel
12 Listen to Me, O Jacob
and Israel, whom I called:
I am He;
I am the First, and I am the Last.
13 My hand also has laid the foundation of the earth,
and My right hand has spanned the heavens;
when I call to them,
they stand up together.
14 Assemble, all of you, and listen.
Who among them has declared these things?
The Lord has loved him;
he will do His pleasure on Babylon,
and His arm shall be against the Chaldeans.
15 I, even I, have spoken,
and I have called him;
I have brought him,
and his way will prosper.
16 Come near to Me, hear this:
I have not spoken in secret from the beginning;
from the time that it was, there I am.
And now the Lord God has sent me
and His Spirit.
17 Thus says the Lord,
your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel:
I am the Lord your God,
who teaches you to profit,
who leads you in the way you should go.
18 Oh, that you had listened to My commandments!
Then your peace would have been as a river
and your righteousness as the waves of the sea.
19 Your descendants also would have been as the sand
and your offspring like grains of sand;
their name would not have been cut off
nor destroyed from before Me.
20 Go forth from Babylon!
Flee from the Chaldeans!
With a voice of singing declare,
proclaim this,
utter it even to the ends of the earth;
say, “The Lord has redeemed His servant Jacob.”
21 They did not thirst when He led them through the deserts;
He caused the waters to flow out of the rock for them;
He also split the rock,
and the waters gushed out.
18 After three years I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter and stayed with him for fifteen days. 19 I saw none of the other apostles except James, the Lord’s brother. 20 In what I am writing to you, before God, I do not lie!
21 Then I went into the regions of Syria and Cilicia 22 and was unknown by face to the churches of Judea which were in Christ. 23 They had heard only, “He who persecuted us in times past now preaches the faith which he once destroyed.” 24 And they glorified God because of me.
Paul Accepted by the Other Apostles
2 Then after fourteen years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas and also took Titus with me. 2 I went up in response to a revelation and communicated to them the gospel which I preach among the Gentiles. But privately I communicated to those who were of reputation, in case I might be running, or had run, in vain. 3 But even Titus, who was with me, though he was a Greek, was not compelled to be circumcised. 4 This happened because false brothers were secretly brought in, who sneaked in to spy out our liberty, which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage. 5 We did not yield to subjection to them, not for an hour, that the truth of the gospel might continue with you.
6 But of these who seemed to be something—whatever they were, it makes no difference to me; God shows no partiality to anyone—for those who seemed to be something added nothing to me. 7 On the contrary, they saw that I was entrusted with the gospel to the uncircumcised, as the gospel to the circumcised was to Peter. 8 For He who worked effectively in Peter for the apostleship to the circumcised worked effectively in me toward the Gentiles. 9 When James, Cephas, and John, who seemed to be pillars, understood the grace that was given to me, they gave to Barnabas and me the right hand of fellowship, that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised. 10 Only they requested that we should remember the poor, which I also was eager to do.
The Rejection of Jesus at Nazareth(A)
6 He went away from there and came into His own country. And His disciples followed Him. 2 When the Sabbath came, He began to teach in the synagogue. And many hearing Him were astonished, saying, “Where did this Man get this? What is this wisdom that is given Him, that even miracles are done by His hands? 3 Is this not the carpenter, the Son of Mary and the brother of James and Joseph and Judas and Simon? Are not 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 own country, and among his own relatives, and in his own house.” 5 He could not do any miracles there, except that He laid His hands on a few sick people and healed them. 6 And He was amazed because of their unbelief.
The Mission of the Twelve(B)
Then He went to the surrounding villages, teaching. 7 He called to Him the twelve, and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over unclean spirits.
8 He commanded them to take nothing for their journey except a staff: no bag, no bread, and no money in their purse, 9 but to wear sandals, and not put on two tunics. 10 He said to them, “Wherever you enter a house, remain there until you depart from that place. 11 And whoever will not receive you or hear you, when you depart from there, shake the dust off your feet as a testimony against them. Truly I say to you, it will be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah on the Day of Judgment than for that city.”
12 So they went out and preached that men should repent. 13 And they cast out many demons and anointed with oil many who were sick and healed them.
The Holy Bible, Modern English Version. Copyright © 2014 by Military Bible Association. Published and distributed by Charisma House.