Book of Common Prayer

41 ⁽⁰⁾ For the leader. A psalm of David:

^2 (1) How blessed are those who care for the poor!
When calamity comes, Adonai will save them.
^3 (2) Adonai will preserve them, keep them alive,
and make them happy in the land.
You will not hand them over
to the whims of their enemies.
^4 (3) Adonai sustains them on their sickbed;
when they lie ill, you make them recover.
^5 (4) I said, “Adonai, have pity on me!
Heal me, for I have sinned against you!”
^6 (5) My enemies say the worst about me:
“When will he die and his name disappear?”
^7 (6) When they come to see me they speak insincerely,
their hearts meanwhile gathering falsehoods;
then they go out and spread bad reports.
^8 (7) All who hate me whisper together against me,
imagining the worst about me.
^9 (8) “A fatal disease has attached itself to him;
now that he lies ill, he will never get up.”
^10 (9) Even my close friend, on whom I relied,
who shared my table, has turned against me.

^11 (10) But you, Adonai, have pity on me,
put me on my feet, so I can pay them back.
^12 (11) I will know you are pleased with me
if my enemy doesn’t defeat me.
^13 (12) You uphold me because of my innocence
you establish me in your presence forever.

^14 (13) Blessed be Adonai the God of Isra’el
from eternity past to eternity future.

Amen. Amen.

52 ⁽⁰⁾ For the leader. A maskil of David, ² when Do’eg from Edom came and told Sha’ul, “David has arrived at the house of Achimelekh”:

^3 (1) Why do you boast of your evil, you tyrant,
when God’s mercy is present every day?
^4 (2) Your tongue, as sharp as a razor,
plots destruction and works deception.

^5 (3) You love evil more than good,
lies rather than speaking uprightly. (Selah)
^6 (4) You love all words that eat people up,
you deceitful tongue!

^7 (5) This is why God will strike you down,
seize you, pluck you from your tent
and uproot you from the land of the living. (Selah)

^8 (6) The righteous will see and be awestruck;
they will jeer at him, saying,
^9 (7) “This fellow would not make God his refuge,
but trusted in his own great wealth,
relying on his evil plots.”

^10 (8) But I am like a leafy olive tree
in the house of God;
I put my trust in the grace of God
forever and ever.

^11 (9) I will praise you forever for what you have done,
and I will put my hope in your name;
for this is what is good
in the presence of your faithful.

^2 (1) God, we heard it with our ears;
our fathers told us about it —
a deed which you did in their days,
back in days of old.
^3 (2) With your hand you drove out nations
to plant them in [the land],
you crushed peoples
to make room for them.

^4 (3) For not by their own swords
did they conquer the land,
nor did their own arm
give them victory;
rather, it was your right hand,
your arm and the light of your face;
because you favored them.
^5 (4) God, you are my king;
command complete victory for Ya‘akov.

^6 (5) Through you we pushed away our foes,
through your name we trampled down our assailants.
^7 (6) For I don’t rely on my bow,
nor can my sword give me victory.
^8 (7) No, you saved us from our adversaries;
you put to shame those who hate us.
^9 (8) We will boast in our God all day
and give thanks to your name forever. (Selah)

^10 (9) Yet now you have thrust us aside and disgraced us;
you don’t march out with our armies.
^11 (10) You make us retreat from the adversary,
and those who hate us plunder us at will.
^12 (11) You have handed us over like sheep to be eaten
and scattered us among the nations.
^13 (12) You sell your people for a pittance,
you don’t even profit on the sale.
^14 (13) You make us an object for our neighbors to mock,
one of scorn and derision to those around us.
^15 (14) You make us a byword among the nations;
the peoples jeer at us, shaking their heads.

^16 (15) All day long my disgrace is on my mind,
and shame has covered my face
^17 (16) at the sound of those who revile and insult,
at the sight of the enemy bent on revenge.
^18 (17) Though all this came on us, we did not forget you;
we have not been false to your covenant;
^19 (18) Our hearts have not turned back,
and our steps did not turn away from your path,
^20 (19) though you pressed us into a lair of jackals
and covered us with death-dark gloom.
^21 (20) If we had forgotten the name of our God
or spread out our hands to a foreign god,
^22 (21) wouldn’t God have discovered this,
since he knows the secrets of the heart?
^23 (22) For your sake we are put to death all day long,
we are considered sheep to be slaughtered.

^24 (23) Wake up, Adonai! Why are you asleep?
Rouse yourself! Don’t thrust us off forever.
^25 (24) Why are you turning your face away,
forgetting our pain and misery?
^26 (25) For we are lying flat in the dust,
our bodies cling to the ground.
^27 (26) Get up, and come to help us!
For the sake of your grace, redeem us!