Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 41
Victory in Spite of Betrayal
For the choir director. A Davidic psalm.
1 Happy is one who cares for the poor;
the Lord will save him in a day of adversity.(A)
2 The Lord will keep him and preserve him;
he will be blessed in the land.(B)
You will not give him over to the desire of his enemies.(C)
3 The Lord will sustain him on his sickbed;
You will heal him on the bed where he lies.(D)
4 I said, “Lord, be gracious to me;
heal me, for I have sinned against You.”(E)
5 My enemies speak maliciously about me:
“When will he die and be forgotten?”(F)
6 When one of them comes to visit, he speaks deceitfully;
he stores up evil in his heart;
he goes out and talks.(G)
7 All who hate me whisper together about me;
they plan to harm me.(H)
8 “Lethal poison has been poured into him,
and he won’t rise again from where he lies!”(I)
9 Even my friend[a] in whom I trusted,
one who ate my bread,
has raised his heel against me.(J)
10 But You, Lord, be gracious to me and raise me up;
then I will repay them.(K)
11 By this I know that You delight in me:(L)
my enemy does not shout in triumph over me.(M)
12 You supported me because of my integrity(N)
and set me in Your presence forever.(O)
13 May Yahweh, the God of Israel, be praised
from everlasting to everlasting.
Amen and amen.(P)
Psalm 52
God Judges the Proud
For the choir director. A Davidic Maskil. When Doeg the Edomite went and reported to Saul, telling him, “David went to Ahimelech’s house.”(A)
1 Why brag about evil, you hero!(B)
God’s faithful love is constant.(C)
2 Like a sharpened razor,
your tongue devises destruction,
working treachery.(D)
3 You love evil instead of good,
lying instead of speaking truthfully.(E)
4 You love any words that destroy,
you treacherous tongue!(F)
5 This is why God will bring you down forever.
He will take you, ripping you out of your tent;
He will uproot you from the land of the living.(G)
6 The righteous will look on with awe
and will ridicule him:(H)
7 “Here is the man
who would not make God his refuge,
but trusted in the abundance of his riches,
taking refuge in his destructive behavior.”[a](I)
Psalm 44
Israel’s Complaint
For the choir director. A Maskil of the sons of Korah.
1 God, we have heard with our ears—
our ancestors have told us—
the work You accomplished in their days,
in days long ago:(A)
2 to plant them,
You drove out the nations with Your hand;
to settle them,
You crushed the peoples.(B)
3 For they did not take the land by their sword—
their arm did not bring them victory—
but by Your right hand, Your arm,
and the light of Your face,
for You were pleased with them.(C)
4 You are my King, my God,
who ordains[a] victories for Jacob.(D)
5 Through You we drive back our foes;
through Your name we trample our enemies.(E)
6 For I do not trust in my bow,
and my sword does not bring me victory.(F)
7 But You give us victory over our foes
and let those who hate us be disgraced.(G)
8 We boast in God all day long;
we will praise Your name forever.(H)
9 But You have rejected and humiliated us;
You do not march out with our armies.(I)
10 You make us retreat from the foe,
and those who hate us
have taken plunder for themselves.(J)
11 You hand us over to be eaten like sheep
and scatter us among the nations.(K)
12 You sell Your people for nothing;
You make no profit from selling them.(L)
13 You make us an object of reproach to our neighbors,
a source of mockery and ridicule to those around us.(M)
14 You make us a joke among the nations,
a laughingstock[b] among the peoples.(N)
15 My disgrace is before me all day long,
and shame has covered my face,(O)
16 because of the voice of the scorner and reviler,
because of the enemy and avenger.(P)
17 All this has happened to us,
but we have not forgotten You
or betrayed Your covenant.(Q)
18 Our hearts have not turned back;
our steps have not strayed from Your path.(R)
19 But You have crushed us in a haunt of jackals
and have covered us with deepest darkness.(S)
20 If we had forgotten the name of our God
and spread out our hands to a foreign god,(T)
21 wouldn’t God have found this out,
since He knows the secrets of the heart?(U)
22 Because of You we are slain all day long;
we are counted as sheep to be slaughtered.(V)
13 “If you carefully obey my commands I am giving you today, to love the Lord your God and worship Him with all your heart and all your soul, 14 I[a] will provide rain for your land in the proper time, the autumn and spring rains,[b] and you will harvest your grain, new wine, and oil.(A) 15 I[c] will provide grass in your fields for your livestock. You will eat and be satisfied.(B) 16 Be careful that you are not enticed to turn aside, worship, and bow down to other gods. 17 Then the Lord’s anger will burn against you. He will close the sky, and there will be no rain; the land will not yield its produce, and you will perish quickly from the good land(C) the Lord is giving you.
18 “Imprint these words of mine on your hearts and minds, bind them as a sign on your hands, and let them be a symbol[d] on your foreheads.[e] 19 Teach them to your children,(D) talking about them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.
11 Therefore, because we know the fear of the Lord,(A) we seek to persuade people. We are completely open before God, and I hope we are completely open to your consciences as well. 12 We are not commending ourselves to you again, but giving you an opportunity to be proud of us, so that you may have a reply for those who take pride in the outward appearance[a] rather than in the heart. 13 For if we are out of our mind,(B) it is for God; if we have a sound mind,(C) it is for you. 14 For Christ’s love compels[b] us, since we have reached this conclusion: If One died for all,(D) then all died. 15 And He died for all(E) so that those who live should no longer live for themselves,(F) but for the One(G) who died for them and was raised.
The Ministry of Reconciliation
16 From now on, then, we do not know[c] anyone in a purely human way.[d] Even if we have known[e] Christ in a purely human way,[f] yet now we no longer know[g] Him in this way. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation;(H) old things have passed away, and look,(I) new things[h] have come.(J) 18 Everything is from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation:(K) 19 That is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world(L) to Himself,(M) not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed the message of reconciliation to us. 20 Therefore, we are ambassadors(N) for Christ, certain that God is appealing through us. We plead on Christ’s behalf,(O) “Be reconciled to God.” 21 He made the One who did not know sin(P) to be sin[i] for us,(Q) so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
6 Working together[j] with Him, we also appeal to you, “Don’t receive God’s grace in vain.” 2 For He says:
Look, now is the acceptable time; now is the day of salvation.(S)
Warnings from Jesus
17 He(A) said to His disciples, “Offenses[a] will certainly come,[b] but woe(B) to the one they come(C) through! 2 It would be better for him if a millstone[c] were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea than for him to cause one of these little ones to stumble.(D) 3 Be(E) on your guard. If your brother sins,[d] rebuke(F) him, and if he repents, forgive(G) him. 4 And if he sins against you seven times in a day, and comes back to you seven times, saying, ‘I repent,’ you must forgive him.”
Faith and Duty
5 The(H) apostles(I) said to the Lord, “Increase our faith.”(J)
6 “If you have faith the size of[e] a mustard seed,”(K) the Lord said, “you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it will obey you.
7 “Which one of you having a slave tending sheep or plowing will say to him when he comes in from the field, ‘Come at once and sit down to eat’? 8 Instead, will he not tell him, ‘Prepare something for me to eat, get ready,[f] and serve me while I eat and drink; later you can eat and drink’?(L) 9 Does he thank that slave because he did what was commanded?[g] 10 In the same way, when you have done all that you were commanded, you should say, ‘We are good-for-nothing(M) slaves; we’ve only done our duty.’”
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