Book of Common Prayer
The Blessing and Suffering of the Godly
To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David.
41 Blessed is he who considers the [a]poor;
The Lord will deliver him in time of trouble.
2 The Lord will preserve him and keep him alive,
And he will be blessed on the earth;
(A)You will not deliver him to the will of his enemies.
3 The Lord will strengthen him on his bed of illness;
You will [b]sustain him on his sickbed.
4 I said, “Lord, be merciful to me;
(B)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 he comes to see me, he speaks [c]lies;
His heart gathers iniquity to itself;
When he goes out, he tells it.
7 All who hate me whisper together against me;
Against me they [d]devise my hurt.
8 “An[e] evil disease,” they say, “clings to him.
And now that he lies down, he will rise up no more.”
9 (C)Even my own familiar friend in whom I trusted,
(D)Who ate my bread,
Has [f]lifted up his heel against me.
10 But You, O Lord, be merciful to me, and raise me up,
That I may repay them.
11 By this I know that You are well pleased with me,
Because my enemy does not triumph over me.
12 As for me, You uphold me in my integrity,
And (E)set me before Your face forever.
13 (F)Blessed be the Lord God of Israel
From everlasting to everlasting!
Amen and Amen.
The End of the Wicked and the Peace of the Godly
To the Chief Musician. A [a]Contemplation of David (A)when Doeg the Edomite went and (B)told Saul, and said to him, “David has gone to the house of Ahimelech.”
52 Why do you boast in evil, O mighty man?
The goodness of God endures continually.
2 Your tongue devises destruction,
Like a sharp razor, working deceitfully.
3 You love evil more than good,
Lying rather than speaking righteousness. Selah
4 You love all devouring words,
You deceitful tongue.
5 God shall likewise destroy you forever;
He shall take you away, and pluck you out of your dwelling place,
And uproot you from the land of the living. Selah
6 The righteous also shall see and fear,
And shall laugh at him, saying,
7 “Here is the man who did not make God his strength,
But trusted in the abundance of his riches,
And strengthened himself in his [b]wickedness.”
Redemption Remembered in Present Dishonor
To the Chief Musician. A (A)Contemplation[a] of the sons of Korah.
44 We have heard with our ears, O God,
(B)Our fathers have told us,
The deeds You did in their days,
In days of old:
2 (C)You drove out the [b]nations with Your hand,
But them You planted;
You afflicted the peoples, and cast them out.
3 For (D)they did not gain possession of the land by their own sword,
Nor did their own arm save them;
But it was Your right hand, Your arm, and the light of Your countenance,
(E)Because You favored them.
4 (F)You are my King, [c]O God;
[d]Command victories for Jacob.
5 Through You (G)we will push down our enemies;
Through Your name we will trample those who rise up against us.
6 For (H)I will not trust in my bow,
Nor shall my sword save me.
7 But You have saved us from our enemies,
And have put to shame those who hated us.
8 (I)In God we boast all day long,
And praise Your name forever. Selah
9 But (J)You have cast us off and put us to shame,
And You do not go out with our armies.
10 You make us (K)turn back from the enemy,
And those who hate us have taken [e]spoil for themselves.
11 (L)You have given us up like sheep intended for food,
And have (M)scattered us among the nations.
12 (N)You sell Your people for next to nothing,
And are not enriched by selling them.
13 (O)You make us a reproach to our neighbors,
A scorn and a derision to those all around us.
14 (P)You make us a byword among the nations,
(Q)A shaking of the head among the peoples.
15 My dishonor is continually before me,
And the shame of my face has covered me,
16 Because of the voice of him who reproaches and reviles,
(R)Because of the enemy and the avenger.
17 (S)All this has come upon us;
But we have not forgotten You,
Nor have we dealt falsely with Your covenant.
18 Our heart has not turned back,
(T)Nor have our steps departed from Your way;
19 But You have severely broken us in (U)the place of jackals,
And covered us (V)with the shadow of death.
Vision of the Horses
7 On the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh month, which is the month Shebat, in the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came to Zechariah the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo the prophet: 8 I saw by night, and behold, (A)a man riding on a red horse, and it stood among the myrtle trees in the hollow; and behind him were (B)horses: red, sorrel, and white. 9 Then I said, (C)“My lord, what are these?” So the angel who talked with me said to me, “I will show you what they are.”
10 And the man who stood among the myrtle trees answered and said, (D)“These are the ones whom the Lord has sent to walk to and fro throughout the earth.”
11 (E)So they answered the Angel of the Lord, who stood among the myrtle trees, and said, “We have walked to and fro throughout the earth, and behold, all the earth is [a]resting quietly.”
The Lord Will Comfort Zion
12 Then the Angel of the Lord answered and said, “O Lord of hosts, (F)how long will You not have mercy on Jerusalem and on the cities of Judah, against which You were angry (G)these seventy years?”
13 And the Lord answered the angel who talked to me, with (H)good and comforting words. 14 So the angel who spoke with me said to me, [b]“Proclaim, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts:
“I am (I)zealous[c] for Jerusalem
And for Zion with great [d]zeal.
15 I am exceedingly angry with the nations at ease;
For (J)I was a little angry,
And they helped—but with evil intent.”
16 ‘Therefore thus says the Lord:
(K)“I am returning to Jerusalem with mercy;
My (L)house (M)shall be built in it,” says the Lord of hosts,
“And (N)a surveyor’s line shall be stretched out over Jerusalem.” ’
17 “Again proclaim, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts:
The Faithful Church
7 “And to the [a]angel of the church in Philadelphia write,
‘These things says (A)He who is holy, (B)He who is true, (C)“He who has the key of David, (D)He who opens and no one shuts, and (E)shuts and no one opens”: 8 (F)“I know your works. See, I have set before you (G)an open door, [b]and no one can shut it; for you have a little strength, have kept My word, and have not denied My name. 9 Indeed I will make (H)those of the synagogue of Satan, who say they are Jews and are not, but lie—indeed (I)I will make them come and worship before your feet, and to know that I have loved you. 10 Because you have kept [c]My command to persevere, (J)I also will keep you from the hour of trial which shall come upon (K)the whole world, to test those who dwell (L)on the earth. 11 [d]Behold, (M)I am coming quickly! (N)Hold fast what you have, that no one may take (O)your crown. 12 He who overcomes, I will make him (P)a pillar in the temple of My God, and he shall (Q)go out no more. (R)I will write on him the name of My God and the name of the city of My God, the (S)New Jerusalem, which (T)comes down out of heaven from My God. (U)And I will write on him My new name.
13 (V)“He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” ’
The Great Tribulation(A)
15 (B)“Therefore when you see the (C)‘abomination of desolation,’ spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place” (D)(whoever reads, let him understand), 16 “then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. 17 Let him who is on the housetop not go down to take anything out of his house. 18 And let him who is in the field not go back to get his clothes. 19 But (E)woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days! 20 And pray that your flight may not be in winter or on the Sabbath. 21 For (F)then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be. 22 And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; (G)but for the [a]elect’s sake those days will be shortened.
23 (H)“Then if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or ‘There!’ do not believe it. 24 For (I)false christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, (J)if possible, even the elect. 25 See, I have told you beforehand.
26 “Therefore if they say to you, ‘Look, He is in the desert!’ do not go out; or ‘Look, He is in the inner rooms!’ do not believe it. 27 (K)For as the lightning comes from the east and flashes to the west, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. 28 (L)For wherever the carcass is, there the eagles will be gathered together.
The Coming of the Son of Man(M)
29 (N)“Immediately after the tribulation of those days (O)the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. 30 (P)Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, (Q)and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. 31 (R)And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His [b]elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.