Book of Common Prayer
Davidic[a]
Patiently Trust in God
37 Don’t be angry because of those who do evil,
do not be jealous because of those who commit iniquity.
2 Indeed, they soon will wither like grass,
and like green herbs they will fade away.
3 Trust in the Lord and do good.
Dwell in the land and feed on faithfulness.
4 Delight yourself in the Lord,
and he will give you the desires of your heart.
5 Commit your way to the Lord;
Trust him, and he will act.
6 He will bring forth your righteousness as a light,
and your justice as the noonday sun.[b]
7 Be silent in the Lord’s presence
and wait patiently for him.
Don’t be angry because of the one whose way prospers
or the one who implements evil schemes.
8 Calm your anger and abandon wrath.
Don’t be angry—
it only leads to evil.
9 Those who do evil will perish.
But those who wait[c] on the Lord will inherit the land.
10 Yet a little while longer,
and the wicked will be no more.
You will search for his place,
but he will not be there.
11 The humble will inherit the land;
they will take in abundant peace.
12 The wicked person plots against the righteous,
and grinds his teeth at him.
13 But the Lord laughs at him
because he sees that his day is coming!
14 The wicked take out a sword and bend the bow,
to bring down the humble and the poor
to slay those who are righteous in conduct.
15 But their sword will pierce their own heart,
and their bows will be broken!
16 Better is the little that the righteous have
than the abundance of many wicked people.
17 For the arms of the wicked will be broken,
but the Lord upholds the righteous.
18 The Lord knows the day of the blameless,
and their inheritance will last forever.
19 They will not experience shame in times of trouble;
in times of famine they will have plenty.
20 Indeed, the wicked will perish.
The Lord’s enemies will be consumed like flowers[d] in the fields.
They will vanish like[e] smoke.
21 The wicked borrow but never pay back;
but the righteous are generous and give.
22 For those blessed by God[f] will inherit the land,
but those cursed by him will be cut off.
23 A man’s steps are established by the Lord,
and the Lord[g] delights in his way.
24 Though he stumbles,
he will not fall down flat,
for the Lord will hold up his hand.
25 I once was young and now I am old,
but I have not seen a righteous person forsaken
or his descendants begging for bread.
26 Every day he is generous, lending freely,
and his descendants are blessed.
27 Depart from evil, and do good,
and you will live in the land[h] forever.
28 Indeed, the Lord loves justice,
and he will not abandon his godly ones.
They are kept safe forever,
but the lawless will be chased away,[i]
and the descendants of the wicked will be cut off.
29 The righteous will inherit the land,
and they will dwell in it forever.
30 The mouth of the righteous one produces wisdom;
his tongue speaks justice.
31 The instruction[j] of his God is in his heart;
his steps will not slip.
32 The wicked stalks the righteous person, seeking to kill him,
33 but the Lord will not let him fall into his hands.
He will not be condemned when he is put on trial.
34 Wait on the Lord,
Keep faithful to his way,
and he will exalt you to possess the land.
You will see the wicked cut off.
35 I once observed a wicked and oppressive person,
flourishing like a green tree in native soil.
36 But then he[k] passed away;[l]
in fact, he simply was not there.
When I looked for him,
he could not be found.
37 Observe the blameless!
Take note of the upright!
Indeed, the future of that man is peace.
38 Sinners will be destroyed together;
the future of the wicked will be cut off.
39 But deliverance for the righteous one comes from the Lord;
he is their strength in times of distress.
40 The Lord helps and delivers them;
he will deliver them from the wicked,
and he will save them because they have sought refuge in him.
16 My face is red from my tears,
and dark shadows encircle my eyelids,
17 even though violence is not my intention,
and my prayer is pure.”
Job Appeals to Witnesses
18 “Listen, earth! Don’t cover my blood,
for my outcry has no place to rest.
19 Even now, behold! I have a witness in heaven,
my Advocate is on high.
20 My friends mock me,
while my eyes overflow with tears to God,
21 crying for him to arbitrate between this[a] man and God;
as a human being does with his fellow neighbor.
22 For when only a few years have elapsed,
I’ll start down a path from which I’ll never return.”
Job Laments and Prepares for Death
17 “My spirit is crushed,
my days are over;[b]
it’s the grave for me!
Barnabas and Saul Travel to Cyprus
13 Now Barnabas, Simeon called Niger, Lucius from Cyrene, Manaen, who grew up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul were prophets and teachers in the church at Antioch. 2 While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set Barnabas and Saul apart for me to do the work for which I called them.” 3 Then they fasted and prayed, laid their hands on them, and let them go. 4 After they had been sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went to Seleucia and from there sailed to Cyprus. 5 Arriving in Salamis, they began to preach God’s word in the Jewish synagogues. They also had John to help them.
6 They went through the whole island as far as Paphos, where they found a Jewish occult practitioner and false prophet named Bar-jesus. 7 He was associated with the proconsul Sergius Paulus, who was an intelligent man. He sent for Barnabas and Saul because he wanted to hear the word of God. 8 But Elymas the occult practitioner (that is the meaning of his name) continued to oppose them and tried to turn the proconsul away from the faith. 9 But Saul, also known as[a] Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked him straight in the eye 10 and said, “You’re full of every form of deception and trickery, you son of the Devil, you enemy of all that is right! You’ll never stop perverting the straight ways of the Lord, will you? 11 The[b] Lord is against you now, and you’ll be blind and unable to see the sun for a while!” At that moment a dark mist came over him, and he went around looking for someone to lead him by the hand. 12 When the proconsul saw what had happened, he believed, because he was astonished at the Lord’s teaching.
Jesus Heals a Blind Man
9 As he was walking along, he observed a man who had been blind from birth. 2 His disciples asked him, “Rabbi,[a] who sinned, this man or his parents, that caused him to be born blind?”
3 Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned. This happened so that[b] God’s work might be revealed in him. 4 I[c] must do the work of the one who sent me[d] while it is day. Night is approaching, when no one can work. 5 As long as I’m in the world, I’m the light of the world.” 6 After saying this, he spit on the ground and made mud with the saliva. Then he spread the mud on the man’s eyes 7 and told him, “Go and wash in the pool of Siloam” (which is translated “Sent One”). So he went off, washed, and came back seeing.
8 Then the neighbors and those who had previously seen him as a beggar said, “This is the man who used to sit and beg, isn’t it?”
9 Some were saying, “It’s him,” while others were saying, “No, but it’s someone like him.”
But he himself kept saying, “It’s me!”
10 So they asked him, “How, then, did you gain your eyesight?”
11 He said, “The man named Jesus made some mud, spread it on my eyes, and told me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash.’ So off I went and washed, and I received my sight.”
12 They asked him, “Where is that man?”
He said, “I don’t know!”
The Pharisees Investigate the Healing
13 So they brought to the Pharisees the man who had once been blind. 14 Now it was a Sabbath day when Jesus made the mud and healed[e] his eyes. 15 So the Pharisees also began to ask him how he had gained his sight. He told them, “He put mud on my eyes, then I washed, and now I can see.”
16 Some of the Pharisees began to remark, “This man is not from God because he does not keep the Sabbath.”
But others were saying, “How can a sinful man perform such signs?” And there was a division among them.
17 So they asked the formerly[f] blind man again, “What do you say about him, since it was your eyes he healed?”[g]
He said, “He is a prophet.”
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