Book of Common Prayer
Thanksgiving for God’s Provision in Time of Sickness
For the music director. A psalm of David.[a]
41 Blessed is the one who has regard for the poor;
in the day of disaster, Yahweh delivers him.
2 Yahweh protects him and keeps him alive;
he is blessed in the land,
and you do not give him
into the will[b] of his enemies.
3 Yahweh sustains him on his sick bed.
In his illness, you restore to health.[c]
4 As for me, I said, “O Yahweh, be gracious to me.
Heal me,[d] for I have sinned against you.”
5 My enemies speak evil about me,
“When will he die and his name perish?”
6 And when one comes to see me, he speaks falsely;
his heart gathers disaster for itself.
He goes out to the street; he speaks.
7 All who hate me speak together against me.
Against me they assume the worst[e] for me:
8 “A ruinous thing is poured out on him,
and now that he lies down, he will not rise up again.”
9 Even my close friend,[f] whom I trusted,
who ate my bread,
has lifted his heel against me.
10 But you, O Yahweh, be gracious to me and raise me up
that I may repay them.
11 By this I know that you delight in me:
because my enemy has not shouted in triumph over me.
12 As for me, you have upheld me in my integrity,
and you have set me in your presence forever.
13 Blessed be Yahweh, the God of Israel,
from everlasting to everlasting.
Amen and Amen.
God’s Judgment on the Wicked and Love for the Faithful
For the music director. A maskil of David.
When Doeg the Edomite came and informed Saul.
And he said to him, “David has come to the house of Ahimelech.”[a]
52 Why do you boast about evil, O mighty man?
The loyal love of God endures continually.[b]
2 Your tongue plans destruction,
like a sharp razor, working deceit.
3 You love evil more than good,
a lie more than speaking what is right.[c] Selah
4 You love all devouring words,
O deceitful tongue,
5 but God will pull you down forever.
He will snatch you and tear you away from your tent,
and he will uproot you from the land of the living. Selah
6 And the righteous will see and fear,
and will laugh at him, saying,
7 “Look, the man who would not make God his refuge,
but he trusted in the greatness of his wealth;
he took refuge in his destructiveness.”
8 But I am like an olive tree flourishing
in the house[d] of God.
I trust the loyal love of God forever and ever.
9 I will give thanks to you forever, because of what you have done,
and I will wait on your name, because it is good,
in the presence of your faithful ones.
Present Defeat and Past Deliverance
For the music director. Of the sons of Korah. A maskil.[a]
44 O God, we have heard with our ears;
our ancestors[b] have told us
of work you worked in their days,
in days of old.
2 You with your hand drove out the nations,
but them[c] you planted.
You harmed the peoples,
but them[d] you let spread out.
3 For not with their sword
did they possess the land,
and their arm did not give them victory.
Rather it was your right hand and your arm
and the light of your presence,
because you delighted in them.
4 You are my king, O God.
Command[e] victories for Jacob.
5 By you we push down our enemies;
by your name we tread down those who rise up against us.
6 For I do not trust my bow,
and my sword cannot give me victory.
7 Rather you have saved us from our enemies,[f]
and have humiliated those who hate us.
8 In God we boast all the day,
and we will give thanks to your name forever. Selah
9 Surely you have rejected and disgraced us,
and have not gone out with our armies.
10 You have caused us to pull back from the enemy,
and so those who hate us have plundered for themselves.
11 You have given us as sheep for food,
and among the nations you have scattered us.
12 You have sold your people cheaply,[g]
and did not profit by their price.
13 You have made us a taunt to our neighbors,
a derision and a scorn to those around us.
14 You have made us a byword among the nations,
a shaking of the head among the peoples.
15 All day long[h] my disgrace is before me,
and the shame of my face covers me,
16 because of the voice of the taunter and the reviler,
because of the enemy and the avenger.
17 All this has befallen us, though we have not forgotten you,
and we have not been false to your covenant.
18 Our heart has not turned back,
and our steps have not turned aside from your way.
19 But you have crushed us in a place of jackals,
and have covered us with deep shadow.
20 If we had forgotten the name of our God,
or had spread out our hands in prayer to a foreign god,
21 would not God discover this,
for he knows the secrets of the heart?
22 Rather, on account of you we are killed all day long;[i]
we are accounted as sheep for slaughter.
23 Wake up! Why do you sleep, O Lord?
Awake! Do not reject forever.
24 Why do you hide your face?
Have you forgotten our misery and our oppression?
25 For our soul is bowed down to the dust.
Our body[j] clings to the ground.
26 Rise up! Be a help for us,
and redeem us for the sake of your loyal love.
Elihu Rebukes Job and His Three Friends
32 Then these three men ceased from answering Job because he was righteous in his own eyes. 2 So Elihu the son of Barakel the Buzite, from the clan of Ram, became angry.[a] He became angry[b] at Job because he justified himself rather than God, 3 and he became angry[c] at his three friends because they had not found an answer, and they had declared Job guilty. 4 Thus Elihu had waited for Job to speak[d] because they were older than he.[e] 5 When Elihu saw that there was no answer in the mouth of the three men, he became angry.[f] 6 Then Elihu the son of Barakel the Buzite spoke up[g] and said,
“I am young,[h] but[i] you[j] are old;
therefore I feared and became afraid of explaining my knowledge to you.[k]
7 I thought,[l] ‘Let days[m] speak,
and let many years teach wisdom.’
8 “Truly, it is a spirit in a human being,
and the breath of Shaddai teaches them.
9 It is not the aged[n] who are wise,
or[o] it is not the elders who understand justice.
10 Therefore I say, ‘Listen to me;
let me also declare my knowledge myself.’
19 “Look, my internal organs are like unopened wine,
like new wineskins it[a] is ready to burst open.
20 Let me speak that I may find relief;[b]
let me open my lips, and let me answer.
21 Please let me not show partiality to anyone,[c]
and let me not show flattery to human beings,
22 for I do not know how to flatter,[d]
else my Maker would soon[e] put an end to me.
Elihu Rebukes Job
19 “And he is reproved with pain on his bed,
even[a] with the strife of his bones continually,
20 so that[b] his life loathes bread,
and his inner self[c] loathes appetizing food.[d]
21 His flesh is wasted away from sight,
and his bones, which are invisible, are bared.
22 And he[e] draws near to the pit
and his life to the killers.
23 “If there is a messenger beside him, a mediator, one of a thousand,[f]
to declare to a human being his uprightness
24 so that[g] he is gracious to him, and he says,
‘Deliver him from descending into the pit;
I have found a ransom.’
25 His flesh is renewed with his youth;
he returns to the days of his youthful strength.
26 He prays to God, then he accepts him,
and he sees his face with a shout of joy,
and he repays to the human being his righteousness.
27 “He will sing to men, and he will say,
‘I have sinned and have perverted what is right,
and it was not paid back to me.
28 He redeemed my life from going down into the pit,
so[h] I will enjoy the light.’[i]
44 And on the coming Sabbath, nearly the whole city came together to hear the word of the Lord. 45 But when[a] the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy, and began contradicting what was being said by Paul by[b] reviling him.[c] 46 Both Paul and Barnabas spoke boldly and[d] said, “It was necessary that the word of God be spoken first to you, since you reject it and do not consider yourselves worthy of eternal life! Behold, we are turning to the Gentiles! 47 For so the Lord has commanded us:
‘I have appointed you to be[e] a light for the Gentiles,
that you would bring[f] salvation to the end of the earth.’[g]
48 And when[h] the Gentiles heard this,[i] they began to rejoice[j] and to glorify the word of the Lord. And all those who were designated for eternal life believed. 49 So the word of the Lord was carried through the whole region. 50 But the Jews incited the devout women of high social standing and the most prominent men of the city, and stirred up persecution against Paul and Barnabas and threw them out of their district. 51 So after[k] shaking off the dust from their feet against them, they went to Iconium. 52 And the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.
19 Again there was a division among the Jews because of these words. 20 And many of them were saying, “He has a demon and is out of his mind! Why do you listen to him?” 21 Others were saying, “These are not the words of one who is possessed by a demon! A demon is not able to open the eyes of the blind, is it?”[a]
Jesus at the Feast of the Dedication
22 Then the feast of the Dedication took place in Jerusalem. It was winter, 23 and Jesus was walking in the temple in the Portico of Solomon. 24 So the Jews surrounded him and began to say[b] to him, “How long will you keep us in suspense?[c] If you are the Christ, tell us plainly!” 25 Jesus answered them, “I told you and you do not believe! The deeds that I do in the name of my Father, these testify about me. 26 But you do not believe, because you are not of my sheep! 27 My sheep listen to my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. 28 And I give them eternal life, and they will never perish forever,[d] and no one will seize them out of my hand. 29 My Father, who has given them[e] to me, is greater than all, and no one can seize them[f] from the Father’s hand. 30 The Father and I are one.”
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