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.
The Two Witnesses
11 And a measuring rod similar in appearance to a staff was given to me, saying, “Get up and measure the temple of God and the altar and those who worship in it. 2 And leave out the courtyard outside of the temple, and do not measure it, because it has been given to the Gentiles, and they will trample the holy city for forty two months. 3 And I will grant authority[a] to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for one thousand two hundred sixty days, dressed in sackcloth.” 4 These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth. 5 And if anyone wants to harm them, fire comes out of their mouth and consumes their enemies. And if anyone wants to harm them, in this way he must be killed. 6 These have the authority to shut the sky, so that it does not rain[b] during the days of their prophecy. And they have authority over the waters, to turn them to blood, and to strike the earth with every plague as often as they wish.
7 And when they have completed their testimony, the beast that comes up from the abyss will make war with them and will conquer them and will kill them. 8 And their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city which is called symbolically Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified. 9 And those from peoples and tribes and languages and nations will see their dead bodies three and a half days, and they will not allow their dead bodies to be placed in a tomb. 10 And those who live on the earth will rejoice over them, and will celebrate and will send gifts to one another, because these two prophets tormented those who live on the earth.
11 And after the three and a half days, the breath of life from God entered into them, and they stood on their feet, and great fear fell on those who saw them. 12 And they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, “Come up here,” and they went up into heaven in a cloud, and their enemies watched them. 13 And at that hour a great earthquake took place, and a tenth of the city collapsed, and seven thousand people[c] were killed by the earthquake, and the rest became terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven. 14 The second woe has passed. Behold, the third woe is coming quickly!
A House Divided Cannot Stand
14 And he was expelling a mute demon.[a] Now it happened that when[b] the demon came out, the man who had been mute spoke, and the crowds were astonished. 15 But some of them said, “By Beelzebul the ruler of demons he expels demons!” 16 And others, in order to[c] test him,[d] were demanding from him a sign from heaven. 17 But he, knowing their thoughts, said to them, “Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and a divided household[e] falls. 18 So if Satan also is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand? For you say that I expel demons by Beelzebul. 19 But if I expel demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your sons expel them?[f] For this reason they will be your judges! 20 But if I expel demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you! 21 When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own palace, his possessions are safe.[g] 22 But when a stronger man attacks him and[h] conquers him, he takes away his full armor in which he trusted and distributes his plunder. 23 The one who is not with me is against me, and the one who does not gather with me scatters.
An Unclean Spirit Returns
24 “Whenever an unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it travels through waterless places searching for rest, and does not find it.[i] It says,[j] ‘I will return to my house from which I came out.’ 25 And when it[k] arrives it finds the house[l] swept and put in order. 26 Then it goes and brings along seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they go in and[m] live there. And the last state of that person becomes worse than the first!”
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