Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 18(A)
For the Music Director. A Psalm of David the servant of the Lord. He spoke to the Lord the words of this song on the day that the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul. He said:
1 I love You, O Lord, my strength.
2 The Lord is my pillar, and my fortress, and my deliverer;
my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge;
my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my high tower.
3 I will call on the Lord, who is worthy to be praised,
and I will be saved from my enemies.
4 The cords of death encircled me,
and the torrents of destruction terrified me.
5 The cords of Sheol surrounded me;
the snares of death confronted me.
6 In my distress I called on the Lord,
and cried for help to my God;
He heard my voice from His temple,
and my cry for help came before Him to His ears.
7 Then the earth shook and quaked;
the foundations of the hills also moved;
they reeled because His anger burned.
8 Smoke went up out of His nostrils,
and fire from His mouth devoured;
coals were kindled by it.
9 He bent the heavens and came down,
and darkness was under His feet.
10 He rode on a cherub, and flew;
He flew swiftly on the wings of the wind.
11 He made darkness His secret place;
His pavilion was surrounding Him,
dark waters and thick clouds of the skies.
12 At the brightness before Him His thick clouds passed by,
hailstones and coals of fire.
13 The Lord also thundered in the heavens,
and the Most High gave His voice,
hailstones and coals of fire.
14 He sent out His arrows and scattered them,
and He shot out lightning and distressed them.
15 Then the channels of waters appeared,
and the foundations of the world were discovered
at Your rebuke, O Lord,
at the blast of the breath of Your nostrils.
16 He sent from above, He took me;
He drew me out of many waters.
17 He delivered me from my strong enemy,
and from those who hated me,
for they were too strong for me.
18 They confronted me in the day of my calamity,
but the Lord was my support.
19 He also brought me forth into a large place;
He delivered me because He delighted in me.
20 The Lord rewarded me according to my righteousness;
according to the cleanness of my hands He has repaid me.
21 For I have kept the ways of the Lord,
and have not wickedly departed from my God.
22 For all His judgments were before me,
and I did not put away His statutes from me.
23 I was also upright before Him,
and I kept myself from my iniquity.
24 Therefore the Lord has repaid me according to my righteousness,
according to the cleanness of my hands in His view.
25 With the merciful You will show Yourself merciful;
with the blameless man You will show Yourself blameless;
26 with the pure You will show Yourself pure;
and with the crooked You will show Yourself crooked.
27 For You will save the afflicted people,
but will bring down prideful eyes.
28 For You will cause my lamp to shine;
the Lord my God will enlighten my darkness.
29 For by You I can run through a troop,
and by my God I can leap a wall.
30 As for God, His way has integrity;
the word of the Lord is proven;
He is a shield
to all those who take refuge in Him.
31 For who is God except the Lord?
Or who is a rock besides our God?
32 It is God who clothes me with strength,
and gives my way integrity.
33 He makes my feet like the feet of a deer,
and causes me to stand on my high places.
34 He trains my hands for war,
so that my arms bend a bow of bronze.
35 You have given me the shield of Your salvation,
and Your right hand has held me up,
and Your gentleness has made me great.
36 You have lengthened my stride under me,
so that my feet did not slip.
37 I pursued my enemies and overtook them;
I did not return until they were destroyed.
38 I wounded them, and they were not able to rise;
they are fallen under my feet.
39 For You clothed me with strength for the battle;
You subdued under me those who rose up against me.
40 You gave me the necks of my enemies,
and I destroyed those who hate me.
41 They cried for help, but there was none to save them;
even to the Lord, but He did not answer them.
42 Then I beat them small as the dust before the wind;
I cast them out as the dirt in the streets.
43 You have delivered me from the hostilities of the people,
and You have made me the head of nations;
a people whom I have not known serve me.
44 At hearing a report, they obey me;
foreigners come cringing to me.
45 Foreigners fade away,
and come quaking out of their prisons.
46 The Lord lives! And blessed be my Rock!
May the God of my salvation be exalted.
47 It is God who avenges me
and subdues the people under me;
48 He delivers me from my enemies.
You lift me up above those who rise up against me;
You have delivered me from the violent man.
49 Therefore I will give thanks to You, O Lord, among the nations,
and sing praises to Your name.
50 He gives great deliverance to His king,
and shows lovingkindness to His anointed,
to David and to his descendants for evermore.
12 For the day of the Lord of Hosts shall be
upon everything that is proud and lofty,
and upon everything that is lifted up,
and it shall be brought low;
13 and it will be upon all the cedars of Lebanon that are high and lifted up,
and upon all the oaks of Bashan,
14 and upon all the high mountains,
and upon all the hills that are lifted up,
15 and upon all the high towers,
and upon every fenced wall,
16 and upon all the ships of Tarshish,
and upon all pleasant sloops.
17 The loftiness of man shall be humbled,
and the haughtiness of men shall be brought low;
the Lord alone will be exalted in that day;
18 the idols He shall utterly abolish.
19 They shall go into the holes of the rocks,
and into the caves of the earth,
from the fear of the Lord,
and from the glory of His majesty,
when He shall arise to shake the earth mightily.
20 In that day a man shall cast away
his idols of silver and his idols of gold,
which they made for themselves to worship,
to the moles and to the bats,
21 to enter the caverns of the rocks,
and into the clefts of the cliffs,
from the terror of the Lord,
and from the glory of His majesty,
when He arises to shake the earth mightily.
22 Cease regarding man,
whose breath is in his nostrils;
for why should he be esteemed?
3 Therefore, when we could no longer endure it, we thought it good to be left at Athens alone. 2 We sent Timothy, who is our brother and minister of God and our fellow laborer in the gospel of Christ, to establish and comfort you with regard to your faith, 3 so that no one would be shaken by these afflictions. For you know that we are appointed to this. 4 Indeed, we told you before when we were with you that we would suffer tribulation, just as it came to pass, as you well know. 5 For this reason, when I could no longer endure it, I sent to inquire about your faith, lest by some means the tempter might have tempted you, and our labor might have been in vain.
6 But just now Timothy has come from you to us and brought us good news of your faith and love, and that you always have good memories of us, desiring greatly to see us, as we also desire to see you. 7 Therefore, brothers, during all our afflictions and distress, we have been encouraged about you through your faith. 8 For now we live, if you stand strong in the Lord. 9 For what thanks can we render to God for you, for all the joy with which we rejoice for your sakes before our God, 10 night and day praying earnestly that we might see your face and might perfect that which is lacking in your faith?
11 Now may our God and Father Himself, and our Lord Jesus Christ, direct our way to you. 12 And may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all men, even as we do for you. 13 To this end may He establish your hearts to be blameless in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all His saints.
The Question About the Resurrection(A)
27 Some of the Sadducees, who deny that there is any resurrection, came to Him and asked Him, 28 “Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies, having a wife but no children, then this man should take the wife and raise up children for his brother.[a] 29 Now there were seven brothers. The first took a wife and died childless. 30 The second took her as wife, and he died childless. 31 And then the third took her, and in like manner, all seven died and left no children. 32 Last of all, the woman died also. 33 Therefore in the resurrection whose wife will she be? For the seven had her as a wife.”
34 Jesus answered them, “The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage. 35 But those who are counted worthy to attain that age, and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry nor are given in marriage. 36 For they cannot die any more, for they are equal to the angels and are the sons of God, being sons of the resurrection. 37 Now, at the bush, even Moses pointed out that the dead are raised when he called the Lord ‘the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’[b] 38 For He is not the God of the dead, but of the living. For to Him all live.”
39 Some of the scribes said, “Teacher, You have spoken well.” 40 After that they dared not ask Him any question at all.
The Holy Bible, Modern English Version. Copyright © 2014 by Military Bible Association. Published and distributed by Charisma House.