Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 40(A)
For the Music Director. A Psalm of David.
1 I waited patiently for the Lord,
and He turned to me, and heard my cry.
2 He also brought me up out of a horrible pit,
out of the miry clay,
and set my feet on a rock,
and established my steps.
3 He has put a new song in my mouth,
even praise to our God;
many will see it, and fear,
and will trust in the Lord.
4 Blessed is the man
who places trust in the Lord,
but does not turn toward the proud,
nor those falling away to falsehood.
5 O Lord my God,
You have done many wonderful works,
and Your thoughts toward us
cannot be compared;
if I would declare and speak of them,
they are more than can be numbered.
6 Sacrifice and offering You did not desire;
You have opened up my ears to listen.
Burnt offering and sin offering
You have not required.
7 Then I said, “Behold, I have come;
in the scroll of the book it is written of me,
8 I delight to do Your will, O my God;
Your law is within my inward parts.”
9 I have proclaimed righteousness in the great congregation;
I have not held back my lips,
O Lord, You know.
10 I have not hidden Your righteousness within my heart;
I have declared Your faithfulness and Your salvation;
I have not concealed Your lovingkindness and Your truth
from the great congregation.
11 Do not withhold Your compassion from me, O Lord;
may Your lovingkindness and Your truth always guard me.
12 For innumerable evils have surrounded me;
my iniquities have overtaken me, so that I am not able to look up;
they are more than the hairs of my head
so that my heart fails me.
13 Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me;
O Lord, make haste to help me.
14 May those seeking to snatch away my life
be ashamed and confounded together;
may those who desire my harm
be driven backward and dishonored.
15 May those who say to me “Aha, aha!”
be appalled on account of their shame.
16 May all those who seek You
rejoice and be glad in You;
may those who love Your salvation say continually,
“The Lord is magnified.”
17 But I am poor and needy;
yet the Lord thinks about me.
You are my help and my deliverer;
do not delay, O my God.
Psalm 54
For the Music Director. With stringed instruments. A Contemplative Maskil of David, when the Ziphites went and told Saul, “Is David not hiding among us?”
1 O God, save me by Your name,
and judge me by Your strength.
2 O God, hear my prayer;
give ear to the words of my mouth.
3 For strangers rise up against me,
and formidable adversaries seek my life;
they do not set God before them. Selah
4 God is my helper;
the Lord is with those who support my life.
5 He will repay my enemies for their evil.
In Your faithfulness, destroy them.
6 I will sacrifice a freewill offering to You;
I will give thanks to Your name, O Lord, for it is good.
7 For He has delivered me out of all trouble;
and my eye has looked down on my enemies.
Psalm 51
For the Music Director. A Psalm of David, when Nathan the Prophet came to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba.
1 Have mercy on me, O God,
according to Your lovingkindness;
according to the abundance of Your compassion,
blot out my transgressions.
2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
and cleanse me from my sin.
3 For I acknowledge my transgressions,
and my sin is ever before me.
4 Against You, You only, have I sinned,
and done this evil in Your sight,
so that You are justified when You speak,
and You are blameless when You judge.
5 I was brought forth in iniquity,
and in sin my mother conceived me.
6 You desire truth in the inward parts,
and in the hidden part You make me to know wisdom.
7 Purify me with hyssop, and I will be clean;
wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.
8 Make me to hear joy and gladness,
that the bones that You have broken may rejoice.
9 Hide Your face from my sins,
and blot out all my iniquities.
10 Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and renew a right spirit within me.
11 Do not cast me away from Your presence,
and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.
12 Restore to me the joy of Your salvation,
and uphold me with Your willing spirit.
13 Then I will teach transgressors Your ways,
and sinners will return to You.
14 Deliver me from blood guiltiness, O God,
God of my salvation,
and my tongue will sing aloud of Your righteousness.
15 O Lord, open my lips,
and my mouth will declare Your praise.
16 For You do not desire sacrifice, or I would give it;
You do not delight in burnt offering.
17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;
a broken and a contrite heart,
O God, You will not despise.
18 Do good to Zion in Your good pleasure;
build the walls of Jerusalem.
19 Then You will be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness,
with burnt offering and whole burnt offering;
then they will offer young bulls on Your altar.
Judgment on Assyria
5 Woe to Assyria, the rod of My anger
and the staff in whose hand is My indignation.
6 I will send him against an ungodly nation,
and against the people of My wrath I will give him a command,
to seize the plunder, to take the prey,
and to tread them down like the mire of the streets.
7 However he does not so intend,
nor does he plan so in his heart;
but his purpose is to destroy
and to cut off many nations.
8 For he says, “Are not my princes altogether kings?
9 Is not Kalno as Carchemish?
Is not Hamath as Arpad?
Is not Samaria as Damascus?
10 As my hand has found the kingdoms of the idols
whose graven images were greater than those of Jerusalem and Samaria,
11 shall I not, as I have done to Samaria and her idols,
so do to Jerusalem and her idols?”
12 When the Lord has performed all His work on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, He will say, “I will punish the fruit of the stout heart of the king of Assyria and the glory of his high looks.” 13 For he says:
“By the strength of my hand and by my wisdom,
I have done it, for I am prudent;
and I have removed the bounds of the people,
and have robbed their treasures,
and I have put down the inhabitants like a valiant man.
14 And my hand has found as a nest
the riches of the people,
and as one gathers eggs that are left,
I have gathered all the earth
and there was no one who moved the wing
or opened the mouth or peeped.”
15 Shall the axe boast itself against him who hews with it?
Or shall the saw magnify itself against him who wields it?
That is as if the rod wields itself against those who lift it up,
or as if the staff should lift itself up as if it were not wood.
16 Therefore the Lord, God of Hosts,
shall send leanness among his stout ones,
and under his glory he shall kindle a burning
like the burning of a fire.
17 The light of Israel shall be a fire,
and his Holy One a flame,
and it shall burn and devour
his thorns and his briers in one day,
18 and shall consume the glory of his forest,
and of his fruitful field, both soul and body;
and it shall be as when a sick man faints.
19 The rest of the trees of his forest shall be so few
that a child may write them down.
17 These men are wells without water and clouds that are carried by a storm, for whom the gloom of darkness has been reserved forever. 18 For when they speak arrogant words of vanity, they entice by the lusts of the flesh and by depravity those who barely escaped from those who live in error. 19 Although they promise them freedom, they themselves are slaves of corruption, for by that which a man is overcome, to this he is enslaved. 20 For if after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and they are again entangled in them and are overcome, the latter end is worse for them than the beginning. 21 For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than to have known it and then turn back from the holy commandment that was delivered to them. 22 But it has happened to them according to the true proverb, “The dog returns to his own vomit,”[a] and “the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mud.”
The Messengers From John the Baptist(A)
2 Now when John had heard in prison the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples, 3 and said to Him, “Are You He who should come, or should we look for another?”
4 Jesus answered them, “Go and tell John what you hear and see: 5 The blind receive their sight and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them.[a] 6 Blessed is he who does not fall away because of Me.”
7 As they departed, Jesus began to say to the crowds concerning John, “What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind? 8 If not, what did you go out to see? A man dressed in soft clothing? Indeed, those who wear soft clothing are in kings’ houses. 9 Then what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I say to you, and more than a prophet. 10 For this is he of whom it is written:
‘Look, I am sending My messenger before Your face,
who will prepare Your way before You.’[b]
11 Truly I say to you, among those who are born of women, there has risen no one greater than John the Baptist. But he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. 12 From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has forcefully advanced, and the strong take it by force. 13 For all the Prophets and the Law prophesied until John. 14 And if you are willing to receive it, he is Elijah, who is to come. 15 He who has ears to hear, let him hear.
The Holy Bible, Modern English Version. Copyright © 2014 by Military Bible Association. Published and distributed by Charisma House.