Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 63[a]
Ardent Longing for God
1 A psalm of David, when he was in the wilderness of Judah.(A)
I
2 O God, you are my God—
it is you I seek!
For you my body yearns;
for you my soul thirsts,
In a land parched, lifeless,
and without water.(B)
3 I look to you in the sanctuary
to see your power and glory.
4 For your love is better than life;[b]
my lips shall ever praise you!
II
5 I will bless you as long as I live;
I will lift up my hands, calling on your name.
6 My soul shall be sated as with choice food,
with joyous lips my mouth shall praise you!
7 I think of you upon my bed,
I remember you through the watches of the night
8 You indeed are my savior,
and in the shadow of your wings I shout for joy.(C)
9 My soul clings fast to you;
your right hand upholds me.
III
10 But those who seek my life will come to ruin;
they shall go down to the depths of the netherworld!
11 Those who would hand over my life to the sword shall
become the prey of jackals!
12 But the king shall rejoice in God;
all who swear by the Lord[c] shall exult,
but the mouths of liars will be shut!(D)
Psalm 98[a]
The Coming of God
1 A psalm.
I
Sing a new song to the Lord,
for he has done marvelous deeds.(A)
His right hand and holy arm
have won the victory.[b](B)
2 The Lord has made his victory known;
has revealed his triumph in the sight of the nations,
3 He has remembered his mercy and faithfulness
toward the house of Israel.
All the ends of the earth have seen
the victory of our God.
II
4 Shout with joy to the Lord, all the earth;
break into song; sing praise.
5 Sing praise to the Lord with the lyre,
with the lyre and melodious song.
6 With trumpets and the sound of the horn
shout with joy to the King, the Lord.(C)
III
Psalm 103[a]
Praise of Divine Goodness
1 Of David.
I
Bless the Lord, my soul;
all my being, bless his holy name!
2 Bless the Lord, my soul;
and do not forget all his gifts,
3 Who pardons all your sins,
and heals all your ills,
4 Who redeems your life from the pit,(A)
and crowns you with mercy and compassion,
5 Who fills your days with good things,
so your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.[b]
II
6 The Lord does righteous deeds,
brings justice to all the oppressed.(B)
7 He made known his ways to Moses,
to the Israelites his deeds.
8 Merciful and gracious is the Lord,
slow to anger, abounding in mercy.(C)
9 He will not always accuse,
and nurses no lasting anger;
10 He has not dealt with us as our sins merit,
nor requited us as our wrongs deserve.
III
11 For as the heavens tower over the earth,
so his mercy towers over those who fear him.(D)
12 As far as the east is from the west,
so far has he removed our sins from us.
13 As a father has compassion on his children,
so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him.
14 For he knows how we are formed,
remembers that we are dust.(E)
15 As for man, his days are like the grass;
he blossoms like a flower in the field.(F)
16 A wind sweeps over it and it is gone;
its place knows it no more.
17 But the Lord’s mercy is from age to age,
toward those who fear him.
His salvation is for the children’s children
18 of those who keep his covenant,
and remember to carry out his precepts.
IV
19 The Lord has set his throne in heaven;
his dominion extends over all.
20 Bless the Lord, all you his angels,(G)
mighty in strength, acting at his behest,
obedient to his command.
21 Bless the Lord, all you his hosts,
his ministers who carry out his will.
22 Bless the Lord, all his creatures,
everywhere in his domain.
Bless the Lord, my soul!
Chapter 8
God’s Care. 1 Be careful to observe this whole commandment(A) that I enjoin on you today, that you may live and increase, and may enter in and possess the land which the Lord promised on oath to your ancestors. 2 Remember how for these forty years the Lord, your God, has directed all your journeying in the wilderness,(B) so as to test you by affliction, to know what was in your heart: to keep his commandments, or not. 3 He therefore let you be afflicted with hunger, and then fed you with manna,(C) a food unknown to you and your ancestors, so you might know that it is not by bread alone[a] that people live, but by all that comes forth from the mouth of the Lord. 4 The clothing did not fall from you in tatters, nor did your feet swell these forty years.(D) 5 So you must know in your heart that, even as a man disciplines his son, so the Lord, your God, disciplines you.(E) 6 Therefore, keep the commandments of the Lord, your God, by walking in his ways and fearing him.
Cautions About Prosperity. 7 (F)For the Lord, your God, is bringing you into a good country, a land with streams of water, with springs and fountains welling up in the hills and valleys, 8 a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, of olive trees and of honey, 9 a land where you will always have bread and where you will lack nothing, a land whose stones contain iron and in whose hills you can mine copper. 10 But when you have eaten and are satisfied, you must bless the Lord, your God, for the good land he has given you.
17 [a]For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with the wisdom of human eloquence,[b] so that the cross of Christ might not be emptied of its meaning.(A)
Paradox of the Cross. 18 The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.(B) 19 For it is written:
“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,
and the learning of the learned I will set aside.”(C)
20 Where is the wise one? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made the wisdom of the world foolish?(D) 21 [c]For since in the wisdom of God the world did not come to know God through wisdom, it was the will of God through the foolishness of the proclamation to save those who have faith. 22 For Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom,(E) 23 but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles,(F) 24 but to those who are called, Jews and Greeks alike, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.
The Corinthians and Paul.[d] 26 Consider your own calling, brothers. Not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. 27 Rather, God chose the foolish of the world to shame the wise, and God chose the weak of the world to shame the strong,(G) 28 and God chose the lowly and despised of the world, those who count for nothing, to reduce to nothing those who are something, 29 so that no human being might boast[e] before God.(H) 30 It is due to him that you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, as well as righteousness, sanctification, and redemption,(I) 31 so that, as it is written, “Whoever boasts, should boast in the Lord.”(J)
18 The disciples of John and of the Pharisees were accustomed to fast.(A) People came to him and objected, “Why do the disciples of John and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?” 19 Jesus answered them, “Can the wedding guests fast[a] while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them they cannot fast. 20 But the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast on that day. 21 No one sews a piece of unshrunken cloth on an old cloak. If he does, its fullness pulls away, the new from the old, and the tear gets worse. 22 Likewise, no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the skins are ruined. Rather, new wine is poured into fresh wineskins.”
The Disciples and the Sabbath.[b]
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