Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 41
For the Music Director. A Psalm of David.
1 Blessed are those who consider the poor;
the Lord will deliver them in the day of trouble.
2 The Lord will preserve them and keep them alive,
and they will be blessed on the earth,
and You will not deliver them to the will of their enemies.
3 The Lord will sustain them on the sickbed;
You will restore all his lying down in his illness.
4 I said, “Lord, be gracious to me;
heal my soul, for I have sinned against You.”
5 My enemies speak evil of me:
“When will he die, and his name perish?”
6 And if people come to see me, they speak insincerely;
their heart gathers iniquity to itself,
when they go outside, they tell it.
7 All who hate me whisper together against me;
they devise harm against me.
8 “An evil disease clings to him.
And now that he lies down, he will not rise up again.”
9 Yes, my own close friend,
in whom I trusted, who ate of my bread,
has lifted up the heel against me.
10 But You, O Lord, be gracious to me,
and raise me up, that I may repay them.
11 By this I know that You favor me,
because my enemy does not triumph over me.
12 As for me, You uphold me in my integrity,
and set me before You forever.
13 Blessed be the Lord God of Israel
from everlasting and to everlasting.
Amen and Amen.
Psalm 52
For the Music Director. A Contemplative Maskil. A Psalm of David, when Doeg the Edomite came and told Saul, “David has come to the house of Ahimelek.”
1 Why do you boast in evil, O mighty man?
The goodness of God endures continually.
2 Your tongue devises calamities,
like a sharp razor, you worker of treachery.
3 You love evil more than good,
and lying rather than speaking righteousness. Selah
4 You love all devouring words,
O you deceitful tongue.
5 God will likewise break you down forever;
He will snatch you away and pluck you from your home,
and uproot you from the land of the living. Selah
6 The righteous also will see and fear,
and will laugh in contempt,
7 “See, this is the man
who did not make God his refuge,
but trusted in the abundance of riches,
and grew strong in his own wickedness.”
8 But I am like a green olive tree
in the house of God;
I trust in the mercy of God
forever and ever.
9 I will give thanks to You forever, because You have acted;
and I will wait on Your name,
for it is good before Your saints.
Psalm 44
For the Music Director. A Contemplative Maskil of the sons of Korah.
1 We have heard with our ears, O God,
our fathers have told us
what work You did in their days,
in the days of old:
2 how You drove out the nations with Your hand,
and planted others instead;
how You afflicted peoples,
and sent them away.
3 For they did not take possession of the land by their own sword,
nor did their own arm save them;
but it was Your right hand, and Your arm,
and the light of Your countenance, because You had favor on them.
4 You are my King, O God;
command deliverances for Jacob.
5 Through You we will push down our opponents;
through Your name we will trample those who rise up against us.
6 For I will not trust in my bow,
nor will my sword save me.
7 But You have saved us from our opponents,
and have put to shame those who hate us.
8 In God we boast all the day long,
and give thanks to Your name forever. Selah
9 But You have rejected us and put us to shame,
and do not go out with our armies.
10 You make us to turn back from the opponent,
and those who hate us make us their spoil.
11 You have placed us like sheep for prey,
and have scattered us among the nations.
12 You sell Your people for nothing,
and do not increase Your wealth by their sale.
13 You make us a reproach to our neighbors,
a scorn and a derision to those who surround us.
14 You make us a byword among the nations,
a shaking of the head among the people.
15 All day long my reproach is before me,
and the shame of my face covers me,
16 from the voice of him who reproaches and reviles,
by reason of the enemy and avenger.
17 All this is come on us,
yet we have not forgotten You,
nor have we dealt falsely in Your covenant.
18 Our heart is not turned back,
nor have our steps deviated from Your way,
19 though You have crushed us in the place of jackals,
and covered us with the shadow of death.
20 If we have forgotten the name of our God,
or stretched out our hands to a strange god,
21 would not God search this out?
For He knows the secrets of the heart.
22 Yes, for Your sake we are killed all the day long;
we are considered like sheep for the slaughter.
23 Awake; why do You sleep, O Lord?
Arise; do not reject us forever.
24 Why do You hide Your face,
and forget our affliction and our oppression?
25 For our soul is bowed down to the dust;
our body cleaves to the earth.
26 Arise, be our help,
and redeem us for the sake of Your lovingkindness.
11 Beware that you do not forget the Lord your God by not keeping His commandments, and His judgments, and His statutes, which I am commanding you today. 12 Otherwise, when you have eaten and are full and have built and occupied good houses, 13 and when your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and your gold multiply, and all that you have multiplies, 14 then your heart will become proud and you will forget the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of slavery, 15 who led you through that great and terrible wilderness, where there were fiery serpents and scorpions and drought, where there was no water, who brought forth for you water out of the rock of flint, 16 who fed you in the wilderness with manna, which your fathers did not know, that He might humble you and that He might prove you, to do good for you in the end. 17 Otherwise, you may say in your heart, “My power and the might of my hand have gained me this wealth.” 18 But you must remember the Lord your God, for it is He who gives you the ability to get wealth, so that He may establish His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as it is today.
19 If you ever forget the Lord your God and go after other gods and serve them and worship them, then I testify against you today that you will surely perish. 20 Just like the nations which the Lord will destroy before you, so shall you perish because you would not be obedient to the voice of the Lord your God.
11 For both He who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all of One. For this reason He is not ashamed to call them brothers, 12 saying:
“I will declare Your name to My brothers;
in the midst of the congregation I will sing praise to You.”[a]
13 And again:
“I will put My trust in Him.”[b]
And again:
“Here am I and the children whom God has given Me.”[c]
14 So then, as the children share in flesh and blood, He likewise took part in these, so that through death He might destroy him who has the power of death, that is, the devil, 15 and deliver those who through fear of death were throughout their lives subject to bondage. 16 For surely He does not help the angels, but He helps the seed of Abraham. 17 Therefore, in all things it was necessary for Him to be made like His brothers, so that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in the things pertaining to God, to make atonement for the sins of the people. 18 For since He Himself suffered while being tempted, He is able to help those who are being tempted.
The Wedding at Cana
2 On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee. The mother of Jesus was there. 2 Both Jesus and His disciples were invited to the wedding. 3 When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to Him, “They have no wine.”
4 Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does this have to do with Me? My hour has not yet come.”
5 His mother said to the servants, “Whatever He says to you, do it.”
6 Six water pots made of stone were sitting there, used for ceremonial cleansing by the Jews, containing twenty to thirty gallons[a] each.
7 Jesus said to them, “Fill the water pots with water.” And they filled them up to the brim.
8 Then He said to them, “Now draw some out, and take it to the master of the feast.”
And they took it. 9 When the master of the feast tasted the water that had been turned into wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who drew the water knew), the master of the feast called the bridegroom, 10 and he said to him, “Every man serves the good wine first, and after men have drunk freely, then the poor wine is served. But you have kept the good wine until now.”
11 This, the first of His signs, Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and He revealed His glory, and His disciples believed in Him.
12 After this He, and His mother, and His brothers, and His disciples went down to Capernaum. They remained there a few days.
The Holy Bible, Modern English Version. Copyright © 2014 by Military Bible Association. Published and distributed by Charisma House.