Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 41[a]
Trust in God in Sickness and Misfortune
1 For the director.[b] A psalm of David.
2 [c]Blessed is he who has concern for the weak;
in time of trouble the Lord will deliver him.
3 The Lord will protect him and keep him alive;
he will make him happy on earth
and not abandon him to the will of his enemies.
4 The Lord will sustain him on his sickbed
and bring him back to health.
5 Once I prayed, “O Lord, have mercy on me;
heal me, for I have sinned[d] against you.
6 In their malice my enemies say of me,
‘When will he die and his name be forgotten?’
7 When someone comes to visit me,
he utters words without sincerity;
his heart[e] harbors slander,
and on departing he gives voice to it.
8 “All my enemies whisper against me
and conjure up the worst in my regard.
9 ‘He has a fatal disease,’ they say;
‘he will never rise up from his sickbed.’
10 “Even my friend whom I trusted,
the one who dined at my table,
has risen up[f] against me.
11 But you, O Lord, be merciful to me;
make me well[g] so that I may pay them back.”
12 By this I know that you are pleased with me—
that my enemy fails to triumph over me.
13 Because of my innocence you uphold me
and let me stand in your presence forever.
14 Blessed[h] be the Lord, the God of Israel,
forever and forever.
Amen and Amen.
Psalm 52[a]
Prayer for Help against Calumniators
1 For the director.[b] A maskil of David. 2 When Doeg the Edomite went and told Saul, “David has gone to the house of Ahimelech.”
3 Why do you boast of your evil deeds,
you champion of malice?[c]
All day long 4 you plot harm;
your tongue is like a sharpened razor,
you master of deceit.
5 [d]You love evil rather than good,
and lies rather than truthful speech. Selah
6 You wallow in destructive talk,
you tongue of deceit.
7 [e]This is the reason why God will crush you
and destroy you once and for all.
He will snatch you from your tent[f]
and uproot you from the land of the living. Selah
8 The righteous will see and be afraid;
they will mock him:
9 “This is the man
who refused to accept God as his refuge.
Rather, he placed his trust in his abundant riches
and gathered strength by his crimes.”
10 [g]But I am like a green olive tree[h]
in the house of God.
I place my trust forever and ever
in the kindness of God.
11 I will praise you forever
for what you have done,[i]
and in the presence of the saints
I will proclaim the goodness of your name.
Psalm 44[a]
Past Glory and Present Need of God’s People
1 For the director.[b] A maskil of the sons of Korah.
2 [c]O God, we have heard with our ears,
our ancestors have told us,
of the deeds you performed in their days,
in the days of old.
3 To establish them in the land,
you drove out the nations with your own hand;
you crushed the peoples
so that our ancestors could flourish.
4 It was not their own swords that won them the land,
nor did their own arms make them victorious;
rather, it was your right hand and your arm
and the light of your face,[d]
because you loved them.
5 You are my[e] King and my God,
who bestowed victories upon Jacob.
6 Through you we throw back our enemies;
through your name[f] we crush our assailants.
7 It is not in my bow that I trust,
nor can my sword ensure my victory.
8 It is you who saved us from our enemies;
you scattered in confusion those who hate us.
9 In God we boast the whole day long,
and we will praise your name forever. Selah
10 [g]But now you have rejected and humiliated us,
and you no longer accompany our armies.[h]
11 You have forced us to retreat[i] before the enemy;
those who hate us plunder us unceasingly.
12 You have handed us over like sheep to be slaughtered
and scattered us among the nations.
13 You have sold your people for nothing,
receiving no gain from their sale.
14 You have subjected us to the contempt of our neighbors,
to the mockery and scorn of all who are near.
15 You have made us a byword to the nations;
the peoples shake their heads[j] at us.
16 All day long I am confronted by my disgrace,
and my face is covered with shame
17 as I hear the shouts of taunting and abuse
and see the hateful enemy seeking revenge.
18 All this has happened to us
even though we have not forgotten you
or been false to your covenant.[k]
19 Our hearts[l] have not turned back,
nor have our feet wandered from your path.
20 Yet you have crushed us,
forced us to live among the jackals,[m]
and covered us with darkness.
21 If we had forgotten the name[n] of our God
or lifted up our hands to a foreign god,
22 would not God have discovered it,
he who knows the secrets of the heart?
23 For your sake we are put to death all day long;
we are treated like sheep destined to be slaughtered.[o]
24 Awake, O Lord. Why[p] do you sleep?
Rise up, and do not abandon us forever.
25 Why do you hide your face[q]
and continue to ignore our misery and our sufferings?
26 We have been brought down to the dust;
our bodies cling to the ground.[r]
27 Rise up and come to our aid;
redeem us for the sake of your kindness.[s]
Chapter 13
Prophetic Disobedience. 1 A man of God came from Judah and went to Bethel, led by the word of the Lord, and Jeroboam was standing by the altar offering incense. 2 He cried out the word of the Lord against the altar saying, “O altar, O altar, thus says the Lord, ‘A son will be born to the house of David by the name of Josiah. On you he will sacrifice the priests of the high places who now burn incense upon you. Human bones will be burnt upon you.’ ”[a]
3 That same day he gave a sign saying, “This is a sign of what the Lord has proclaimed: The altar will be split in two and the ashes on it will be poured out.”
4 When the king heard the man of God speaking against the altar in Bethel, Jeroboam stretched out his hand from the altar proclaiming, “Seize him!” The hand that he stretched out toward him shriveled up, and he could not pull it back again. 5 The altar split apart and its ashes spilt out from the altar, fulfilling the sign that the man of God had proclaimed through the word of the Lord.
6 The king said to the man of God, “Intercede now to the Lord, your God, and pray for me so that my hand might be made well.” The man of God interceded with the Lord, and the king’s hand was made well, just like it was before.
7 The king said to the man of God, “Come home with me and have something to eat, and I will give you a gift.” 8 But the man of God said to the king, “Even if you were to give me half of what belongs to you, I would not go with you, nor would I eat bread or drink water in this place.” 9 I received a command by the word of the Lord, “Do not eat bread or drink water or return by the way you came.” 10 He returned by another way, and did not go back by the way that he had come to Bethel.
Introduction
Chapter 1
Address.[a] 1 Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, to all the saints in Christ Jesus at Philippi, together with their bishops and deacons: 2 grace to you and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.
Joyful Prayer for the Philippians.[b] 3 I give thanks to my God every time I think of you. 4 I always pray for you, interceding for you with joy 5 because of your sharing in the gospel from the first day until now. 6 I am confident of this: that the one who began a good work in you will bring it to completion on the day of Christ Jesus.[c]
7 It is only right for me to feel this way toward you, because I hold you in my heart, for you have all shared with me in God’s grace, both during my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel. 8 Indeed, God is my witness how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus.
9 And for this I pray: that your love may increase ever more and more in knowledge and full insight 10 to enable you to discover what is really important, so that on the day of Christ you may be pure and blameless, 11 filled with the fruits of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ for the glory and praise of God.
40 A number of women were also present, looking on from a distance. Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James the younger[a] and of Joses, and Salome. 41 These women used to follow Jesus when he was in Galilee and minister to his needs. And there were many other women there who had come up with him to Jerusalem.
42 Jesus Is Placed in the Tomb.[b] It was the Day of Preparation, that is, the day before the Sabbath. So when evening came, 43 Joseph of Arimathea, a respected member of the council, who was also awaiting the kingdom of God, boldly went to Pilate and requested the body of Jesus. 44 Pilate was surprised to hear that Jesus was already dead, and he summoned the centurion to ascertain that Jesus had indeed died. 45 When he learned from the centurion that such was the case, he turned over the body to Joseph.
46 Having purchased a linen shroud, he lowered Jesus from the cross, wrapped him in the shroud, and laid him in a tomb that had been hewn out of rock. He then rolled a stone against the entrance of the tomb. 47 Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses saw where the body was buried.
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