Book of Common Prayer
To the Director: A Davidic Psalm.
When Things Go Wrong
41 Blessed is the one who is considerate of the destitute;[a]
the Lord will deliver him when the times are evil.
2 The Lord will protect him and keep him alive;
he will be blessed in the land;
and he will not be handed over to the desires of his enemies.
3 The Lord will uphold him even on his sickbed;
you will transform his bed of illness into health.
4 As for me, I said,
“Lord, be gracious to me!
Heal me, for I have sinned against you!”
5 As for my enemies, with malice they said,
“When will he die and memory of[b] his name perish?”
6 The one who comes to visit me speaks lies;
in his heart he thinks slanderous things about me
and goes around spreading them.
7 As for all who hate me,
they whisper together against me;
they desire to do me harm.
8 They say, “Wickedness is entrenched in him.
Once he is brought low,
he will not rise again.”
9 As for my best friend,
the one in whom I trusted,
the one who ate my bread,
even he has insulted[c] me!
10 But you, Lord, be gracious to me and raise me up
so that I may pay them back!
11 In this way I will know that you are pleased with me,
and that my enemies will not shout in triumph over me.
12 As for me, you will maintain my just cause,
and you will cause me to stand in your presence forever.
13 Blessed be the Lord God of Israel,
from eternity to eternity.
Amen and amen!
To the Director: A Davidic instruction[a] about Doeg, the Edomite, when he went to Saul and told him, “David went to the house of Abimelech.”
A Rebuke to the Deceitful
52 Why do you make evil
the foundation of your boasting, mighty one?[b]
God’s gracious love never ceases.[c]
2 Your tongue, like a sharp razor, devises wicked things
and crafts treachery.
3 You love evil rather than good,
falsehood rather than speaking uprightly.
4 You love all words that destroy, you deceitful tongue!
5 But God will tear you down forever;
he will take you away,
even snatching you out of your tent!
He will uproot you from the land of the living.
6 The righteous will fear when they see this,
but then they will laugh at him, saying,
7 “Look, here is a young man who refused to make God his strength;
instead, he trusted in his great wealth
and made his wickedness his strength.
8 But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God;
I trust in the gracious love of God forever and ever.
9 Therefore I will praise you forever
because of what you did;
I will proclaim that your name is good
in the midst of your faithful ones.
To the Director: An instruction[a] of the Sons of Korah.
A Prayer in Times of Defeat
44 God, we heard it with our ears;
our ancestors told us about what you did in their day—
a long time ago.
2 With your hand you expelled the nations
and established our ancestors.[b]
You afflicted nations
and cast them out.
3 It was not with their sword that they inherited the land,
nor did their own arm deliver them.
But it was by your power,[c] your strength,
and by the light of your face;
because you were pleased with them.
4 You are my king, God,
command[d] victories[e] for Jacob.
5 Through you we will knock down our oppressors;
through your name we will tread down those who rise up against us.
6 For I place no confidence in my bow,
nor will my sword deliver me.
7 For you delivered us from our oppressors
and put to shame those who hate us.
8 We will praise God all day long;
and to your name we will give thanks forever.
9 However, you cast us off and made us ashamed!
You did not even march with our armies!
10 You made us retreat from our oppressors.
Our enemies ransacked us.
11 You handed us over to be slaughtered like sheep
and you scattered us among the nations.
12 You sold out your people for nothing,
and made no profit at that price.
13 You made us a laughing stock to our neighbors,
a source of mockery and derision to those around us.
14 You made us an object lesson among the nations;
people shake their heads at us.[f]
15 My dishonor tortures[g] me continuously;[h]
the shame on my face overwhelms[i] me
16 because of the voice of the one who mocks and reviles,
because of the enemy and the avenger.
17 All this came upon us,
yet we did not forsake you,
and we have not dealt falsely with your covenant;
18 Our hearts have not turned away;
our steps have not swerved from your path.
19 Nevertheless, you crushed us in the lair of jackals,
and covered us in deep darkness.[j]
20 If we had forgotten the name of our God
or lifted our hands to a foreign god,
21 wouldn’t God find out
since he knows the secrets of the heart?
22 For your sake we are being killed all day long.
We are thought of as sheep to be slaughtered.
23 Wake up! Why are you asleep, Lord?
Get up! Don’t cast us off forever!
24 Why are you hiding your face?
Why are you ignoring our affliction and oppression?
25 For we[k] have collapsed in the dust;
our bodies cling to the ground.
26 Arise! Deliver us!
Redeem us according to your gracious love!
The Vision of Horses
7 On the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh month (the month Shebat) in the second year of the reign of[a] Darius, this message from the Lord came to Berechiah’s son Zechariah, the grandson of Iddo the prophet: 8 “I stared into the night, and there was a man mounted on a red horse! The horse[b] was standing among the myrtle trees in a ravine. Behind him there were red, brown,[c] and white horses.”
9 Then I asked, “Who are these, sir?”[d]
The messenger who was talking to me answered, “I will tell you who these are.”
10 The man who stood among the myrtle trees answered, “These are the ones whom the Lord sent out to wander throughout the earth.”
11 Then they reported to the angel of the Lord who stood among the myrtle trees, “We have wandered throughout the earth—and look!—the entire earth is at rest. Everything is quiet and peaceful.”[e]
12 And the angel of the Lord replied, “Lord of the Heavenly Armies, how long will it be until you show mercy to Jerusalem and to the cities of Judah, with whom you have been angry for these past seventy years?”
13 So the Lord answered the angel who was speaking to me with kind and comforting words.
The Lord’s Concern for Zion
14 Then the angel who was speaking to me told me, “Announce this: ‘This is what the Lord of the Heavenly Armies says: “I have a deep concern for Jerusalem, a great concern for Zion. 15 I am deeply angry with the nations who are complacent, with whom I was only a little displeased—but they made things worse!” 16 ‘Therefore this is what the Lord says: “I have returned to Jerusalem with compassionate intentions. My Temple will be rebuilt there,” declares the Lord of the Heavenly Armies, “and the measuring line will be stretched out over Jerusalem.”’”
The Future Prosperity of Zion
17 “Also announce the following: ‘This is what the Lord of the Heavenly Armies says: “My cities will again overflow with prosperity. The Lord will comfort Zion once more and will choose Jerusalem again.”’”
4 From[a] John to the seven churches in Asia. May grace and peace be yours from the one who is, who was, and who is coming, from the seven spirits who are in front of his throne, 5 and from Jesus the Messiah,[b] the witness, the faithful one,[c] the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler over the kings of the earth. To the one who loves us and has freed[d] us from our sins by his blood 6 and has made us a kingdom, priests for his God and Father, be glory and power forever and ever! Amen.
7 Look! He is coming in the clouds.
Every eye will see him,
even those who pierced him,
and all the tribes of the earth will mourn
because of him.
So be it! Amen.
8 “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” declares the Lord God, “the one who is, who was, and who is coming, the Almighty.”
John’s Vision of the Messiah
9 I am John, your brother and partner in the oppression, kingdom, and patience that comes because of Jesus. I was on the island called Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony about Jesus. 10 I came to be in the Spirit on the Day of the Lord, when I heard a loud voice behind me like a trumpet, 11 saying, “Write on a scroll what you see, and send it to the seven churches: Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea.”
12 Then I turned to see who[e] was talking to me, and when I turned I saw seven gold lamp stands. 13 Among the lamp stands there was someone like the Son of Man. He was wearing a long robe with a gold sash around his chest.[f] 14 His head and his hair were white like wool, in fact, as white as snow. His eyes were like flames of fire, 15 his feet were like glowing bronze refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of raging waters. 16 In his right hand he held seven stars, and out of his mouth came a sharp, two-edged sword. His face was like the sun when it shines with full force.
17 When I saw him, I fell down at his feet like a dead man. But he placed his right hand on me and said, “Stop being afraid! I am the first and the last, 18 the living one. I was dead—but look!—I am alive forever and ever! I have the keys of Death and Hades.[g] 19 Therefore, write down what you have seen, what is, and what is going to happen after this. 20 The secret meaning of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand and the seven gold lamp stands is this: the seven stars are the messengers[h] of the seven churches, and the seven lamp stands are the seven churches.”
The Return of the Unclean Spirit(A)
43 “Whenever an unclean spirit goes out of a person, it wanders through waterless places looking for a place to rest, but finds none. 44 Then it says, ‘I will go back to my home that I left.’ When it arrives, it finds it empty, swept clean, and put in order. 45 Then it goes and brings with it seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they go in and settle there. And so the final condition of that person becomes worse than the first. That’s just what will happen to this evil generation!”
The True Family of Jesus(B)
46 While Jesus[a] was still speaking to the crowds, his mother and brothers stood outside, wanting to speak to him. 47 Someone told him, “Look! Your mother and your brothers are standing outside, asking to speak to you.”[b]
48 He asked the man who told him, “Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?” 49 Then pointing with his hand at his disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers, 50 because whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.”
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