Book of Common Prayer
The Blessedness of Answered Prayer
A Psalm. A Song (A)at the dedication of the house of David.
30 I will extol You, O Lord, for You have (B)lifted me up,
And have not let my foes (C)rejoice over me.
2 O Lord my God, I cried out to You,
And You (D)healed me.
3 O Lord, (E)You brought my soul up from the grave;
You have kept me alive, [a]that I should not go down to the pit.
4 (F)Sing praise to the Lord, you saints of His,
And give thanks at the remembrance of [b]His holy name.
5 For (G)His anger is but for a moment,
(H)His favor is for life;
Weeping may endure for a night,
But [c]joy comes in the morning.
6 Now in my prosperity I said,
“I shall never be [d]moved.”
7 Lord, by Your favor You have made my mountain stand strong;
(I)You hid Your face, and I was troubled.
8 I cried out to You, O Lord;
And to the Lord I made supplication:
9 “What profit is there in my blood,
When I go down to the pit?
(J)Will the dust praise You?
Will it declare Your truth?
10 Hear, O Lord, and have mercy on me;
Lord, be my helper!”
The Joy of Forgiveness
A Psalm of David. A [a]Contemplation.
32 Blessed is he whose (A)transgression is forgiven,
Whose sin is covered.
2 Blessed is the man to whom the Lord (B)does not [b]impute iniquity,
And (C)in whose spirit there is no deceit.
3 When I kept silent, my bones grew old
Through my groaning all the day long.
4 For day and night Your (D)hand was heavy upon me;
My vitality was turned into the drought of summer. Selah
5 I acknowledged my sin to You,
And my iniquity I have not hidden.
(E)I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,”
And You forgave the iniquity of my sin. Selah
6 (F)For this cause everyone who is godly shall (G)pray to You
In a time when You may be found;
Surely in a flood of great waters
They shall not come near him.
7 (H)You are my hiding place;
You shall preserve me from trouble;
You shall surround me with (I)songs of deliverance. Selah
8 I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go;
I will guide you with My eye.
9 Do not be like the (J)horse or like the mule,
Which have no understanding,
Which must be harnessed with bit and bridle,
Else they will not come near you.
BOOK TWO
Psalms 42–72
Yearning for God in the Midst of Distresses
To the Chief Musician. A [a]Contemplation of the sons of Korah.
42 As the deer [b]pants for the water brooks,
So pants my soul for You, O God.
2 (A)My soul thirsts for God, for the (B)living God.
When shall I come and [c]appear before God?
3 (C)My tears have been my food day and night,
While they continually say to me,
(D)“Where is your God?”
4 When I remember these things,
(E)I pour out my soul within me.
For I used to go with the multitude;
(F)I went with them to the house of God,
With the voice of joy and praise,
With a multitude that kept a pilgrim feast.
5 (G)Why are you [d]cast down, O my soul?
And why are you disquieted within me?
(H)Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him
[e]For the help of His countenance.
6 [f]O my God, my soul is cast down within me;
Therefore I will remember You from the land of the Jordan,
And from the heights of Hermon,
From [g]the Hill Mizar.
7 Deep calls unto deep at the noise of Your waterfalls;
(I)All Your waves and billows have gone over me.
8 The Lord will (J)command His lovingkindness in the daytime,
And (K)in the night His song shall be with me—
A prayer to the God of my life.
9 I will say to God my Rock,
(L)“Why have You forgotten me?
Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?”
10 As with a [h]breaking of my bones,
My enemies [i]reproach me,
(M)While they say to me all day long,
“Where is your God?”
11 (N)Why are you cast down, O my soul?
And why are you disquieted within me?
Hope in God;
For I shall yet praise Him,
The [j]help of my countenance and my God.
Prayer to God in Time of Trouble
43 Vindicate (O)me, O God,
And (P)plead my cause against an ungodly nation;
Oh, deliver me from the deceitful and unjust man!
2 For You are the God of my strength;
Why do You cast me off?
(Q)Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?
9 So Abram journeyed, (A)going on still toward the [a]South.
Abram in Egypt
10 Now there was (B)a famine in the land, and Abram (C)went down to Egypt to dwell there, for the famine was (D)severe in the land. 11 And it came to pass, when he was close to entering Egypt, that he said to Sarai his wife, “Indeed I know that you are (E)a woman of beautiful countenance. 12 Therefore it will happen, when the Egyptians see you, that they will say, ‘This is his wife’; and they (F)will kill me, but they will let you live. 13 (G)Please say you are my (H)sister, that it may be well with me for your sake, and that [b]I may live because of you.”
14 So it was, when Abram came into Egypt, that the Egyptians saw the woman, that she was very beautiful. 15 The princes of Pharaoh also saw her and commended her to Pharaoh. And the woman was taken to Pharaoh’s house. 16 He (I)treated Abram well for her sake. He (J)had sheep, oxen, male donkeys, male and female servants, female donkeys, and camels.
17 But the Lord (K)plagued Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram’s wife. 18 And Pharaoh called Abram and said, (L)“What is this you have done to me? Why did you not tell me that she was your wife? 19 Why did you say, ‘She is my sister’? I might have taken her as my wife. Now therefore, here is your wife; take her and go your way.” 20 (M)So Pharaoh commanded his men concerning him; and they sent him away, with his wife and all that he had.
Abram Inherits Canaan
13 Then Abram went up from Egypt, he and his wife and all that he had, and (N)Lot with him, (O)to the [c]South.
18 For on the one hand there is an annulling of the former commandment because of (A)its weakness and unprofitableness, 19 for (B)the law made nothing [a]perfect; on the other hand, there is the bringing in of (C)a better hope, through which (D)we draw near to God.
Greatness of the New Priest
20 And inasmuch as He was not made priest without an oath 21 (for they have become priests without an oath, but He with an oath by Him who said to Him:
(E)“The Lord has sworn
And will not relent,
‘You are a priest [b]forever
According to the order of Melchizedek’ ”),
22 by so much more Jesus has become a [c]surety of a (F)better covenant.
23 Also there were many priests, because they were prevented by death from continuing. 24 But He, because He continues forever, has an unchangeable priesthood. 25 Therefore He is also (G)able to save [d]to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives (H)to make intercession for them.
26 For such a High Priest was fitting for us, (I)who is holy, [e]harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, (J)and has become higher than the heavens; 27 who does not need daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for His (K)own sins and then for the people’s, for this He did once for all when He offered up Himself. 28 For the law appoints as high priests men who have weakness, but the word of the oath, which came after the law, appoints the Son who has been perfected forever.
The Whitened Harvest
27 And at this point His disciples came, and they marveled that He talked with a woman; yet no one said, “What do You seek?” or, “Why are You talking with her?”
28 The woman then left her waterpot, went her way into the city, and said to the men, 29 “Come, see a Man (A)who told me all things that I ever did. Could this be the Christ?” 30 Then they went out of the city and came to Him.
31 In the meantime His disciples urged Him, saying, “Rabbi, eat.”
32 But He said to them, “I have food to eat of which you do not know.”
33 Therefore the disciples said to one another, “Has anyone brought Him anything to eat?”
34 Jesus said to them, (B)“My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to (C)finish His work. 35 Do you not say, ‘There are still four months and then comes (D)the harvest’? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, (E)for they are already white for harvest! 36 (F)And he who reaps receives wages, and gathers fruit for eternal life, that (G)both he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together. 37 For in this the saying is true: (H)‘One sows and another reaps.’ 38 I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored; (I)others have labored, and you have entered into their labors.”
The Savior of the World
39 And many of the Samaritans of that city believed in Him (J)because of the word of the woman who testified, “He told me all that I ever did.” 40 So when the Samaritans had come to Him, they urged Him to stay with them; and He stayed there two days. 41 And many more believed because of His own (K)word.
42 Then they said to the woman, “Now we believe, not because of what you said, for (L)we ourselves have heard Him and we know that this is indeed [a]the Christ, the Savior of the world.”
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.