Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 30
Thanksgiving for Recovery from Grave Illness
A Psalm. A Song at the dedication of the temple. Of David.
1 I will extol you, O Lord, for you have drawn me up
and did not let my foes rejoice over me.(A)
2 O Lord my God, I cried to you for help,
and you have healed me.(B)
3 O Lord, you brought up my soul from Sheol,
restored me to life from among those gone down to the Pit.[a](C)
4 Sing praises to the Lord, O you his faithful ones,
and give thanks to his holy name.(D)
5 For his anger is but for a moment;
his favor is for a lifetime.
Weeping may linger for the night,
but joy comes with the morning.(E)
6 As for me, I said in my prosperity,
“I shall never be moved.”
7 By your favor, O Lord,
you had established me as a strong mountain;
you hid your face;
I was dismayed.(F)
Psalm 32
The Joy of Forgiveness
Of David. A Maskil.
1 Happy are those whose transgression is forgiven,
whose sin is covered.(A)
2 Happy are those to whom the Lord imputes no iniquity
and in whose spirit there is no deceit.(B)
3 While I kept silent, my body wasted away
through my groaning all day long.(C)
4 For day and night your hand was heavy upon me;
my strength was dried up[a] as by the heat of summer. Selah(D)
5 Then I acknowledged my sin to you,
and I did not hide my iniquity;
I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,”
and you forgave the guilt of my sin. Selah(E)
6 Therefore let all who are faithful
offer prayer to you;
at a time of distress,[b] the rush of mighty waters
shall not reach them.(F)
7 You are a hiding place for me;
you preserve me from trouble;
you surround me with glad cries of deliverance. Selah(G)
Book II
(Psalms 42–72)
Psalm 42
Longing for God and His Help in Distress
To the leader. A Maskil of the Korahites.
1 As a deer longs for flowing streams,
so my soul longs for you, O God.(A)
2 My soul thirsts for God,
for the living God.
When shall I come and behold
the face of God?(B)
3 My tears have been my food
day and night,
while people say to me continually,
“Where is your God?”(C)
4 These things I remember,
as I pour out my soul:
how I went with the throng[a]
and led them in procession to the house of God,
with glad shouts and songs of thanksgiving,
a multitude keeping festival.(D)
5 Why are you cast down, O my soul,
and why are you disquieted within me?
Hope in God, for I shall again praise him,
my help(E) 6 and my God.
My soul is cast down within me;
therefore I remember you
from the land of Jordan and of Hermon,
from Mount Mizar.
7 Deep calls to deep
at the thunder of your torrents;
all your waves and your billows
have gone over me.(F)
8 By day the Lord commands his steadfast love,
and at night his song is with me,
a prayer to the God of my life.(G)
9 I say to God, my rock,
“Why have you forgotten me?
Why must I walk about mournfully
because the enemy oppresses me?”(H)
10 As with a deadly wound in my body,
my adversaries taunt me,
while they say to me continually,
“Where is your God?”(I)
11 Why are you cast down, O my soul,
and why are you disquieted within me?
Hope in God, for I shall again praise him,
my help and my God.(J)
Psalm 43
Prayer to God in Time of Trouble
1 Vindicate me, O God, and defend my cause
against an ungodly people;
from those who are deceitful and unjust,
deliver me!(K)
2 For you are the God in whom I take refuge;
why have you cast me off?
Why must I walk about mournfully
because of the oppression of the enemy?(L)
3 O send out your light and your truth;
let them lead me;
let them bring me to your holy hill
and to your dwelling.(M)
4 Then I will go to the altar of God,
to God my exceeding joy,
and I will praise you with the harp,
O God, my God.(N)
5 Why are you cast down, O my soul,
and why are you disquieted within me?
Hope in God, for I shall again praise him,
my help and my God.(O)
9 And Abram journeyed on by stages toward the Negeb.
Abram and Sarai in Egypt
10 Now there was a famine in the land. So Abram went down to Egypt to reside there as an alien, for the famine was severe in the land. 11 When he was about to enter Egypt, he said to his wife Sarai, “I know well that you are a woman beautiful in appearance, 12 and when the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife’; then they will kill me, but they will let you live.(A) 13 Say you are my sister, so that it may go well with me because of you and that my life may be spared on your account.”(B) 14 When Abram entered Egypt the Egyptians saw that the woman was very beautiful. 15 When the officials of Pharaoh saw her, they praised her to Pharaoh. And the woman was taken into Pharaoh’s house.(C) 16 And for her sake he dealt well with Abram, and he had sheep, oxen, male donkeys, male and female slaves, female donkeys, and camels.(D)
17 But the Lord afflicted Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram’s wife.(E) 18 So Pharaoh called Abram and said, “What is this you have done to me? Why did you not tell me that she was your wife?(F) 19 Why did you say, ‘She is my sister,’ so that I took her for my wife? Now then, here is your wife, take her, and be gone.” 20 And Pharaoh gave his men orders concerning him, and they set him on the way with his wife and all that he had.(G)
Abram and Lot Separate
13 So Abram went up from Egypt, he and his wife and all that he had and Lot with him, into the Negeb.(H)
18 There is, on the one hand, the abrogation of an earlier commandment because it was weak and ineffectual(A) 19 (for the law made nothing perfect); there is, on the other hand, the introduction of a better hope through which we approach God.(B)
20 This was confirmed with an oath, for others have become priests without an oath, 21 but this one became a priest with an oath because of the one who said to him,
22 accordingly Jesus has also become the guarantor of a better covenant.(D)
23 Furthermore, the former priests were many in number because they were prevented by death from continuing in office, 24 but he holds his priesthood permanently because he continues forever. 25 Consequently, he is able for all time to save[b] those who approach God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.(E)
26 For it was fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, blameless, undefiled, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens.(F) 27 Unlike the other[c] high priests, he has no need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins and then for those of the people; this he did once for all when he offered himself.(G) 28 For the law appoints as high priests humans, who are subject to weakness, but the word of the oath, which came later than the law, appoints a Son who has been made perfect forever.(H)
27 Just then his disciples came. They were astonished that he was speaking with a woman, but no one said, “What do you want?” or, “Why are you speaking with her?” 28 Then the woman left her water jar and went back to the city. She said to the people, 29 “Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done! He cannot be the Messiah,[a] can he?”(A) 30 They left the city and were on their way to him.
31 Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, “Rabbi, eat something.” 32 But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” 33 So the disciples said to one another, “Surely no one has brought him something to eat?” 34 Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to complete his work.(B) 35 Do you not say, ‘Four months more, then comes the harvest’? But I tell you, look around you, and see how the fields are ripe for harvesting.(C) 36 The reaper is already receiving[b] wages and is gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together.(D) 37 For here the saying holds true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’(E) 38 I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.”
39 Many Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I have ever done.”(F) 40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days. 41 And many more believed because of his word. 42 They said to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the Savior of the world.”(G)
New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.