Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 41
Victory in spite of Betrayal
For the choir director. A psalm of David.
1 Happy is one who is considerate of the poor;
the Lord will save him in a day of adversity.(A)
2 The Lord will keep him and preserve him;
he will be blessed in the land.(B)
You will not give him over to the desire of his enemies.(C)
3 The Lord will sustain him on his sickbed;
you will heal him on the bed where he lies.(D)
4 I said, “Lord, be gracious to me;
heal me, for I have sinned against you.”(E)
5 My enemies speak maliciously about me:
“When will he die and be forgotten?” (F)
6 When one of them comes to visit, he speaks deceitfully;
he stores up evil in his heart;
he goes out and talks.(G)
7 All who hate me whisper together about me;
they plan to harm me.(H)
8 “Something awful has overwhelmed him,[a]
and he won’t rise again from where he lies!” (I)
9 Even my friend[b] in whom I trusted,
one who ate my bread,
has raised his heel against me.(J)
10 But you, Lord, be gracious to me and raise me up;
then I will repay them.(K)
11 By this I know that you delight in me:(L)
my enemy does not shout in triumph over me.(M)
12 You supported me because of my integrity(N)
and set me in your presence forever.(O)
13 Blessed be the Lord God of Israel,
from everlasting to everlasting.
Amen and amen.(P)
Psalm 52
God Judges the Proud
For the choir director. A Maskil of David. When Doeg the Edomite went and reported to Saul, telling him, “David went to Ahimelech’s house.”(A)
1 Why boast about evil, you hero!(B)
God’s faithful love is constant.(C)
2 Like a sharpened razor,
your tongue devises destruction,
working treachery.(D)
3 You love evil instead of good,
lying instead of speaking truthfully.(E)Selah
4 You love any words that destroy,
you treacherous tongue!(F)
5 This is why God will bring you down forever.
He will take you, ripping you out of your tent;
he will uproot you from the land of the living.(G)Selah
6 The righteous will see and fear,
and they will derisively say about that hero,[a](H)
7 “Here is the man
who would not make God his refuge,
but trusted in the abundance of his riches,
taking refuge in his destructive behavior.”(I)
Psalm 44
Israel’s Complaint
For the choir director. A Maskil of the sons of Korah.
1 God, we have heard with our ears—
our ancestors have told us—
the work you accomplished in their days,
in days long ago:(A)
2 In order to plant them,
you displaced the nations by your hand;
in order to settle them,
you brought disaster on the peoples.(B)
3 For they did not take the land by their sword—
their arm did not bring them victory—
but by your right hand, your arm,
and the light of your face,(C)
because you were favorable toward them.(D)
4 You are my King, my God,
who ordains[a] victories for Jacob.(E)
5 Through you we drive back our foes;
through your name we trample our enemies.(F)
6 For I do not trust in my bow,
and my sword does not bring me victory.(G)
7 But you give us victory over our foes
and let those who hate us be disgraced.(H)
8 We boast in God all day long;(I)
we will praise your name forever.(J)Selah
9 But you have rejected and humiliated us;
you do not march out with our armies.(K)
10 You make us retreat from the foe,
and those who hate us
have taken plunder for themselves.(L)
11 You hand us over to be eaten like sheep
and scatter us among the nations.(M)
12 You sell your people for nothing;
you make no profit from selling them.(N)
13 You make us an object of reproach to our neighbors,
a source of mockery and ridicule to those around us.(O)
14 You make us a joke among the nations,
a laughingstock[b] among the peoples.(P)
15 My disgrace is before me all day long,
and shame has covered my face,(Q)
16 because of the taunts[c] of the scorner and reviler,
because of the enemy and avenger.(R)
17 All this has happened to us,
but we have not forgotten you
or betrayed your covenant.(S)
18 Our hearts have not turned back;
our steps have not strayed from your path.(T)
19 But you have crushed us in a haunt of jackals
and have covered us with deepest darkness.(U)
20 If we had forgotten the name of our God
and spread out our hands to a foreign god,(V)
21 wouldn’t God have found this out,
since he knows the secrets of the heart?(W)
22 Because of you we are being put to death all day long;
we are counted as sheep to be slaughtered.(X)
Abram Rescues Lot
14 In those days King Amraphel of Shinar,(A) King Arioch of Ellasar, King Chedorlaomer of Elam,(B) and King Tidal of Goiim[a] 2 waged war against King Bera of Sodom, King Birsha of Gomorrah, King Shinab of Admah, and King Shemeber of Zeboiim,(C) as well as the king of Bela (that is, Zoar(D)). 3 All of these came as allies to the Siddim Valley (that is, the Dead Sea(E)). 4 They were subject to Chedorlaomer for twelve years, but in the thirteenth year they rebelled. 5 In the fourteenth year Chedorlaomer and the kings who were with him came and defeated the Rephaim(F) in Ashteroth-karnaim, the Zuzim in Ham,(G) the Emim in Shaveh-kiriathaim, 6 and the Horites(H) in the mountains of Seir, as far as El-paran(I) by the wilderness. 7 Then they came back to invade En-mishpat (that is, Kadesh(J)), and they defeated the whole territory of the Amalekites, as well as the Amorites who lived in Hazazon-tamar.(K)
8 Then the king of Sodom, the king of Gomorrah, the king of Admah, the king of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela (that is, Zoar) went out and lined up for battle in the Siddim Valley 9 against King Chedorlaomer of Elam, King Tidal of Goiim, King Amraphel of Shinar, and King Arioch of Ellasar—four kings against five. 10 Now the Siddim Valley contained many asphalt pits, and as the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled, some fell into them,[b] but the rest fled to the mountains.(L) 11 The four kings took all the goods of Sodom and Gomorrah and all their food and went on. 12 They also took Abram’s nephew Lot and his possessions, for he was living in Sodom,(M) and they went on.
13 One of the survivors came and told Abram the Hebrew,(N) who lived near the oaks belonging to Mamre the Amorite, the brother of Eshcol and the brother of Aner. They were bound by a treaty with Abram. 14 When Abram heard that his relative had been taken prisoner, he assembled[c] his 318 trained men, born in his household,(O) and they went in pursuit as far as Dan.(P) 15 And he and his servants deployed against them by night, defeated them, and pursued them as far as Hobah to the north of Damascus. 16 He brought back all the goods and also his relative Lot and his goods, as well as the women and the other people.
Melchizedek’s Blessing
17 After Abram returned from defeating Chedorlaomer and the kings who were with him, the king of Sodom went out to meet him in the Shaveh Valley (that is, the King’s Valley(Q)). 18 Melchizedek, king of Salem,[d](R) brought out bread and wine; he was a priest to God Most High.(S) 19 He blessed him and said:
Abram is blessed by God Most High,
Creator[e] of heaven and earth,
20 and blessed be God Most High
who has handed over your enemies to you.
And Abram gave him a tenth of everything.(T)
21 Then the king of Sodom said to Abram, “Give me the people, but take the possessions for yourself.”
22 But Abram said to the king of Sodom, “I have raised my hand in an oath to the Lord, God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth, 23 that I will not take a thread or sandal strap or anything that belongs to you, so you can never say, ‘I made Abram rich.’ 24 I will take nothing except what the servants have eaten. But as for the share of the men who came with me—Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre—they can take their share.”
A Heavenly Priesthood
8 Now the main point of what is being said is this: We have this kind of high priest, who sat down at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens,(A) 2 a minister of the sanctuary and the true tabernacle that was set up by the Lord and not man.(B) 3 For every high priest is appointed to offer gifts(C) and sacrifices; therefore, it was necessary for this priest also to have something to offer. 4 Now if he were on earth, he wouldn’t be a priest, since there are those[a] offering the gifts prescribed by the law. 5 These serve as a copy and shadow(D) of the heavenly things, as Moses was warned when he was about to complete the tabernacle. For God said, Be careful that you make everything according to the pattern that was shown to you on the mountain.[b](E) 6 But Jesus has now obtained a superior ministry, and to that degree he is the mediator(F) of a better covenant,(G) which has been established on better promises.(H)
A Superior Covenant
7 For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion for a second one. 8 But finding fault with his people,[c] he says:[d]
See, the days are coming, says the Lord,
when I will make a new covenant
with the house of Israel
and with the house of Judah—
9 not like the covenant
that I made with their ancestors
on the day I took them by the hand
to lead them out of the land of Egypt.
I showed no concern for them, says the Lord,
because they did not continue in my covenant.
10 For this is the covenant
that I will make with the house of Israel
after those days, says the Lord:
I will put my laws into their minds
and write them on their hearts.
I will be their God,
and they will be my people.(I)
11 And each person will not teach his fellow citizen,[e]
and each his brother or sister, saying, “Know the Lord,”
because they will all know me,
from the least to the greatest of them.(J)
12 For I will forgive their wrongdoing,
and I will never again remember their sins.[f][g] (K)
13 By saying a new covenant, he has declared that the first is obsolete. And what is obsolete and growing old is about to pass away.(L)
A Galilean Welcome
43 After two days he left there for Galilee.(A) 44 (Jesus himself had testified(B) that a prophet has no honor in his own country.(C)) 45 When(D) they entered Galilee, the Galileans(E) welcomed him because they had seen everything he did in Jerusalem(F) during the festival.(G) For they also had gone to the festival.
The Second Sign: Healing an Official’s Son
46 He went again to Cana(H) of Galilee, where he had turned the water into wine. There was a certain royal official whose son was ill at Capernaum.(I) 47 When this man heard that Jesus had come from Judea(J) into Galilee, he went to him and pleaded with him to come down and heal his son, since he was about to die.
48 Jesus told him, “Unless you people see signs and wonders,(K) you will not believe.”(L)
49 “Sir,”(M) the official said to him, “come down before my boy dies.”
50 “Go,” Jesus told him, “your son will live.” The man believed what[a] Jesus said to him and departed.
51 While he was still going down, his servants met him saying that his boy was alive. 52 He asked them at what time he got better. “Yesterday at one in the afternoon[b] the fever left him,” they answered. 53 The father(N) realized this was the very hour at which Jesus had told him, “Your son will live.” So he himself believed, along with his whole household.
54 Now this was also the second sign(O) Jesus performed after he came from Judea to Galilee.(P)
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