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 the Two Witnesses
11 Then I was given a stick like a measuring rod. I was told, “Stand up and measure the Temple of God and the altar, and count[a] those who worship there. 2 But don’t measure the courtyard outside the Temple. Leave that out, because it is given to the nations, and they will trample the Holy City[b] for 42 months. 3 I will give my two witnesses who wear sackcloth the authority to prophesy for 1,260 days.”
4 These witnesses[c] are the two olive trees and the two lamp stands standing in the presence of the Lord of the earth. 5 And if anyone should want to hurt them, fire comes out of their mouths and burns up their enemies. If anyone wants to hurt them, he must be killed in this manner. 6 These witnesses[d] have authority to close the heavens in order to keep rain from falling while they are[e] prophesying. They also have authority to turn bodies of water into blood and to strike the earth with any plague, as often as they desire.
7 When they have finished their testimony, the beast that comes up from the bottomless pit[f] will wage war against them, conquer them, and kill them. 8 Their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city that is spiritually called Sodom and Egypt, where their Lord was crucified. 9 For three and a half days some members of the people, tribes, languages, and nations will look at their dead bodies and will not allow them to be placed in a tomb. 10 Those living on earth will gloat over them, celebrate, and send gifts to each other, because these two prophets had tormented those living on earth.
The Resurrection of the Witnesses
11 But after the three and a half days, the breath of life from God entered them, and they stood on their feet. Those who watched them were terrified. 12 Then the witnesses[g] heard a loud voice from heaven calling to them, “Come up here!” So they went up to heaven in a cloud, and their enemies watched them. 13 At that moment a powerful earthquake struck. One-tenth of the city collapsed, 7,000 people were killed by the earthquake, and the rest were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven.
14 The second catastrophe is over. The third catastrophe is coming very soon.
Jesus is Accused of Working with Beelzebul(A)
14 Jesus[a] was driving a demon out of a man who was[b] unable to talk. When the demon had gone out, the man[c] began to speak, and the crowds were amazed. 15 But some of them said, “He drives out demons by Beelzebul, the ruler of the demons.” 16 Others, wanting to test Jesus,[d] kept asking him for a sign from heaven.
17 Since he knew what they were thinking, he told them, “Every kingdom divided against itself is devastated, and a divided household collapses.[e] 18 Now, if Satan is divided against himself, how can his kingdom last? After all, you say that I drive out demons by Beelzebul. 19 If I drive out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your own followers[f] drive them out? That is why they will be your judges! 20 But if I drive out demons by the power[g] of God, then the kingdom of God has come to you.
21 “When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own mansion, his property is safe. 22 But when a stronger man than he attacks and defeats him, the stronger man[h] strips off that man’s armor in which he trusted and then divides his plunder.
23 “The person who isn’t with me is against me, and the person who doesn’t gather with me scatters.”
The Return of the Unclean Spirit(B)
24 “Whenever an unclean spirit goes out of a person, it wanders through dry places looking for a place to rest but doesn’t find any. So it says, ‘I will go back to my home that I left.’ 25 When it gets back home, it finds it swept clean and put in order. 26 Then it goes and brings with it seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they all go in and settle there. And so the final condition of that person is worse than the first.”
Copyright © 1995-2014 by ISV Foundation. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED INTERNATIONALLY. Used by permission of Davidson Press, LLC.