Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 20[a]
Prayer in Praise of the Messiah King
1 For the director.[b] A psalm of David.
2 May the Lord answer you in times of trouble;
may the name[c] of the God of Jacob protect you.
3 May he send you help from the sanctuary
and grant you support from Zion.[d]
4 May he remember[e] all your sacrifices
and accept all your burnt offerings. Selah
5 May he give you your heart’s desire[f]
and grant you success in all your plans.
6 May we shout with joy over your victory
and lift up our banners in the name of our God.[g]
May the Lord grant your every request.
7 Now I know that the Lord will grant victory to his anointed;[h]
he will answer him from his holy heaven,
granting mighty victories with his right hand.
8 [i]Some trust in chariots, and some in horses,
but we trust in the name of the Lord, our God.
9 They will collapse and fall,
but we will rise up and stand firm.
10 O Lord, save the king,
and answer us when we call upon you.[j]
Psalm 21[k]
Thanksgiving for Messianic Blessings
1 For the director.[l] A psalm of David.
2 O Lord, the king rejoices in your strength;
your victories fill him with great joy.[m]
3 You have granted him the desire of his heart[n]
and not withheld from him the request of his lips. Selah
4 You welcomed him with choice blessings[o]
and placed a crown of pure gold upon his head.
5 He asked you for life, and you gave it to him,
length of days forever and ever.[p]
6 He has achieved great glory through your victory;
you have bestowed upon him splendor and majesty.[q]
7 You have conferred everlasting blessings[r] on him;
you gladdened him with the joy of your presence.
8 For the king places his trust in the Lord;
through the kindness[s] of the Most High he will not fall.
9 [t]Your hand will lay hold of all your enemies;
your right hand will overcome all your foes.
10 On the day when you appear,[u]
you will cast them into a fiery furnace.
The Lord’s anger will engulf them,
and fire will consume them.
11 You will blot out their descendants from the earth
and rid the human race of their posterity.[v]
12 They have devised wicked schemes against you,
but, plot though they may, they will not succeed.
13 For you will force them to retreat
when you aim your bows at them.
14 Be exalted, O Lord, in your strength;[w]
we will sing and praise your power.
Psalm 110[a]
The Messiah—King, Prophet, and Conqueror
1 A psalm of David.
The Lord says to my Lord:[b]
“Sit at my right hand
until I have made your enemies a footstool for you.”
2 The Lord will stretch forth from Zion
your scepter of power.[c]
The Lord says:
“Rule in the midst of your enemies![d]
3 Yours is royal dignity in the day of your birth;
in holy splendor, before the daystar,
like the dew, I have begotten you.”[e]
4 The Lord has sworn,
and he will not retract his oath:
“You are a priest forever[f]
according to the order of Melchizedek.”
5 The Lord stands forth at your right hand;[g]
he will crush kings on the day of his wrath.
6 He[h] will judge the nations,
filling their land with corpses
and crushing rulers throughout the earth.
7 He will drink from the stream on his journey,
and then he will lift up his head in triumph.[i]
Psalm 116[a]
Thanksgiving to God for Help Received
1 I love the Lord because he has heard my voice
and listened to my cry for mercy,[b]
2 because he has inclined his ear to me
on the day when I called out to him.[c]
3 The bonds of death[d] encompassed me;
the snares of the netherworld held me tightly.
I was seized by distress and sorrow.
4 Then I cried out in the name[e] of the Lord:
“O Lord, I entreat you to preserve my life.”
5 Gracious is the Lord and righteous;
our God is merciful.
6 The Lord watches over his little ones;[f]
when I was brought low, he saved me.
7 Be at peace once again, O my soul,
for the Lord has shown mercy to you.
8 He has delivered my soul[g] from death,
my eyes from tears,
and my feet from stumbling.
9 I will walk in the presence of the Lord
in the land of the living.[h]
10 I believed; therefore, I said,[i]
“I am greatly afflicted.”
11 In my dismay I cried out,
“All men are liars.”[j]
12 How can I repay the Lord
for all the good he has done for me?
13 I will lift up the cup of salvation[k]
and call on the name of the Lord.
14 I will fulfill my vows[l] to the Lord
in the presence of his people.
15 Precious in the eyes of the Lord
is the death[m] of his faithful ones.
16 O Lord, I am your servant.
I am your servant, the child of your handmaid;[n]
you have loosed my bonds.
17 I will offer you a sacrifice of thanksgiving
and call on the name of the Lord.
18 I will fulfill my vows to the Lord
in the presence of all his people,
19 in the courts of the house of the Lord,
in your midst, O Jerusalem.
Alleluia.[o]
Psalm 117[p]
Universal Praise of God
Chapter 43
Redemption and Restoration Promised
1 But now this is the word of the Lord,
he who created you, O Jacob,
and formed you, O Israel.
Have no fear, for I have redeemed you.
I have called you by name; you are mine.
2 When you pass through the waters,
I will be with you;
nor will the waters engulf you.
When you walk through fire,
you will not be burned;
the flames will not consume you.
3 For I am the Lord, your God,
the Holy One of Israel, your savior.
I give Egypt as your ransom,
Ethiopia and Seba[a] in exchange for you.
4 Because in my eyes you are precious,
because you are honored and I love you,
I will give people in exchange for you
and nations in return for your life.
5 Do not be afraid, for I am with you.
I will bring your offspring from the east,
and from the west I will gather you.
6 I will say to the north, “Give them up,”
and to the south, “Do not hold them back.”
Bring back my sons from afar
and my daughters from the ends of the earth—
7 everyone who bears my name,
whom I created for my glory,
whom I formed and made.
8 Bring forth my people,
those who have eyes yet are blind,
those who have ears yet are deaf.
9 Let all the nations gather together
and let the peoples assemble.
Who among them foretold this
and proclaimed to us former events?
Let them produce witnesses to prove themselves right;
let those who hear them say, “It is true!”
10 You are my witnesses, says the Lord,
and my servants whom I have chosen,
so that you may know and believe in me
and understand that it is I.
No god was formed before me,
nor will there be any after me.
11 I am the Lord,
and there is no other savior but me.
12 I have revealed and saved and proclaimed,
and not some strange god among you;
you are my witnesses to this, says the Lord.
13 I am God, and from eternity I am he;
no one can deliver from my hand;
no one can overrule or alter what I do.
14 Prayer for a Deeper Faith. This is the reason why I kneel in prayer before the Father, 15 from whom every family[a] in heaven and on earth takes its name. 16 I ask that from the riches of his glory he may grant through his Spirit that you be strengthened with power in your inner being 17 and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.
And I pray that, rooted and grounded in love, 18 you may have the power to comprehend with all the saints its breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and know Christ’s love even though it is beyond knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
20 To him who in all things is able
through the power
that is at work within us
to accomplish abundantly far more
than all we can ask or imagine,
21 to him be glory in the Church
and in Christ Jesus
through all generations,
forever and ever. Amen.
23 Picking Grain on the Sabbath.[a] One day, as Jesus was passing through a field of grain on the Sabbath, his disciples began to pick some heads of grain as they walked along. 24 The Pharisees said to him, “Behold, why are your disciples doing what is forbidden on the Sabbath?”
25 He answered, “Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry and in need of food? 26 He entered the house of God when Abiathar[b] was high priest and ate the sacred bread that only the priests were permitted to eat, and he shared it with his companions.” 27 Then he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.[c] 28 That is why the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.”
Chapter 3
A Man with a Withered Hand.[d] 1 Again, Jesus entered the synagogue, and a man was there who had a withered hand. 2 They watched him closely to see whether he would cure him on the Sabbath so that they might accuse him.
3 He said to the man with the withered hand, “Come here.” 4 Then he said to the onlookers, “Is it lawful to do good or to do evil on the Sabbath, to save life or to kill?” But they offered no reply. 5 Looking at them with anger, he was saddened at the hardness of their hearts, and he said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was restored. 6 Then the Pharisees went out and immediately began to plot with the Herodians how they might put him to death.
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