Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 41[a]
Trust in God in Sickness and Misfortune
1 For the director.[b] A psalm of David.
2 [c]Blessed is he who has concern for the weak;
in time of trouble the Lord will deliver him.
3 The Lord will protect him and keep him alive;
he will make him happy on earth
and not abandon him to the will of his enemies.
4 The Lord will sustain him on his sickbed
and bring him back to health.
5 Once I prayed, “O Lord, have mercy on me;
heal me, for I have sinned[d] against you.
6 In their malice my enemies say of me,
‘When will he die and his name be forgotten?’
7 When someone comes to visit me,
he utters words without sincerity;
his heart[e] harbors slander,
and on departing he gives voice to it.
8 “All my enemies whisper against me
and conjure up the worst in my regard.
9 ‘He has a fatal disease,’ they say;
‘he will never rise up from his sickbed.’
10 “Even my friend whom I trusted,
the one who dined at my table,
has risen up[f] against me.
11 But you, O Lord, be merciful to me;
make me well[g] so that I may pay them back.”
12 By this I know that you are pleased with me—
that my enemy fails to triumph over me.
13 Because of my innocence you uphold me
and let me stand in your presence forever.
14 Blessed[h] be the Lord, the God of Israel,
forever and forever.
Amen and Amen.
Psalm 52[a]
Prayer for Help against Calumniators
1 For the director.[b] A maskil of David. 2 When Doeg the Edomite went and told Saul, “David has gone to the house of Ahimelech.”
3 Why do you boast of your evil deeds,
you champion of malice?[c]
All day long 4 you plot harm;
your tongue is like a sharpened razor,
you master of deceit.
5 [d]You love evil rather than good,
and lies rather than truthful speech. Selah
6 You wallow in destructive talk,
you tongue of deceit.
7 [e]This is the reason why God will crush you
and destroy you once and for all.
He will snatch you from your tent[f]
and uproot you from the land of the living. Selah
8 The righteous will see and be afraid;
they will mock him:
9 “This is the man
who refused to accept God as his refuge.
Rather, he placed his trust in his abundant riches
and gathered strength by his crimes.”
10 [g]But I am like a green olive tree[h]
in the house of God.
I place my trust forever and ever
in the kindness of God.
11 I will praise you forever
for what you have done,[i]
and in the presence of the saints
I will proclaim the goodness of your name.
Psalm 44[a]
Past Glory and Present Need of God’s People
1 For the director.[b] A maskil of the sons of Korah.
2 [c]O God, we have heard with our ears,
our ancestors have told us,
of the deeds you performed in their days,
in the days of old.
3 To establish them in the land,
you drove out the nations with your own hand;
you crushed the peoples
so that our ancestors could flourish.
4 It was not their own swords that won them the land,
nor did their own arms make them victorious;
rather, it was your right hand and your arm
and the light of your face,[d]
because you loved them.
5 You are my[e] King and my God,
who bestowed victories upon Jacob.
6 Through you we throw back our enemies;
through your name[f] we crush our assailants.
7 It is not in my bow that I trust,
nor can my sword ensure my victory.
8 It is you who saved us from our enemies;
you scattered in confusion those who hate us.
9 In God we boast the whole day long,
and we will praise your name forever. Selah
10 [g]But now you have rejected and humiliated us,
and you no longer accompany our armies.[h]
11 You have forced us to retreat[i] before the enemy;
those who hate us plunder us unceasingly.
12 You have handed us over like sheep to be slaughtered
and scattered us among the nations.
13 You have sold your people for nothing,
receiving no gain from their sale.
14 You have subjected us to the contempt of our neighbors,
to the mockery and scorn of all who are near.
15 You have made us a byword to the nations;
the peoples shake their heads[j] at us.
16 All day long I am confronted by my disgrace,
and my face is covered with shame
17 as I hear the shouts of taunting and abuse
and see the hateful enemy seeking revenge.
18 All this has happened to us
even though we have not forgotten you
or been false to your covenant.[k]
19 Our hearts[l] have not turned back,
nor have our feet wandered from your path.
20 Yet you have crushed us,
forced us to live among the jackals,[m]
and covered us with darkness.
21 If we had forgotten the name[n] of our God
or lifted up our hands to a foreign god,
22 would not God have discovered it,
he who knows the secrets of the heart?
23 For your sake we are put to death all day long;
we are treated like sheep destined to be slaughtered.[o]
24 Awake, O Lord. Why[p] do you sleep?
Rise up, and do not abandon us forever.
25 Why do you hide your face[q]
and continue to ignore our misery and our sufferings?
26 We have been brought down to the dust;
our bodies cling to the ground.[r]
27 Rise up and come to our aid;
redeem us for the sake of your kindness.[s]
Chapter 48
A Plea to the Captives
1 Hear this, O house of Jacob,
you who are called by the name of Israel,
and who came forth from the stock of Judah,
who swear by the name of the Lord
and invoke the God of Israel
but not with righteousness or good faith,
2 even though you call yourselves citizens of the holy city
and rely on the God of Israel
whose name is the Lord of hosts.
3 Things that happened in the past
I foretold long before they occurred.
These predictions issued forth from my mouth,
and I made them known to you;
then suddenly I acted and they came to pass.
4 Because I know full well that you are obstinate,
with your neck an iron sinew
and your forehead firm as bronze,
5 I foretold these events to you long ago
and declared them to you before they happened
so that you could not assert, “My idols did them;
my carved statue and my molten image ordained them.”
6 You have heard what I said; now consider it
and admit the truth of what I have stated.
From now on I will reveal new things,
hidden things of which you have not been aware.
7 They have just been brought into existence, and not long ago;
before today you have never heard of them,
so that you cannot claim to have already known them.
8 You neither heard nor knew;
knowledge of them never reached your ears before now.
For I knew how treacherous you are
and that from your birth you were rebellious.
9 For the sake of my name I will restrain my anger;
for the sake of my honor I will be patient with you
lest I should be tempted to destroy you.
10 See, I have tested you,
but not in the manner that silver is tested;
I have tested you in the furnace of affliction.
11 For my sake, for my own sake, I do this,
for why should my name be profaned?
I will not yield my glory to another.
Paul Defends His Apostolate[a]
Chapter 1
Address
Paul Commissioned by Christ Himself.[b] 1 Paul, an apostle[c]—commissioned not by human authority or by any human being, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised him from the dead— 2 and all the brethren[d] who are with me, to the Churches of Galatia. 3 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, 4 who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age[e] in accordance with the will of our God and Father, 5 to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.[f]
One Gospel, One Revelation, One Apostolate[g]
Loyalty to the Gospel. 6 I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel. 7 In reality, there is not another one, but there are some who are troubling you by perverting the gospel of Christ. 8 But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel to you other than the one we proclaimed to you, let him be accursed! 9 We have said this before, and now I repeat it: if anyone preaches to you a gospel other than the one you received, let him be accursed![h]
10 Does it now appear to you that I am trying to gain the approval of human beings rather than the approval of God? Am I seeking to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ.
11 Paul’s Gospel Revealed to Him by Christ.[i]Brethren, I want you to be assured that the gospel I preached to you is not human in its origin. 12 I did not receive it from a human being, nor was I taught it. Rather, I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.
13 Undoubtedly you have heard about my former way of life in Judaism,[j] how I fiercely persecuted the Church of God and tried to destroy it. 14 I progressed in Judaism far beyond many of my contemporaries, inasmuch as I was much more zealous in upholding the traditions of my ancestors.
15 Paul’s Early Years as a Christian. However, when God, who had set me apart even before my birth, called me through his grace and chose 16 to reveal his Son to me so that I might proclaim him to the Gentiles, I did not confer with flesh and blood,[k] 17 nor did I go up to Jerusalem to consult with those who were apostles before me. Rather, I went off to Arabia, and afterward I returned to Damascus.
21 Jesus Heals a Woman and Raises a Child.[a] When Jesus had crossed again in the boat to the other side, a large crowd gathered around him, and he stayed by the lake. 22 Then one of the leaders of the synagogue,[b] named Jairus, came forward, and when he saw Jesus he threw himself down at his feet 23 and pleaded with him, saying, “My little daughter is at the point of death. I beg you to come and lay your hands on her so that she may recover and live.” 24 Jesus went with him, and a large number accompanied him and crowded around him.
25 There was a woman who had suffered from bleeding for twelve years. 26 In spite of long and painful treatment at the hands of many doctors, her condition not only had failed to improve but had actually become worse, and she had spent everything she had. 27 Having heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, 28 for she thought, “If I simply touch his clothing, I shall be made well.” 29 And immediately her bleeding dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of her affliction.
30 Instantly aware that power had gone forth from him, Jesus turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my clothing?” 31 His disciples said in reply, “You see this vast throng pressing upon you. How can you ask, ‘Who touched me?’ ” 32 However, he continued to look around to determine who had done it. 33 Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, approached in fear and trembling. She knelt before him and revealed to him the whole truth. 34 He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your affliction.”
35 While he was still speaking, some people from the house of the synagogue leader arrived and said, “Your daughter has died. Why bother the Teacher any further?” 36 Jesus heard the message they had delivered, but he said to the leader of the synagogue, “Do not be afraid. Just have faith.” 37 He allowed no one to accompany him except Peter, James, and John,[c] the brother of James.
38 When they arrived at the house of the synagogue leader, he observed a great deal of commotion, with people weeping and wailing loudly. 39 When he entered, he said to them, “Why this commotion and weeping? The child is not dead; she is asleep.” 40 In response, they laughed at him.
After sending them all outside, he took with him the child’s father and mother and his own companions and entered the room where the child was. 41 He took the child by the hand and said to her, “Talitha koum!” which means: “Little girl, I say to you, arise!” 42 And immediately the girl, a child of twelve, got up and began to walk around.
On witnessing this, they were all overcome with amazement, 43 but he gave them strict instructions that no one should be told anything about this. Then he told them to give her something to eat.
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