Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 45
For the Music Director. To the melody of “Lilies.” A Contemplative Maskil of the sons of Korah. A love song.
1 My heart is overflowing with a good thought;
I am speaking my works for the king;
my tongue is the pen of a skilled scribe.
2 You are fairer than all the sons of men;
favor is poured on your lips;
therefore God has blessed you forever.
3 Gird your sword on your thigh, O mighty one,
with your splendor and your majesty.
4 In your majesty ride prosperously
because of truth and meekness and righteousness;
and your right hand will teach you awesome things.
5 Your arrows are sharp in the heart of the king’s enemies;
peoples will fall under you.
6 Your throne, O God, is forever and ever;
the scepter of Your kingdom is an upright scepter.
7 You love righteousness and hate wickedness;
therefore God, your God, anointed you
with the oil of gladness above your companions.
8 All your garments are fragrant with myrrh and aloes and cassia;
from the ivory palaces stringed instruments make you glad.
9 Kings’ daughters are among your honorable women;
at your right hand stands the queen in gold of Ophir.
10 Listen, O daughter, consider and incline your ear;
forget your own people, and your father’s house,
11 and the king will desire your beauty.
Since he is your lord, bow to him.
12 The daughter of Tyre will be there with a gift;
even the rich among the people will entreat your favor.
13 The royal daughter is all glorious within her chamber;
her clothing is plaited gold.
14 She shall be brought to the king in embroidered garments;
the virgins, her companions who follow her,
shall be brought to you.
15 With gladness and rejoicing they shall be brought;
they shall enter into the king’s palace.
16 Your sons shall succeed your fathers;
you will make them princes in all the land.
17 I will cause your name to be remembered in all generations;
therefore the people will praise you forever and ever.
Psalm 47
For the Music Director. A Psalm of the sons of Korah.
1 Clap your hands, all you people!
Shout to God with a joyful voice.
2 For the Lord Most High is awesome;
He is a great King over all the earth.
3 He subdued peoples under us,
and nations under our feet.
4 He chose our inheritance for us,
the excellency of Jacob whom He loved. Selah
5 God went up with a shout,
the Lord with the sound of a trumpet.
6 Sing praises to God, sing praises;
sing praises to our King, sing praises.
7 For God is the King of all the earth;
sing praises with understanding.
8 God reigns over the nations;
God sits on His holy throne.
9 The princes of peoples are gathered together,
even the people of the God of Abraham.
For the shields of the earth belong to God;
He is greatly exalted.
Psalm 48
A Song. A Psalm of the sons of Korah.
1 Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised
in the city of our God, in His holy mountain.
2 Beautiful in elevation,
the joy of the whole earth,
is Mount Zion, on the sides of the north,
the city of the great King.
3 God is known in her citadels
as a refuge.
4 For the kings were assembled,
they passed by together.
5 They saw it, and so they were astounded;
they were alarmed, they hurried away.
6 Trembling seized them there,
and pain like a woman in labor;
7 You break the ships of Tarshish
with an east wind.
8 As we have heard,
so have we seen
in the city of the Lord of Hosts,
in the city of our God;
God will establish it forever. Selah
9 We have thought of Your lovingkindness, O God,
in the midst of Your temple.
10 According to Your name, O God,
so is Your praise to the ends of the earth;
Your right hand is full of righteousness.
11 May Mount Zion rejoice,
may the daughters of Judah be glad,
because of Your judgments.
12 Walk about Zion, and go round about her;
count her towers;
13 mark well her bulwarks;
consider her citadels;
that you may tell it to the generation following.
14 For this God is our God forever and ever;
He will be our guide even to death.
Death of Samuel
25 Now Samuel died. And all the children of Israel gathered together and mourned him, and they buried him at his home in Ramah. Then David arose and went down to the Wilderness of Paran.
David, Nabal, and Abigail
2 Now there was a man in Maon whose work was in Carmel. He was a rich man with three thousand sheep and a thousand goats, and he was shearing his sheep in Carmel. 3 The man’s name was Nabal and the name of his wife Abigail. She was a woman of good understanding and beautiful, but the man was harsh and evil in his actions and he was a Calebite.
4 David heard in the wilderness that Nabal was shearing his sheep. 5 So David sent out ten young men, and David said to the young men, “Go up to Carmel, and go to Nabal and greet him in my name. 6 And thus you will you say to him who lives in prosperity, ‘Peace be to you and peace to your house, and to all that you have, peace.
7 “ ‘I have heard that you have shearers. Now your shepherds were with us. We did not harm them nor did they miss anything all the days they were in Carmel. 8 Ask your young men and they will tell you. Therefore let my young men find favor in your eyes, for we have come on a good day. Please give whatever you find at hand to your servants, and to your son David.’ ”
9 When David’s young men came, they spoke to Nabal according to all these words in the name of David, then they waited.
10 And Nabal answered David’s servants, and said, “Who is David? And who is the son of Jesse? Today many servants are breaking away each one from his master. 11 Should I then take my bread, and my water, and my meat, that which I have killed for my shearers, and give it to men whose origins are unknown?”
12 So David’s young men turned themselves around and went back. And they came and reported to him all these words. 13 David said to his men, “Each man strap on his sword.” And each man strapped on his sword. David also put on his sword, and four hundred men went up after David. But two hundred stayed with the baggage.
14 Now one of the young men told Abigail, Nabal’s wife, “Listen, David sent messengers out of the wilderness to bless our master; and he railed against them. 15 But the men were very good to us, and we were not harmed, nor did we miss anything, all the days we went about with them in the field. 16 They were a wall to us both by night and day, all the days we were with them keeping the flocks. 17 Now therefore know and consider what you will do, for evil is determined against our master and against all his household. He is such a worthless man that one cannot speak to him.”
18 Then Abigail hurried and took two hundred loaves, two bottles of wine, five prepared sheep, five measures[a] of roasted grain, a hundred clusters of raisins, and two hundred cakes of figs, and she loaded them on donkeys. 19 And she said to her servants, “Go on before me. See, I will be coming after you.” But she did not tell her husband Nabal.
20 And as she was riding on the donkey and going down into the cover of the mountain, David and his men were coming down to meet her and she met them. 21 Now David had said, “Surely in vain have I guarded all that this man has in the wilderness, so that nothing was missed of all that belonged to him. And he has returned me evil for good. 22 So may God do unto the enemies of David and more also, if by morning I leave even one male of all who belong to him.”
Paul and Barnabas in Iconium
14 At Iconium they entered the synagogue of the Jews together and so spoke that a great crowd of both Jews and Greeks believed. 2 But the unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles and embittered their minds against the brothers. 3 So they continued there a long time, speaking boldly for the Lord, who bore witness to His gracious word, granting signs and wonders to be done by their hands. 4 But the people of the city were divided. Some sided with the Jews, and others with the apostles. 5 When an assault was planned by both Gentiles and Jews, with their leaders, to attack them and to stone them, 6 they learned of it and fled to Lystra and Derbe, cities of Lycaonia, and to the surrounding region. 7 And there they preached the gospel.
Paul and Barnabas in Lystra
8 In Lystra there sat a man, crippled in his feet, who had never walked and was lame from birth. 9 He heard Paul speaking, who looked intently at him and perceived that he had faith to be healed 10 and said with a loud voice, “Stand upright on your feet.” And he jumped up and walked.
11 When the crowds saw what Paul had done, they lifted up their voices, saying in Lycaonian, “The gods have come down to us in the likeness of men!” 12 Barnabas they called Zeus, and Paul they called Hermes, because he was the main speaker. 13 The priest of Zeus, who was in front of the city, brought bulls and garlands to the gates to offer sacrifices with the crowds.
14 But when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard this, they tore their clothes and rushed out into the crowd, crying out, 15 “Men, why are you doing this? We also are men, of like nature with you, preaching to you to turn from these vain things to the living God, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea, and everything that is in them, 16 who in times past allowed all nations to walk in their own ways. 17 Yet He did not leave Himself without witness, for He did good and gave us rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying our hearts with food and gladness.” 18 With these words they scarcely restrained the crowds from sacrificing to them.
A Light Under a Basket(A)
21 He said to them, “Is a candle brought to be put under a basket or under a bed and not to be set on a candlestick? 22 For there is nothing hidden except to be revealed; neither is anything kept secret except to be proclaimed. 23 If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.”
24 He said to them, “Take heed what you hear. The measure you give will be measured for you, and to you who hear will more be given. 25 For to him who has will more be given. And from him who has not will be taken, even what he has.”
The Parable of the Growing Seed
26 He said, “The kingdom of God is like a man who scatters seed on the ground. 27 He sleeps and rises night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows; he does not know how. 28 For the earth bears fruit by itself: first the blade, then the head, then the full seed in the head. 29 But when the grain is ripe, immediately he applies the sickle because the harvest has come.”
The Parable of the Mustard Seed(B)
30 He said, “To what shall we liken the kingdom of God, or with what parable shall we compare it? 31 It is like a grain of mustard seed which, when it is sown in the ground, is the smallest seed on earth. 32 Yet when it is sown, it grows up and becomes greater than all shrubs, and shoots out great branches, so that the birds of the air may nest in its shade.”
The Use of Parables(C)
33 With many such parables He spoke the word to them as they were able to hear it. 34 Without a parable He did not speak to them. But when they were alone, He expounded on all things to His disciples.
The Holy Bible, Modern English Version. Copyright © 2014 by Military Bible Association. Published and distributed by Charisma House.