Book of Common Prayer

Psalm 45

The Wedding of the Victorious King

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For the choir director. According to “Lilies.”^[a]
By the Sons of Korah. A maskil. A love song.

Introduction

The Glory of the Royal Groom

The Beauty of the Bride

The Glory of the King’s Children

Psalm 47

The King’s Empire

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For the choir director. By the Sons of Korah. A psalm.

Praise the Great King of All the Earth!

Psalm 48

The Security of the King’s Holy City

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A song. A psalm by the Sons of Korah.

Call to Praise

Defeat of the Enemies

Thanksgiving

The Promise of an Heir

15 After these events the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision. He said, “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward.”

² Abram said, “Lord God^[a] what can you give me, since I remain childless, and the one who will inherit my estate is Eliezer of Damascus?” ³ Abram also said, “Look, you have given me no offspring, so a servant born in my house will be my heir.”

⁴ Just then, the word of the Lord came to him. God said, “This man will not be your heir, but instead one who will come out of your own body will be your heir.” ⁵ The Lord then brought him outside and said, “Now look toward the sky and count the stars, if you are able to count them.” He said to Abram, “This is what your descendants will be like.” ⁶ Abram believed in^[b] the Lord, and the Lord credited it to him as righteousness. ⁷ He said to him, “I am the Lord, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land as a possession.”

⁸ He said, “Lord God, how will I know that I will possess it?”

⁹ The Lord said to him, “Bring me a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.” ¹⁰ Abram gathered all of these, divided them in half, and laid the two halves across from each other, but he did not divide the birds in two. ¹¹ Birds of prey came down on the carcasses, but Abram drove them away.

¹⁷ Then when the sun had gone down and it was dark, suddenly a smoking oven and a flaming torch passed between the pieces. ¹⁸ On that day the Lord made^[a] a covenant with Abram. He said, “To your descendants I have given this land from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates. ¹⁹ I will give you the territory of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, ²⁰ the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaites, ²¹ the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.”

The Earthly Tent

9 The first covenant had regulations for worship and for an earthly sanctuary. ² The first room of the tent was furnished with the lampstand, the table, and the Bread of the Presence.^[a] This room was called the Holy Place. ³ And behind the second curtain was the room of the tent called the Most Holy Place. ⁴ It had the golden censer for incense^[b] and the Ark of the Covenant, which was covered entirely with gold. Inside the Ark was the golden jar holding the manna, Aaron’s staff that had sprouted buds, and the stone tablets of the covenant. ⁵ Above the Ark, the glorious cherubim overshadowed the atonement seat. We are not going to talk about these things in detail now.

⁶ After these things had been furnished in this way, the priests would always enter the first room of the tent to perform their ministries. ⁷ But only the high priest would enter the second section of the tent, once each year, and not without blood, which he offered for himself and for the sins the people committed in ignorance. ⁸ By this the Holy Spirit indicates that, while the first room of the tent existed, a way into the Most Holy Place had not yet been disclosed.

⁹ This tent is a picture pointing to the present time. Since it is only a picture, the gifts and sacrifices that are brought there are not able to clear the conscience of the worshipper. ¹⁰ They are only bodily regulations about foods, drinks, and various washings, which were in force until the time of the new order.

Jesus’ Blood

¹¹ But when Christ appeared as the high priest of the good things that were coming,^[c] he went through the greater and more complete tent, which was not made by human hands (that is, it is not part of this creation). ¹² He entered once into the Most Holy Place and obtained eternal redemption, not by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood. ¹³ Now if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkled on those who were unclean, sanctifies them so that their flesh is clean, ¹⁴ how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, cleanse our^[d] consciences from dead works, so that we worship the living God?

Healing at the Pool

5 After this, there was a Jewish festival, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

² Near the Sheep Gate in Jerusalem there is a pool, called Bethesda^[a] in Aramaic,^[b] which has five colonnades. ³ Within these lay a large number of sick people—blind, lame, or paralyzed—who were waiting for the movement of the water. ⁴ For an angel would go down at certain times into the pool and stir up the water. Whoever stepped in first after the stirring of the water was healed of whatever disease he had.^{[c] 5} One man was there who had been sick for thirty-eight years. ⁶ When Jesus saw him lying there and knew he had already been sick a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?”

⁷ “Sir,” the sick man answered, “I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up. While I’m going, someone else goes down ahead of me.”

⁸ Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” ⁹ Instantly the man was healed. He picked up his mat and walked.

That day was the Sabbath. ¹⁰ So the Jews told the man who had been healed, “This is the Sabbath! You are not permitted to carry your mat.”

¹¹ He answered them, “The one who made me well told me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’”

¹² Then they asked him, “Who is the man who told you, ‘Pick it up and walk’?” ¹³ But the man who was healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there.

¹⁴ Later Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, “Look, you are well now. Do not sin anymore so that nothing worse happens to you.”

¹⁵ The man went back and reported to the Jews that it was Jesus who made him well.

God’s Son

¹⁶ So the Jews began to persecute Jesus, because he was doing these things on the Sabbath. ¹⁷ But Jesus answered them, “My Father is working right up to the present time, and I am working too.”

¹⁸ This is why the Jews tried all the more to kill him, because he was not merely breaking the Sabbath, but was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.