Book of Common Prayer
David Praises the Lord for Rescuing Him.
To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David, the servant of the Lord, who spoke the words of this song to the Lord on the day when the Lord rescued him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul. And he said:
18 “I love You [fervently and devotedly], O Lord, my strength.”
2
The Lord is my rock, my fortress, and the One who rescues me;
My God, my rock and strength in whom I trust and take refuge;
My shield, and the horn of my salvation, my high tower—my stronghold.(A)
3
I call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised;
And I am saved from my enemies.(B)
4
The cords of death surrounded me,
And the streams of ungodliness and torrents of destruction terrified me.
5
The cords of Sheol (the nether world, the place of the dead) surrounded me;
The snares of death confronted me.
6
In my distress [when I seemed surrounded] I called upon the Lord
And cried to my God for help;
He heard my voice from His temple,
And my cry for help came before Him, into His very ears.
7
Then the earth shook and quaked,
The foundations of the mountains trembled;
They were shaken because He was indignant and angry.
8
Smoke went up from His nostrils,
And fire from His mouth devoured;
Coals were kindled by it.
9
He bowed the heavens also and came down;
And thick darkness was under His feet.
10
And He rode upon a cherub (storm) and flew;
And He sped on the wings of the wind.
11
He made darkness His hiding place (covering); His pavilion (canopy) around Him,
The darkness of the waters, the thick clouds of the skies.
12
Out of the brightness before Him passed His thick clouds,
Hailstones and coals of fire.
13
The Lord also thundered in the heavens,
And the Most High uttered His voice,
Hailstones and coals of fire.
14
He sent out His arrows and scattered them;
And He sent an abundance of lightning flashes and confused and routed them [in defeat].
15
Then the stream beds of the waters appeared,
And the foundations of the world were laid bare
At Your rebuke, O Lord,
At the blast of the breath of Your nostrils.
16
He reached from on high, He took me;
He drew me out of many waters.
17
He rescued me from my strong enemy,
And from those who hated me, for they were too strong for me.
18
They confronted me in the day of my disaster,
But the Lord was my support.
19
He brought me out into a broad place;
He rescued me because He was pleased with me and delighted in me.
20
The Lord dealt with me according to my righteousness (moral character, spiritual integrity);
According to the cleanness of my hands He has rewarded me.
21
For I have kept the ways of the Lord,
And have not wickedly departed from my God.
22
For all His ordinances were before me,
And I did not put away His statutes from me.
23
I was [a]blameless before Him,
And I kept myself free from my sin.
24
Therefore the Lord has rewarded me according to my righteousness (moral character, spiritual integrity),
According to the cleanness of my hands in His sight.
25
With the kind (merciful, faithful, loyal) You show Yourself kind,
With the blameless You show Yourself blameless,
26
With the pure You show Yourself pure,
And with the crooked You show Yourself astute.
27
For You save an afflicted and humble people,
But bring down those [arrogant fools] with haughty eyes.
28
For You cause my lamp to be lighted and to shine;
The Lord my God illumines my darkness.
29
For by You I can crush a troop,
And by my God I can leap over a wall.
30
As for God, His way is [b]blameless.
The word of the Lord is tested [it is perfect, it is faultless];
He is a shield to all who take refuge in Him.
31
For who is God, but the Lord?
Or who is a rock, except our God,
32
The God who encircles me with strength
And makes my way blameless?
33
He makes my feet like [c]hinds’ feet [able to stand firmly and tread safely on paths of testing and trouble];
He sets me [securely] upon my high places.
34
He trains my hands for war,
So that my arms can bend a bow of bronze.
35
You have also given me the shield of Your salvation,
And Your right hand upholds and sustains me;
Your gentleness [Your gracious response when I pray] makes me great.
36
You enlarge the path beneath me and make my steps secure,
So that my feet will not slip.
37
I pursued my enemies and overtook them;
And I did not turn back until they were consumed.
38
I shattered them so that they were not able to rise;
They fell [wounded] under my feet.
39
For You have encircled me with strength for the battle;
You have subdued under me those who rose up against me.
40
You have also made my enemies turn their backs to me [in defeat],
And I silenced and destroyed those who hated me.
41
They cried for help, but there was no one to save them—
Even to the Lord [they cried], but He did not answer them.
42
Then I beat them fine as the dust before the wind;
I emptied them out as the dirt of the streets.
43
You have rescued me from the contentions of the people;
You have placed me as the head of the nations;
A people whom I have not known serve me.
44
As soon as they hear me, they respond and obey me;
Foreigners feign obedience to me.
45
Foreigners lose heart,
And come trembling out of their strongholds.
46
The Lord lives, blessed be my rock;
And may the God of my salvation be exalted,
47
The God who avenges me,
And subdues peoples (nations) under me.
48
He rescues me from my enemies;
Yes, You lift me up above those who rise up against me;
You deliver me from the man of violence.
49
Therefore will I give thanks and praise You, O Lord, among the nations,
And sing praises to Your name.(C)
50
He gives great triumphs to His king,
And shows steadfast love and mercy to His anointed,
To David and his descendants forever.(D)
A Day of Reckoning Coming
12
For the Lord of hosts will have a day of reckoning
Against all who are proud and arrogant
And against all who are lifted up,
That they may be degraded.(A)
13
And the wrath of God will be against all the cedars of Lebanon [west of the Jordan] that are high and lifted up,
Against all the oaks of Bashan [east of the Jordan],
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Against all the high mountains,
Against all the hills that are lifted up,
15
Against every high tower,
Against every fortified wall,
16
Against all the ships of Tarshish
And against all the beautiful craft.
17
Then the pride of man will be humbled
And the arrogance of men will be degraded;
The Lord alone shall be exalted in that day,
18
And the idols will completely vanish (be abolished).
19
They [the stricken, deprived of all in which they had trusted] will go into the caves of the rocks
And into the holes of the ground [fleeing]
From the terror and dread of the Lord
And from the splendor of His majesty,
When He arises to terrify the earth.(B)
20
In that day men will throw away to the moles and to the bats
Their idols of silver and their idols of gold,
Which they made for themselves [as objects] to worship,
21
To go into the caverns of the rocks and into the clefts of the [ragged] cliffs [as they flee]
From the terror and dread of the Lord and the splendor of His majesty,
When He arises to terrify the earth.
22
Stop regarding man, whose breath [of life] is in his nostrils [for so little time];
For why should he be esteemed?
Encouragement of Timothy’s Visit
3 Therefore, when we could no longer endure our separation [from you], we thought it best to be left behind, alone at Athens, 2 and so we sent Timothy, our brother and God’s servant in [spreading] the good news of Christ, to strengthen and encourage you [exhorting, comforting, and establishing you] in regard to your faith, 3 so that no one would be unsettled by these difficulties [to which I have referred]. For you know that we have been destined for this [as something unavoidable in our position]. 4 For even when we were with you, we warned you plainly in advance that we were going to experience persecution; and so, as you know, it has come to pass. 5 For this reason, when I could no longer endure the suspense, I sent someone to find out about your faith [how you were holding up under pressure], for fear that somehow the tempter had tempted you and our work [among you] would prove to be ineffective.
6 But now that Timothy has come back to us from [his visit with] you, and has brought us good news of your [steadfast] faith and [the warmth of your] love, and [reported] that you always think kindly of us and treasure your memories of us, longing to see us just as we long to see you, 7 for this reason, brothers and sisters, during all our distress and suffering we have been comforted and greatly encouraged about you because of your faith [your unwavering trust in God—placing yourselves completely in His loving hands]; 8 because now we really live [in spite of everything], if you stand firm in the Lord. 9 For what [adequate] thanks can we offer to God for you in return for all the joy and delight we have before our God on your account? 10 We continue to pray night and day most earnestly that we may see you face to face, and may complete whatever may be imperfect and lacking in your faith.
11 Now may our God and Father Himself, and Jesus our Lord guide our steps to you [by removing the obstacles that stand in our way]. 12 And may the Lord cause you to increase and excel and overflow in love for one another, and for all people, just as we also do for you; 13 so that He may strengthen and establish your hearts without blame in holiness in the sight of our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all His [a]saints (God’s people).
Is There a Resurrection?
27 Now some of the Sadducees (who say that there is no resurrection) came to Him(A) 28 and they questioned Him, saying, “Teacher, Moses wrote for us [a law that] if a man’s brother dies, leaving a wife and no children, his brother should [a]marry the wife and raise children for his brother.(B) 29 Now there were seven brothers; and the first took a wife and died childless. 30 And the second, 31 and the third married her, and in the same way all seven died, leaving no children. 32 Finally the woman also died. 33 So in the [life after] resurrection, whose wife does she become? For all seven had married her.”
34 Jesus said to them, “The sons of this [world and present] age marry and [the women] are given in marriage; 35 but those who are considered worthy to gain that [other world and that future] age and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry nor are given in marriage; 36 and they cannot die again, because they are [immortal] like the angels (equal to, angel-like). And they are [b]children of God, being [c]participants in the resurrection. 37 But [as for the fact] that the dead are raised [from death], even Moses showed, in the passage about the burning bush, when he calls the Lord the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.(C) 38 Now He is not the God of the dead, but of the living [so these forefathers will be among the resurrected]; for all live [in a definite relationship] to Him.” 39 Some of the scribes replied, “Teacher, you have spoken well [so that there is no room for blame].” 40 And they did not dare to question Him further about anything [because of the wisdom He displayed in His answers].
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