Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 41
Even My Friend
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For the choir director. A psalm by David.
David’s Confidence of Delivery
1 How blessed is the person who understands the plight of the weak!
May the Lord deliver him in the day of trouble.
2 May the Lord guard him and keep him alive.
May he be blessed in the land.
May you not surrender him to the desire of his enemies.
3 May the Lord sustain him on his sickbed.
You raise him up from his bed.
4 I said, “Lord, have mercy on me.
Heal my soul, for I have sinned against you.”
The Treachery of the Conspirators
5 My enemies speak evil about me:
“When will he die and his name perish?”
6 If one comes to see me, he speaks falsely.
In his heart he collects malicious plans.
He goes out. He speaks about them in the street.
7 All who hate me whisper together against me.
They plan evil for me. They say,
8 “A deadly affliction is poured out on him.
He will never get up from the place where he lies.”
9 Even a man who was at peace with me,
a man whom I trusted, who ate my bread,
has raised up his heel to step on me.
Closing Prayer
10 But you, Lord, have mercy on me.
Raise me up, so that I can repay them.
11 From this I know that you are pleased with me:
My enemy does not triumph over me.
12 As for me—in my integrity you uphold me,
and you set me up in your presence forever.
Closing Doxology
13 Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, from eternity to eternity.
Amen and Amen.
Psalm 52
Your Tongue Is a Razor
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For the choir director. A maskil[a] by David.
When Doeg the Edomite went and informed Saul
and said to him, “David has gone to the house of Ahimelek.”[b]
Doeg’s Sin
1 Why do you boast about evil, you hero?
The mercy of God endures all day long.
2 Your tongue plans destruction.
It is like a sharpened razor, you scheming liar.
3 You love evil rather than good. Interlude
You love lying rather than speaking what is right.
4 You lying tongue, you love every word that devours!
Doeg’s Judgment
5 But God will tear you down forever.
He will grab you and pull you out of your tent. Interlude
He will uproot you from the land of the living.
6 Then the righteous will see and fear.
Then they will laugh at him:
7 “Look, here is the man who did not make God his stronghold,
but trusted in the greatness of his wealth.
He grew strong by his destructive deeds!”
David’s Delivery
8 But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God.
I trust in the mercy of God forever and ever.
9 I will thank you forever because you have done this.
I will hope in your name in the presence of your favored ones
because it is good.
Psalm 44
Past Victory—Present Defeat
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For the choir director. By the Sons of Korah. A maskil.
Past Victory
1 God, our ears have heard.
Our fathers have told us the work you performed
in their days, in days long ago.
2 By your hand you drove out the nations,
but you planted your people.
You crushed the peoples,
but you sent your people forward.
3 For it was not by their sword
that they took possession of the land.
It was not their arm that saved them.
It was your right hand and your arm,
and the light from your face,
because you took pleasure in them.
Present Trust
4 You are the one who is my King, O God.
Command victories for Jacob.
5 Through you we drive back our foes.
Through your name we trample our adversaries.
6 For I do not trust in my bow,
and my sword does not save me.
7 But you save us from our foes,
and you put those who hate us to shame.
8 In God we make our boast all day,
and we will praise your name forever. Interlude
Present Defeat
9 But now you have rejected and humbled us,
and you do not go out with our armies.
10 You made us turn back before the foe,
and those who hate us have taken plunder for themselves.
11 You give us up for food like sheep,
and you have scattered us among the nations.
12 You sold your people for no great price,
and you have not profited from their sale.
13 You have made us a reproach to our neighbors,
scorn and ridicule to those around us.
14 You have made us a laughingstock among the nations,
a reason for the peoples to shake their heads.
15 All day my disgrace is right in front of me,
and the shame on my face covers me,
16 because of the voice of the slanderer and reviler,
because of the enemy and avenger.
17 All this came on us, though we had not forgotten you.
We had not been false to your covenant.
18 Our hearts had not turned back.
Our steps had not slipped off your path.
19 But you crushed us and made us a home for jackals,
and you covered us with the shadow of death.
20 If we had forgotten the name of our God
or spread out our hands to a foreign god,
21 would not God have discovered this,
since he knows the secrets of the heart?
22 Yet for your sake we are killed all day long.
We are considered sheep to be slaughtered.
Present Plea
23 Get up! Why do you sleep, O Lord? Wake up!
Do not reject us forever.
24 Why do you hide your face?
Why do you forget our misery and our oppression?
25 For our souls bow down to the dust.
Our bellies cling to the earth.
26 Stand up! Help us!
Redeem us because of your mercy.
16 Roll up the scroll of testimony. Seal the law among my disciples. 17 I will wait for the Lord, who hides his face from the house of Jacob, and I will wait hopefully for him. 18 Look, I and the children whom the Lord has given me are signs and warnings to Israel from the Lord of Armies, who dwells in Mount Zion.
19 When they tell you, “Consult the mediums and the spiritists, who whisper and mutter,” shouldn’t a people consult their God? Should they consult the dead on behalf of the living? 20 To the law and to the testimony! If people do not speak according to this word, there will be no dawn for them. 21 They will pass through the land, distressed and starving, but when this takes place and they are starving, they will be frustrated, and they will curse their king and their God. They will turn their faces upward, 22 and then they will look down to the ground, but I tell you, they will see only distress, darkness, and the gloom that brings anguish. They will be banished into thick darkness.
A Second Description of Immanuel:
The Child Who Is Born to Us
9 Nevertheless, there will be no more gloom for the land that was in anguish.[a] In former times, he humbled the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the latter time[b] he will cause it to be glorious, along the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, in Galilee of the Gentiles.[c]
Greeting
1 Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ,
To those who have obtained the same kind of faith as ours in the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ:
2 Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus[a] our Lord.
Keep on Growing
3 His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us by his own[b] glory and excellence. 4 Through these he has given us his precious and great promises so that through them you may share in the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that sinful lust causes in the world.
5 And, for this very reason, after applying every effort, add moral excellence to your faith. To moral excellence, add knowledge. 6 To knowledge, add self-control. To self-control, add patient endurance. To patient endurance, add godliness. 7 To godliness, add brotherly affection. And to brotherly affection, add love. 8 For if you have these qualities and they are increasing, they are going to keep you from being idle or unfruitful in regard to your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 Indeed, the person who lacks these qualities is shortsighted and, in fact, blind, because he has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins.
Make Your Calling and Election Sure
10 Therefore, brothers,[c] be more eager to make your calling and election sure for yourselves.[d] For if you do these things, you will never stumble. 11 In fact, in this way you will be richly supplied with an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Gethsemane
39 Jesus left and went out to the Mount of Olives, as was his custom. His disciples followed him. 40 When he reached the place, he told them, “Keep praying that you may not enter into temptation.”
41 He withdrew from them about a stone’s throw, knelt down, and prayed, 42 “Father, if you are willing, take this cup away from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done.”
43 An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him. 44 As he was in agony, he prayed more fervently. His sweat became like great drops of blood falling to the ground.[a]
45 When he rose from prayer, he went to the disciples and found them sleeping as a result of sorrow. 46 He said to them, “Why are you sleeping? Get up and keep praying so that you may not enter into temptation.”
Jesus’ Arrest
47 While he was still speaking, suddenly a crowd appeared, and the man called Judas, one of the Twelve, was leading them. He came near to Jesus to kiss him. 48 But Jesus said to him, “Judas, are you betraying the Son of Man with a kiss?”
49 When those who were around him saw what was about to happen, they said to him, “Lord, should we strike with a sword?” 50 Then one of them struck the servant of the high priest and cut off his right ear.
51 But Jesus responded, “Stop! No more of this!” Then he touched the servant’s ear and healed him. 52 Jesus said to the chief priests, the officers of the temple guard, and the elders, who had come out against him, “Have you come out as you would against a robber, with swords and clubs? 53 Every day I was with you in the temple courts, and you did not lay hands on me. But this is your hour—when darkness rules.”
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.