Book of Common Prayer
Zayin: Comfort in Suffering
49 Remember your word to your servant,
because you have given me hope.
50 This is my comfort in my suffering:
that your saying gives me life.
51 The arrogant mock me constantly,
but I do not fall away from your law.
52 I remember your judgments from of old, Lord,
and I comfort myself with them.
53 Indignation grips me because of the wicked, who forsake your laws.
54 Your statutes are songs for me in the house where I am staying.
55 I remember your name during the night, O Lord,
and I will keep your laws.
56 This I have done: I guard your precepts.
Ḥet: I Will Not Forget
57 You are my portion, O Lord.
I said I would keep your words.
58 I have sought your favor with all my heart.
Be gracious to me according to your sayings.
59 I have considered my ways,[a]
and I have turned my feet to your testimonies.
60 I will hurry. I will not delay.
I will keep your commandments.
61 The ropes of the wicked bind me,
but I do not forget your law.
62 At midnight I rise to give you thanks for your righteous judgments.
63 I am a companion to all who fear you,
that is, to all who keep your precepts.
64 Your mercy, Lord, fills the earth.
Teach me your statutes.
Tet: It Is Good to Be Afflicted
65 You have done good for your servant, O Lord,
according to your words.
66 Teach me good judgment and knowledge,
for I believe in your commandments.
67 Before I was afflicted I strayed,
but now I keep your saying.
68 You are good, and you do good.
Teach me your statutes.
69 The arrogant have smeared me with lies.
I guard your precepts with all my heart.
70 Their calloused hearts[b] feel nothing,
but I delight in your law.
71 It was good for me that I was afflicted,
so that I might learn your statutes.
72 Better for me is the law from your mouth
than thousands of pieces of silver and gold.
Psalm 49
The Fool Trusts in Riches
Heading
For the choir director. By the Sons of Korah. A psalm.
Introduction
1 Hear this, all you peoples.
Pay attention, all you inhabitants of this world,
2 all you children of Adam, all mankind,
rich and poor alike.
3 My mouth will speak wisdom.
The meditation of my heart will give understanding.
4 I will listen carefully to wise teaching.
With a lyre I will explain deep truths.
The Limitations of Riches
5 Why should I fear days of trouble,
days when the wickedness of my pursuers surrounds me?[a]
6 They trust in their wealth.
They place their confidence in the abundance of their riches.
7 But no one can by any means redeem himself.[b]
He cannot give God a ransom for himself—
8 (Yes, the ransom for their souls is costly.
Any payment would fall short.)[c]
9 —so that he could live on forever and not see the pit.
10 Yes, we can see that wise men die.
The fool and the senseless alike perish,
and they leave their wealth to others.
11 They think their houses will remain forever,
their dwellings for generation after generation[d]
because they named lands after themselves.
12 But man, though he has riches, does not even spend a night here.
He is like the animals that perish.
13 This way of theirs is foolishness,
but their followers approve of what they say. Interlude
14 They are like a flock destined for the grave.
Death will be their shepherd.
The upright will rule over them in the morning.
Their bodies will be consumed by the grave,
far from their mansions.[e]
The Limitless Power of God
15 But surely God will redeem my life from the power of the grave.
Yes, he will take me to himself. Interlude
Review and Conclusion
16 Do not be afraid when a man grows rich,
when the glory of his house increases,
17 because when he dies, he cannot take anything along.
His glory will not go down with him.
18 Throughout his life he congratulates himself:
“People praise you because you have done so well for yourself.”
19 He will go to the gathering place of his fathers.
They will never see the light!
20 A man who has riches but does not understand
is like the animals that perish.
Psalm 53
The Fool
(Psalm 14)
Heading
For the choir director. According to mahalath.[a] A maskil by David.
A Description of the Fool
1 The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.”
They are corrupt. They commit horrible evil.
There is no one who does good.
2 God looks down from heaven on all the children of Adam
to see if there is anyone who understands,
anyone who seeks God.
3 Every single one has turned back.
Altogether they have become rotten.
There is no one who does good.
There is not even one.
The Final Fate of the Fool
4 Don’t they know, all those evildoers,
who devour my people as if they were eating bread?
They do not call on God.
5 There they are, terrified, where there was nothing to fear.
For God scattered the bones of those who camped against you.
You put them to shame, because God despised them.
Closing Prayer
6 Who will provide salvation for Israel from Zion?[b]
When God restores his people, let Jacob rejoice and Israel be glad!
The Second Servant Song
The Lord’s Servant Saves the Nations
49
Listen to me, you coastlands.
Pay attention, you faraway peoples!
The Lord called me from the womb.
When I was inside my mother, he mentioned my name.
2 He made my mouth like a sharpened sword.
He hid me in the shadow of his hand.
He made me a polished arrow.
He concealed me in his quiver.
3 He said to me, “You are my servant Israel,
in whom I will display my glory.”
4 But I said to myself, “I have labored in vain.
I spent my strength and came up empty, with nothing.
Yet a just verdict for me rests with the Lord,
and my reward is with my God.”
5 But now the Lord,
who formed me from the womb to be his servant,
to turn Jacob back to him,
so that Israel might be gathered to him,
so that I will be honored in the eyes of the Lord,
because my God has been my strength—
6 the Lord said:
It is too small a thing that you should just be my servant
to raise up only the tribes of Jacob
and to restore the ones I have preserved in Israel,
so I will appoint you to be a light for the nations,
so that my salvation will be known to the end of the earth.
7 This is what the Lord, the Redeemer of Israel, its Holy One,
says to the one deeply despised,
to the one who is detested by the nation,
to the servant of rulers.
Kings will see and stand up.
Officials will see and bow down,
because of the Lord, who is faithful,
because of the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you.
8 This is what the Lord says.
In the time of favor, I will answer you.
In the day of salvation, I will help you.
I will guard you,
and I will appoint you to be a covenant for the people,
to re-establish the land,
to redistribute inheritances that are now deserted,
9 to say to the prisoners, “Go forth!”
to those who are in the darkness, “Show yourselves!”
They will graze beside roads,
and they will find pasture on all the barren heights.
10 They will not hunger, and they will not thirst,
and neither scorching wind nor sun will strike them,
because the one who shows them mercy will lead them.
He will guide them beside springs of water.
11 I will make all my mountains into a smooth road,
and my highways will be raised up.
12 Look, people will come from far away.
Look, some will come from the north and the west,
and some from the land of Sinim.[a]
Paul Opposed Cephas (Peter)
11 But when Cephas[a] came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he was clearly wrong. 12 For before some people came from James, he ate with the Gentiles. But when those people came, he drew back and separated himself, because he feared those from the circumcision group. 13 And the rest of the Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, with the result that even Barnabas was carried away by their hypocrisy. 14 But when I saw that they were not acting according to the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas in front of all of them, “If you, a Jew, live like the Gentiles and not like the Jews, why do you compel the Gentiles to live like the Jews?”
Justified Through Faith!
15 “We are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners. 16 We know that a person is not justified by the works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ. So we also believed in Christ Jesus that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because no one[b] will be justified by the works of the law. 17 But if, while seeking to be justified in Christ, we ourselves were also found to be sinners, then is Christ a servant of sin? Certainly not!
18 “In fact, if I build up again those things that I destroyed, I bring on myself the judgment of being a lawbreaker. 19 Indeed, through the law I died to the law that I might live for God. 20 I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I am now living in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. 21 I do not regard the grace of God as nothing. As a matter of fact, if righteousness is through the law, then Christ died for nothing!”
13 They also drove out many demons. They anointed many sick people with oil and healed them.
Recalling the Death of John the Baptizer
14 King Herod heard about this because Jesus’ name had become well known. Herod was saying, “John the Baptizer has been raised from the dead! That is why these powers are at work in him.”
15 But others were saying, “He is Elijah.” Still others were saying, “He is a prophet, like one of the prophets of old.”
16 When Herod heard this, he said, “This is John, the man I beheaded. He was raised.” 17 For it was Herod who had sent men to arrest John. He had him bound in prison because Herod had married Herodias, the wife of his brother Philip. 18 Indeed, John had been telling him, “It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife.”
19 Herodias held a grudge against John and wanted to put him to death, but she could not, 20 because Herod feared John. He knew that John was a righteous and holy man, so he kept him safe. When Herod listened to John, he was perplexed in many ways, yet he gladly kept listening to him.
21 An opportune day came when it was Herod’s birthday. He gave a banquet for his nobles, the military officers, and the prominent men of Galilee. 22 When the daughter of Herodias came in and danced, she pleased Herod and his guests. The king said to the girl, “Ask me whatever you want, and I will give it to you.” 23 With an oath he promised her, “Whatever you ask of me, I will give you, up to half of my kingdom.”
24 She went out and said to her mother, “What should I ask for?”
Herodias said, “The head of John the Baptizer.”
25 The girl hurried right back to the king and made her request: “I want you to give me the head of John the Baptist on a platter right now.”
26 The king was very sad. But because of his oaths and his dinner guests, he did not want to refuse her. 27 The king sent an executioner at once and ordered him to bring John’s head. He went, beheaded John in prison, 28 brought his head on a platter, and gave it to the girl. Then the girl gave it to her mother.
29 When John’s disciples heard about this, they came and took his body and laid it in a tomb.
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.