Book of Common Prayer
ז ZAYIN
49 Remember the word to Your servant,
Upon which You have caused me to hope.
50 This is my (A)comfort in my affliction,
For Your word has given me life.
51 The proud have me in great derision,
Yet I do not turn aside from Your law.
52 I remembered Your judgments of old, O Lord,
And have comforted myself.
53 (B)Indignation has taken hold of me
Because of the wicked, who forsake Your law.
54 Your statutes have been my songs
In the house of my pilgrimage.
55 (C)I remember Your name in the night, O Lord,
And I keep Your law.
56 This has become mine,
Because I kept Your precepts.
ח HETH
57 (D)You are my portion, O Lord;
I have said that I would keep Your words.
58 I entreated Your favor with my whole heart;
Be merciful to me according to Your word.
59 I (E)thought about my ways,
And turned my feet to Your testimonies.
60 I made haste, and did not delay
To keep Your commandments.
61 The cords of the wicked have bound me,
But I have not forgotten Your law.
62 (F)At midnight I will rise to give thanks to You,
Because of Your righteous judgments.
63 I am a companion of all who fear You,
And of those who keep Your precepts.
64 (G)The earth, O Lord, is full of Your mercy;
Teach me Your statutes.
ט TETH
65 You have dealt well with Your servant,
O Lord, according to Your word.
66 Teach me good judgment and (H)knowledge,
For I believe Your commandments.
67 Before I was (I)afflicted I went astray,
But now I keep Your word.
68 You are (J)good, and do good;
Teach me Your statutes.
69 The proud have (K)forged[a] a lie against me,
But I will keep Your precepts with my whole heart.
70 (L)Their heart is [b]as fat as grease,
But I delight in Your law.
71 It is good for me that I have been afflicted,
That I may learn Your statutes.
72 (M)The law of Your mouth is better to me
Than thousands of coins of gold and silver.
The Confidence of the Foolish
To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of the sons of Korah.
49 Hear this, all peoples;
Give ear, all inhabitants of the world,
2 Both low and high,
Rich and poor together.
3 My mouth shall speak wisdom,
And the meditation of my heart shall give understanding.
4 I will incline my ear to a proverb;
I will disclose my [a]dark saying on the harp.
5 Why should I fear in the days of evil,
When the iniquity at my heels surrounds me?
6 Those who (A)trust in their wealth
And boast in the multitude of their riches,
7 None of them can by any means redeem his brother,
Nor (B)give to God a ransom for him—
8 For (C)the redemption of their souls is costly,
And it shall cease forever—
9 That he should continue to live eternally,
And (D)not [b]see the Pit.
10 For he sees wise men die;
Likewise the fool and the senseless person perish,
And leave their wealth to others.
11 [c]Their inner thought is that their houses will last forever,
Their dwelling places to all generations;
They (E)call their lands after their own names.
12 Nevertheless man, though in honor, does not [d]remain;
He is like the beasts that perish.
13 This is the way of those who are (F)foolish,
And of their posterity who approve their sayings. Selah
14 Like sheep they are laid in the grave;
Death shall feed on them;
(G)The upright shall have dominion over them in the morning;
(H)And their beauty shall be consumed in [e]the grave, far from their dwelling.
15 But God (I)will redeem my soul from the power of [f]the grave,
For He shall (J)receive me. Selah
16 Do not be afraid when one becomes rich,
When the glory of his house is increased;
17 For when he dies he shall carry nothing away;
His glory shall not descend after him.
18 Though while he lives (K)he blesses himself
(For men will praise you when you do well for yourself),
19 He shall go to the generation of his fathers;
They shall never see (L)light.[g]
20 A man who is in honor, yet does not understand,
(M)Is like the beasts that perish.
Folly of the Godless, and the Restoration of Israel(A)
To the Chief Musician. Set to “Mahalath.” A [a]Contemplation of David.
53 The (B)fool has said in his heart,
“There is no God.”
They are corrupt, and have done abominable iniquity;
(C)There is none who does good.
2 God looks down from heaven upon the children of men,
To see if there are any who understand, who (D)seek God.
3 Every one of them has turned aside;
They have together become corrupt;
There is none who does good,
No, not one.
Punishment of Apostates
13 “If there arises among you a prophet or a (A)dreamer of dreams, (B)and he gives you a sign or a wonder, 2 and (C)the sign or the wonder comes to pass, of which he spoke to you, saying, ‘Let us go after other gods’—which you have not known—‘and let us serve them,’ 3 you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams, for the Lord your God (D)is testing you to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. 4 You shall (E)walk[a] after the Lord your God and fear Him, and keep His commandments and obey His voice; you shall serve Him and (F)hold fast to Him. 5 But (G)that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death, because he has spoken in order to turn you away from the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of bondage, to entice you from the way in which the Lord your God commanded you to walk. (H)So you shall [b]put away the evil from your midst.
6 (I)“If your brother, the son of your mother, your son or your daughter, (J)the wife [c]of your bosom, or your friend (K)who is as your own soul, secretly entices you, saying, ‘Let us go and serve other gods,’ which you have not known, neither you nor your fathers, 7 of the gods of the people which are all around you, near to you or far off from you, from one end of the earth to the other end of the earth, 8 you shall (L)not [d]consent to him or listen to him, nor shall your eye pity him, nor shall you spare him or conceal him; 9 but you shall surely kill him; your hand shall be first against him to put him to (M)death, and afterward the hand of all the people. 10 And you shall stone him with stones until he dies, because he sought to entice you away from the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage. 11 So all Israel shall hear and (N)fear, and not again do such wickedness as this among you.
The Corinthians’ Repentance
2 Open your hearts to us. We have wronged no one, we have corrupted no one, (A)we have cheated no one. 3 I do not say this to condemn; for (B)I have said before that you are in our hearts, to die together and to live together. 4 (C)Great is my boldness of speech toward you, (D)great is my boasting on your behalf. (E)I am filled with comfort. I am exceedingly joyful in all our tribulation.
5 For indeed, (F)when we came to Macedonia, our bodies had no rest, but (G)we were troubled on every side. (H)Outside were conflicts, inside were fears. 6 Nevertheless (I)God, who comforts the downcast, comforted us by (J)the coming of Titus, 7 and not only by his coming, but also by the [a]consolation with which he was comforted in you, when he told us of your earnest desire, your mourning, your zeal for me, so that I rejoiced even more.
8 For even if I made you (K)sorry with my letter, I do not regret it; (L)though I did regret it. For I perceive that the same epistle made you sorry, though only for a while. 9 Now I rejoice, not that you were made sorry, but that your sorrow led to repentance. For you were made sorry in a godly manner, that you might suffer loss from us in nothing. 10 For (M)godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted; (N)but the sorrow of the world produces death. 11 For observe this very thing, that you sorrowed in a godly manner: What diligence it produced in you, what (O)clearing of yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what vehement desire, what zeal, what vindication! In all things you proved yourselves to be (P)clear in this matter. 12 Therefore, although I wrote to you, I did not do it for the sake of him who had done the wrong, nor for the sake of him who suffered wrong, (Q)but that our care for you in the sight of God might appear to you.
The Joy of Titus
13 Therefore we have been comforted in your comfort. And we rejoiced exceedingly more for the joy of Titus, because his spirit (R)has been refreshed by you all. 14 For if in anything I have boasted to him about you, I am not ashamed. But as we spoke all things to you in truth, even so our boasting to Titus was found true. 15 And his affections are greater for you as he remembers (S)the obedience of you all, how with fear and trembling you received him. 16 Therefore I rejoice that (T)I have confidence in you in everything.
The Coming of the Kingdom(A)
20 Now when He was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, He answered them and said, “The kingdom of God does not come with observation; 21 (B)nor will they say, [a]‘See here!’ or ‘See there!’ For indeed, (C)the kingdom of God is [b]within you.”
22 Then He said to the disciples, (D)“The days will come when you will desire to see one of the days of the Son of Man, and you will not see it. 23 (E)And they will say to you, [c]‘Look here!’ or ‘Look there!’ Do not go after them or follow them. 24 (F)For as the lightning that flashes out of one part under heaven shines to the other part under heaven, so also the Son of Man will be in His day. 25 (G)But first He must suffer many things and be (H)rejected by this generation. 26 (I)And as it (J)was in the (K)days of (L)Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man: 27 They ate, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the (M)day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and (N)destroyed them all. 28 (O)Likewise as it was also in the days of Lot: They ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built; 29 but on (P)the day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all. 30 Even so will it be in the day when the Son of Man (Q)is revealed.
31 “In that day, he (R)who is on the housetop, and his [d]goods are in the house, let him not come down to take them away. And likewise the one who is in the field, let him not turn back. 32 (S)Remember Lot’s wife. 33 (T)Whoever seeks to save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it. 34 (U)I tell you, in that night there will be two [e]men in one bed: the one will be taken and the other will be left. 35 (V)Two women will be grinding together: the one will be taken and the other left. 36 [f]Two men will be in the field: the one will be taken and the other left.”
37 And they answered and said to Him, (W)“Where, Lord?”
So He said to them, “Wherever the body is, there the eagles will be gathered together.”
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.