Book of Common Prayer
Zayin
49 Do not forget Your promise to Your servant;
through it You have given me hope.
50 This brings me solace in the midst of my troubles:
that Your word has revived me.
51 Those who are proud cruelly ridicule me,
but I keep to the steady path of Your teachings.
52 I have considered Your ancient rulings, O Eternal One,
and their memory brings me comfort.
53 Burning anger rises in me, has me in its grip
because the unrighteous abandon Your teachings.
54 As I journey through this life,
Your statutes are my song.
55 O Eternal One, through the night, I stop to recall Your name.
That’s how I live according to Your teachings.
56 This has become my practice:
to keep Your ordinances.
Heth
57 The Eternal One is mine. He’s all I need.
I have promised to keep Your words.
58 I sought Your blessing wholeheartedly.
Show grace to me as You promised.
59 I carefully charted out my paths
to align my steps with Your decrees.
60 I did not procrastinate and hurried
to follow Your commands.
61 The wicked have entangled me in their nets,
but I have not forgotten Your teaching.
62 In the middle of the night, I wake to thank You
because Your rulings are just and right.
63 I am a friend of anyone who fears You
and of those who follow Your precepts.
64 The earth is filled with Your unfailing love, O Eternal One;
teach me to observe what You require.
Teth
65 You have handled Your servant well,
O Eternal One, as You promised.
66 Help me to learn good judgment and knowledge
because I believe Your commandments.
67 Before I had trouble, I strayed from the true path, the path of righteousness,
but now I live according to Your word.
68 You are truly good, and Your acts are too;
teach me what You require.
69 The proud smear me with their lies;
I will keep Your instructions wholeheartedly.
70 Their hearts are dull and callous;
I am delighted to study Your teaching.
71 It is a good thing that I was humbled
because it helped me learn Your limits.
72 Your teachings are more valuable to me
than a fortune in gold and silver.
Psalm 49
For the worship leader. A song of the sons of Korah.
Some songs are described as “wisdom psalms.” Similar in theme to the short sayings of Proverbs or the reflective essays of Ecclesiastes, these songs offer practical advice to the worshiper of the one True God. In Psalm 49 we find a meditation on wealth and wisdom, but others describe daily activities (127–128; 133), encouragement when evil succeeds (37; 73), and the results of following God or wickedness (112). The purpose of these songs is to edify those who sing and those who hear, reminding them, and us, how to live life as God intends.
1 Listen up, everyone!
All you who reside in this world, give an ear!
2 Everyone—rich and poor,
young and old, wise and foolish, humble and mighty—
3 My mouth will overflow with wisdom;
the reflections of my heart will guide you to understand the nature of life.
4 I will tune my ear to the words of a proverb;
to the sounds of a harp, I will reveal my riddle.
5 Why should I be afraid when dark evils swirl about me,
when I am walking among the sin of evildoers—
6 Those who depend on their own fortunes,
who boast about their earthly riches?
7 One person can’t grant salvation to another
or make a payment to the True God for another.
8 Redeeming a life is costly;
no premium is enough, ever enough,
9 That one’s body might live on forever
and never fear the grave’s decay.
10 Everyone knows that even the wisest ones die,
perishing together with the foolish and the stupid.
For all die—beggars and kings, fools and wise men.
Their wealth remains behind for others.
11 Although they wish to dwell in fine houses forever,
their graves are their real resting places.
Their homes are for all future generations,
yet for a while they have named lands after themselves.
12 [No one, regardless of how rich or important, can live forever;
he is][a] just like the animals that perish and decay.
13 This is the destiny of those foolish souls who have faith only in themselves;
this will be the end of those happy to follow in their ways.
[pause][b]
14 The fate of fools is the grave, and just like sheep,
death will feast on them.
The righteous will rule over them at dawn,
their bodies, their outward forms, rotting in the grave
far away from their great mansions.
15 But God will reach into the grave and save my life from its power.
He will fetch me and take me into His eternal house.
[pause]
16 Do not be afraid of the rich and powerful
as their prestige and honor grow,
17 For they cannot take anything with them when they die.
Their fame and glory will not follow them into the grave.
18 During their lives, they seek every blessing and advantage
because others praise you when you’ve done well.
19 But they will soon join their ancestors, for all of time,
among the tombs of the faithless—a place of no light.
20 Anyone who is rich or important without understanding
is just like the animals that perish and decay.
Psalm 53
For the worship leader. A contemplative song[a] of David. A song for the dance.[b]
1 The foolish are convinced deep down that there is no God.
Their souls are polluted, and they commit gross injustice.
Not one of them does good.
2 From heaven the one True God examines the earth
to see if any understand the big picture,
if any seek to know the True God.
3 All have turned back to their wicked ways; they’ve become totally perverse.
Not one of them does good,
not even one.
4 Do the wicked relish their ignorance,
the wicked ones who consume My people as if they were bread
and fail to call upon the True God?
5 They trembled with great fear,
though they’d never been afraid before,
Because the True God ravaged the bones of those who rose against you.
You humiliated them because the True God spat them out.
6 Oh, that the liberation of Israel would come out of Zion!
When the True God reclaims His people,
let Jacob celebrate; let Israel rejoice.
23 When Abigail saw David, she dropped quickly from her donkey and fell to the ground in front of him, bowing.
Abigail (at David’s feet): 24 My lord, any guilt here falls on me. Please let me, your servant, speak, and may you hear the words I speak. 25 My lord, you must not take seriously the words of this worthless man, Nabal. His actions have proven that his name and his nature are the same: Nabal is a fool. Unfortunately I, your servant, did not see the young men you sent.
26 Now, my lord, as the Eternal One lives and as you live, since the Eternal has kept you from senseless killing and from seizing vengeance yourself, may your enemies and all who seek to harm you, my lord, be like Nabal.
27 Now, please, accept my gift and distribute it among the young men who are with you. 28 Please forgive your servant’s shortcomings. The Eternal will certainly make my lord’s house into a lasting dynasty because you fight on behalf of Him, and no evil will be found in you as long as you live. 29 If anyone dares to rise up against you and seek your life, then you will be protected by the Eternal One, your True God, who will launch the lives of your enemies like stones from a sling.
30 When the Eternal has done for my lord all the good things He has promised and has installed you as ruler over all Israel, 31 you will never have to be grieved or conscience-stricken for having shed blood needlessly or for taking vengeance into your own hands. When He has dealt generously with my lord, I pray you will remember me, your servant.
David (to Abigail): 32 Blessed is the Eternal God of Israel, who sent you here today to intercept me. 33 And blessed is your wisdom—blessed are you—for keeping me from shedding blood needlessly and from taking vengeance into my own hands. 34 For as surely as the Eternal God of Israel lives and sent you to me, if you had not hurried out to meet me, tomorrow there would not have been a single male left alive in Nabal’s household.
35 Then David accepted her gifts.
David: Arise, and return home in peace. I have listened to your words, and I have granted your request.
36 Abigail returned to Nabal, who was holding a kingly feast in his house. Nabal’s heart was light because he was very drunk, so Abigail chose not to tell him anything until the next morning. 37 The next morning, when he was sober, Abigail told him about her meeting with David and he went cold inside. 38 About 10 days later, the Eternal One struck down Nabal, and he died.
39 When David heard this news, he blessed God.
David: Blessed is the Eternal One, who protected my honor from Nabal’s insults and who kept me, His servant, from executing evil. Instead, the Eternal One turned Nabal’s evil back on him.
40 Then David sent servants to Carmel asking Abigail to be his wife.
Servants: David has sent us to bring you to him so that you can be his wife.
41 She stood, and then bowed to the ground before David’s servants.
Abigail: I am your servant, willing to wash the feet of my lord’s servants.
42 Then Abigail quickly got up, mounted her donkey, and went with the messengers of David attended by her five handmaidens. Not long after, she married him.
43 David also married Ahinoam of Jezreel; she and Abigail were both wives of David. 44 By this time, Saul had given his daughter Michal, David’s former wife, to Palti (the son of Laish) from Gallim.
When God uses men to bless the world, many mistakenly exalt those men to the place of God. This inevitably leads to pain and disappointment. Paul and Barnabas did the right thing by shouting as loudly as possible, “We are only men!” It is time for many leaders and celebrities to follow their example, root out the religious hero worship, claim our humanity, and start sharing our own struggles—sin, depression, despair—to remind people we are all alike. Then we can focus on the one true God instead of His messengers.
19 Then unbelieving Jews came from Antioch and Iconium and incited the crowds against the Lord’s emissaries. The crowds turned on Paul, stoned him, dragged him out of the city, and left him there, thinking he was dead. 20 As the disciples gathered around him, he suddenly rose to his feet and returned to the city. The next day he and Barnabas left for Derbe. 21 After they proclaimed the good news there and taught many disciples, they returned to some of the cities they had recently visited—Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch in Pisidia. 22 In each place, they brought strength to the disciples, encouraging them to remain true to the faith.
Paul and Barnabas: We must go through many persecutions as we enter the kingdom of God.
23 In each church, they would appoint leaders, pray and fast together, and entrust them to the Lord in whom they had come to believe.
24 They then passed through Pisidia and came to Pamphylia. 25 They preached their message in Perga and then went to the port of Attalia. 26 There they set sail for Antioch, where they were first entrusted to the grace of God for the mission they had now completed. 27 They called the church together when they arrived and reported all God had done with and through them, how God had welcomed outsiders through the doorway of faith. 28 They stayed with the disciples in Antioch for quite a while.
35 The same evening, Jesus suggested they cross over to the other side of the lake. 36 With Jesus already in the boat, they left the crowd behind and set sail along with a few other boats that followed. 37 As they sailed, a storm formed. The winds whipped up huge waves that broke over the bow, filling the boat with so much water that even the experienced sailors among them were sure they were going to sink.
38 Jesus was back in the stern of the boat, sound asleep on a cushion, when the disciples shook Him awake.
Disciples (shouting over the storm): Jesus, Master, don’t You care that we’re going to die?
39 He got up, shouted words into the wind, and commanded the waves.
Jesus: That’s enough! Be still!
And immediately the wind died down to nothing, the waves stopped.
Jesus: 40 How can you be so afraid? After all you’ve seen, where is your faith?
41 The disciples were still afraid, slowly coming to grips with what they had seen.
Disciples (to one another): Who is this Jesus? How can it be that He has power over even the wind and the waves?
The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.