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.
The Prophet From Judah Testifies Against Jeroboam
13 At that moment, by the word of the Lord, a man of God came from Judah to Bethel while Jeroboam was standing in front of the altar to send offerings up in smoke. 2 He cried out against the altar by the word of Lord, “Altar! Altar! This is what the Lord says. Listen! A son will be born to the house of David. Josiah will be his name. On you he will slaughter the priests of the high places, who are burning offerings on you, and human bones will be burned on you.”
3 On that day he gave them a sign: “This is the sign which the Lord announces: This very altar will be torn apart, and the ashes on it will be poured out.”
4 When King Jeroboam heard this message that the man of God had proclaimed against the altar at Bethel, he pointed at him from the altar and cried, “Seize him!” But the hand that the king pointed at the man withered, and he could not pull it back. 5 Then the altar was torn apart, and the ashes poured out from the altar in fulfillment of the sign which the man of God had given by the word of the Lord.
6 Then the king responded to the man of God, “Intercede before the Lord your God and pray on my behalf that my hand may be restored for me.” So the man of God interceded before the Lord, and the king’s hand was restored for him, so that it was like it had been before.
7 Then the king said to the man of God, “Come to the palace with me and eat something, and I will give you a gift.”
8 But the man of God said to the king, “Even if you gave me half your wealth, I would not go with you, and I would not eat bread or drink water in this place. 9 For this is what I was commanded by the word of the Lord: Do not eat bread and do not drink water, and do not return by the way you came.” 10 So he left by a different road. He did not go back the same way he had come to Bethel.
Greeting
1 Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus,
To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi, together with the overseers and deacons:
2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Paul’s Prayer for the Philippians
3 I thank my God every time I remember you. 4 Every time I pray for all of you, I always pray with joy, 5 because of your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now. 6 I am convinced of this very thing: that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. 7 I am equally convinced that it is right for me to think this way about all of you, because I have you in my heart, for both in my chains and in my defense and confirmation of the gospel, you all share in this grace with me. 8 Yes, God is my witness of how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus.
9 And I pray that your love may still increase more and more in knowledge and every insight. 10 This will result in your approval of the things that really matter, so that you will be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, 11 filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.
40 There were also women watching from a distance. Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joses, and Salome. 41 When he was in Galilee, they followed him and served him. Many other women also came up with him to Jerusalem.
Jesus’ Burial
42 It was already evening, and since it was Preparation Day (that is, the day before the Sabbath), 43 Joseph from Arimathea, a prominent member of the Council, who was himself waiting for the kingdom of God, boldly went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. 44 Pilate was surprised that he was already dead. He summoned the centurion and asked him if Jesus had been dead for a long time. 45 When he learned from the centurion that it was so, he granted the body to Joseph. 46 Joseph bought a linen cloth, took him down, and wrapped him in the linen cloth. He laid him in a tomb that had been cut out of rock, and he rolled a stone against the entrance of the tomb. 47 Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses were watching where the body was laid.
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.