Book of Common Prayer
Thanksgiving for God’s Provision in Time of Sickness
For the music director. A psalm of David.[a]
41 Blessed is the one who has regard for the poor;
in the day of disaster, Yahweh delivers him.
2 Yahweh protects him and keeps him alive;
he is blessed in the land,
and you do not give him
into the will[b] of his enemies.
3 Yahweh sustains him on his sick bed.
In his illness, you restore to health.[c]
4 As for me, I said, “O Yahweh, be gracious to me.
Heal me,[d] for I have sinned against you.”
5 My enemies speak evil about me,
“When will he die and his name perish?”
6 And when one comes to see me, he speaks falsely;
his heart gathers disaster for itself.
He goes out to the street; he speaks.
7 All who hate me speak together against me.
Against me they assume the worst[e] for me:
8 “A ruinous thing is poured out on him,
and now that he lies down, he will not rise up again.”
9 Even my close friend,[f] whom I trusted,
who ate my bread,
has lifted his heel against me.
10 But you, O Yahweh, be gracious to me and raise me up
that I may repay them.
11 By this I know that you delight in me:
because my enemy has not shouted in triumph over me.
12 As for me, you have upheld me in my integrity,
and you have set me in your presence forever.
13 Blessed be Yahweh, the God of Israel,
from everlasting to everlasting.
Amen and Amen.
God’s Judgment on the Wicked and Love for the Faithful
For the music director. A maskil of David.
When Doeg the Edomite came and informed Saul.
And he said to him, “David has come to the house of Ahimelech.”[a]
52 Why do you boast about evil, O mighty man?
The loyal love of God endures continually.[b]
2 Your tongue plans destruction,
like a sharp razor, working deceit.
3 You love evil more than good,
a lie more than speaking what is right.[c] Selah
4 You love all devouring words,
O deceitful tongue,
5 but God will pull you down forever.
He will snatch you and tear you away from your tent,
and he will uproot you from the land of the living. Selah
6 And the righteous will see and fear,
and will laugh at him, saying,
7 “Look, the man who would not make God his refuge,
but he trusted in the greatness of his wealth;
he took refuge in his destructiveness.”
8 But I am like an olive tree flourishing
in the house[d] of God.
I trust the loyal love of God forever and ever.
9 I will give thanks to you forever, because of what you have done,
and I will wait on your name, because it is good,
in the presence of your faithful ones.
Present Defeat and Past Deliverance
For the music director. Of the sons of Korah. A maskil.[a]
44 O God, we have heard with our ears;
our ancestors[b] have told us
of work you worked in their days,
in days of old.
2 You with your hand drove out the nations,
but them[c] you planted.
You harmed the peoples,
but them[d] you let spread out.
3 For not with their sword
did they possess the land,
and their arm did not give them victory.
Rather it was your right hand and your arm
and the light of your presence,
because you delighted in them.
4 You are my king, O God.
Command[e] victories for Jacob.
5 By you we push down our enemies;
by your name we tread down those who rise up against us.
6 For I do not trust my bow,
and my sword cannot give me victory.
7 Rather you have saved us from our enemies,[f]
and have humiliated those who hate us.
8 In God we boast all the day,
and we will give thanks to your name forever. Selah
9 Surely you have rejected and disgraced us,
and have not gone out with our armies.
10 You have caused us to pull back from the enemy,
and so those who hate us have plundered for themselves.
11 You have given us as sheep for food,
and among the nations you have scattered us.
12 You have sold your people cheaply,[g]
and did not profit by their price.
13 You have made us a taunt to our neighbors,
a derision and a scorn to those around us.
14 You have made us a byword among the nations,
a shaking of the head among the peoples.
15 All day long[h] my disgrace is before me,
and the shame of my face covers me,
16 because of the voice of the taunter and the reviler,
because of the enemy and the avenger.
17 All this has befallen us, though we have not forgotten you,
and we have not been false to your covenant.
18 Our heart has not turned back,
and our steps have not turned aside from your way.
19 But you have crushed us in a place of jackals,
and have covered us with deep shadow.
20 If we had forgotten the name of our God,
or had spread out our hands in prayer to a foreign god,
21 would not God discover this,
for he knows the secrets of the heart?
22 Rather, on account of you we are killed all day long;[i]
we are accounted as sheep for slaughter.
23 Wake up! Why do you sleep, O Lord?
Awake! Do not reject forever.
24 Why do you hide your face?
Have you forgotten our misery and our oppression?
25 For our soul is bowed down to the dust.
Our body[j] clings to the ground.
26 Rise up! Be a help for us,
and redeem us for the sake of your loyal love.
Zechariah’s First Vision
7 On the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh month, the month of Shebat, in the second year of Darius, the word of Yahweh came to Zechariah the prophet, son of Berekiah, son of Iddo, saying, 8 I had a vision in the night,[a] and look, a man riding on a red horse. And he was standing between the myrtle shrubs that were in the ravine, and behind him were red, reddish-brown, and white horses. 9 And I asked, “What are these, my lord?” And the angel who was talking with me said, “I will show you what these are.” 10 And the man standing between the myrtle shrubs answered and said, “These are those whom Yahweh has sent to patrol[b] the earth.” 11 And they answered the angel of Yahweh who was standing between the myrtle shrubs, and they said, “We have patrolled[c] the earth, and look, all the earth is dwelling in peace.”[d] 12 The angel of Yahweh answered and said, “O Yahweh of hosts, how long[e] will you have no compassion on Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, with which you showed fury these seventy years?”[f] 13 With gracious[g] and comforting words Yahweh answered the angel who was talking with me. 14 And the angel who was talking with me said to me, “Proclaim, saying, ‘Thus says Yahweh of hosts: “I am very jealous[h] for Jerusalem and for Zion! 15 And I am extremely angry[i] with the nations that are at ease, for while I was a little angry, they furthered disaster.”[j] 16 Therefore, thus says Yahweh: “I have returned to Jerusalem with compassion. My temple[k] will be built in it,” declares[l] Yahweh of hosts, “and a measuring line will be stretched out over Jerusalem.”’ 17 Proclaim again, saying, ‘Thus says Yahweh of hosts: “My cities shall again overflow from prosperity, and Yahweh will comfort Zion again, and he will choose Jerusalem again.”’”
Greetings to the Churches
4 John, to the seven churches in Asia:[a] grace to you and peace from the one who is and the one who was and the one who is coming, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne, 5 and from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead and the ruler of the kings of the earth.
To the one who loves us and released us from our sins by his blood 6 and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father—to him be the glory and the power forever and ever[b]. Amen.
7 Behold, he is coming with the clouds,
and every eye will see him,
even every one who pierced him,
and all the tribes of the earth will mourn over him.
Yes, amen.
8 I am the Alpha and the Omega, says the Lord God, the one who is and the one who was and the one who is coming, the All-Powerful.
John’s Vision of the Son of Man
9 I, John, your brother and co-sharer in the affliction and kingdom and steadfastness in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony about Jesus. 10 I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and I heard behind me a great sound like a trumpet 11 saying, “What you see, write in a book and send it to the seven churches: to Ephesus and to Smyrna and to Pergamum and to Thyatira and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea.”
12 And I turned to see the voice which was speaking with me, and when I[c] turned, I saw seven gold lampstands, 13 and in the midst of the lampstands one like a son of man, dressed in a robe reaching to the feet and girded around his[d] chest with a golden belt, 14 and his head and hair were white like wool, white as snow, and his eyes were like a fiery flame, 15 and his feet were like fine bronze when it has been fired in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of many waters, 16 and he had in his right hand seven stars, and a sharp double-edged sword coming out of his mouth, and his face was like the sun shining in its strength.
17 And when I saw him, I fell at his feet like a dead person, and he placed his right hand on me, saying, “Do not be afraid! I am the first and the last, 18 and the one who lives, and I was dead, and behold, I am living forever and ever[e], and I hold the keys of death and of Hades. 19 Therefore, write the things which you saw, and the things which are, and the things which are about to take place after these things. 20 As for the mystery of the seven stars which you saw in my right hand and the seven gold lampstands—the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.
An Unclean Spirit Returns
43 “Now whenever an unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it travels through waterless places searching for rest, and does not find it.[a] 44 Then it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came out.’ And when it[b] arrives it finds the house[c] unoccupied and swept and put in order. 45 Then it goes and brings along with itself seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they go in and[d] live there. And the last state of that person becomes worse than the first. So it will be for this evil generation also!”
Jesus’ Mother and Brothers
46 And[e] while[f] he was still speaking to the crowds, behold, his mother and brothers were standing there outside, desiring to speak to him. 47 And someone told him, “Behold, your mother and your brothers are standing there outside desiring to speak to you.” 48 But he answered and[g] said to the one who told him, “Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?” 49 And stretching out his hand toward his disciples, he said, “Behold my mother and my brothers! 50 For whoever does the will of my Father who is in heaven, he is my brother and sister and mother.”
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