Book of Common Prayer
A Psalm by Asaph.
50 The Mighty One, God, Yahweh, speaks,
and calls the earth from sunrise to sunset.
2 Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty,
God shines out.
3 Our God comes, and does not keep silent.
A fire devours before him.
It is very stormy around him.
4 He calls to the heavens above,
to the earth, that he may judge his people:
5 “Gather my saints together to me,
those who have made a covenant with me by sacrifice.”
6 The heavens shall declare his righteousness,
for God himself is judge. Selah.
7 “Hear, my people, and I will speak.
Israel, I will testify against you.
I am God, your God.
8 I don’t rebuke you for your sacrifices.
Your burnt offerings are continually before me.
9 I have no need for a bull from your stall,
nor male goats from your pens.
10 For every animal of the forest is mine,
and the livestock on a thousand hills.
11 I know all the birds of the mountains.
The wild animals of the field are mine.
12 If I were hungry, I would not tell you,
for the world is mine, and all that is in it.
13 Will I eat the meat of bulls,
or drink the blood of goats?
14 Offer to God the sacrifice of thanksgiving.
Pay your vows to the Most High.
15 Call on me in the day of trouble.
I will deliver you, and you will honor me.”
16 But to the wicked God says,
“What right do you have to declare my statutes,
that you have taken my covenant on your lips,
17 since you hate instruction,
and throw my words behind you?
18 When you saw a thief, you consented with him,
and have participated with adulterers.
19 “You give your mouth to evil.
Your tongue frames deceit.
20 You sit and speak against your brother.
You slander your own mother’s son.
21 You have done these things, and I kept silent.
You thought that I was just like you.
I will rebuke you, and accuse you in front of your eyes.
22 “Now consider this, you who forget God,
lest I tear you into pieces, and there be no one to deliver.
23 Whoever offers the sacrifice of thanksgiving glorifies me,
and prepares his way so that I will show God’s salvation to him.”
For the Chief Musician. To the tune of “Do Not Destroy.” A poem by David, when Saul sent, and they watched the house to kill him.
59 Deliver me from my enemies, my God.
Set me on high from those who rise up against me.
2 Deliver me from the workers of iniquity.
Save me from the bloodthirsty men.
3 For, behold, they lie in wait for my soul.
The mighty gather themselves together against me,
not for my disobedience, nor for my sin, Yahweh.
4 I have done no wrong, yet they are ready to attack me.
Rise up, behold, and help me!
5 You, Yahweh God of Armies, the God of Israel,
rouse yourself to punish the nations.
Show no mercy to the wicked traitors. Selah.
6 They return at evening, howling like dogs,
and prowl around the city.
7 Behold, they spew with their mouth.
Swords are in their lips,
“For”, they say, “who hears us?”
8 But you, Yahweh, laugh at them.
You scoff at all the nations.
9 Oh, my Strength, I watch for you,
for God is my high tower.
10 My God will go before me with his loving kindness.
God will let me look at my enemies in triumph.
11 Don’t kill them, or my people may forget.
Scatter them by your power, and bring them down, Lord our shield.
12 For the sin of their mouth, and the words of their lips,
let them be caught in their pride,
for the curses and lies which they utter.
13 Consume them in wrath.
Consume them, and they will be no more.
Let them know that God rules in Jacob,
to the ends of the earth. Selah.
14 At evening let them return.
Let them howl like a dog, and go around the city.
15 They shall wander up and down for food,
and wait all night if they aren’t satisfied.
16 But I will sing of your strength.
Yes, I will sing aloud of your loving kindness in the morning.
For you have been my high tower,
a refuge in the day of my distress.
17 To you, my strength, I will sing praises.
For God is my high tower, the God of my mercy.
For the Chief Musician. To the tune of “The Lily of the Covenant.” A teaching poem by David, when he fought with Aram Naharaim and with Aram Zobah, and Joab returned, and killed twelve thousand of Edom in the Valley of Salt.
60 God, you have rejected us.
You have broken us down.
You have been angry.
Restore us, again.
2 You have made the land tremble.
You have torn it.
Mend its fractures,
for it quakes.
3 You have shown your people hard things.
You have made us drink the wine that makes us stagger.
4 You have given a banner to those who fear you,
that it may be displayed because of the truth. Selah.
5 So that your beloved may be delivered,
save with your right hand, and answer us.
6 God has spoken from his sanctuary:
“I will triumph.
I will divide Shechem,
and measure out the valley of Succoth.
7 Gilead is mine, and Manasseh is mine.
Ephraim also is the defense of my head.
Judah is my scepter.
8 Moab is my wash basin.
I will throw my sandal on Edom.
I shout in triumph over Philistia.”
9 Who will bring me into the strong city?
Who has led me to Edom?
10 Haven’t you, God, rejected us?
You don’t go out with our armies, God.
11 Give us help against the adversary,
for the help of man is vain.
12 Through God we will do valiantly,
for it is he who will tread down our adversaries.
118 Give thanks to Yahweh, for he is good,
for his loving kindness endures forever.
2 Let Israel now say
that his loving kindness endures forever.
3 Let the house of Aaron now say
that his loving kindness endures forever.
4 Now let those who fear Yahweh say
that his loving kindness endures forever.
5 Out of my distress, I called on Yah.
Yah answered me with freedom.
6 Yahweh is on my side. I will not be afraid.
What can man do to me?
7 Yahweh is on my side among those who help me.
Therefore I will look in triumph at those who hate me.
8 It is better to take refuge in Yahweh,
than to put confidence in man.
9 It is better to take refuge in Yahweh,
than to put confidence in princes.
10 All the nations surrounded me,
but in Yahweh’s name I cut them off.
11 They surrounded me, yes, they surrounded me.
In Yahweh’s name I indeed cut them off.
12 They surrounded me like bees.
They are quenched like the burning thorns.
In Yahweh’s name I cut them off.
13 You pushed me back hard, to make me fall,
but Yahweh helped me.
14 Yah is my strength and song.
He has become my salvation.
15 The voice of rejoicing and salvation is in the tents of the righteous.
“The right hand of Yahweh does valiantly.
16 The right hand of Yahweh is exalted!
The right hand of Yahweh does valiantly!”
17 I will not die, but live,
and declare Yah’s works.
18 Yah has punished me severely,
but he has not given me over to death.
19 Open to me the gates of righteousness.
I will enter into them.
I will give thanks to Yah.
20 This is the gate of Yahweh;
the righteous will enter into it.
21 I will give thanks to you, for you have answered me,
and have become my salvation.
22 The stone which the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone.[a]
23 This is Yahweh’s doing.
It is marvelous in our eyes.
24 This is the day that Yahweh has made.
We will rejoice and be glad in it!
25 Save us now, we beg you, Yahweh!
Yahweh, we beg you, send prosperity now.
26 Blessed is he who comes in Yahweh’s name!
We have blessed you out of Yahweh’s house.
27 Yahweh is God, and he has given us light.
Bind the sacrifice with cords, even to the horns of the altar.
28 You are my God, and I will give thanks to you.
You are my God, I will exalt you.
29 Oh give thanks to Yahweh, for he is good,
for his loving kindness endures forever.
15 Hagar bore a son for Abram. Abram called the name of his son, whom Hagar bore, Ishmael. 16 Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore Ishmael to Abram.
17 When Abram was ninety-nine years old, Yahweh appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am God Almighty. Walk before me and be blameless. 2 I will make my covenant between me and you, and will multiply you exceedingly.”
3 Abram fell on his face. God talked with him, saying, 4 “As for me, behold, my covenant is with you. You will be the father of a multitude of nations. 5 Your name will no more be called Abram, but your name will be Abraham; for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations. 6 I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make nations of you. Kings will come out of you. 7 I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God to you and to your offspring after you. 8 I will give to you, and to your offspring after you, the land where you are traveling, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession. I will be their God.”
9 God said to Abraham, “As for you, you shall keep my covenant, you and your offspring after you throughout their generations. 10 This is my covenant, which you shall keep, between me and you and your offspring after you. Every male among you shall be circumcised. 11 You shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskin. It will be a token of the covenant between me and you. 12 He who is eight days old shall be circumcised among you, every male throughout your generations, he who is born in the house, or bought with money from any foreigner who is not of your offspring. 13 He who is born in your house, and he who is bought with your money, must be circumcised. My covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant. 14 The uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin, that soul shall be cut off from his people. He has broken my covenant.”
10 For the law, having a shadow of the good to come, not the very image of the things, can never with the same sacrifices year by year, which they offer continually, make perfect those who draw near. 2 Or else wouldn’t they have ceased to be offered, because the worshipers, having been once cleansed, would have had no more consciousness of sins? 3 But in those sacrifices there is a yearly reminder of sins. 4 For it is impossible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins. 5 Therefore when he comes into the world, he says,
“You didn’t desire sacrifice and offering,
but you prepared a body for me.
6 You had no pleasure in whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin.
7 Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come (in the scroll of the book it is written of me)
to do your will, O God.’”(A)
8 Previously saying, “Sacrifices and offerings and whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin you didn’t desire, neither had pleasure in them” (those which are offered according to the law), 9 then he has said, “Behold, I have come to do your will.” He takes away the first, that he may establish the second, 10 by which will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
30 I can of myself do nothing. As I hear, I judge; and my judgment is righteous, because I don’t seek my own will, but the will of my Father who sent me.
31 “If I testify about myself, my witness is not valid. 32 It is another who testifies about me. I know that the testimony which he testifies about me is true. 33 You have sent to John, and he has testified to the truth. 34 But the testimony which I receive is not from man. However, I say these things that you may be saved. 35 He was the burning and shining lamp, and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light. 36 But the testimony which I have is greater than that of John; for the works which the Father gave me to accomplish, the very works that I do, testify about me, that the Father has sent me. 37 The Father himself, who sent me, has testified about me. You have neither heard his voice at any time, nor seen his form. 38 You don’t have his word living in you, because you don’t believe him whom he sent.
39 “You search the Scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life; and these are they which testify about me. 40 Yet you will not come to me, that you may have life. 41 I don’t receive glory from men. 42 But I know you, that you don’t have God’s love in yourselves. 43 I have come in my Father’s name, and you don’t receive me. If another comes in his own name, you will receive him. 44 How can you believe, who receive glory from one another, and you don’t seek the glory that comes from the only God?
45 “Don’t think that I will accuse you to the Father. There is one who accuses you, even Moses, on whom you have set your hope. 46 For if you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote about me. 47 But if you don’t believe his writings, how will you believe my words?”
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