Book of Common Prayer
Assurance of God’s Help and a Plea for Healing
To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David.
41 Blessed is he who considers the poor![a]
The Lord delivers him in the day of trouble;
2 the Lord protects him and keeps him alive;
he is called blessed in the land;
thou dost not give him up to the will of his enemies.
3 The Lord sustains him on his sickbed;
in his illness thou healest all his infirmities.[b]
4 As for me, I said, “O Lord, be gracious to me;
heal me, for I have sinned against thee!”
5 My enemies say of me in malice:
“When will he die, and his name perish?”
6 And when one comes to see me, he utters empty words,
while his heart gathers mischief;
when he goes out, he tells it abroad.
7 All who hate me whisper together about me;
they imagine the worst for me.
8 They say, “A deadly thing has fastened upon him;
he will not rise again from where he lies.”
9 Even my bosom friend in whom I trusted,
who ate of my bread, has lifted his heel against me.
10 But do thou, O Lord, be gracious to me,
and raise me up, that I may requite them!
11 By this I know that thou art pleased with me,
in that my enemy has not triumphed over me.
12 But thou hast upheld me because of my integrity,
and set me in thy presence for ever.
13 Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel,
from everlasting to everlasting!
Amen and Amen.
Judgment on the Deceitful
To the choirmaster. A Maskil of David, when Doeg, the Edomite, came and told Saul, “David has come to the house of Ahimelech.”
52 Why do you boast, O mighty man,
of mischief done against the godly?[a]
All the day 2 you are plotting destruction.
Your tongue is like a sharp razor,
you worker of treachery.
3 You love evil more than good,
and lying more than speaking the truth.Selah
4 You love all words that devour,
O deceitful tongue.
5 But God will break you down for ever;
he will snatch and tear you from your tent;
he will uproot you from the land of the living.Selah
6 The righteous shall see, and fear,
and shall laugh at him, saying,
7 “See the man who would not make
God his refuge,
but trusted in the abundance of his riches,
and sought refuge in his wealth!”[b]
8 But I am like a green olive tree
in the house of God.
I trust in the steadfast love of God
for ever and ever.
9 I will thank thee for ever,
because thou hast done it.
I will proclaim[c] thy name, for it is good,
in the presence of the godly.
National Lament and Prayer for Help
To the choirmaster. A Maskil of the Sons of Korah.
44 We have heard with our ears, O God,
our fathers have told us,
what deeds thou didst perform in their days,
in the days of old:
2 thou with thy own hand didst drive out the nations,
but them thou didst plant;
thou didst afflict the peoples,
but them thou didst set free;
3 for not by their own sword did they win the land,
nor did their own arm give them victory;
but thy right hand, and thy arm,
and the light of thy countenance;
for thou didst delight in them.
4 Thou art my King and my God,
who ordainest[a] victories for Jacob.
5 Through thee we push down our foes;
through thy name we tread down our assailants.
6 For not in my bow do I trust,
nor can my sword save me.
7 But thou hast saved us from our foes,
and hast put to confusion those who hate us.
8 In God we have boasted continually,
and we will give thanks to thy name for ever.Selah
9 Yet thou hast cast us off and abased us,
and hast not gone out with our armies.
10 Thou hast made us turn back from the foe;
and our enemies have gotten spoil.
11 Thou hast made us like sheep for slaughter,
and hast scattered us among the nations.
12 Thou hast sold thy people for a trifle,
demanding no high price for them.
13 Thou hast made us the taunt of our neighbors,
the derision and scorn of those about us.
14 Thou hast made us a byword among the nations,
a laughingstock[b] among the peoples.
15 All day long my disgrace is before me,
and shame has covered my face,
16 at the words of the taunters and revilers,
at the sight of the enemy and the avenger.
17 All this has come upon us,
though we have not forgotten thee,
or been false to thy covenant.
18 Our heart has not turned back,
nor have our steps departed from thy way,
19 that thou shouldst have broken us in the place of jackals,
and covered us with deep darkness.
20 If we had forgotten the name of our God,
or spread forth our hands to a strange god,
21 would not God discover this?
For he knows the secrets of the heart.
22 Nay, for thy sake we are slain all the day long,
and accounted as sheep for the slaughter.
23 Rouse thyself! Why sleepest thou, O Lord?
Awake! Do not cast us off for ever!
24 Why dost thou hide thy face?
Why dost thou forget our affliction and oppression?
25 For our soul is bowed down to the dust;
our body cleaves to the ground.
26 Rise up, come to our help!
Deliver us for the sake of thy steadfast love!
Against Loose Talk
4 One who trusts others too quickly is lightminded,
and one who sins does wrong to himself.
5 One who rejoices in wickedness[a] will be condemned,[b]
6 and for one who hates gossip evil is lessened.
7 Never repeat a conversation,
and you will lose nothing at all.
8 With friend or foe do not report it,
and unless it would be a sin for you, do not disclose it;
9 for some one has heard you and watched you,
and when the time comes he will hate you.
10 Have you heard a word? Let it die with you.
Be brave! It will not make you burst!
11 With such a word a fool will suffer pangs
like a woman in labor with a child.
12 Like an arrow stuck in the flesh of the thigh,
so is a word inside a fool.
13 Question a friend, perhaps he did not do it;
but if he did anything, so that he may do it no more.
14 Question a neighbor, perhaps he did not say it;
but if he said it, so that he may not say it again.
15 Question a friend, for often it is slander;
so do not believe everything you hear.
16 A person may make a slip without intending it.
Who has never sinned with his tongue?
17 Question your neighbor before you threaten him;
and let the law of the Most High take its course.[c]
The Two Witnesses
11 [a]Then I was given a measuring rod like a staff, and I was told: “Rise and measure the temple of God and the altar and those who worship there, 2 but do not measure the court outside the temple; leave that out, for it is given over to the nations, and they will trample over the holy city for forty-two months.[b] 3 And I will grant my two witnesses[c] power to prophesy for one thousand two hundred and sixty days, clothed in sackcloth.”
4 These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands which stand before the Lord of the earth. 5 And if any one would harm them, fire pours from their mouth and consumes their foes; if any one would harm them, thus he is doomed to be killed. 6 They have power to shut the sky, that no rain may fall during the days of their prophesying, and they have power over the waters to turn them into blood, and to smite the earth with every plague, as often as they desire. 7 And when they have finished their testimony, the beast that ascends from the bottomless pit will make war upon them and conquer them and kill them, 8 and their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city[d] which is allegorically[e] called Sodom and Egypt, where their Lord was crucified. 9 For three days and a half men from the peoples and tribes and tongues and nations gaze at their dead bodies and refuse to let them be placed in a tomb, 10 and those who dwell on the earth will rejoice over them and make merry and exchange presents, because these two prophets had been a torment to those who dwell on the earth. 11 But after the three and a half days a breath of life from God entered them, and they stood up on their feet, and great fear fell on those who saw them. 12 Then they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, “Come up hither!” And in the sight of their foes they went up to heaven in a cloud. 13 And at that hour there was a great earthquake, and a tenth of the city fell; seven thousand people were killed in the earthquake, and the rest were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven.
14 The second woe has passed; behold, the third woe is soon to come.
Jesus and Beelzebul
14 Now he was casting out a demon that was dumb; when the demon had gone out, the dumb man spoke, and the people marveled. 15 But some of them said, “He casts out demons by Be-el′zebul, the prince of demons”; 16 while others, to test him, sought from him a sign from heaven. 17 But he, knowing their thoughts, said to them, “Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and house falls upon house. 18 And if Satan also is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand? For you say that I cast out demons by Be-el′zebul. 19 And if I cast out demons by Be-el′zebul, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore they shall be your judges. 20 But if it is by the finger of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. 21 When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own palace, his goods are in peace; 22 but when one stronger than he assails him and overcomes him, he takes away his armor in which he trusted, and divides his spoil. 23 He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters.
The Return of the Unclean Spirit
24 “When the unclean spirit has gone out of a man, he passes through waterless places seeking rest; and finding none he says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ 25 And when he comes he finds it swept and put in order. 26 Then he goes and brings seven other spirits more evil than himself, and they enter and dwell there; and the last state of that man becomes worse than the first.”
The Revised Standard Version of the Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1965, 1966 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.