Book of Common Prayer
119 Happy are all who perfectly follow the laws of God. 2 Happy are all who search for God and always do his will, 3 rejecting compromise with evil and walking only in his paths. 4 You have given us your laws to obey— 5 oh, how I want to follow them consistently. 6 Then I will not be disgraced, for I will have a clean record.
7 After you have corrected me,[a] I will thank you by living as I should! 8 I will obey! Oh, don’t forsake me and let me slip back into sin again.[b]
9 How can a young man stay pure? By reading your Word and following its rules. 10 I have tried my best to find you—don’t let me wander off from your instructions. 11 I have thought much about your words and stored them in my heart so that they would hold me back from sin.
12 Blessed Lord, teach me your rules. 13 I have recited your laws 14 and rejoiced in them more than in riches. 15 I will meditate upon them and give them my full respect. 16 I will delight in them and not forget them.
17 Bless me with life[c] so that I can continue to obey you. 18 Open my eyes to see wonderful things in your Word. 19 I am but a pilgrim here on earth: how I need a map—and your commands are my chart and guide. 20 I long for your instructions more than I can tell.
21 You rebuke those cursed proud ones who refuse your commands— 22 don’t let them scorn me for obeying you. 23 For even princes sit and talk against me, but I will continue in your plans. 24 Your laws are both my light and my counselors.
12 Lord! Help! Godly men are fast disappearing. Where in all the world can dependable men be found? 2 Everyone deceives and flatters and lies. There is no sincerity left.
3-4 But the Lord will not deal gently with people who act like that; he will destroy those proud liars who say, “We will lie to our heart’s content. Our lips are our own; who can stop us?”
5 The Lord replies, “I will arise and defend the oppressed, the poor, the needy. I will rescue them as they have longed for me to do.” 6 The Lord’s promise is sure. He speaks no careless word; all he says is purest truth, like silver seven times refined. 7 O Lord, we know that you will forever preserve your own from the reach of evil men, 8 although they prowl on every side and vileness is praised throughout the land.
13 How long will you forget me, Lord? Forever? How long will you look the other way when I am in need? 2 How long must I be hiding daily anguish in my heart? How long shall my enemy have the upper hand?
3 Answer me, O Lord my God; give me light in my darkness lest I die. 4 Don’t let my enemies say, “We have conquered him!” Don’t let them gloat that I am down.
5 But I will always trust in you and in your mercy and shall rejoice in your salvation. 6 I will sing to the Lord because he has blessed me so richly.
14 That man is a fool who says to himself, “There is no God!” Anyone who talks like that is warped and evil and cannot really be a good person at all.
2 The Lord looks down from heaven on all mankind to see if there are any who are wise, who want to please God. 3 But no, all have strayed away; all are rotten with sin. Not one is good, not one! 4 They eat my people like bread and wouldn’t think of praying! Don’t they really know any better?
5 Terror shall grip them, for God is with those who love him. 6 He is the refuge of the poor and humble when evildoers are oppressing them. 7 Oh, that the time of their rescue were already here, that God would come from Zion now to save his people. What gladness when the Lord has rescued Israel!
41 Listen in silence before me, O lands beyond the sea. Bring your strongest arguments. Come now and speak. The court is ready for your case.
2 Who has stirred up this one from the east,[a] whom victory meets at every step? Who, indeed, but the Lord? God has given him victory over many nations and permitted him to trample kings underfoot and to put entire armies to the sword. 3 He chases them away and goes on safely, though the paths he treads are new. 4 Who has done such mighty deeds, directing the affairs of generations of mankind as they march by? It is I, the Lord, the First and Last; I alone am he.
5 The lands beyond the sea watch in fear and wait for word of Cyrus’s[b] new campaigns. Remote lands tremble and mobilize for war. 6-7 The craftsmen encourage each other as they rush to make new idols to protect them. The carver hurries the goldsmith, and the molder helps at the anvil. “Good,” they say. “It’s coming along fine. Now we can solder on the arms.” Carefully they join the parts together and then fasten the thing in place so it won’t fall over!
8 But as for you, O Israel, you are mine, my chosen ones; for you are Abraham’s family, and he was my friend. 9 I have called you back from the ends of the earth and said that you must serve but me alone, for I have chosen you and will not throw you away. 10 Fear not, for I am with you. Do not be dismayed. I am your God. I will strengthen you; I will help you; I will uphold you with my victorious right hand.[c]
11 See, all your angry enemies lie confused and shattered. Anyone opposing you will die. 12 You will look for them in vain—they will all be gone. 13 I am holding you by your right hand—I, the Lord your God—and I say to you, Don’t be afraid; I am here to help you. 14 Despised though you are, fear not, O Israel; for I will help you. I am the Lord, your Redeemer; I am the Holy One of Israel. 15 You shall be a new and sharp-toothed threshing instrument to tear all enemies apart, making chaff of mountains. 16 You shall toss them in the air; the wind shall blow them all away; whirlwinds shall scatter them. And the joy of the Lord shall fill you full; you shall glory in the God of Israel.
2 Once you were under God’s curse, doomed forever for your sins. 2 You went along with the crowd and were just like all the others, full of sin, obeying Satan, the mighty prince of the power of the air, who is at work right now in the hearts of those who are against the Lord. 3 All of us used to be just as they are, our lives expressing the evil within us, doing every wicked thing that our passions or our evil thoughts might lead us into. We started out bad, being born with evil natures, and were under God’s anger just like everyone else.
4 But God is so rich in mercy; he loved us so much 5 that even though we were spiritually dead and doomed by our sins, he gave us back our lives again[a] when he raised Christ from the dead—only by his undeserved favor have we ever been saved— 6 and lifted us up from the grave into glory along with Christ, where we sit with him in the heavenly realms—all because of what Christ Jesus did. 7 And now God can always point to us as examples of how very, very rich his kindness is, as shown in all he has done for us through Jesus Christ.
8 Because of his kindness, you have been saved through trusting Christ. And even trusting is not of yourselves;[b] it too is a gift from God. 9 Salvation is not a reward for the good we have done, so none of us can take any credit for it. 10 It is God himself who has made us what we are and given us new lives from Christ Jesus; and long ages ago he planned that we should spend these lives in helping others.
29-30 Then, leaving the synagogue, he and his disciples went over to Simon and Andrew’s home, where they found Simon’s mother-in-law sick in bed with a high fever. They told Jesus about her right away. 31 He went to her bedside, and as he took her by the hand and helped her to sit up, the fever suddenly left, and she got up and prepared dinner for them!
32-33 By sunset the courtyard was filled with the sick and demon-possessed, brought to him for healing; and a huge crowd of people from all over the city of Capernaum gathered outside the door to watch. 34 So Jesus healed great numbers of sick folk that evening and ordered many demons to come out of their victims. (But he refused to allow the demons to speak, because they knew who he was.)
35 The next morning he was up long before daybreak and went out alone into the wilderness to pray.
36-37 Later, Simon and the others went out to find him, and told him, “Everyone is asking for you.”
38 But he replied, “We must go on to other towns as well, and give my message to them too, for that is why I came.”
39 So he traveled throughout the province of Galilee, preaching in the synagogues and releasing many from the power of demons.
40 Once a leper came and knelt in front of him and begged to be healed. “If you want to, you can make me well again,” he pled.
41 And Jesus, moved with pity, touched him and said, “I want to! Be healed!” 42 Immediately the leprosy was gone—the man was healed!
43-44 Jesus then told him sternly, “Go and be examined immediately by the Jewish priest. Don’t stop to speak to anyone along the way. Take along the offering prescribed by Moses for a leper who is healed, so that everyone will have proof that you are well again.”
45 But as the man went on his way he began to shout the good news that he was healed; as a result, such throngs soon surrounded Jesus that he couldn’t publicly enter a city anywhere, but had to stay out in the barren wastelands. And people from everywhere came to him there.
The Living Bible copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.