Book of Common Prayer
To the Director: By the servant of the Lord, David, who spoke the words of this song to the Lord on the day when the Lord delivered him from the hands of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul.
Gratitude for Victory
18 He said:
“I love you, Lord, my strength.
2 The Lord is my rock, my fortress, my deliverer, my God,
my stronghold[a] in whom I take refuge, my shield, the glory[b]
of my salvation, and my high tower.”
3 I cried out to the Lord, who is worthy to be praised,
and I was delivered from my enemies.
4 The cords of death entangled me;
the rivers of Belial[c] made me afraid.
5 The cords of Sheol[d] surrounded me;
the snares of death confronted me.
6 In my distress I cried to the Lord;
to my God I cried for help.
From his Temple he heard my voice;
my cry reached his ears.
7 The world shook and trembled;
the foundations of the mountains quaked,
they shook because he was angry.
8 In his anger smoke poured out of his nostrils,
and consuming fire from his mouth;
coals were lit from it.
9 He bent the sky and descended,
and darkness was under his feet.
10 He rode upon a cherub and flew;
he soared upon the wings of the wind.
11 He made darkness his hiding place,
his canopy surrounding him was dark waters and thick clouds.
12 The brightness before him scattered the thick clouds,
with hail stones and flashes of fire.
13 Then the Lord thundered in[e] the heavens,
and the Most High sounded aloud,
calling for hail stones and flashes of fire.[f]
14 He shot his arrows and scattered them;
with many lightning bolts he frightened them.
15 Then the channels of the sea could be seen,
and the foundations of the earth were uncovered
because of your rebuke, Lord,
because of the blast from the breath of your nostrils.
16 He reached down and took me;
he drew me from many waters.
17 He delivered me from my strong enemies,
from those who hated me because
they were stronger than I.
18 They confronted me in the day of my calamity,
but the Lord was my support.
19 He brought me out to a spacious place;
he delivered me, for in me he takes delight.
God’s Reward to the Righteous
20 The Lord will reward me because I am righteous;
because my hands are clean he will restore me;
21 because I have kept the ways of the Lord,
and I have not wickedly departed from my God;
22 because all his judgments were always before me,
and I did not cast off his statutes.
23 I was upright[g] before him,
and I kept myself from iniquity.
24 So the Lord restored me according to my righteousness,
because my hands were clean in his sight.
25 To the holy, you show your gracious love,
to the upright, you show yourself upright;
26 to the pure, you show yourself pure,
and to the morally corrupt, you appear to be perverse.
27 Indeed, you deliver the oppressed,[h]
but you bring down those who exalt themselves
in their own eyes.
28 For you, Lord, make my lamp shine;
my God enlightens my darkness.
29 With your help[i] I will run through an army,
with help from[j] my God I leap over walls.
30 As for God, his way is upright;[k]
the word of God is pure;
he is a shield to all those who take refuge in him.
The Acts of God for the Righteous
31 For who is God but the Lord,
and who is a Rock other than our God?—
32 the God who clothes me with strength,
and who makes my way upright;[l]
33 who makes my feet swift as the deer;
who makes me stand on high places;
34 who teaches my hands to make war,
and my arms to bend a bronze bow.
35 You have given to me the shield of your deliverance,
and your right hand holds me up;
your gentleness made me great.
36 You make a broad place for my steps,
so my feet[m] won’t slip.
37 I pursued my enemies and overtook them;
I did not turn around until they were utterly defeated.
38 I struck them down,
so they are not able to rise up;
they fell under my feet.
39 You clothed me with strength for war;
you will subdue under me those who rise up against me.
40 You have made my enemies turn their back to me,
and I will destroy those who hate me.
41 They cried out for deliverance,
but there was no one to deliver;
they cried out[n] to the Lord,
but he did not answer them.
42 I ground them like wind-swept dust;
I emptied them out[o] like dirt in the street.
43 You rescued me from conflict with the people;
you made me head of the nations.
People who did not know me will serve me.
44 When they hear of me,[p] they will obey me;
foreigners will submit to me.
45 Foreigners will wilt away;
they will come trembling out of their stronghold.
46 The Lord lives!
Blessed be my Rock!
May the God of my deliverance be exalted!
47 He is the God who executes vengeance on my behalf;
who destroys peoples under me;
48 who delivers me from my enemies.
Truly you will exalt me above those who oppose me;
you will deliver me from the violent person.
49 Therefore, I will give thanks to you among the nations, Lord;
I will sing praises to your name.
50 He is the one who gives victories to his king;
who shows gracious love to his anointed,
to David and his seed forever.
17 “As for the poor, the needy, those seeking[a] water—
when there is none
and their tongues are parched from thirst—
I, the Lord, will answer them.
I, the God of Israel, won’t abandon them.
18 I’ll open up rivers on the barren heights,
and fountains in the midst of the valleys.
I’ll turn the[b] desert into a pool of water,
and the parched land into springs of water.
19 I’ll put cedar trees in the wilderness,
along with acacia, myrtle, and olive trees.
I’ll plant cypresses in the desert—
box[c] trees, and pine trees together—
20 all so that people may see and recognize,
perceive,[d] consider, and comprehend at the same time,
that the hand of the Lord has done this,
and that the Holy One of Israel has created it.”
Can God’s Enemies Predict the Future?
21 “Put forward your case!” says the Lord.
“Submit your arguments!” says Jacob’s King.
22 Let them approach and ask us,
‘What will happen?
As to the former things, what were they?
Tell us, so that we may consider them and know.
Or[e] the latter things or the things to come—
let us hear.
23 Tell us what the future holds,
so we may know that you are gods!
Yes, do something good or something bad,
so we may hear[f] and gaze at it together.’”
24 “Look! You and your work are less than nothing;[g]
whoever finds you pleasing is disgusting.”
25 “You are stirring up[h] one from the north,
and they are coming[i] from the rising of the sun;
and[j] he will be called by his[k] name.
Rulers will arrive like mud;[l]
just[m] like a potter, he will trample the clay.
26 Who told of this from the beginning,
so we could know,
or beforehand, so we could ask,
‘Is it right?’[n]
Indeed, no one told of this,
no one made an announcement,
and no one heard your words:
27 First, to Zion: “There is slumber.”[o]
And to Jerusalem: “I’ll send a messenger with good news.”
28 But when I look, there is no one—
among them there’s no one to give counsel,
no one to give an answer when I ask them.
29 See, none of them exist, and their deeds are nothing.[p]
Their metal images are only wind and confusion.’”
All Believers are One in the Messiah
11 So then, remember that at one time you gentiles by birth[a] were called “the uncircumcised” by those who called themselves “the circumcised.” They underwent physical circumcision done by human hands. 12 At that time you were without the Messiah,[b] excluded from citizenship in Israel,[c] and strangers to the covenants of promise. You had no hope and were in the world without God. 13 But now, in union with the Messiah[d] Jesus, you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of the Messiah.[e]
14 For it is he who is our peace. Through his mortality[f] he made both groups one by tearing down the wall of hostility that divided them.[g] 15 He rendered the Law inoperative, along with its commandments and regulations, thus creating in himself one new humanity from the two, thereby making peace, 16 and reconciling both groups to God in one body through the cross, on which he eliminated the hostility. 17 He came and proclaimed peace for you who were far away and for you who were near. 18 For through him, both of us[h] have access to the Father by one Spirit. 19 That is why you are no longer strangers and foreigners but fellow citizens with the saints and members of God’s household, 20 having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, the Messiah[i] Jesus himself being the cornerstone.[j] 21 In union with him the whole building is joined together and rises into a holy sanctuary for the Lord. 22 You, too, are being built in him, along with the others, into a place for God’s Spirit to dwell.
Jesus Heals a Paralyzed Man(A)
2 Several days later, Jesus[a] returned to Capernaum and it was reported that he was at home. 2 Such a large crowd gathered that there wasn’t room for them, even in front of the door. Jesus[b] was speaking his message to them 3 when some people[c] came and brought him a paralyzed man being carried by four men. 4 Since they couldn’t bring him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof over the place where he was. They dug through it and let down the mat on which the paralyzed man was lying.
5 When Jesus saw their faith, he told the paralyzed man, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”
6 Now some scribes were sitting there, arguing among themselves,[d] 7 “Why does this man talk this way? He is blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?”
8 At once, Jesus knew in his spirit what they were saying to themselves. “Why are you arguing about such things among yourselves?”[e] he asked them. 9 “Which is easier: to say to the paralyzed man, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or ‘Get up, pick up your mat, and walk’? 10 But I want you to know[f] that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins…” Then he told the paralyzed man, 11 “I say to you, get up, pick up your mat, and go home!” 12 So the man[g] got up, immediately picked up his mat, and went out in front of all of them.
As a result, all of the people were amazed and began to glorify God as they kept on saying, “We have never seen anything like this!”
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