Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 50
A song of Asaph.
1 The Mighty God, the Eternal—God of past, present, and future—
has spoken over the world,
calling together all things from sunrise to sunset.
2 From Zion, that perfectly beautiful holy place,
shines the radiance of God.
3 Our God will come, and He will not enter on a whisper.
A fire will devour the earth before Him;
the wind will storm wildly about Him.
4 He calls heaven above and earth below
to assist in bringing judgment on His people.
5 “Gather up those who are aligned with Me; bring them to Me;
bring everyone who belongs to Me who have made covenant sacrifice.”
6 And the heavens shout of His justice,
for He is the True God, an honest judge.
[pause][a]
7 “Listen, My people, I have something to say:
O Israel, My testimony comes against you;
I am God, your God.
8 I am not going to scold you because of your sacrifices;
your burnt offerings are always before Me.
9 I will not accept the best bull from your fields
or goats from your meadow,
10 For they are already Mine, just as the forest beast
and the cattle grazing over a thousand hills are Mine.
11 Every bird flying over the mountains I know;
every animal roaming over the fields belongs to Me.
12 I would not come to you if I were hungry,
for the world and all it contains are Mine.
13 Do you really think I eat bull meat?
Or drink goat’s blood?
14 Set out a sacrifice I can accept: your thankfulness.
Be true to your word to the Most High.
15 When you are in trouble, call for Me.
I will come and rescue you,
and you will honor Me.”
16 But to those acting against Him, God says,
“Who do you think you are?
Listing off My laws,
acting as if your life is in alignment with My ways?
17 For it’s clear that you despise My guidance;
you throw My wise words over your shoulder.
18 You play with thieves,
spend your time with adulterers.
19 Evil runs out of your mouth;
your tongue is wrapped in deceit.
20 You sit back and gossip about your brother;
you slander your mother’s son.
21 While you did these things, I kept silent;
somehow you got the idea that I was like you.
But now My silence ends, and I am going to indict you.
I’ll state the charge against you clearly, face-to-face.
22 All you who have forgotten Me, your God, should think about what I have said,
or I will tear you apart and leave no one to save you.
23 Set out a sacrifice I can accept: your thankfulness.
Do this, and you will honor Me.
Those who straighten up their lives
will know the saving grace of God.”
Psalm 59
For the worship leader. A prayer[a] of David to the tune “Do Not Destroy,”[b] when Saul sent assassins to David’s house.
Psalm 59 was inspired by the time there was a plan to kill David that was thwarted by David’s wife, Michal, who was Saul’s own daughter. She warned her husband, lowered him out of a window, and then deceived her father’s officers into believing David was bedridden with illness (1 Samuel 19:11–17).
1 Rescue me! Save me, O my God, from my enemies;
set me in a safe place, far above any who come to attack me.
2 Rescue me from those malicious people,
and save me from blood-thirsty murderers.
3 They have staked out my life; they are going to ambush me!
Those brutes are aligned, ready to attack me
For no good cause, my Eternal One.
I have not crossed them.
4 I’ve done nothing wrong, yet they rush ahead to start the assault.
I beg You to help me; come and see for Yourself!
5 I plead with You, Eternal One, Commander of heavenly armies, True God of Israel,
to get up and punish these people;
do not let any betrayer off the hook; show no mercy to malicious evildoers!
[pause][c]
6 Treacherous souls return to the city in the evening;
they prowl about,
howling like dogs.
7 Watch them! Snarling, dribbling their malicious insults.
Their words cut loose from their lips like swords,
and in their backstabbing they say, “Who’s listening anyway?”
8 But You, O Eternal One, laugh at them;
You make fun of all the nations.
9 I will watch for You, for You keep me strong.
God, You are my security!
10 My God is one step ahead of me with His mercy;
He will show me the victory I desire over my enemies.
11 Don’t wipe them out, or my people may one day forget.
Instead, use Your power to scatter and bring them to ruin.
O Lord, You are our protection.
12 Sin pours from their mouths, cruel words from their lips.
May they be caught in their pride.
For their foul curses and lies,
13 devour them with Your wrath,
eat them up, leave no one alive.
Then people will surely know that the one True God rules over Jacob,
even to the far ends of the earth.
[pause]
14 Treacherous souls return to the city in the evening;
they prowl about,
howling like dogs.
15 They search through the city, scavenging for meat
as they growl and grumble in dissatisfaction.
16 But me? I will sing of Your strength.
I will awake with the sun to sing of Your loving mercy
Because in my most troubled hour,
You defended me. You were my shelter.
17 I will lift my voice to sing Your praise, O my Strength—
for You came to my defense.
O God, You have shown me Your loving mercy.
Psalm 60
For the worship leader. A prayer[d] of David after his victory over the Arameans, Joab’s return, and the striking down of 12,000 Edomites in the valley of Salt. A song for instruction to the tune “A Lily Reminds Us.”[e]
This is a communal lament recalling David’s battles with Zobah and Naharaim from Aram (Syria) and Joab’s victory over the Edomites (2 Samuel 8).
1 God, You have turned away from us;
You have shattered us into a million tiny pieces;
You have boiled with anger.
Now put us back together, and refresh us with Your mercy.
2 You have made the earth shake; You have cracked it open effortlessly.
Heal the fissures in the earth, for it is unsteady.
3 You have caused Your people to suffer;
You have provided us with wine that makes us stagger.
4 You have unfurled a banner for those who revere You,
a signal to gather in safety out of the enemy’s reach.
[pause][f]
5 So that Your treasured ones may be saved,
rescue us with Your right hand, and answer our pleas!
6 God’s voice has been heard in His holy sanctuary:
“I will celebrate; I will allocate Shechem
and the Succoth Valley to My people.
7 Gilead belongs to Me, and so does Manasseh;
Ephraim is the helmet that protects My head;
Judah is the scepter through which I rule;
8 Moab is the washpot in which I rinse My feet.
I will throw My shoe over Edom in conquest;
prepare for My victory, Philistia. Cry out because of Me!”
9 But who will take me into the fortified city?
Who will lead me into Edom?
10 Have You not turned Your back on us, O God?
Will You stay away and not accompany our armies, O God?
11 Help us against our enemy; we need Your help!
It’s useless to trust in the hand of man for liberation.
12 Only through God can we be successful.
It is God alone who will defeat our enemies and bring us victory!
Psalm 114
1 When the time came for Israel to leave Egypt—
for Jacob’s family to be free of those who spoke another language—
2 God chose to make Judah His sacred place,
and Israel became His realm.
3 And the waters of the sea witnessed God’s actions and ran away;
the Jordan, too, turned around and ran back to where it came from.
4 All of the mountains leapt with the strength of mighty rams,
and all of the hills danced with the joy of little lambs.
5 Why do you retreat, O sea?
Why do you roll back your waters, O Jordan?
6 Why, O mountains, do you leap with the strength of rams?
Why, O hills, do you dance with joy like little lambs?
7 Shudder and quake, O you earth, at the sight of the Lord.
The God of Jacob comes,
8 Who turns rock into pools of refreshing water
and flint into fountains of life-giving streams!
Psalm 115
1 Not for us, O Eternal One; this glory is not for us—but for Your name
because of Your loyal love and truth.
2 Why should the nations ask,
“Where is their God now?”
3 Our God is in heaven
doing whatever He chooses.
4 Those nations worship idols of silver and gold,
crafted by human hands:
5 They have given their gods mouths, but they cannot speak;
eyes, but they cannot see.
6 They have provided their idols with ears, but they cannot hear;
noses, but they cannot smell.
7 They have fashioned hands, but the idols cannot reach out and touch;
feet, but they cannot walk.
Their idols cannot make a sound in their finely crafted throats.
8 The people who make idols will become useless like them,
like all who trust in idols.
9 O Israel, put your trust in the Eternal.
He is their helper and defender.
10 O family of Aaron, put your trust in the Eternal.
He is their helper and defender.
11 All who fear and know the Eternal, put your trust in Him.
He is their helper and defender.
12 The Eternal has remembered us, and He will bless us.
He will bless the people of Israel.
He will bless the priestly family of Aaron.
13 The Eternal will bless those who worship and stand in awe of Him,
from the least to the greatest.
14 May the Eternal prosper your family,
growing both you and your descendants.
15 May the blessings of the Eternal,
maker of heaven and earth, be on you.
16 The heavens above belong to the Eternal,
and yet earth in all of its beauty has been given to humanity by Him.
17 The dead do not praise the Eternal,
nor do any who descend into the silent grave.
18 But we will praise and bless You—our Eternal One—
today and forever.
Praise the Eternal!
8 Make sure no predator makes you his prey through some misleading philosophy and empty deception based on traditions fabricated by mere mortals. These are sourced in the elementary principles originating in this world and not in the Anointed One (so don’t let their talks capture you). 9 You see, all that is God, all His fullness, resides in His body. 10 You, too, are being completed in Him, the One who has dominion over all rule, all authority. 11 In Him you were also circumcised, set apart by a spiritual act performed without hands. The Anointed One’s circumcision cut you off from the sinfulness of your flesh. 12 You were buried with Him beneath the waters of the ceremonial washing called baptism[a] and then were raised up with Him by faith in the resurrection power of God, who brought Him back from the dead. 13 And when your flesh was still uncircumcised—dead in transgression and swathed in its sinful nature—it was God who brought us[b] to life with Him, forgave all our sins, and 14 eliminated the massive debt we incurred by the law that stood against us. He took it all away; He nailed it to the cross. But that’s not all. 15 He disarmed those who once ruled over us—those who had overpowered us. Like captives of war, He put them on display to the world to show His victory over them by means of the cross.
16 So don’t let anyone stand in judgment over you and dictate what you should eat or drink, what festivals you should celebrate, or how you should observe a new moon or Sabbath days— 17 all these are only a shadow of what shall come. The reality, the core, the import, is found in the Anointed One. 18 Don’t be cheated out of the prize by others who are peddling the worship of heavenly beings and false humility. People like this run about telling whoever will listen what they claim to have seen; but in reality they testify only to an inflated mind, saturated in conceit—not in the Spirit. 19 They are detached from the very head that nourishes and connects the whole body with all of its nerves and ligaments, a body that grows by the kind of growth that can only come from God.
20 Listen, if you have died with the Anointed One to the elemental spirits of the cosmos, then why are you submitting yourselves to its rules as if you still belonged to this world? 21 You hear, “Don’t handle this! Don’t taste that! Don’t even touch it!” 22 but everything they are obsessed about will eventually decay with use. These rules are just human commands and teachings. 23 Here’s what they are promoting: fabricated religion, self-humiliation, and bodily abuse. No matter which way they try to tether their bodies, they cannot harness their desires.
39 Jesus told them this parable:
Jesus: What happens if a blind man leads a blind man? Won’t both of them fall into a pit? 40 You can’t turn out better than your teacher; when you’re fully taught, you will resemble your teacher.
41 Speaking of blindness: Why do you focus on the speck in your brother’s eye? Why don’t you see the log in your own? 42 How can you say to your brother, “Oh, brother, let me help you take that little speck out of your eye,” when you don’t even see the big log in your own eye? What a hypocrite! First, take the log out of your own eye. Then you’ll be able to see clearly enough to help your brother with the speck in his eye.
43 Count on this: no good tree bears bad fruit, and no bad tree bears good fruit. 44 You can know a tree by the fruit it bears. You don’t find figs on a thorn bush, and you can’t pick grapes from a briar bush. 45 It’s the same with people. A person full of goodness in his heart produces good things; a person with an evil reservoir in his heart pours out evil things. The heart overflows in the words a person speaks; your words reveal what’s within your heart.
46 What good is it to mouth the words, “Lord! Lord!” if you don’t live by My teachings? 47 What matters is that you come to Me, hear My words, and actually live by them. 48 If you do that, you’ll be like the man who wanted to build a sturdy house. He dug down deep and anchored his foundation to solid rock. During a violent storm, the floodwaters slammed against the house, but they couldn’t shake it because of solid craftsmanship. [It was built upon rock.][a]
49 On the other hand, if you hear My teachings but don’t put them into practice, you’ll be like the careless builder who didn’t bother to build a foundation under his house. The floodwaters barely touched that pathetic house, and it crashed in ruins in the mud.
The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.