Book of Common Prayer
Security of Those Who Trust in the Lord, and Insecurity of the Wicked.
A Psalm of David.
37 (A)Do not fret because of evildoers,
Be not (B)envious toward wrongdoers.
2 For they will (C)wither quickly like the grass
And (D)fade like the green herb.
3 (E)Trust in the Lord and do good;
(F)Dwell in the land and [a](G)cultivate faithfulness.
4 (H)Delight yourself in the Lord;
And He will (I)give you the desires of your heart.
5 (J)Commit your way to the Lord,
Trust also in Him, and He will do it.
6 He will bring forth (K)your righteousness as the light
And your judgment (L)as the noonday.
7 [b]Rest in the Lord and (M)wait [c]patiently for Him;
(N)Do not fret because of him who (O)prospers in his way,
Because of the man who carries out wicked schemes.
8 Cease from anger and (P)forsake wrath;
Do not fret; it leads only to evildoing.
9 For (Q)evildoers will be cut off,
But those who wait for the Lord, they will (R)inherit the land.
10 Yet (S)a little while and the wicked man will be no more;
And you will look carefully for (T)his place and he will not be there.
11 But (U)the humble will inherit the land
And will delight themselves in (V)abundant prosperity.
12 The wicked (W)plots against the righteous
And (X)gnashes at him with his teeth.
13 The Lord (Y)laughs at him,
For He sees (Z)his day is coming.
14 The wicked have drawn the sword and (AA)bent their bow
To cast down the (AB)afflicted and the needy,
To (AC)slay those who are upright in conduct.
15 Their sword will enter their own heart,
And their (AD)bows will be broken.
16 (AE)Better is the little of the righteous
Than the abundance of many wicked.
17 For the (AF)arms of the wicked will be broken,
But the Lord (AG)sustains the righteous.
18 The Lord (AH)knows the days of the [d]blameless,
And their (AI)inheritance will be forever.
19 They will not be ashamed in the time of evil,
And (AJ)in the days of famine they will have abundance.
20 But the (AK)wicked will perish;
And the enemies of the Lord will be like the [e]glory of the pastures,
They vanish—(AL)like smoke they vanish away.
21 The wicked borrows and does not pay back,
But the righteous (AM)is gracious and gives.
22 For (AN)those blessed by Him will (AO)inherit the land,
But those (AP)cursed by Him will be cut off.
23 (AQ)The steps of a man are established by the Lord,
And He (AR)delights in his way.
24 When (AS)he falls, he will not be hurled headlong,
Because (AT)the Lord is the One [f]who holds his hand.
25 I have been young and now I am old,
Yet (AU)I have not seen the righteous forsaken
Or (AV)his [g]descendants begging bread.
26 All day long (AW)he is gracious and lends,
And (AX)his [h]descendants are a blessing.
27 (AY)Depart from evil and do good,
[i]So you will abide (AZ)forever.
28 For the Lord (BA)loves [j]justice
And (BB)does not forsake His godly ones;
They are (BC)preserved forever,
But the [k](BD)descendants of the wicked will be cut off.
29 The righteous will (BE)inherit the land
And (BF)dwell in it forever.
30 The mouth of the righteous (BG)utters wisdom,
And his tongue (BH)speaks justice.
31 The (BI)law of his God is in his heart;
His (BJ)steps do not slip.
32 The (BK)wicked spies upon the righteous
And (BL)seeks to kill him.
33 The Lord will (BM)not leave him in his hand
Or (BN)let him be condemned when he is judged.
34 (BO)Wait for the Lord and keep His way,
And He will exalt you to inherit the land;
When the (BP)wicked are cut off, you will see it.
35 I have (BQ)seen a wicked, violent man
Spreading himself like a (BR)luxuriant [l]tree in its native soil.
36 Then [m]he passed away, and lo, he (BS)was no more;
I sought for him, but he could not be found.
37 Mark the [n](BT)blameless man, and behold the (BU)upright;
For the man of peace will have a [o](BV)posterity.
38 But transgressors will be altogether (BW)destroyed;
The [p]posterity of the wicked will be (BX)cut off.
39 But the (BY)salvation of the righteous is from the Lord;
He is their strength (BZ)in time of trouble.
40 (CA)The Lord helps them and delivers them;
He (CB)delivers them from the wicked and saves them,
Because they (CC)take refuge in Him.
32 “Indeed, (A)ask now concerning the former days which were before you, since the (B)day that God created [a]man on the earth, and inquire (C)from one end of the heavens to the other. (D)Has anything been done like this great thing, or has anything been heard like it? 33 (E)Has any people heard the voice of God speaking from the midst of the fire, as you have heard it, and survived? 34 (F)Or has a god tried to go to take for himself a nation from within another nation (G)by trials, by signs and wonders and by war and (H)by a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm and by great terrors, [b]as the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes? 35 To you it was shown that you might know that the Lord, He is God; (I)there is no other besides Him. 36 (J)Out of the heavens He let you hear His voice (K)to discipline you; and on earth He let you see His great fire, and you heard His words from the midst of the fire. 37 [c](L)Because He loved your fathers, therefore He chose [d]their descendants after them. And He [e](M)personally brought you from Egypt by His great power, 38 driving out from before you nations greater and mightier than you, to bring you in and (N)to give you their land for an inheritance, as it is today. 39 Know therefore today, and take it to your heart, that (O)the Lord, He is God in heaven above and on the earth below; there is no other. 40 (P)So you shall keep His statutes and His commandments which I am [f]giving you today, that (Q)it may go well with you and with your children after you, and (R)that you may [g]live long on the land which the Lord your God is giving you for all time.”
Ministers of a New Covenant
3 Are we beginning to (A)commend ourselves again? Or do we need, as some, (B)letters of commendation to you or from you? 2 (C)You are our letter, written in our hearts, known and read by all men; 3 being manifested that you are a letter of Christ, [a](D)cared for by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of (E)the living God, not on (F)tablets of stone but on (G)tablets of [b](H)human hearts.
4 Such (I)confidence we have through Christ toward God. 5 Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but (J)our adequacy is from God, 6 who also made us adequate as (K)servants of a (L)new covenant, not of (M)the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but (N)the Spirit gives life.
7 But if the (O)ministry of death, (P)in letters engraved on stones, came [c]with glory, (Q)so that the sons of Israel could not look intently at the face of Moses because of the glory of his face, fading as it was, 8 how will the ministry of the Spirit fail to be even more with glory? 9 For if (R)the ministry of condemnation has glory, much more does the (S)ministry of righteousness abound in glory. 10 For indeed what had glory, in this case has no glory because of the glory that surpasses it. 11 For if that which fades away was [d]with glory, much more that which remains is in glory.
12 (T)Therefore having such a hope, (U)we use great boldness in our speech, 13 and are not like Moses, (V)who used to put a veil over his face so that the sons of Israel would not look intently at the end of what was fading away. 14 But their minds were (W)hardened; for until this very day at the (X)reading of (Y)the old covenant the same veil [e]remains unlifted, because it is removed in Christ. 15 But to this day whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their heart; 16 (Z)but whenever a person turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. 17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where (AA)the Spirit of the Lord is, (AB)there is liberty. 18 But we all, with unveiled face, (AC)beholding as in a mirror the (AD)glory of the Lord, are being (AE)transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from (AF)the Lord, the Spirit.
The Unrighteous Steward
16 Now He was also saying to the disciples, “There was a rich man who had a manager, and this manager was [a]reported to him as (A)squandering his possessions. 2 And he called him and said to him, ‘What is this I hear about you? Give an accounting of your management, for you can no longer be manager.’ 3 The manager said to himself, ‘What shall I do, since my [b]master is taking the management away from me? I am not strong enough to dig; I am ashamed to beg. 4 I know what I shall do, so that when I am removed from the management people will welcome me into their homes.’ 5 And he summoned each one of his [c]master’s debtors, and he began saying to the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ 6 And he said, ‘A hundred [d]measures of oil.’ And he said to him, ‘Take your bill, and sit down quickly and write fifty.’ 7 Then he said to another, ‘And how much do you owe?’ And he said, ‘A hundred [e]measures of wheat.’ He *said to him, ‘Take your bill, and write eighty.’ 8 And his [f]master praised the unrighteous manager because he had acted shrewdly; for the sons of (B)this age are more shrewd in relation to their own [g]kind than the (C)sons of light. 9 And I say to you, (D)make friends for yourselves by means of the [h](E)wealth of unrighteousness, so that when it fails, (F)they will receive you into the eternal dwellings.
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