Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 20
To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David.
1 May the Lord answer you in the day of trouble! May the name of the God of Jacob set you up on high [and defend you];
2 Send you help from the sanctuary and support, refresh, and strengthen you from Zion;
3 Remember all your offerings and accept your burnt sacrifice. Selah [pause, and think of that]!
4 May He grant you according to your heart’s desire and fulfill all your plans.
5 We will [shout in] triumph at your salvation and victory, and in the name of our God we will set up our banners. May the Lord fulfill all your petitions.
6 Now I know that the Lord saves His anointed; He will answer him from His holy heaven with the saving strength of His right hand.
7 Some trust in and boast of chariots and some of horses, but we will trust in and boast of the name of the Lord our God.
8 They are bowed down and fallen, but we are risen and stand upright.
9 O Lord, give victory; let the King answer us when we call.
Psalm 21
To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David.
1 The king [David] shall joy in Your strength, O Lord; and in Your salvation how greatly shall he rejoice!
2 You have given him his heart’s desire and have not withheld the request of his lips. Selah [pause, and think of that]!
3 For You send blessings of good things to meet him; You set a crown of pure gold on his head.
4 He asked life of You, and You gave it to him—long life forever and evermore.
5 His glory is great because of Your aid; splendor and majesty You bestow upon him.
6 For You make him to be blessed and a blessing forever; You make him exceedingly glad with the joy of Your presence.(A)
7 For the king trusts, relies on, and is confident in the Lord, and through the mercy and steadfast love of the Most High he will never be moved.
8 Your hand shall find all Your enemies; Your right hand shall find all those who hate You.
9 You will make them as if in a blazing oven in the time of Your anger; the Lord will swallow them up in His wrath, and the fire will utterly consume them.
10 Their offspring You will destroy from the earth, and their sons from among the children of men.
11 For they planned evil against You; they conceived a mischievous plot which they are not able to perform.
12 For You will make them turn their backs; You will aim Your bow [of divine justice] at their faces.
13 Be exalted, Lord, in Your strength; we will sing and praise Your power.
Psalm 110
A Psalm of David.
1 The Lord (God) says to my Lord (the Messiah), Sit at My right hand, until I make Your adversaries Your footstool.(A)
2 The Lord will send forth from Zion the scepter of Your strength; rule, then, in the midst of Your foes.(B)
3 Your people will offer themselves willingly in the day of Your power, in the beauty of holiness and in holy array out of the womb of the morning; to You [will spring forth] Your young men, who are as the dew.
4 The Lord has sworn and will not revoke or change it: You are a priest forever, after the manner and order of Melchizedek.(C)
5 The Lord at Your right hand will shatter kings in the day of His indignation.
6 He will execute judgment [in overwhelming punishment] upon the nations; He will fill the valleys with the dead bodies, He will crush the [chief] heads over lands many and far extended.(D)
7 He will drink of the brook by the way; therefore will He lift up His head [triumphantly].
Psalm 116
1 I love the Lord, because He has heard [and now hears] my voice and my supplications.
2 Because He has inclined His ear to me, therefore will I call upon Him as long as I live.
3 The cords and sorrows of death were around me, and the terrors of Sheol (the place of the dead) had laid hold of me; I suffered anguish and grief (trouble and sorrow).
4 Then called I upon the name of the Lord: O Lord, I beseech You, save my life and deliver me!
5 Gracious is the Lord, and [rigidly] righteous; yes, our God is merciful.
6 The Lord preserves the simple; I was brought low, and He helped and saved me.
7 Return to your rest, O my soul, for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you.(A)
8 For You have delivered my life from death, my eyes from tears, and my feet from stumbling and falling.
9 I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living.
10 I believed (trusted in, relied on, and clung to my God), and therefore have I spoken [even when I said], I am greatly afflicted.(B)
11 I said in my haste, All men are deceitful and liars.
12 What shall I render to the Lord for all His benefits toward me? [How can I repay Him for all His bountiful dealings?]
13 I will lift up the cup of salvation and deliverance and call on the name of the Lord.
14 I will pay my vows to the Lord, yes, in the presence of all His people.
15 Precious (important and no light matter) in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints (His loving ones).
16 O Lord, truly I am Your servant; I am Your servant, the son of Your handmaid; You have loosed my bonds.
17 I will offer to You the sacrifice of thanksgiving and will call on the name of the Lord.
18 I will pay my vows to the Lord, yes, in the presence of all His people,
19 In the courts of the Lord’s house—in the midst of you, O Jerusalem. Praise the Lord! (Hallelujah!)
Psalm 117
1 O praise the Lord, all you nations! Praise Him, all you people!(C)
2 For His mercy and loving-kindness are great toward us, and the truth and faithfulness of the Lord endure forever. Praise the Lord! (Hallelujah!)
8 On the seventh day of the fifth month of the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, Nebuzaradan, captain of the Babylonian king’s guard, came to Jerusalem.
9 He burned the house of the Lord, the king’s house, and all the houses of Jerusalem; every great house he burned down.
10 All the army of the Chaldeans who were with the captain of the [Babylonian] guard broke down the walls around Jerusalem.
11 Now the rest of the people left in the city and the deserters who fell away to the king of Babylon, along with the rest of the multitude, Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried into exile.
12 But the captain of the guard left some of the poorest of the land to be vinedressers and soil tillers.
22 Over the people whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had left in the land of Judah he appointed as governor Gedaliah son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan.
23 And when all the captains of the forces and their men heard that the king of Babylon had made Gedaliah governor, they came with their men to Gedaliah at Mizpah, namely, Ishmael son of Nethaniah, Johanan son of Kareah, Seraiah son of Tanhumeth the Netophathite, and Jaazaniah son of the Maacathite.
24 And Gedaliah swore to them and their men, saying, Do not be afraid of the Chaldean officials. Dwell in the land and serve the king of Babylon, and it shall be well with you.
25 But in the seventh month Ishmael son of Nethaniah, the son of Elishama, of the royal family [so having a claim to be governor], came with ten men and smote and killed Gedaliah and the Jews and the Chaldeans who were with him at Mizpah.
26 Then all the people, both small and great, and the captains of the forces arose and went to Egypt, for they were afraid of the Chaldeans.
12 But now if Christ (the Messiah) is preached as raised from the dead, how is it that some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?
13 But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not risen;
14 And if Christ has not risen, then our preaching is in vain [it amounts to nothing] and your faith is devoid of truth and is fruitless (without effect, empty, imaginary, and unfounded).
15 We are even discovered to be misrepresenting God, for we testified of Him that He raised Christ, Whom He did not raise in case it is true that the dead are not raised.
16 For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised;
17 And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is mere delusion [futile, fruitless], and you are still in your sins [under the control and penalty of sin];
18 And further, those who have died in [[a]spiritual fellowship and union with] Christ have perished (are lost)!
19 If we who are [abiding] in Christ have hope only in this life and that is all, then we are of all people most miserable and to be pitied.
20 But the fact is that Christ (the Messiah) has been raised from the dead, and He became the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep [in death].
21 For since [it was] through a man that death [came into the world, it is] also through a Man that the resurrection of the dead [has come].
22 For just as [because of their [b]union of nature] in Adam all people die, so also [by virtue of their [c]union of nature] shall all in Christ be made alive.
23 But each in his own rank and turn: Christ (the Messiah) [is] the firstfruits, then those who are Christ’s [own will be resurrected] at His coming.
24 After that comes the end (the completion), when He delivers over the kingdom to God the Father after rendering inoperative and abolishing every [other] rule and every authority and power.
25 For [Christ] must be King and reign until He has put all [His] enemies under His feet.(A)
26 The last enemy to be subdued and abolished is death.
27 For He [the Father] has put all things in subjection under His [Christ’s] feet. But when it says, All things are put in subjection [under Him], it is evident that He [Himself] is excepted Who does the subjecting of all things to Him.(B)
28 However, when everything is subjected to Him, then the Son Himself will also subject Himself to [the Father] Who put all things under Him, so that God may be all in all [be everything to everyone, supreme, the indwelling and controlling factor of life].
29 Otherwise, what do people mean by being [themselves] baptized in behalf of the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why are people baptized for them?
7 Then as these men went their way, Jesus began to speak to the crowds about John: What did you go out in the wilderness (desert) to see? A reed swayed by the wind?
8 What did you go out to see then? A man clothed in soft garments? Behold, those who wear soft clothing are in the houses of kings.
9 But what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and one [[a]out of the common, more eminent, more remarkable, and] [b]superior to a prophet.
10 This is the one of whom it is written, Behold, I send My messenger ahead of You, who shall make ready Your way before You.(A)
11 Truly I tell you, among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist; yet he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.
12 And from the days of John the Baptist until the present time, the kingdom of heaven has endured violent assault, and violent men seize it by force [as a precious prize—a [c]share in the heavenly kingdom is sought with most ardent zeal and intense exertion].
13 For all the Prophets and the Law prophesied up until John.
14 And if you are willing to receive and accept it, John himself is Elijah who was to come [before the kingdom].(B)
15 He who has ears to hear, let him be listening and let him consider and [d]perceive and comprehend by hearing.
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