Book of Common Prayer
The Psalmist in Sickness Complains of Enemies and False Friends.
To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David.
41 Blessed [by God’s grace and compassion] is he who considers the helpless;
The Lord will save him in the day of trouble.
2
The Lord will protect him and keep him alive;
And he will be called blessed in the land;
You do not hand him over to the desire of his enemies.
3
The Lord will sustain and strengthen him on his sickbed;
In his illness, You will restore him to health.
4
As for me, I said, “O Lord, be gracious to me;
Heal my soul, for I have sinned against You.”
5
My enemies speak evil of me, saying,
“When will he die and his name perish?”
6
And when one comes to see me, he speaks empty words,
While his heart gathers malicious gossip [against me];
When he goes away, he tells it [everywhere].
7
All who hate me whisper together about me;
Against me they devise my hurt [imagining the worst for me], saying,
8
“A wicked thing is poured out upon him and holds him;
And when he lies down, he will not rise up again.”
9
Even my own close friend in whom I trusted,
Who ate my bread,
Has lifted up his heel against me [betraying me].(A)
10
But You, O Lord, be gracious to me and [a]restore me [to health],
So that I may repay them.
11
By this I know that You favor and delight in me,
Because my enemy does not shout in triumph over me.
12
As for me, You uphold me in my integrity,
And You set me in Your presence forever.
13
Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel,
From everlasting to everlasting [from this age to the next, and forever].
Amen and Amen (so be it).
Futility of Boastful Wickedness.
To the Chief Musician. A skillful song, or a didactic or reflective poem. A Psalm of David, when Doeg the Edomite came and told Saul, “David has come to the house of Ahimelech.”
52 Why do you boast of evil, O mighty man?
The lovingkindness of God endures all day long.
2
Your tongue devises destruction,
Like a sharp razor, working deceitfully.
3
You love evil more than good,
And falsehood more than speaking what is right. Selah.
4
You love all words that devour,
O deceitful tongue.
5
But God will break you down forever;
He will take you away and tear you away from your tent,
And uproot you from the land of the living. Selah.
6
The righteous will see it and fear,
And will [scoffingly] laugh, saying,
7
“Look, [this is] the man who would not make God his strength [his stronghold and fortress],
But trusted in the abundance of his riches,
Taking refuge in his wealth.”
8
But as for me, I am like a green olive tree in the house of God;
I trust [confidently] in the lovingkindness of God forever and ever.
9
I will thank You forever, because You have done it, [You have rescued me and kept me safe].
I will wait on Your name, for it is good, in the presence of Your godly ones.
Former Times of Help and Present Troubles.
To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of the sons of Korah. A skillful song, or a didactic or reflective poem.
44 We have heard with our ears, O God,
Our fathers have told us
The work You did in their days,
In the days of old.
2
You drove out the [pagan] nations with Your own hand;
Then you planted and established them (Israel);
[It was by Your power that] You uprooted the [pagan] peoples,
Then You spread them abroad.
3
For our fathers did not possess the land [of Canaan] by their own sword,
Nor did their own arm save them,
But Your right hand and Your arm and the light of Your presence,
Because You favored and delighted in them.
4
You are my King, O God;
Command victories and deliverance for Jacob (Israel).
5
Through You we will gore our enemies [like a bull];
Through Your name we will trample down those who rise up against us.
6
For I will not trust in my bow,
Nor will my sword save me.
7
But You have saved us from our enemies,
And You have put them to shame and humiliated those who hate us.
8
In God we have boasted all the day long,
And we will praise and give thanks to Your name forever. Selah.
9
But now You have rejected us and brought us to dishonor,
And You do not go out with our armies [to lead us to victory].
10
You make us turn back from the enemy,
And those who hate us have taken spoil for themselves.
11
You have made us like sheep to be eaten [as mutton]
And have scattered us [in exile] among the nations.
12
You sell Your people cheaply,
And have not increased Your wealth by their sale.
13
You have made us the reproach and taunt of our neighbors,
A scoffing and a derision to those around us.
14
You make us a byword among the nations,
A [a]laughingstock among the people.
15
My dishonor is before me all day long,
And humiliation has covered my face,
16
Because of the voice of the taunter and reviler,
Because of the presence of the enemy and the avenger.
17
All this has come upon us, yet we have not forgotten You,
Nor have we been false to Your covenant [which You made with our fathers].
18
Our heart has not turned back,
Nor have our steps wandered from Your path,
19
Yet You have [distressingly] crushed us in the place of jackals
And covered us with [the deep darkness of] the shadow of death.
20
If we had forgotten the name of our God
Or stretched out our hands to a strange god,
21
Would not God discover this?
For He knows the secrets of the heart.
22
[b]But for Your sake we are killed all the day long;
We are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.(A)
23
Awake! Why do You sleep, O Lord?
Awaken, do not reject us forever.
24
Why do You hide Your face
And forget our affliction and our oppression?
25
For our life has melted away into the dust;
Our body clings to the ground.
26
Rise up! Come be our help,
And ransom us for the sake of Your steadfast love.
War of the Kings
14 In the days of the [Eastern] kings Amraphel of Shinar, Arioch of Ellasar, Chedorlaomer of Elam, and Tidal of Goiim, 2 they [invaded the Jordan Valley near the Dead Sea, and] made war with Bera king of Sodom, Birsha king of Gomorrah, Shinab king of Admah, Shemeber king of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela [a](that is, Zoar). 3 All of these [kings] joined together [as allies] in the Valley of Siddim (that is, the Sea of Salt). 4 Twelve years they had served Chedorlaomer [the most powerful king in the invading confederacy], but in the thirteenth year they rebelled. 5 In the fourteenth year Chedorlaomer and the [three] kings who were with him attacked and subdued the Rephaim in Ashteroth-karnaim, the Zuzim in Ham, and the Emim in Shaveh-kiriathaim, 6 and the Horites in their mountainous country of Seir, as far as El-paran, which is on the border of the wilderness. 7 Then they turned back and came to En-mishpat (that is, Kadesh), and subdued all the country of the Amalekites, and also the Amorites who lived in Hazazon-tamar. 8 Then the kings of Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboiim, and Bela (that is, Zoar) came out; and they joined together for battle with the invading kings in the Valley of Siddim, 9 against Chedorlaomer king of Elam and Tidal king of Goiim and Amraphel king of Shinar and Arioch king of Ellasar—four kings against five. 10 Now the Valley of Siddim was full of tar (bitumen) pits; and as the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled, they fell into them. But the remainder [of the kings] who survived fled to the hill country. 11 Then the victors took all the possessions of Sodom and Gomorrah and all their food supply and provisions and left. 12 And they also took [captive] Lot, Abram’s nephew, and his possessions and left, for he was living in Sodom.
13 Then a survivor who had escaped [from the invading forces on the other side of the Jordan] came and told Abram the [b]Hebrew. Now he was living by the terebinths (oaks) of Mamre the Amorite, brother of Eshcol and brother of Aner—they were allies of Abram. 14 When Abram heard that his nephew [Lot] had been captured, he armed and led out his trained men, born in his own house, [numbering] three hundred and eighteen, and went in pursuit as far [north] as Dan. 15 He divided his forces against them by night, he and his servants, and attacked and defeated them, and pursued them as far as Hobah, which is north of Damascus. 16 And he brought back all the goods, and also brought back his nephew Lot and his possessions, and also the women, and the people.
Abram and Melchizedek
17 Then after Abram’s return from the defeat (slaughter) of Chedorlaomer and the kings who were with him, the king of Sodom went out to meet him at the Valley of Shaveh (that is, the King’s Valley). 18 [c]Melchizedek king of Salem (ancient Jerusalem) brought out bread and wine [for them]; he was the priest of [d]God Most High. 19 And Melchizedek blessed Abram and said,
“Blessed (joyful, favored) be Abram by God Most High,
Creator and Possessor of heaven and earth;
20
And blessed, praised, and glorified be God Most High,
Who has given your enemies into your hand.”
And Abram gave him a tenth of all [the treasure he had taken in battle].(A) 21 The king of Sodom said to Abram, “Give me the people and keep the goods (spoils of battle) for yourself.” 22 But Abram said to the king of Sodom, “I have raised my hand and sworn an oath to the Lord God Most High, the Creator and Possessor of heaven and earth, 23 that I would not take anything that is yours, from a thread to a sandal strap, so you could not say, ‘I [the King of Sodom] have made Abram rich.’ 24 I will take nothing except what my young men have eaten, and the share of the spoils belonging to the men [my allies] who went with me—Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre; let them take their share of the spoils.”
A Better Ministry
8 Now the main point of what we have to say is this: we have such a High Priest, [the Christ] who is seated [in the place of honor] at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty (God) in heaven,(A) 2 a Minister (Officiating Priest) in the holy places and in the true tabernacle, which is erected not by man, but by the Lord. 3 For every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices; so it is essential for this One also to have something to offer. 4 Now if He were [still living] on earth, He would not be a priest at all, for there are priests who offer the gifts [to God] in accordance with the Law. 5 They serve as a pattern and foreshadowing of [what has its true existence and reality in] the heavenly things (sanctuary). For when Moses was about to erect the tabernacle, he was warned by God, saying, “See that you make it all [exactly] according to the pattern which was shown to you on the mountain.”(B) 6 But as it is, Christ has acquired a [priestly] ministry which is more excellent [than the old Levitical priestly ministry], for He is the Mediator (Arbiter) of a better covenant [uniting God and man], which has been enacted and rests on better promises.
A New Covenant
7 For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion for a second one or an attempt to institute another one [the new covenant]. 8 However, God finds fault with them [showing its inadequacy] when He says,
“Behold, the days will come, says the Lord,
When I will make and ratify a new covenant
With the house of Israel and with the house of Judah;
9
Not like the covenant that I made with their fathers
On the day when I took them by the hand
To lead them out of the land of Egypt;
For they did not abide in My covenant,
And so I withdrew My favor and disregarded them, says the Lord.
10
“For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel
After those days, says the Lord:
I will imprint My laws upon their minds [even upon their innermost thoughts and understanding],
And engrave them upon their hearts [effecting their regeneration].
And I will be their God,
And they shall be My people.
11
“And it will not be [necessary] for each one to teach his fellow citizen,
Or each one his brother, saying, ‘Know [by experience, have knowledge of] the Lord,’
For all will know [Me by experience and have knowledge of] Me,
From the least to the greatest of them.
12
“For I will be merciful and gracious toward their wickedness,
And I will remember their sins no more.”(C)
13 When God speaks of “A new covenant,” He makes the first one obsolete. And whatever is becoming obsolete (out of use, annulled) and growing old is ready to disappear.
43 After the two days He went on from there into Galilee. 44 For Jesus Himself declared that a prophet has no honor in his own country. 45 So when He arrived in Galilee, the Galileans [a]welcomed Him, since they had seen all the things that He did in Jerusalem at the feast; for they too came to the feast.
Healing a Nobleman’s Son
46 So Jesus came again to Cana of Galilee, where He had turned the water into wine. And there was a [b]certain royal official whose son was sick in Capernaum. 47 Having heard that Jesus had come back from Judea to Galilee, he [c]went to meet Him and began asking Him to come down and heal his son; for he was at the point of death. 48 Then Jesus said to him, “Unless you [people] see [miraculous] signs and wonders, you [simply] will not believe.” 49 The royal official pleaded with Him, “Sir, do come down [at once] before my child dies!” 50 Jesus said to him, “Go; your son lives!” The man believed what Jesus said to him and started home. 51 As he was already going down [the road], his servants met him and reported that his son was living [and was healthy]. 52 So he asked them at what time he began to get better. They said, “Yesterday during the seventh hour the fever left him.” 53 Then the father realized that it was at that very hour when Jesus had said to him, “Your son lives”; and he and his entire household believed and confidently trusted [in Him as Savior]. 54 This is the second sign (attesting miracle) that Jesus performed [in Cana] after He had come from Judea to Galilee [revealing that He is the Messiah].
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