Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 45[a]
Nuptial Ode for the Messianic King
1 For the director.[b] According to “Lilies.” A maskil of the sons of Korah. A love song.
2 [c]My heart[d] is moved by a noble theme
as I sing my poem to the king;
my tongue is like the pen of a skillful scribe.
3 You are the most handsome of men;[e]
grace has anointed your lips,
for God has blessed you forever.
4 Gird your sword upon your thigh, O warrior,
and advance in splendor and majesty.
5 Ride on triumphantly in truth, humility, and justice;
may your right hand perform wondrous deeds.
6 Your arrows are sharp;
nations will lie beneath your feet;
the enemies of the king will lose heart.[f]
7 Your throne, O God,[g] will last forever and ever;
the scepter of your kingdom will be a scepter of justice.
8 You love righteousness and hate wickedness;
therefore God, your God, has established you above your fellow kings
by anointing you with the oil of gladness.
9 [h]All your robes are fragrant
with myrrh and aloes and cassia;
from palaces of ivory
stringed instruments bring joy to your heart.
10 Daughters of kings[i] are among your women in waiting;
at your right hand is your queen
adorned in gold of Ophir.
11 My daughter, listen carefully to my words
and follow them diligently.
Forget your people and your father’s house;[j]
12 then the king will desire your beauty.
Since he is your lord,
13 bow down before him.
The Daughter of Tyre[k] will bring you gifts,
people of wealth will seek your favor.
14 Within the palace the king’s daughter is adorned
in robes threaded with gold.
15 In embroidered garments she is led to the king,
followed by her virgin companions,
who are also led to you.,[l]
16 They are brought in with joy and gladness
as they enter the palace of the king.
17 Your[m] sons will take the place of your ancestors;
you will make them princes in all the earth.
18 I will extol your name through all generations;
therefore, the nations will praise you forever and ever.[n]
Psalm 47[a]
The Lord, King of All Nations
1 For the director.[b] A psalm of the sons of Korah.
2 All you peoples, clap your hands,[c]
shout to God with cries of gladness.
3 For the Lord, the Most High, is awesome;
he is the great King over all the earth.
4 He subdued nations under us
and brought peoples under our feet.
5 He chose our inheritance for us,
the pride of Jacob,[d] whom he loved. Selah
6 [e]God has ascended amid shouts of joy;
the Lord, amid the sound of trumpets.
7 Sing praises to God, sing praises;
sing praises to our King, sing praises.
8 For God is the King of the entire earth;
sing hymns of praise to him.
9 God reigns over all the nations;
God is seated on his holy throne.
10 The princes of the nations assemble
with the people of the God of Abraham;
for the rulers[f] of the earth belong to God,
and he is exalted on high.
Psalm 48[g]
Thanksgiving for the Deliverance of God’s People
1 A psalm of the sons of Korah.[h] A song.
2 Great is the Lord and worthy of high praise
in the city of our God.
His holy mountain,[i] 3 towering in its beauty,
is the joy of the entire earth.
Mount Zion, the true heights of the north,[j]
is the city of the great King.
4 God is in her citadels
and has revealed himself as her fortress.[k]
5 [l]For the kings conspired together
and came onward in unison.
6 As soon as they beheld her, they were astounded;
filled with panic, they fled.
7 They were seized with trembling,
with pains like those of a woman in labor,
8 as though a wind from the east[m]
were breaking up the ships of Tarshish.
9 What we had heard,
we have now beheld for ourselves[n]
in the city of the Lord of hosts,
in the city of our God
that he established to endure forever. Selah
10 O God, as we stand in the midst of your temple,
we will meditate on your kindness.[o]
11 Like your name,[p] O God,
your praise extends to the ends of the earth.
Your right hand is filled with righteousness;
12 let Mount Zion rejoice.
Let the towns of Judah exult
in your saving judgments.[q]
13 [r]Walk around Zion; pass throughout her;
count the number of her towers.
14 Take careful note of her ramparts,
walk through her citadels,
so that you may recount for future generations
15 that such is God;
our God forever and ever,
he will be our guide eternally.[s]
Chapter 15
The Covenant Guarantee of the Promise.[a] 1 Some time later the Lord communicated these words to Abram in a vision,
“Do not fear, Abram.
I am your shield;
your reward shall be very great.”
2 Abram answered, “My Lord God, what will you give me? I will pass away without children and my heir will be Eliezer of Damascus.” 3 Abram continued, “Behold, you have not given me descendants, and my servant will be my heir.”
4 Then the word of the Lord came unto him, “He will not be your heir; your own child will be your heir.” 5 Then he led him outside and told him, “Look into the heavens and count the stars, if you can count them. Such,” he continued, “will your descendants be.”
6 Abraham believed the Lord, who credited it to him as righteousness.[b]
7 And he said, “I am the Lord who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to take possession of this land.”
8 He answered, “O Lord God, how will I know that I am to possess it?”
9 He said, “Take a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old she-goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.”
10 He took all these animals and split them in two and placed each half opposite the other (except for the birds). 11 Birds of prey landed upon the carcasses, but Abram chased them away.
17 When the sun set, it was dark, and a smoking brazier and a flaming torch passed between the carcasses of the animals that had been split in two.[a] 18 On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, “To your descendants I will give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates, 19 the dwelling place of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, 20 the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, 21 the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.”
Chapter 9
The Ancient Worship.[a] 1 Now the first covenant also had regulations for worship and an earthly sanctuary. 2 For a tabernacle was constructed. In the outer section, called the Holy Place, were located the lampstand, the table, and the consecrated bread.
3 Behind the second veil was the tabernacle called the Holy of Holies 4 in which stood the gold altar of incense and the ark of the covenant overlaid on all sides with gold. In that ark were the gold jar containing the manna, and Aaron’s staff that had sprouted buds, and the tablets of the covenant. 5 Above it were the cherubim of glory overshadowing the place of atonement (but we cannot discuss these things in detail now). 6 With these arrangements for worship having been made, the priests continually enter the first tabernacle to carry out their ritual duties. 7 However, the high priest alone enters the second tabernacle, and he can do so only once a year, and not without the blood that he offers for himself and for the errors that the people had committed.
8 By this the Holy Spirit reveals to us that as long as the first tabernacle remains standing, the way into the sanctuary has not been disclosed. 9 This is a symbol of the present time, during which the gifts and sacrifices that are offered are unable to cleanse the conscience of the worshiper. 10 They deal only with food and drink and various ceremonial washings, regulations in regard to the body that are imposed until the coming of the new order.
11 Christ Has Come.[b] But now Christ has arrived as the high priest of the good things that have come. He has passed through the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made by human hands, that is, not a part of this creation, 12 and he has entered once for all into the sanctuary not with the blood of goats and calves but with his own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption.
13 The blood of goats and bulls and the sprinkling of ashes of a heifer sanctify those who have been defiled and restore bodily purity. 14 How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from acts that lead to death so that we may worship the living God.
Jesus Restores the Work of God[a]
Chapter 5
The Sign Given on a Sabbath.[b] 1 Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish feasts. 2 Now in Jerusalem, by the Sheep Gate, there is a pool that in Hebrew is called Bethesda.[c] It has five porticos, 3 and in these a large number of invalids used to lie, people who were blind, lame, and paralyzed, waiting for the movement of the water.[d] [ 4 For occasionally an angel of the Lord would come down into the pool and stir up the water. The first one into the pool after each such disturbance would be cured of whatever disease he had.][e]
5 A man who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. 6 When Jesus saw him lying there and was aware that he had been ill for a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to get well?” 7 The invalid answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up. While I am still on my way, someone else steps into the pool ahead of me.” 8 Jesus said to him, “Rise! Take up your mat and walk!” 9 Immediately, the man was cured, and he took up his mat and began to walk.
Now that day was a Sabbath. 10 Therefore, the Jews said to the man who had been cured, “Today is the Sabbath. It is not lawful for you to carry your mat.” 11 He replied, “The man who cured me said to me, ‘Take up your mat and walk!’ ” 12 They asked him, “Who is the man who told you to take it up and walk?” 13 But the man who had been cured did not know who it was, for Jesus had disappeared into the crowd that was there.
14 Later, Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, “See, you have been made well. Do not sin anymore, so that nothing worse happens to you.” 15 The man went away and told the Jews that Jesus was the man who had made him well. 16 Therefore, the Jews began to harass Jesus because he was doing such things on the Sabbath. 17 However, Jesus responded to them, saying,
“My Father is still working,
and I am at work as well.”
18 For this reason, the Jews became even more determined to kill him, because he was not only breaking the Sabbath but also calling God his own Father, making himself equal to God.
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