Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 89[a]
Prayer for the Fulfillment of God’s Promise
1 A maskil[b] of Ethan the Ezrahite.
2 [c]I will sing forever of the Lord’s kindness;
with my lips I will proclaim your faithfulness[d]
throughout the generations.
3 You said, “My kindness lasts forever;
my faithfulness is as firmly established as the heavens.
4 “I have made a covenant with my chosen one;
I have sworn to my servant David:
5 ‘I will establish your descendants forever
and allow your throne to endure for all generations.’ ”[e] Selah
6 [f]Let the heavens[g] praise your wonders, O Lord,
your faithfulness in the assembly of your holy ones.
7 For who in the skies can be compared to the Lord?
Is there any heavenly being[h] who is like the Lord,
8 a God who is feared in the council of the holy ones,
greater and more awesome than any who stand in his presence?
9 O Lord, God of hosts,[i] who is like you?
Almighty Lord, your faithfulness is never absent.
10 You control the raging sea,
calming its surging waves.
11 You crushed Rahab[j] with a deadly blow;
you scattered your foes with your mighty arm.
12 Yours are the heavens and yours is the earth;
you founded the world[k] and all that is in it.
13 You created the north and the south;[l]
Tabor and Hermon joyously praise your name.
14 Mighty is your arm and strong is your hand;
your right hand is forever raised high.
15 Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne;
kindness and faithfulness go before your face.[m]
16 Blessed[n] are the people who know how to acclaim you, O Lord,
who walk in the light of your countenance.
17 In your name they rejoice all day long,
and they exult in your righteousness.
18 [o]You are the strength in which they glory,
and by your kindness our horn[p] is exalted.
19 For the Lord is our shield,
the Holy One of Israel, our King.
20 [q]On one occasion you spoke in a vision[r]
and said to your faithful servants:
“I have appointed as leader one who is mighty;
I have exalted one chosen from the people.
21 I have found David, my servant,
and with my holy oil I have anointed him.
22 “My hand will sustain him;
my arm will make him strong.
23 No enemy will overcome him;
no one who is wicked will oppress him.
24 “I will crush his foes before him
and strike down those who hate him.
25 My faithfulness and my kindness will be with him;
through my name his horn will be exalted.
26 “I will stretch his hand as far as the sea
and his right hand as far as the rivers.[s]
27 He will cry to me, ‘You are my Father,
my God, the Rock of my salvation.’
28 [t]“I will designate him as my firstborn,
the highest of all earthly kings.
29 Forever I will maintain my kindness for him,
and my covenant with him will never end.
30 I will establish his dynasty forever
and his throne as long as the heavens.
31 [u]“If his descendants forsake my law
and refuse to conform to my decrees,
32 if they break my statutes
and do not keep my precepts,
33 I will punish their disobedience with the rod
and their iniquity with scourges.
34 “But I will not deprive him of my kindness
or fail to observe my faithfulness.[v]
35 [w]I will not violate my covenant
or alter the promise I have spoken.
36 “By my holiness I have sworn once and for all:
never will I break faith with David.
37 His dynasty will last forever,
and his throne will endure before me like the sun.
38 It will endure forever like the moon,
a faithful witness in the sky.” Selah
39 [x]But now you have spurned and rejected him,
you have become filled with wrath against your anointed one.[y]
40 You have repudiated your covenant with your servant
and dishonored his crown in the dust.
41 You have breached all his walls
and turned his strongholds into ruins.
42 Every passer-by has despoiled him;
he has become a laughingstock to his neighbors.
43 [z]You have exalted the right hand of his foes
and caused all his enemies to rejoice.
44 You have driven back his drawn sword
and left him to fight without your support.
45 You have put an end to his glory
and toppled his throne to the ground.
46 You have curtailed the time of his youth[aa]
and enveloped him in shame. Selah
47 [ab]How long, O Lord? Will you remain hidden forever?
How long[ac] will your wrath blaze like a fire?
48 Remember how brief is my span of life
and how weak you have made all mortals.
49 Who can live and never experience death?
Who can save himself from the power of the netherworld? Selah
50 [ad]Where is your kindness of old, O Lord,
which you swore to David in your faithfulness?
51 Remember, O Lord, the insults hurled at your servant;
recall how I have borne in my heart the slanders of all the peoples.
52 Your enemies have leveled insults at us, O Lord;
they have taunted the footsteps of your anointed one.
53 Blessed be the Lord forever.
Amen! Amen![ae]
Chapter 49
Jacob’s Predictions for His Sons.[a] 1 Jacob then summoned his sons and said, “Gather together so that I can tell you what will happen to you in future days.
2 “Gather and listen, sons of Jacob,
listen to Israel, your father.
3 “Reuben, you are the firstborn,
my strength and the firstfruit of my might,
excelling in dignity and excelling in power.
4 Unstable as water, you shall not have preeminence
because you invaded your father’s bed
and defiled my couch
upon which you climbed.
5 “Simeon and Levi are brothers;
their swords are implements of violence.
6 Let my soul not come into their council
nor my heart into their assembly,
for they have killed men with anger
and they maimed oxen as they pleased.
7 Cursed be their anger, for it is fierce,
and their wrath, for it is cruel.
I will divide them in Jacob
and disperse them in Israel.
8 “Judah, your brothers shall praise you.
Your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies.
The sons of your father shall bow down before you.
9 A young lion is Judah.
From the prey, my son, you have turned.
He crouches like a lion,
and like a lioness;
who dares to rouse him?
10 The scepter shall not depart from Judah
nor the mace from between his feet,
until it comes to whom it belongs,
and the obedience of the peoples is his.
11 He tethers his colt to the vine,
and to a choice vine the colt of his donkey.
He washes his garments in wine,
and in the blood of the grapes his clothes.
12 His eyes are darker than wine,
and his teeth whiter than milk.
13 “Zebulun shall dwell along the sea,
and he shall be a haven to ships
and shall border upon Sidon.
14 “Issachar is a strong-boned donkey
crouching between two saddlebags.
15 He saw that his resting place was good
and his land was pleasant
so he bent down his shoulder to bear the burden
and became a toiling servant.
16 “Dan shall judge his people
as one of the tribes of Israel.
17 Dan will be like a serpent by the wayside,
an adder by the path,
that bites the heels of horses
and its horsemen fall backward.
18 “I hope in your salvation, O Lord.
19 “Gad shall be attacked by raiders,
but he shall raid them in return.
20 “Asher’s food is rich,
and he shall provide delicacies for the king.
21 “Naphtali is a doe let loose;
he brings forth beautiful words.
22 “Joseph is a fruitful vine,
a fruitful vine near a spring,
whose branches run over the wall.
23 They have grieved him and attacked him,
archers have persecuted him,
24 but his bow is strong,
and the hands of his arms were made strong
by the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob,
because of the Shepherd, the Rock of Israel.
25 From the God of your father who helps you
and God Almighty
who blesses you with blessings from the heavens above,
blessings of the deep that lie below,
blessings of breasts and womb.
26 The blessings of your father,
are mighty beyond the blessings of the eternal mountains,
the boundaries of the everlasting hills;
may they come upon the head of Joseph
upon the crown of the head of the prince among his brothers.
27 “Benjamin is a ravenous wolf.
In the morning he devours his prey;
in the evening he divides his spoil.”
28 All these make up the twelve tribes of Israel. This is what their father told them, blessing them. He blessed each one with his own blessing.
14 The Eucharist Versus Pagan Sacrifices.[a] Therefore, my dear friends, avoid idolatry at all costs.[b] 15 I am talking to you as sensible people. Judge for yourselves what I say. 16 The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a sharing in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a sharing in the body of Christ? 17 Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread.
18 Consider the people of Israel.[c] Are not those who eat the sacrifices participants in the altar? 19 What then am I implying? That meat sacrificed to idols is anything, or that an idol is anything?
20 No, I simply mean that pagan sacrifices are offered to demons, not to God, and I do not want you to become partners with demons. 21 You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons. 22 Do we truly wish to provoke the Lord to jealous anger?[d] Are we stronger than he is?
23 Concerning Idol Offerings.“All things are lawful,” you may say—but not all things are beneficial. All things may be lawful—but not all things are constructive. 24 No one should seek his own advantage in preference to that of his neighbor. 25 You may eat whatever meat is sold in the market without raising questions on grounds of conscience, 26 for “the earth and all it contains belong to the Lord.”
27 If an unbeliever invites you to a meal and you decide to accept, eat whatever is set before you without raising any questions on the grounds of conscience. 28 However, if someone says to you, “This food was offered in sacrifice,” then do not eat it, out of consideration for the one who informed you and for the sake of conscience— 29 I mean the other person’s conscience, not your own. For why should my freedom be governed by someone else’s conscience? 30 If I partake of the meal with thankfulness, why should I be criticized for eating food for which I give thanks?
31 Give No Offense. Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do everything for the glory of God. 32 Give no offense to Jews or to Greeks or to the Church of God, 33 just as I try to please everyone in everything I do, not seeking my own good but that of the many, so that they may be saved.
Chapter 11
1 Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.
24 The Faith of a Gentile Woman.[a] He moved on from that place to the region of Tyre. He went into a house and did not want anyone to know he was there, but he was not able to avoid being recognized. 25 Almost immediately, a woman whose daughter was possessed by an unclean spirit heard about him and hastened to fall down at his feet. 26 The woman was a Gentile of Syrophoenician origin, and she begged him to drive the demon out of her daughter.
27 Jesus said to her, “Let the children be fed first. For it is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.” 28 She replied, “Yes, Lord; but even the dogs under the table eat the scraps from the children.” 29 Then Jesus said to her, “For saying this, you may go. The demon has gone out of your daughter.” 30 And when she returned home, she found the child lying in bed and the demon gone.
31 Jesus Heals a Deaf Man.[b] Returning from the region of Tyre, Jesus traveled by way of Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, and into the region of the Decapolis. 32 Thereupon people brought to him a deaf man who had a speech impediment and begged him to lay his hand on him. 33 He took him aside, away from the crowd, and put his fingers into the man’s ears and, spitting, touched his tongue. 34 Then, looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, “Ephphatha!” which means, “Be opened!” 35 At once, the man’s ears were opened, his tongue was loosened, and he spoke properly.
36 Then he ordered them not to tell anyone, but the more he ordered them not to do so, the more widely they proclaimed it. 37 Their astonishment was beyond measure. “He has done all things well,” they said. “He even makes the deaf able to hear and the mute able to speak.”
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