Book of Common Prayer
The Glories of the Messiah and His Bride
To the Chief Musician. (A)Set to [a]“The Lilies.” A [b]Contemplation of the sons of Korah. A Song of Love.
45 My heart is overflowing with a good theme;
I recite my composition concerning the King;
My tongue is the pen of a [c]ready writer.
2 You are fairer than the sons of men;
(B)Grace is poured upon Your lips;
Therefore God has blessed You forever.
3 [d]Gird Your (C)sword upon Your thigh, (D)O Mighty One,
With Your (E)glory and Your majesty.
4 (F)And in Your majesty ride prosperously because of truth, humility, and righteousness;
And Your right hand shall teach You awesome things.
5 Your arrows are sharp in the heart of the King’s enemies;
The peoples fall under You.
6 (G)Your throne, O God, is forever and ever;
A (H)scepter of righteousness is the scepter of Your kingdom.
7 You love righteousness and hate wickedness;
Therefore God, Your God, has (I)anointed You
With the oil of (J)gladness more than Your companions.
8 All Your garments are (K)scented with myrrh and aloes and cassia,
Out of the ivory palaces, by which they have made You glad.
9 (L)Kings’ daughters are among Your honorable women;
(M)At Your right hand stands the queen in gold from Ophir.
10 Listen, O daughter,
Consider and incline your ear;
(N)Forget your own people also, and your father’s house;
11 So the King will greatly desire your beauty;
(O)Because He is your Lord, worship Him.
12 And the daughter of Tyre will come with a gift;
(P)The rich among the people will seek your favor.
13 The royal daughter is all glorious within the palace;
Her clothing is woven with gold.
14 (Q)She shall be brought to the King in robes of many colors;
The virgins, her companions who follow her, shall be brought to You.
15 With gladness and rejoicing they shall be brought;
They shall enter the King’s palace.
Praise to God, the Ruler of the Earth
To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of the sons of Korah.
47 Oh, clap your hands, all you peoples!
Shout to God with the voice of triumph!
2 For the Lord Most High is awesome;
He is a great (A)King over all the earth.
3 (B)He will subdue the peoples under us,
And the nations under our feet.
4 He will choose our (C)inheritance for us,
The excellence of Jacob whom He loves. Selah
5 (D)God has gone up with a shout,
The Lord with the sound of a trumpet.
6 Sing praises to God, sing praises!
Sing praises to our King, sing praises!
7 (E)For God is the King of all the earth;
(F)Sing praises with understanding.
8 (G)God reigns over the nations;
God (H)sits on His (I)holy throne.
9 The princes of the people have gathered together,
(J)The people of the God of Abraham.
(K)For the shields of the earth belong to God;
He is greatly exalted.
The Glory of God in Zion
A Song. A Psalm of the sons of Korah.
48 Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised
In the (L)city of our God,
In His holy mountain.
2 (M)Beautiful in [a]elevation,
The joy of the whole earth,
Is Mount Zion on the sides of the north,
The city of the great King.
3 God is in her palaces;
He is known as her refuge.
4 For behold, (N)the kings assembled,
They passed by together.
5 They saw it, and so they marveled;
They were troubled, they hastened away.
6 Fear (O)took hold of them there,
And pain, as of a woman in birth pangs,
7 As when You break the (P)ships of Tarshish
With an east wind.
8 As we have heard,
So we have seen
In the city of the Lord of hosts,
In the city of our God:
God will (Q)establish it forever. Selah
16 For there is (A)no more remembrance of the wise than of the fool forever,
Since all that now is will be forgotten in the days to come.
And how does a wise man die?
As the fool!
17 Therefore I hated life because the work that was done under the sun was distressing to me, for all is vanity and grasping for the wind.
18 Then I hated all my labor in which I had toiled under the sun, because (B)I must leave it to the man who will come after me. 19 And who knows whether he will be wise or a fool? Yet he will rule over all my labor in which I toiled and in which I have shown myself wise under the sun. This also is vanity. 20 Therefore I turned my heart and despaired of all the labor in which I had toiled under the sun. 21 For there is a man whose labor is with wisdom, knowledge, and skill; yet he must leave his [a]heritage to a man who has not labored for it. This also is vanity and a great evil. 22 (C)For what has man for all his labor, and for the striving of his heart with which he has toiled under the sun? 23 For all his days are (D)sorrowful, and his work burdensome; even in the night his heart takes no rest. This also is vanity.
24 (E)Nothing is better for a man than that he should eat and drink, and that his soul should enjoy good in his labor. This also, I saw, was from the hand of God. 25 For who can eat, or who can have enjoyment, [b]more than I? 26 For God gives (F)wisdom and knowledge and joy to a man who is good in His sight; but to the sinner He gives the work of gathering and collecting, that (G)he may give to him who is good before God. This also is vanity and grasping for the wind.
Contacts at Jerusalem(A)
18 Then after three years (B)I went up to Jerusalem to see [a]Peter, and remained with him fifteen days. 19 But (C)I saw none of the other apostles except (D)James, the Lord’s brother. 20 (Now concerning the things which I write to you, indeed, before God, I do not lie.)
21 (E)Afterward I went into the regions of Syria and Cilicia. 22 And I was unknown by face to the churches of Judea which (F)were in Christ. 23 But they were (G)hearing only, “He who formerly (H)persecuted us now preaches the faith which he once tried to destroy.” 24 And they (I)glorified God in me.
Defending the Gospel(J)
2 Then after fourteen years (K)I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, and also took Titus with me. 2 And I went up [b]by revelation, and communicated to them that gospel which I preach among the Gentiles, but (L)privately to those who were of reputation, lest by any means (M)I might run, or had run, in vain. 3 Yet not even Titus who was with me, being a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised. 4 And this occurred because of (N)false brethren secretly brought in (who came in by stealth to spy out our (O)liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, (P)that they might bring us into bondage), 5 to whom we did not yield submission even for an hour, that (Q)the truth of the gospel might continue with you.
6 But from those (R)who seemed to be something—whatever they were, it makes no difference to me; (S)God [c]shows personal favoritism to no man—for those who seemed to be something (T)added nothing to me. 7 But on the contrary, (U)when they saw that the gospel for the uncircumcised (V)had been committed to me, as the gospel for the circumcised was to Peter 8 (for He who worked effectively in Peter for the apostleship to the (W)circumcised (X)also (Y)worked effectively in me toward the Gentiles), 9 and when James, [d]Cephas, and John, who seemed to be (Z)pillars, perceived (AA)the grace that had been given to me, they gave me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship, (AB)that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised. 10 They desired only that we should remember the poor, (AC)the very thing which I also was eager to do.
Jesus Rejected at Nazareth(A)
53 Now it came to pass, when Jesus had finished these parables, that He departed from there. 54 (B)When He had come to His own country, He taught them in their synagogue, so that they were astonished and said, “Where did this Man get this wisdom and these mighty works? 55 (C)Is this not the carpenter’s son? Is not His mother called Mary? And (D)His brothers (E)James, [a]Joses, Simon, and Judas? 56 And His sisters, are they not all with us? Where then did this Man get all these things?” 57 So they (F)were offended at Him.
But Jesus said to them, (G)“A prophet is not without honor except in his own country and in his own house.” 58 Now (H)He did not do many mighty works there because of their unbelief.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.