Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 20[a]
Prayer in Praise of the Messiah King
1 For the director.[b] A psalm of David.
2 May the Lord answer you in times of trouble;
may the name[c] of the God of Jacob protect you.
3 May he send you help from the sanctuary
and grant you support from Zion.[d]
4 May he remember[e] all your sacrifices
and accept all your burnt offerings. Selah
5 May he give you your heart’s desire[f]
and grant you success in all your plans.
6 May we shout with joy over your victory
and lift up our banners in the name of our God.[g]
May the Lord grant your every request.
7 Now I know that the Lord will grant victory to his anointed;[h]
he will answer him from his holy heaven,
granting mighty victories with his right hand.
8 [i]Some trust in chariots, and some in horses,
but we trust in the name of the Lord, our God.
9 They will collapse and fall,
but we will rise up and stand firm.
10 O Lord, save the king,
and answer us when we call upon you.[j]
Psalm 21[k]
Thanksgiving for Messianic Blessings
1 For the director.[l] A psalm of David.
2 O Lord, the king rejoices in your strength;
your victories fill him with great joy.[m]
3 You have granted him the desire of his heart[n]
and not withheld from him the request of his lips. Selah
4 You welcomed him with choice blessings[o]
and placed a crown of pure gold upon his head.
5 He asked you for life, and you gave it to him,
length of days forever and ever.[p]
6 He has achieved great glory through your victory;
you have bestowed upon him splendor and majesty.[q]
7 You have conferred everlasting blessings[r] on him;
you gladdened him with the joy of your presence.
8 For the king places his trust in the Lord;
through the kindness[s] of the Most High he will not fall.
9 [t]Your hand will lay hold of all your enemies;
your right hand will overcome all your foes.
10 On the day when you appear,[u]
you will cast them into a fiery furnace.
The Lord’s anger will engulf them,
and fire will consume them.
11 You will blot out their descendants from the earth
and rid the human race of their posterity.[v]
12 They have devised wicked schemes against you,
but, plot though they may, they will not succeed.
13 For you will force them to retreat
when you aim your bows at them.
14 Be exalted, O Lord, in your strength;[w]
we will sing and praise your power.
Psalm 110[a]
The Messiah—King, Prophet, and Conqueror
1 A psalm of David.
The Lord says to my Lord:[b]
“Sit at my right hand
until I have made your enemies a footstool for you.”
2 The Lord will stretch forth from Zion
your scepter of power.[c]
The Lord says:
“Rule in the midst of your enemies![d]
3 Yours is royal dignity in the day of your birth;
in holy splendor, before the daystar,
like the dew, I have begotten you.”[e]
4 The Lord has sworn,
and he will not retract his oath:
“You are a priest forever[f]
according to the order of Melchizedek.”
5 The Lord stands forth at your right hand;[g]
he will crush kings on the day of his wrath.
6 He[h] will judge the nations,
filling their land with corpses
and crushing rulers throughout the earth.
7 He will drink from the stream on his journey,
and then he will lift up his head in triumph.[i]
Psalm 116[a]
Thanksgiving to God for Help Received
1 I love the Lord because he has heard my voice
and listened to my cry for mercy,[b]
2 because he has inclined his ear to me
on the day when I called out to him.[c]
3 The bonds of death[d] encompassed me;
the snares of the netherworld held me tightly.
I was seized by distress and sorrow.
4 Then I cried out in the name[e] of the Lord:
“O Lord, I entreat you to preserve my life.”
5 Gracious is the Lord and righteous;
our God is merciful.
6 The Lord watches over his little ones;[f]
when I was brought low, he saved me.
7 Be at peace once again, O my soul,
for the Lord has shown mercy to you.
8 He has delivered my soul[g] from death,
my eyes from tears,
and my feet from stumbling.
9 I will walk in the presence of the Lord
in the land of the living.[h]
10 I believed; therefore, I said,[i]
“I am greatly afflicted.”
11 In my dismay I cried out,
“All men are liars.”[j]
12 How can I repay the Lord
for all the good he has done for me?
13 I will lift up the cup of salvation[k]
and call on the name of the Lord.
14 I will fulfill my vows[l] to the Lord
in the presence of his people.
15 Precious in the eyes of the Lord
is the death[m] of his faithful ones.
16 O Lord, I am your servant.
I am your servant, the child of your handmaid;[n]
you have loosed my bonds.
17 I will offer you a sacrifice of thanksgiving
and call on the name of the Lord.
18 I will fulfill my vows to the Lord
in the presence of all his people,
19 in the courts of the house of the Lord,
in your midst, O Jerusalem.
Alleluia.[o]
Psalm 117[p]
Universal Praise of God
The Death of Moses
Chapter 34[a]
1 Moses climbed up from the plains of Moab to Mount Nebo,[b] the peak of Pisgah, that is opposite Jericho. The Lord showed him the entire land, from Gilead to Dan, 2 as well as all of Naphtali, the land of Ephraim and Manasseh, and all of the land of Judah up to the western sea, 3 the Negeb, the district of the Valley of Jericho, the city of palms, up to Zoar. 4 Then the Lord said to him, “This is the land that I promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob when I said, ‘I will give it to your descendants.’ I have let you see it with your own eyes, but you are not going to cross over into it.”
5 Moses, the servant of the Lord, died in the land of Moab, as the Lord had foretold. 6 He buried him[c] in the land of Moab, in the valley opposite Beth-peor, but up to the present no one knows where his grave is. 7 Moses was one hundred and twenty years old when he died. His eyesight was not weak, nor was his strength diminished.
8 The Israelites grieved for Moses on the plains of Moab for thirty days, until the prescribed period of weeping and mourning for Moses was over.
9 Now Joshua, the son of Nun, was filled with a spirit of wisdom, for Moses had laid his hands upon him. The Israelites obeyed him and did what the Lord had commanded Moses.
10 Never again has a prophet arisen in Israel like Moses who knew the Lord face to face, 11 who performed such miraculous signs and wonders that the Lord had sent him to do in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh and to his officials and to his entire land. 12 No one has had his mighty power or performed the great and terrible deeds that he did in the sight of all of Israel.
14 Not All Have Responded to the Good News. But how can they call on him if they have not come to believe in him? And how can they believe in someone about whom they have never heard? And how can they hear without someone to preach to them? 15 And how will there be people to preach if they are not sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who proclaim the good news!”
16 However, not all have accepted the good news. As Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed our message?” 17 So then, faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the word of Christ.
18 And so I ask: Have they not heard? Indeed, they have:
“Their voice has gone out all over the world,
and their words to the ends of the earth.”
19 Well then, I ask: Is it possible that Israel failed to understand? First Moses says:
“I will make you envious
of those who are not a nation.
I will rouse your anger
against a foolish nation.”
20 And Isaiah boldly states:
“I was found by those
who were not looking for me.
I have revealed myself to those
who never asked for me.”
21 But regarding Israel, he says:
“All day long I have stretched forth my hands
to a disobedient and rebellious people.”
Be Vigilant in Expectation of the End[a]
32 The Parable of the Fig Tree.[b]“Learn this lesson from the fig tree. As soon as its twigs become tender and its leaves begin to sprout, you know that summer is near. 33 In the same way, when you see all these things take place, know that he is near, at the very gates. 34 Amen, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place. 35 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.
36 The Day and Hour Unknown.[c]“As for the exact day and hour, no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. 37 For as it was in the days of Noah, so will it be at the coming of the Son of Man. 38 In the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and being given in marriage, up to the day that Noah entered the ark. 39 They knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and swept them all away.
“That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. 40 Two men will be out in the field; one will be taken and the other will be left. 41 Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken and the other will be left. 42 Therefore, keep watch, for you do not know the day when your Lord is coming.
43 The Parable of the Owner of the House.[d]“But keep this in mind: if the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and not allowed his house to be broken into. 44 Therefore, you must also be prepared, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.
45 The Parable of the Faithful Servant.[e]“Who, then, is the faithful and wise servant whom his master has put in charge of his household to give its members their food at the proper time? 46 Blessed is that servant if his master finds him doing so when he returns home. 47 Amen, I say to you, he will put him in charge of all his property.
48 “But if that servant is wicked and says to himself, ‘My master is detained,’ 49 and he proceeds to beat his fellow servants and eats and drinks with drunkards, 50 the master of that servant will return on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he does not know. 51 He will punish him and assign him a place with the hypocrites, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
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