Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 88
A Cry of Desperation
A song. A psalm of the sons of Korah. For the choir director: according to Mahalath Leannoth. A Maskil of Heman the Ezrahite.(A)
1 Lord, God of my salvation,
I cry out before you day and night.(B)
2 May my prayer reach your presence;
listen to my cry.(C)
3 For I have had enough troubles,
and my life is near Sheol.(D)
4 I am counted among those going down to the Pit.(E)
I am like a man without strength,(F)
5 abandoned[a] among the dead.
I am like the slain lying in the grave,(G)
whom you no longer remember,
and who are cut off from your care.[b](H)
6 You have put me in the lowest part of the Pit,
in the darkest places, in the depths.(I)
7 Your wrath weighs heavily on me;(J)
you have overwhelmed me with all your waves.(K)Selah
8 You have distanced my friends from me;
you have made me repulsive to them.(L)
I am shut in and cannot go out.
9 My eyes are worn out from crying.(M)
Lord, I cry out to you all day long;(N)
I spread out my hands to you.(O)
10 Do you work wonders for the dead?
Do departed spirits rise up to praise you?(P)Selah
11 Will your faithful love be declared in the grave,
your faithfulness in Abaddon?(Q)
12 Will your wonders be known in the darkness
or your righteousness in the land of oblivion?(R)
13 But I call to you for help, Lord;
in the morning my prayer meets you.(S)
14 Lord, why do you reject me?(T)
Why do you hide your face from me?(U)
15 From my youth,
I have been suffering and near death.
I suffer your horrors; I am desperate.(V)
16 Your wrath sweeps over me;
your terrors destroy me.(W)
17 They surround me like water all day long;
they close in on me from every side.(X)
18 You have distanced loved one and neighbor from me;
darkness is my only friend.[c](Y)
Psalm 91
The Protection of the Most High
1 The one who lives under the protection of the Most High
dwells in the shadow of the Almighty.(A)
2 I will say[a] concerning the Lord, who is my refuge and my fortress,
my God in whom I trust:(B)
3 He himself will rescue you from the bird trap,(C)
from the destructive plague.
4 He will cover you with his feathers;
you will take refuge under his wings.(D)
His faithfulness will be a protective shield.(E)
5 You will not fear the terror of the night,
the arrow that flies by day,(F)
6 the plague that stalks in darkness,
or the pestilence that ravages at noon.(G)
7 Though a thousand fall at your side
and ten thousand at your right hand,
the pestilence will not reach you.(H)
8 You will only see it with your eyes
and witness the punishment of the wicked.(I)
9 Because you have made the Lord—my refuge,(J)
the Most High—your dwelling place,(K)
10 no harm will come to you;
no plague will come near your tent.(L)
11 For he will give his angels orders concerning you,
to protect you in all your ways.(M)
12 They will support you with their hands
so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.(N)
13 You will tread on the lion and the cobra;
you will trample the young lion and the serpent.(O)
14 Because he has his heart set on me,
I will deliver him;
I will protect him because he knows my name.(P)
15 When he calls out to me, I will answer him;
I will be with him in trouble.
I will rescue him and give him honor.(Q)
16 I will satisfy him with a long life(R)
and show him my salvation.(S)
Psalm 92
God’s Love and Faithfulness
A psalm. A song for the Sabbath day.
1 It is good to give thanks to the Lord,
to sing praise to your name, Most High,(T)
2 to declare your faithful love in the morning
and your faithfulness at night,(U)
3 with a ten-stringed harp[b]
and the music of a lyre.(V)
4 For you have made me rejoice, Lord,
by what you have done;
I will shout for joy
because of the works of your hands.(W)
5 How magnificent are your works, Lord,
how profound your thoughts!(X)
6 A stupid person does not know,
a fool does not understand this:(Y)
7 though the wicked sprout like grass(Z)
and all evildoers flourish,
they will be eternally destroyed.(AA)
8 But you, Lord, are exalted forever.(AB)
9 For indeed, Lord, your enemies—
indeed, your enemies will perish;
all evildoers will be scattered.(AC)
10 You have lifted up my horn(AD)
like that of a wild ox;
I have been anointed[c] with the finest oil.(AE)
11 My eyes look at my enemies;
when evildoers rise against me,
my ears hear them.(AF)
12 The righteous thrive like a palm tree
and grow like a cedar tree in Lebanon.(AG)
13 Planted in the house of the Lord,
they thrive in the courts of our God.(AH)
14 They will still bear fruit in old age,
healthy and green,(AI)
15 to declare, “The Lord is just;
he is my rock,
and there is no unrighteousness in him.”(AJ)
God’s Promise of His Spirit
28 After this(A)
I will pour out my Spirit(B) on all humanity;(C)
then your sons and your daughters will prophesy,
your old men will have dreams,
and your young men will see visions.
29 I will even pour out my Spirit
on the male and female slaves in those days.(D)
30 I will display wonders
in the heavens and on the earth:(E)
blood, fire, and columns of smoke.
31 The sun will be turned to darkness
and the moon to blood(F)
before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes.(G)
32 Then everyone who calls
on the name of the Lord will be saved,(H)
for there will be an escape
for those on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem,
as the Lord promised,(I)
among the survivors the Lord calls.
Judgment of the Nations
3 Yes, in those days and at that time,
when I restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem,(J)
2 I will gather all the nations(K)
and take them to the Valley of Jehoshaphat.[a](L)
I will enter into judgment with them there(M)
because of my people, my inheritance Israel.
The nations have scattered the Israelites
in foreign countries(N)
and divided up my land.(O)
3 They cast lots for my people;(P)
they bartered a boy for a prostitute
and sold a girl for wine to drink.(Q)
4 And also: Tyre,(R) Sidon, and all the territories of Philistia(S)—what are you to me? Are you paying me back or trying to get even with me? I will quickly bring retribution on your heads.(T) 5 For you took my silver and gold and carried my finest treasures(U) to your temples. 6 You sold the people of Judah and Jerusalem to the Greeks(V) to remove them far from their own territory. 7 Look, I am about to rouse them up from the place where you sold them;(W) I will bring retribution on your heads. 8 I will sell your sons and daughters to the people of Judah,(X) and they will sell them to the Sabeans,[b](Y) to a distant nation, for the Lord has spoken.
16 Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers and sisters.(A) 17 Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.(B) 18 By his own choice, he gave us birth by the word of truth so that we would be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.(C)
Hearing and Doing the Word
19 My dear brothers and sisters, understand this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger,(D) 20 for human anger does not accomplish God’s righteousness. 21 Therefore, ridding yourselves of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent,[a] humbly receive the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.(E)
22 But(F) be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. 23 Because if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like someone looking at his own face[b] in a mirror. 24 For he looks at himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of person he was. 25 But the one who looks intently into the perfect law of freedom and perseveres in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer who works—this person will be blessed in what he does.(G)
26 If anyone[c] thinks he is religious without controlling his tongue,(H) his religion is useless and he deceives himself. 27 Pure and undefiled religion before God the Father is this: to look after orphans and widows(I) in their distress and to keep oneself unstained from the world.(J)
The Parable of the Dishonest Manager
16 Now he said to the disciples, “There was a rich(A) man who received an accusation that his manager(B) was squandering(C) his possessions. 2 So he called the manager in and asked, ‘What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your management,(D) because you can no longer be my manager.’
3 “Then the manager said to himself, ‘What will I do since my master is taking the management away from me? I’m not strong enough to dig; I’m ashamed to beg. 4 I know what I’ll do so that when I’m removed from management, people will welcome me into their homes.’
5 “So he summoned each one of his master’s debtors. ‘How much do you owe my master?’ he asked the first one.
6 “‘A hundred measures of olive oil,’ he said.
“‘Take your invoice,’ he told him, ‘sit down quickly, and write fifty.’
7 “Next he asked another, ‘How much do you owe?’
“‘A hundred measures of wheat,’ he said.
“‘Take your invoice,’ he told him, ‘and write eighty.’
8 “The master praised the unrighteous manager(E) because he had acted shrewdly. For the children of this age(F) are more shrewd than the children of light(G) in dealing with their own people.[a] 9 And I tell you, make friends(H) for yourselves by means of worldly wealth[b](I) so that when it fails, they may welcome you into eternal dwellings.
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