Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 50
The Acceptable Sacrifice
A Psalm of Asaph.
1 The mighty one, God the Lord,
speaks and summons the earth
from the rising of the sun to its setting.(A)
2 Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty,
God shines forth.(B)
3 Our God comes and does not keep silent;
before him is a devouring fire
and a mighty tempest all around him.(C)
4 He calls to the heavens above
and to the earth, that he may judge his people:(D)
5 “Gather to me my faithful ones,
who made a covenant with me by sacrifice!”(E)
6 The heavens declare his righteousness,
for God himself is judge. Selah(F)
7 “Hear, O my people, and I will speak,
O Israel, I will testify against you.
I am God, your God.(G)
8 Not for your sacrifices do I rebuke you;
your burnt offerings are continually before me.(H)
9 I will not accept a bull from your house
or goats from your folds.(I)
10 For every wild animal of the forest is mine,
the cattle on a thousand hills.(J)
11 I know all the birds of the air,[a]
and all that moves in the field is mine.
12 “If I were hungry, I would not tell you,
for the world and all that is in it is mine.(K)
13 Do I eat the flesh of bulls
or drink the blood of goats?
14 Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving,[b]
and pay your vows to the Most High.(L)
15 Call on me in the day of trouble;
I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me.”(M)
16 But to the wicked God says,
“What right have you to recite my statutes
or take my covenant on your lips?(N)
17 For you hate discipline,
and you cast my words behind you.(O)
18 You make friends with a thief when you see one,
and you keep company with adulterers.(P)
19 You give your mouth free rein for evil,
and your tongue frames deceit.
20 You sit and speak against your kin;
you slander your own mother’s child.(Q)
21 These things you have done, and I have been silent;
you thought that I was one just like yourself.
But now I rebuke you and lay the charge before you.(R)
Psalm 59
Prayer for Deliverance from Enemies
To the leader: Do Not Destroy. Of David. A Miktam, when Saul ordered his house to be watched in order to kill him.
1 Deliver me from my enemies, O my God;
protect me from those who rise up against me.(A)
2 Deliver me from those who work evil;
from the bloodthirsty, save me.(B)
3 Even now they lie in wait for my life;
the mighty stir up strife against me.
For no transgression or sin of mine, O Lord,(C)
4 for no fault of mine, they run and make ready.
Rouse yourself, come to my help and see!(D)
5 You, Lord God of hosts, are God of Israel.
Awake to punish all the nations;
spare none of those who treacherously plot evil. Selah(E)
6 Each evening they come back
howling like dogs
and prowling about the city.(F)
7 There they are, bellowing with their mouths,
with sharp words[a] on their lips,
for “Who,” they think,[b] “will hear us?”(G)
8 But you laugh at them, O Lord;
you hold all the nations in derision.(H)
9 O my strength, I will watch for you,
for you, O God, are my fortress.(I)
10 My God in his steadfast love will meet me;
my God will let me look in triumph on my enemies.(J)
11 Do not kill them, or my people may forget;
make them totter by your power and bring them down,
O Lord, our shield.(K)
12 For the sin of their mouths, the words of their lips,
let them be trapped in their pride.
For the cursing and lies that they utter,(L)
13 consume them in wrath;
consume them until they are no more.
Then it will be known to the ends of the earth
that God rules over Jacob. Selah(M)
14 Each evening they come back
howling like dogs
and prowling about the city.(N)
15 They roam about for food
and growl if they do not get their fill.
16 But I will sing of your might;
I will sing aloud of your steadfast love in the morning.
For you have been a fortress for me
and a refuge in the day of my distress.(O)
17 O my strength, I will sing praises to you,
for you, O God, are my fortress,
the God who shows me steadfast love.(P)
Psalm 60
Prayer for National Victory after Defeat
To the leader: according to the Lily of the Covenant. A Miktam of David; for instruction; when he struggled with Aram-naharaim and with Aram-zobah, and when Joab on his return killed twelve thousand Edomites in the Valley of Salt.
1 O God, you have rejected us, broken our defenses;
you have been angry; now restore us!(Q)
2 You have caused the land to quake; you have torn it open;
repair the cracks in it, for it is tottering.(R)
3 You have made your people suffer hard things;
you have given us wine to drink that made us reel.(S)
4 You have set up a banner for those who fear you,
to rally to it out of bowshot.[c] Selah(T)
5 Give victory with your right hand and answer us,[d]
so that those whom you love may be rescued.(U)
Psalm 114
God’s Wonders at the Exodus
1 [a]When Israel went out from Egypt,
the house of Jacob from a people of strange language,(A)
2 Judah became God’s[b] sanctuary,
Israel his dominion.(B)
3 The sea looked and fled;
Jordan turned back.(C)
4 The mountains skipped like rams,
the hills like lambs.(D)
5 Why is it, O sea, that you flee?
O Jordan, that you turn back?
6 O mountains, that you skip like rams?
O hills, like lambs?
7 Tremble, O earth, at the presence of the Lord,
at the presence of the God of Jacob,(E)
8 who turns the rock into a pool of water,
the flint into a spring of water.(F)
Psalm 115
The Impotence of Idols and the Greatness of God
1 [c]Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name give glory,
for the sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness.(G)
2 Why should the nations say,
“Where is their God?”(H)
3 Our God is in the heavens;
he does whatever he pleases.(I)
4 Their idols are silver and gold,
the work of human hands.(J)
5 They have mouths, but they do not speak;
they have eyes, but they do not see.
6 They have ears, but they do not hear;
they have noses, but they do not smell.
7 They have hands, but they do not feel;
they have feet, but they do not walk;
they make no sound in their throats.
8 Those who make them are like them;
so are all who trust in them.(K)
9 O Israel, trust in the Lord!
He is their help and their shield.(L)
10 O house of Aaron, trust in the Lord!
He is their help and their shield.
11 You who fear the Lord, trust in the Lord!
He is their help and their shield.(M)
12 The Lord has been mindful of us; he will bless us;
he will bless the house of Israel;
he will bless the house of Aaron;
13 he will bless those who fear the Lord,
both small and great.
9 “All those things have vanished like a shadow
and like a rumor that passes by;(A)
10 like a ship that sails through the billowy water,
and when it has passed no trace can be found,
no track of its keel in the waves;(B)
11 or as, when a bird flies through the air,
no evidence of its passage is found;
the light air, lashed by the beat of its pinions
and pierced by the force of its rushing flight,
is traversed by the movement of its wings,
and afterward no sign of its coming is found there;(C)
12 or as, when an arrow is shot at a target,
the air, thus divided, comes together at once,
so that no one knows its pathway.(D)
13 So we also, as soon as we were born, ceased to be,
and we had no sign of virtue to show
but were consumed in our wickedness.”
14 Because the hope of the ungodly is like thistledown[a] carried by the wind
and like a light frost[b] driven away by a storm;
it is dispersed like smoke before the wind,
and it passes like the remembrance of a guest who stays but a day.(E)
The Reward of the Righteous
15 But the righteous live forever,
and their reward is with the Lord;
the Most High takes care of them.(F)
16 Therefore they will receive a glorious crown
and a beautiful diadem from the hand of the Lord,
because with his right hand he will cover them,
and with his arm he will shield them.(G)
17 The Lord[c] will take his zeal as his whole armor
and will arm all creation to repel[d] his enemies;(H)
18 he will put on righteousness as a breastplate
and wear impartial justice as a helmet;(I)
19 he will take holiness as an invincible shield(J)
20 and sharpen stern wrath for a sword,
and the world will join him to fight against the senseless.(K)
21 Shafts of lightning will fly with true aim
and will leap from the clouds to the target, as from a well-drawn bow,(L)
22 and hailstones full of wrath will be hurled as from a catapult;
the water of the sea will rage against them,
and rivers will relentlessly overwhelm them;(M)
23 a mighty wind will rise against them,
and like a tempest it will winnow them away.
Lawlessness will lay waste the whole earth,
and evildoing will overturn the thrones of rulers.(N)
8 Watch out that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental principles[a] of the world, and not according to Christ.(A) 9 For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, 10 and you have come to fullness in him, who is the head of every ruler and authority.(B) 11 In him also you were circumcised with a spiritual circumcision,[b] by the removal of the body[c] of the flesh in the circumcision of Christ;(C) 12 when you were buried with him in baptism, you were also raised with him through faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead.(D) 13 And when you were dead in trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God[d] made you[e] alive together with him, when he forgave us all our trespasses,(E) 14 erasing the record that stood against us with its legal demands. He set this aside, nailing it to the cross. 15 He disarmed[f] the rulers and authorities and made a public example of them, triumphing over them in it.(F)
16 Therefore, do not let anyone condemn you in matters of food or[g] drink or of observing festivals, new moons, or Sabbaths.(G) 17 These are only a shadow of what is to come, but the body belongs to Christ. 18 Do not let anyone disqualify you, insisting on self-abasement and worship of angels, initiatory visions,[h] puffed up without cause by a human way of thinking,[i] 19 and not holding fast to the head, from whom the whole body, nourished and held together by its ligaments and tendons, grows with a growth that is from God.(H)
Warnings against False Teachers
20 If with Christ you died to the elemental principles[j] of the world, why do you live as if you still belonged to the world? Why do you submit to regulations,(I) 21 “Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!”? 22 All these regulations refer to things that perish with use; they are simply human commands and teachings.(J) 23 These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-imposed piety, humility, and severe treatment of the body, but they are of no value in checking self-indulgence.[k]
39 He also told them a parable: “Can a blind person guide a blind person? Will not both fall into a pit?(A) 40 A disciple is not above the teacher, but every disciple who is fully qualified will be like the teacher.(B) 41 Why do you see the speck in your neighbor’s eye but do not notice the log in your own eye? 42 Or how can you say to your neighbor, ‘Friend, let me take out the speck in your eye,’ when you yourself do not see the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your neighbor’s eye.
A Tree and Its Fruit
43 “No good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit;(C) 44 for each tree is known by its own fruit. For people do not gather figs from thorns, nor do they pick grapes from a bramble bush.(D) 45 The good person out of the good treasure of the heart produces good, and the evil person out of evil treasure produces evil, for it is out of the abundance of the heart that the mouth speaks.(E)
The Two Foundations
46 “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I tell you?(F) 47 I will show you what someone is like who comes to me, hears my words, and acts on them.(G) 48 That one is like a man building a house who dug deeply and laid the foundation on rock; when a flood arose, the river burst against that house but could not shake it because it had been well built.[a] 49 But the one who hears and does not act is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. When the river burst against it, it quickly collapsed, and great was the ruin of that house.”
New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.