Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 26
A song of David.
1 Declare my innocence, O Eternal One!
I have walked blamelessly down this path.
I placed my trust in the Eternal and have yet to stumble.
2 Put me on trial and examine me, O Eternal One!
Search me through and through—from my deepest longings to every thought that crosses my mind.
3 Your unfailing love is always before me;
I have journeyed down Your path of truth.
A great theme throughout the psalms is the experience of coming before God. This Davidic psalm affirms the integrity of the worshiper before the Lord even while pleading for God’s mercy.
4 My life is not wasted among liars;
my days are not spent among cheaters.
5 I despise every crowd intent on evil;
I do not commune with the wicked.
6 I wash my hands in the fountain of innocence
so that I might join the gathering that surrounds Your altar, O Eternal One.
7 From my soul, I will join the songs of thanksgiving;
I will sing and proclaim Your wonder and mystery.
8 Your house, home to Your glory, O Eternal One, radiates its light.
I am fixed on this place and long to be nowhere else.
9 When Your wrath pursues those who oppose You,
those swift to sin and thirsty for blood,
spare my soul and grant me life.
10 These men hold deceit in their left hands,
and in their right hands, bribery and lies.
11 But God, I have walked blamelessly down this path,
and this is my plea for redemption.
This is my cry for Your mercy.
12 Here I stand secure and confident
before all the people; I will praise the Eternal.
Psalm 28
A song of David.
1 Eternal One, I am calling out to You;
You are the foundation of my life. Please, don’t turn Your ear from me.
If You respond to my pleas with silence,
I will lose all hope like those silenced by death’s grave.
2 Listen to my voice.
You will hear me begging for Your help
With my hands lifted up in prayer,
my body turned toward Your holy home.
This Davidic psalm pleads with God to spare him and repay his enemies. It would be difficult to locate this psalm in any one event. During his life David faced many threats from different enemies; not only were these threats from outside his realm, but some of his most difficult challenges came from inside his own family.
3 I beg You; don’t punish me with the most heinous men.
They spend their days doing evil.
Even when they engage their neighbors in pleasantness,
they are scheming against them.
4 Pay them back for their deeds;
hold them accountable for their malice.
Give them what they deserve.
5 Because these are people who have no respect for You, O Eternal,
they ignore everything You have done.
So He will tear them down with His powerful hands;
never will they be built again.
6 The Eternal should be honored and revered;
He has heard my cries for help.
7 The Eternal is the source of my strength and the shield that guards me.
When I learn to rest and truly trust Him,
He sends His help. This is why my heart is singing!
I open my mouth to praise Him, and thankfulness rises as song.
8 The Eternal gives life and power to all His chosen ones;
to His anointed He is a sturdy fortress.
9 Rescue Your people, and bring prosperity to Your legacy;
may they know You as a shepherd, carrying them at all times.
Psalm 36
For the worship leader. A song of David, the Eternal’s servant.
1 Sin speaks in the depths of the soul
of those who oppose God; they listen closely to its urgings.
You’ll never see the fear of God
in their eyes,
2 For they flatter themselves—
convinced their sin will remain secret, undiscovered, and so unhated.
3 They speak words of evil and deceit.
Wisdom and goodness, they deserted long ago.
4 Even as they sleep, they are plotting mischief.
They journey along a path far from anything good,
gravitating to trouble, welcoming evil.
5 Your love, O Eternal One, towers high into the heavens.
Even the skies are lower than Your faithfulness.
6 Your justice is like the majestic mountains.
Your judgments are as deep as the oceans, and yet in Your greatness,
You, O Eternal, offer life for every person and animal.
7 Your strong love, O True God, is precious.
All people run for shelter under the shadow of Your wings.
8 In Your house, they eat and are full at Your table.
They drink from the river of Your overflowing kindness.
9 You have the fountain of life that quenches our thirst.
Your light has opened our eyes and awakened our souls.
10 May Your love continue to grow deeply in the lives of all who know You.
May Your salvation reach every heart committed to do right.
11 Give me shelter from prideful feet that hunt me down
and wicked hands that push me from Your path.
12 It is there, far away from You, that the wicked will be forced down,
face to the earth, never again returning to their feet.
Psalm 39
For the worship leader, Jeduthun.[a] A song of David.
As an individual lament, Psalm 39 grieves over the brevity of life. The superscription recalls David’s appointment of Jeduthun as one of the tabernacle’s leading musicians (1 Chronicles 16:41–42).
1 I promised, “I’ll be careful on life’s journey
not to sin with my words;
I’ll seal my lips
when wicked people are around.”
2 I kept my mouth shut;
I had nothing to say—not even anything good—
which came to grieve me more and more.
3 I felt my heart become hot inside me
as I thought on these things; a fire ignited and burned.
Then I said,
4 “Eternal One, let me understand my end
and how brief my earthly existence is;
help me realize my life is fleeting.
5 You have determined the length of my days,
and my life is nothing compared to You.
Even the longest life is only a breath.”
[pause][b]
6 In truth, each of us journeys through life like a shadow.
We busy ourselves accomplishing nothing, piling up assets we can never keep;
We can’t even know who will end up with those things.
7 In light of all this, Lord, what am I really waiting for?
You are my hope.
8 Keep me from all the wrong I would do;
don’t let the foolish laugh at me.
9 I am quiet; I keep my mouth closed
because this has come from You.
10 Take Your curse from me;
I can’t endure Your punishment.
11 You discipline us for our sins.
Like a moth, You consume everything we treasure;
it’s evident we are merely a breath.
[pause]
12 Hear me, O Eternal One;
listen to my pleading,
and don’t ignore my tears
Because I am estranged from You—
a wanderer like my fathers before me.
13 Look away from me so I might have a chance to recover my joy and smile again
before I lay this life down and am no more.
10 Then Amaziah, the priest at the royal shrine in Bethel, sent word to Jeroboam, king of Israel.
Amaziah’s Message: Amos is plotting conspiracy against you in the very heart of the land of Israel. You must act. The land cannot bear any more of his speeches. 11 For this is what Amos is saying:
Amos: Jeroboam is going to die by the sword,
and the people of Israel will be captured and led away into exile far from home.
Amaziah’s Message: 12 I told Amos, “Listen, seer—run for the land of Judah; earn your living and spread your prophesies there, 13 but don’t ever show your face and try to prophesy at Bethel again because it is the king’s sanctuary and a temple for this kingdom.”
14 But Amos persisted.
Amos: I am not a professional prophet, or even the son of one. You shouldn’t be afraid of me; I am just a man who followed my herds and gathered the fruit from the sycamores 15 until the Eternal spoke to me, as I was minding my flock.
Eternal One: Go and speak My words to the people of Israel!
16 So now listen to what the Eternal has to say, you who say,
“Don’t prophesy against Israel,
Or predict the downfall of Isaac’s descendants.”
17 The Eternal One says this:
Eternal One: Your wife will be reduced to selling herself in the streets,
your sons and daughters will die by the sword,
your land will be measured out to others,
You yourself will end your days in an impure land,
and Israel will be sent into exile far from home.
9 I, John, your brother who shares with you this journey in persecution and the establishment of the Kingdom and endurance in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos because of the ministry of the word of God and my testimony about Jesus. 10 I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day (the first day of the week), and I heard a voice behind me. It sounded like the blast of a trumpet.
A Voice: 11 [I am the Alpha and the Omega, the very beginning and the very end.][a] Make a book of what you see, write it down, and send it to the seven churches [which are in Asia][b]: Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea.
12 When I turned around to see what sort of voice this was that was addressing me, I saw seven golden lampstands. 13 And among the lampstands, I saw One like the Son of Man right in front of me dressed in a long robe. Across His chest was draped a golden sash. 14 His head and hair were pure white, white as wool and white as snow; His eyes blazed like a fiery flame; 15 His feet gleamed like brightly polished bronze, purified to perfection in a furnace; His voice filled the air and sounded like a roaring waterfall. 16 He held seven stars in His right hand, from His mouth darted a sharp double-edged sword, and His face shone a brilliant light, like the blinding sun.
34 Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, a group of Pharisees met to consider new questions that might trip up Jesus. 35 A legal expert thought of one that would certainly stump Him.
Pharisees: 36 Teacher, of all the laws, which commandment is the greatest?
Jesus (quoting Scripture): 37 “Love the Eternal One your God with all your heart and all your soul and all your mind.”[a] 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is nearly as important, “Love your neighbor as yourself.”[b] 40 The rest of the law, and all the teachings of the prophets, are but variations on these themes.
41 Since the Pharisees were gathered together there, Jesus took the opportunity to pose a question of His own.
Jesus: 42 What do you think about the Anointed One? Whose Son is He?
Pharisees: But, of course, He is the Son of David.
Jesus: 43 Then how is it that David—whose words were surely shaped by the Spirit—calls Him “Lord”? For in his psalms David writes,
44 The Master said to my master
“Sit here at My right hand,
in the place of honor and power,
And I will gather Your enemies together,
lead them in on hands and knees,
and You will rest Your feet on their backs.”[c]
45 How can David call his own Son “Lord”?
46 No one had an answer to Jesus’ question. And from that day forward, no one asked Him anything.
The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.