Book of Common Prayer
The Blessing and Suffering of the Godly
To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David.
41 Blessed is he who considers the [a]poor;
The Lord will deliver him in time of trouble.
2 The Lord will preserve him and keep him alive,
And he will be blessed on the earth;
(A)You will not deliver him to the will of his enemies.
3 The Lord will strengthen him on his bed of illness;
You will [b]sustain him on his sickbed.
4 I said, “Lord, be merciful to me;
(B)Heal my soul, for I have sinned against You.”
5 My enemies speak evil of me:
“When will he die, and his name perish?”
6 And if he comes to see me, he speaks [c]lies;
His heart gathers iniquity to itself;
When he goes out, he tells it.
7 All who hate me whisper together against me;
Against me they [d]devise my hurt.
8 “An[e] evil disease,” they say, “clings to him.
And now that he lies down, he will rise up no more.”
9 (C)Even my own familiar friend in whom I trusted,
(D)Who ate my bread,
Has [f]lifted up his heel against me.
10 But You, O Lord, be merciful to me, and raise me up,
That I may repay them.
11 By this I know that You are well pleased with me,
Because my enemy does not triumph over me.
12 As for me, You uphold me in my integrity,
And (E)set me before Your face forever.
13 (F)Blessed be the Lord God of Israel
From everlasting to everlasting!
Amen and Amen.
The End of the Wicked and the Peace of the Godly
To the Chief Musician. A [a]Contemplation of David (A)when Doeg the Edomite went and (B)told Saul, and said to him, “David has gone to the house of Ahimelech.”
52 Why do you boast in evil, O mighty man?
The goodness of God endures continually.
2 Your tongue devises destruction,
Like a sharp razor, working deceitfully.
3 You love evil more than good,
Lying rather than speaking righteousness. Selah
4 You love all devouring words,
You deceitful tongue.
5 God shall likewise destroy you forever;
He shall take you away, and pluck you out of your dwelling place,
And uproot you from the land of the living. Selah
6 The righteous also shall see and fear,
And shall laugh at him, saying,
7 “Here is the man who did not make God his strength,
But trusted in the abundance of his riches,
And strengthened himself in his [b]wickedness.”
Redemption Remembered in Present Dishonor
To the Chief Musician. A (A)Contemplation[a] of the sons of Korah.
44 We have heard with our ears, O God,
(B)Our fathers have told us,
The deeds You did in their days,
In days of old:
2 (C)You drove out the [b]nations with Your hand,
But them You planted;
You afflicted the peoples, and cast them out.
3 For (D)they did not gain possession of the land by their own sword,
Nor did their own arm save them;
But it was Your right hand, Your arm, and the light of Your countenance,
(E)Because You favored them.
4 (F)You are my King, [c]O God;
[d]Command victories for Jacob.
5 Through You (G)we will push down our enemies;
Through Your name we will trample those who rise up against us.
6 For (H)I will not trust in my bow,
Nor shall my sword save me.
7 But You have saved us from our enemies,
And have put to shame those who hated us.
8 (I)In God we boast all day long,
And praise Your name forever. Selah
9 But (J)You have cast us off and put us to shame,
And You do not go out with our armies.
10 You make us (K)turn back from the enemy,
And those who hate us have taken [e]spoil for themselves.
11 (L)You have given us up like sheep intended for food,
And have (M)scattered us among the nations.
12 (N)You sell Your people for next to nothing,
And are not enriched by selling them.
13 (O)You make us a reproach to our neighbors,
A scorn and a derision to those all around us.
14 (P)You make us a byword among the nations,
(Q)A shaking of the head among the peoples.
15 My dishonor is continually before me,
And the shame of my face has covered me,
16 Because of the voice of him who reproaches and reviles,
(R)Because of the enemy and the avenger.
17 (S)All this has come upon us;
But we have not forgotten You,
Nor have we dealt falsely with Your covenant.
18 Our heart has not turned back,
(T)Nor have our steps departed from Your way;
19 But You have severely broken us in (U)the place of jackals,
And covered us (V)with the shadow of death.
11 “Beware that you do not forget the Lord your God by not keeping His commandments, His judgments, and His statutes which I command you today, 12 (A)lest—when you have eaten and are [a]full, and have built beautiful houses and dwell in them; 13 and when your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and your gold are [b]multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied; 14 (B)when your heart [c]is lifted up, and you (C)forget the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage; 15 who (D)led you through that great and terrible wilderness, (E)in which were fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty land where there was no water; (F)who brought water for you out of the flinty rock; 16 who fed you in the wilderness with (G)manna, which your fathers did not know, that He might humble you and that He might test you, (H)to do you good in the end— 17 then you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gained me this wealth.’
18 “And you shall remember the Lord your God, (I)for it is He who gives you power to get wealth, (J)that He may [d]establish His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as it is this day. 19 Then it shall be, if you by any means forget the Lord your God, and follow other gods, and serve them and worship them, (K)I testify against you this day that you shall surely perish. 20 As the nations which the Lord destroys before you, (L)so you shall perish, because you would not be obedient to the voice of the Lord your God.
11 For (A)both He who [a]sanctifies and those who are being sanctified (B)are all of one, for which reason (C)He is not ashamed to call them brethren, 12 saying:
(D)“I will declare Your name to My brethren;
In the midst of the assembly I will sing praise to You.”
13 And again:
(E)“I will put My trust in Him.”
And again:
(F)“Here am I and the children whom God has given Me.”
14 Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He (G)Himself likewise shared in the same, (H)that through death He might destroy him who had the power of (I)death, that is, the devil, 15 and release those who (J)through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. 16 For indeed He does not [b]give aid to angels, but He does [c]give aid to the seed of Abraham. 17 Therefore, in all things He had (K)to be made like His brethren, that He might be (L)a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. 18 (M)For in that He Himself has suffered, being [d]tempted, He is able to aid those who are tempted.
Water Turned to Wine
2 On the third day there was a (A)wedding in (B)Cana of Galilee, and the (C)mother of Jesus was there. 2 Now both Jesus and His disciples were invited to the wedding. 3 And when they ran out of wine, the mother of Jesus said to Him, “They have no wine.”
4 Jesus said to her, (D)“Woman, (E)what does your concern have to do with Me? (F)My hour has not yet come.”
5 His mother said to the servants, “Whatever He says to you, do it.”
6 Now there were set there six waterpots of stone, (G)according to the manner of purification of the Jews, containing twenty or thirty gallons apiece. 7 Jesus said to them, “Fill the waterpots with water.” And they filled them up to the brim. 8 And He said to them, “Draw some out now, and take it to the master of the feast.” And they took it. 9 When the master of the feast had tasted (H)the water that was made wine, and did not know where it came from (but the servants who had drawn the water knew), the master of the feast called the bridegroom. 10 And he said to him, “Every man at the beginning sets out the good wine, and when the guests have well drunk, then the inferior. You have kept the good wine until now!”
11 This (I)beginning of signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, (J)and [a]manifested His glory; and His disciples believed in Him.
12 After this He went down to (K)Capernaum, He, His mother, (L)His brothers, and His disciples; and they did not stay there many days.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.