Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 20
To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David.
1 May the Lord answer you in the day of trouble! May the name of the God of Jacob set you up on high [and defend you];
2 Send you help from the sanctuary and support, refresh, and strengthen you from Zion;
3 Remember all your offerings and accept your burnt sacrifice. Selah [pause, and think of that]!
4 May He grant you according to your heart’s desire and fulfill all your plans.
5 We will [shout in] triumph at your salvation and victory, and in the name of our God we will set up our banners. May the Lord fulfill all your petitions.
6 Now I know that the Lord saves His anointed; He will answer him from His holy heaven with the saving strength of His right hand.
7 Some trust in and boast of chariots and some of horses, but we will trust in and boast of the name of the Lord our God.
8 They are bowed down and fallen, but we are risen and stand upright.
9 O Lord, give victory; let the King answer us when we call.
Psalm 21
To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David.
1 The king [David] shall joy in Your strength, O Lord; and in Your salvation how greatly shall he rejoice!
2 You have given him his heart’s desire and have not withheld the request of his lips. Selah [pause, and think of that]!
3 For You send blessings of good things to meet him; You set a crown of pure gold on his head.
4 He asked life of You, and You gave it to him—long life forever and evermore.
5 His glory is great because of Your aid; splendor and majesty You bestow upon him.
6 For You make him to be blessed and a blessing forever; You make him exceedingly glad with the joy of Your presence.(A)
7 For the king trusts, relies on, and is confident in the Lord, and through the mercy and steadfast love of the Most High he will never be moved.
8 Your hand shall find all Your enemies; Your right hand shall find all those who hate You.
9 You will make them as if in a blazing oven in the time of Your anger; the Lord will swallow them up in His wrath, and the fire will utterly consume them.
10 Their offspring You will destroy from the earth, and their sons from among the children of men.
11 For they planned evil against You; they conceived a mischievous plot which they are not able to perform.
12 For You will make them turn their backs; You will aim Your bow [of divine justice] at their faces.
13 Be exalted, Lord, in Your strength; we will sing and praise Your power.
Psalm 110
A Psalm of David.
1 The Lord (God) says to my Lord (the Messiah), Sit at My right hand, until I make Your adversaries Your footstool.(A)
2 The Lord will send forth from Zion the scepter of Your strength; rule, then, in the midst of Your foes.(B)
3 Your people will offer themselves willingly in the day of Your power, in the beauty of holiness and in holy array out of the womb of the morning; to You [will spring forth] Your young men, who are as the dew.
4 The Lord has sworn and will not revoke or change it: You are a priest forever, after the manner and order of Melchizedek.(C)
5 The Lord at Your right hand will shatter kings in the day of His indignation.
6 He will execute judgment [in overwhelming punishment] upon the nations; He will fill the valleys with the dead bodies, He will crush the [chief] heads over lands many and far extended.(D)
7 He will drink of the brook by the way; therefore will He lift up His head [triumphantly].
Psalm 116
1 I love the Lord, because He has heard [and now hears] my voice and my supplications.
2 Because He has inclined His ear to me, therefore will I call upon Him as long as I live.
3 The cords and sorrows of death were around me, and the terrors of Sheol (the place of the dead) had laid hold of me; I suffered anguish and grief (trouble and sorrow).
4 Then called I upon the name of the Lord: O Lord, I beseech You, save my life and deliver me!
5 Gracious is the Lord, and [rigidly] righteous; yes, our God is merciful.
6 The Lord preserves the simple; I was brought low, and He helped and saved me.
7 Return to your rest, O my soul, for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you.(A)
8 For You have delivered my life from death, my eyes from tears, and my feet from stumbling and falling.
9 I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living.
10 I believed (trusted in, relied on, and clung to my God), and therefore have I spoken [even when I said], I am greatly afflicted.(B)
11 I said in my haste, All men are deceitful and liars.
12 What shall I render to the Lord for all His benefits toward me? [How can I repay Him for all His bountiful dealings?]
13 I will lift up the cup of salvation and deliverance and call on the name of the Lord.
14 I will pay my vows to the Lord, yes, in the presence of all His people.
15 Precious (important and no light matter) in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints (His loving ones).
16 O Lord, truly I am Your servant; I am Your servant, the son of Your handmaid; You have loosed my bonds.
17 I will offer to You the sacrifice of thanksgiving and will call on the name of the Lord.
18 I will pay my vows to the Lord, yes, in the presence of all His people,
19 In the courts of the Lord’s house—in the midst of you, O Jerusalem. Praise the Lord! (Hallelujah!)
Psalm 117
1 O praise the Lord, all you nations! Praise Him, all you people!(C)
2 For His mercy and loving-kindness are great toward us, and the truth and faithfulness of the Lord endure forever. Praise the Lord! (Hallelujah!)
1 These are the words which Moses spoke to all Israel [still] on the [east] side of the Jordan [River] in the wilderness, in the Arabah [the deep valley running north and south from the eastern arm of the Red Sea to beyond the Dead Sea], over near Suph, between Paran and Tophel, Laban, Hazeroth, and Dizahab.
2 It is [only] eleven days’ journey from Horeb by the way of Mount Seir to Kadesh-barnea [on Canaan’s border; yet Israel took forty years to get beyond it].
3 And in the fortieth year, on the first day of the eleventh month, Moses spoke to the Israelites according to all that the Lord had given him in commandment to them,
4 After He had defeated Sihon king of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon, and Og king of Bashan, who lived in Ashtaroth [and] Edrei.
5 Beyond (east of) the Jordan in the land of Moab, Moses began to explain this law, saying,
6 The Lord our God said to us in Horeb, You have dwelt long enough on this mountain.
7 Turn and take up your journey and go to the hill country of the Amorites, and to all their neighbors in the Arabah, in the hill country, in the lowland, in the South (the Negeb), and on the coast, the land of the Canaanites, and Lebanon, as far as the great river, the river Euphrates.
8 Behold, I have set the land before you; go in and take possession of the land which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give to them and to their descendants after them.
6 [And it is, indeed, a source of immense profit, for] godliness accompanied with contentment (that contentment which is a sense of [a]inward sufficiency) is great and abundant gain.
7 For we brought nothing into the world, and obviously we cannot take anything out of the world;
8 But if we have food and clothing, with these we shall be content (satisfied).
9 But those who crave to be rich fall into temptation and a snare and into many foolish (useless, godless) and hurtful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction and miserable perishing.
10 For the love of money is a root of all evils; it is through this craving that some have been led astray and have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves through with many [b]acute [mental] pangs.
11 But as for you, O man of God, flee from all these things; aim at and pursue righteousness (right standing with God and true goodness), godliness (which is the loving fear of God and being Christlike), faith, love, steadfastness (patience), and gentleness of heart.
12 Fight the good fight of the faith; lay hold of the eternal life to which you were summoned and [for which] you confessed the good confession [of faith] before many witnesses.
13 In the presence of God, Who preserves alive all living things, and of Christ Jesus, Who in His testimony before Pontius Pilate made the good confession, I [solemnly] charge you
14 To keep all His precepts unsullied and flawless, irreproachable, until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ (the Anointed One),
15 Which [appearing] will be shown forth in His own proper time by the blessed, only Sovereign (Ruler), the King of kings and the Lord of lords,
16 Who alone has immortality [in the sense of exemption from every kind of death] and lives in unapproachable light, Whom no man has ever seen or can see. Unto Him be honor and everlasting power and dominion. Amen (so be it).
17 As for the rich in this world, charge them not to be proud and arrogant and contemptuous of others, nor to set their hopes on uncertain riches, but on God, Who richly and ceaselessly provides us with everything for [our] enjoyment.
18 [Charge them] to do good, to be rich in good works, to be liberal and generous of heart, ready to share [with others],
19 In this way laying up for themselves [the riches that endure forever as] a good foundation for the future, so that they may grasp that which is life indeed.
20 O Timothy, guard and keep the deposit entrusted [to you]! Turn away from the irreverent babble and godless chatter, with the vain and empty and worldly phrases, and the subtleties and the contradictions in what is falsely called knowledge and spiritual illumination.
21 [For] by making such profession some have erred (missed the mark) as regards the faith. Grace (divine favor and blessing) be with you all! Amen (so be it).
12 Jesus also said to the man who had invited Him, When you give a dinner or a supper, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or your wealthy neighbors, lest perhaps they also invite you in return, and so you are paid back.
13 But when you give a banquet or a reception, invite the poor, the disabled, the lame, and the blind.
14 Then you will be blessed (happy, fortunate, and [a]to be envied), because they have no way of repaying you, and you will be recompensed at the resurrection of the just (upright).
15 When one of those who reclined [at the table] with Him heard this, he said to Him, Blessed (happy, fortunate, and [b]to be envied) is he who shall eat bread in the kingdom of God!
16 But Jesus said to him, A man was once giving a great supper and invited many;
17 And at the hour for the supper he sent his servant to say to those who had been invited, Come, for all is now ready.
18 But they all alike began to make excuses and to beg off. The first said to him, I have bought a piece of land, and I have to go out and see it; I beg you, have me excused.
19 And another said, I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to examine and [c]put my approval on them; I beg you, have me excused.
20 And another said, I have married a wife, and because of this I am unable to come.(A)
21 So the servant came and reported these [answers] to his master. Then the master of the house said in wrath to his servant, Go quickly into the [d]great streets and the small streets of the city and bring in here the poor and the disabled and the blind and the lame.
22 And the servant [returning] said, Sir, what you have commanded me to do has been done, and yet there is room.
23 Then the master said to the servant, Go out into the highways and hedges and urge and constrain [them] to yield and come in, so that my house may be filled.
24 For I tell you, not one of those who were invited shall taste my supper.
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