Book of Common Prayer
Prayer for help against persecutors.
For the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David; [a]to bring to remembrance.
70 Make haste, O God, to deliver me;
Make haste to help me, O Jehovah.
2 Let them be put to shame and confounded
That seek after my soul:
Let them be turned backward and brought to dishonor
That delight in my hurt.
3 Let them be turned back [b]by reason of their shame
That say, Aha, aha.
4 Let all those that seek thee rejoice and be glad in thee;
And let such as love thy salvation say continually,
Let God be magnified.
5 But I am poor and needy;
Make haste unto me, O God:
Thou art my help and my deliverer;
O Jehovah, make no tarrying.
Prayer of an old man for deliverance.
71 In thee, O Jehovah, do I take refuge:
Let me never be put to shame.
2 Deliver me in thy righteousness, and rescue me:
Bow down thine ear unto me, and save me.
3 Be thou to me a rock of habitation, whereunto I may continually resort:
Thou hast given commandment to save me;
For thou art my rock and my fortress.
4 Rescue me, O my God, out of the hand of the wicked,
Out of the hand of the unrighteous and cruel man.
5 For thou art my hope, O Lord Jehovah:
Thou art my trust from my youth.
6 By thee have I been holden up from the womb;
Thou [c]art he that took me out of my mother’s bowels:
My praise shall be continually of thee.
7 I am as a wonder unto many;
But thou art my strong refuge.
8 My mouth shall be filled with thy praise,
And with thy honor all the day.
9 Cast me not off in the time of old age;
Forsake me not when my strength faileth.
10 For mine enemies speak concerning me;
And they that watch for my soul take counsel together,
11 Saying, God hath forsaken him:
Pursue and take him; for there is none to deliver.
12 O God, be not far from me;
O my God, make haste to help me.
13 Let them be put to shame and consumed that are adversaries to my soul;
Let them be covered with reproach and dishonor that seek my hurt.
14 But I will hope continually,
And will praise thee yet more and more.
15 My mouth shall tell of thy righteousness,
And of thy salvation all the day;
For I know not the numbers thereof.
16 I will come [d]with the mighty acts of the Lord Jehovah:
I will make mention of thy righteousness, even of thine only.
17 O God, thou hast taught me from my youth;
And hitherto have I declared thy wondrous works.
18 Yea, even [e]when I am old and grayheaded, O God, forsake me not,
Until I have declared [f]thy strength unto the next generation,
Thy might to every one that is to come.
19 Thy righteousness also, O God, is very high;
Thou who hast done great things, O God, who is like unto thee?
20 Thou, who hast showed [g]us many and sore troubles,
Wilt quicken [h]us again,
And wilt bring [i]us up again from the depths of the earth.
21 Increase thou my greatness,
And turn again and comfort me.
22 I will also praise thee with the psaltery,
Even thy truth, O my God:
Unto thee will I sing praises with the harp,
O thou Holy One of Israel.
23 My lips shall shout for joy when I sing praises unto thee;
And my soul, which thou hast redeemed.
24 My tongue also shall talk of thy righteousness all the day long;
For they are put to shame, for they are confounded, that seek my hurt.
A complaint over the devastation of the land by the enemy.
Maschil of Asaph.
74 O God, why hast thou cast us off for ever?
Why doth thine anger smoke against the sheep of thy pasture?
2 Remember thy congregation, which thou hast gotten of old,
Which thou hast redeemed to be the tribe of thine inheritance;
And mount Zion, wherein thou hast dwelt.
3 Lift up thy feet unto the perpetual ruins,
[a]All the evil that the enemy hath done in the sanctuary.
4 Thine adversaries have roared in the midst of thine assembly;
They have set up their ensigns for signs.
5 They [b]seemed as men that lifted up
Axes upon a thicket of trees.
6 And now all the carved work thereof
They break down with hatchet and hammers.
7 They have set thy sanctuary on fire;
They have profaned the dwelling-place of thy name by casting it to the ground.
8 They said in their heart, Let us make havoc of them altogether:
They have burned up all the [c]synagogues of God in the land.
9 We see not our signs:
There is no more any prophet;
Neither is there among us any that knoweth how long.
10 How long, O God, shall the adversary reproach?
Shall the enemy blaspheme thy name for ever?
11 Why drawest thou back thy hand, even thy right hand?
Pluck it out of thy bosom and consume them.
12 Yet God is my King of old,
Working salvation in the midst of the earth.
13 Thou didst [d]divide the sea by thy strength:
Thou brakest the heads of the sea-monsters in the waters.
14 Thou brakest the heads of leviathan in pieces;
Thou gavest him to be food to the people inhabiting the wilderness.
15 Thou didst cleave fountain and flood:
Thou driedst up [e]mighty rivers.
16 The day is thine, the night also is thine:
Thou hast prepared the [f]light and the sun.
17 Thou hast set all the borders of the earth:
Thou hast made summer and winter.
18 Remember this, that the enemy [g]hath reproached, O Jehovah,
And that a foolish people hath blasphemed thy name.
19 Oh deliver not [h]the soul of thy turtle-dove unto the wild beast:
Forget not the [i]life of thy poor for ever.
20 Have respect unto the covenant;
For the dark places of the [j]earth are full of the habitations of violence.
21 Oh let not the oppressed return ashamed:
Let the poor and needy praise thy name.
22 Arise, O God, plead thine own cause:
Remember how the foolish man reproacheth thee all the day.
23 Forget not the voice of thine adversaries:
The tumult of those that rise up against thee [k]ascendeth continually.
4 And when Ish-bosheth, Saul’s son, heard that Abner was dead in Hebron, his hands became feeble, and all the Israelites were troubled. 2 And Ish-bosheth, Saul’s son, had two men that were captains of bands: the name of the one was Baanah, and the name of the other Rechab, the sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, of the children of Benjamin (for Beeroth also is reckoned to Benjamin: 3 and the Beerothites fled to Gittaim, and have been sojourners there until this day).
4 Now Jonathan, Saul’s son, had a son that was lame of his feet. He was five years old when the tidings came of Saul and Jonathan out of Jezreel; and his nurse took him up, and fled: and it came to pass, as she made haste to flee, that he fell, and became lame. And his name was [a]Mephibosheth.
5 And the sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, Rechab and Baanah, went, and came about the heat of the day to the house of Ish-bosheth, as he took his rest at noon. 6 And [b]they came thither into the midst of the house, as though they would have fetched wheat; and they smote him in the body: and Rechab and Baanah his brother escaped. 7 Now when they came into the house, as he lay on his bed in his bedchamber, they smote him, and slew him, and beheaded him, and took his head, and went by the way of the Arabah all night. 8 And they brought the head of Ish-bosheth unto David to Hebron, and said to the king, Behold, the head of Ish-bosheth, the son of Saul, thine enemy, who sought thy life; and Jehovah hath avenged my lord the king this day of Saul, and of his seed. 9 And David answered Rechab and Baanah his brother, the sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, and said unto them, As Jehovah liveth, who hath redeemed my soul out of all adversity, 10 when one told me, saying, Behold, Saul is dead, thinking to have brought good tidings, I took hold of him, and slew him in Ziklag, which was the reward I gave him for his tidings. 11 How much more, when wicked men have slain a righteous person in his own house upon his bed, shall I not now require his blood of your hand, and take you away from the earth? 12 And David commanded his young men, and they slew them, and cut off their hands and their feet, and hanged them up beside the pool in Hebron. But they took the head of Ish-bosheth, and buried it in the grave of Abner in Hebron.
25 But about midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns unto God, and the prisoners were listening to them; 26 and suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison-house were shaken: and immediately all the doors were opened; and every one’s bands were loosed. 27 And the jailor, being roused out of sleep and seeing the prison doors open, drew his sword and was about to kill himself, supposing that the prisoners had escaped. 28 But Paul cried with a loud voice, saying, Do thyself no harm: for we are all here. 29 And he called for lights and sprang in, and, trembling for fear, fell down before Paul and Silas, 30 and brought them out and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? 31 And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus, and thou shalt be saved, thou and thy house. 32 And they spake the word of [a]the Lord unto him, with all that were in his house. 33 And he took them the same hour of the night, and washed their stripes; and was baptized, he and all his, immediately. 34 And he brought them up into his house, and set [b]food before them, and rejoiced greatly, with all his house, [c]having believed in God.
35 But when it was day, the [d]magistrates sent the [e]serjeants, saying, Let those men go. 36 And the jailor reported the words to Paul, saying, The [f]magistrates have sent to let you go: now therefore come forth, and go in peace. 37 But Paul said unto them, They have beaten us publicly, uncondemned, men that are Romans, and have cast us into prison; and do they now cast us out privily? nay verily; but let them come themselves and bring us out. 38 And the [g]serjeants reported these words unto the [h]magistrates: and they feared when they heard that they were Romans; 39 and they came and besought them; and when they had brought them out, they asked them to go away from the city. 40 And they went out of the prison, and entered into the house of Lydia: and when they had seen the brethren, they [i]comforted them, and departed.
7 And there are gathered together unto him the Pharisees, and certain of the scribes, who had come from Jerusalem, 2 and had seen that some of his disciples ate their bread with [a]defiled, that is, unwashen, hands. 3 (For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, except they wash their hands [b]diligently, eat not, holding the tradition of the elders; 4 and when they come from the marketplace, except they [c]bathe themselves, they eat not; and many other things there are, which they have received to hold, [d]washings of cups, and pots, and brasen vessels[e].) 5 And the Pharisees and the scribes ask him, Why walk not thy disciples according to the tradition of the elders, but eat their bread with [f]defiled hands? 6 And he said unto them, Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written,
[g]This people honoreth me with their lips,
But their heart is far from me.
7 But in vain do they worship me,
Teaching as their doctrines the precepts of men.
8 Ye leave the commandment of God, and hold fast the tradition of men. 9 And he said unto them, Full well do ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your tradition. 10 For Moses said, [h]Honor thy father and thy mother; and, He that speaketh evil of father or mother, let him [i]die the death: 11 but ye say, If a man shall say to his father or his mother, That wherewith thou mightest have been profited by me is Corban, that is to say, Given to God; 12 ye no longer suffer him to do aught for his father or his mother; 13 making void the word of God by your tradition, which ye have delivered: and many such like things ye do. 14 And he called to him the multitude again, and said unto them, Hear me all of you, and understand: 15 there is nothing from without the man, that going into him can defile him; but the things which proceed out of the man are those that defile the man.[j] 17 And when he was entered into the house from the multitude, his disciples asked of him the parable. 18 And he saith unto them, Are ye so without understanding also? Perceive ye not, that whatsoever from without goeth into the man, it cannot defile him; 19 because it goeth not into his heart, but into his belly, and goeth out into the draught? This he said, making all meats clean. 20 And he said, That which proceedeth out of the man, that defileth the man. 21 For from within, out of the heart of men, [k]evil thoughts proceed, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, 22 covetings, wickednesses, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, railing, pride, foolishness: 23 all these evil things proceed from within, and defile the man.
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