Book of Common Prayer

God Keeps His Own

40 I did not give up waiting for the Lord. And He turned to me and heard my cry. ² He brought me up out of the hole of danger, out of the mud and clay. He set my feet on a rock, making my feet sure. ³ He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. Many will see and fear and will put their trust in the Lord.

⁴ How happy is the man who has made the Lord his trust, and has not turned to the proud or to the followers of lies. ⁵ O Lord my God, many are the great works You have done, and Your thoughts toward us. No one can compare with You! If I were to speak and tell of them, there would be too many to number.

⁶ You have not wanted gifts given on the altar in worship. You have opened my ears. You have not wanted burnt gifts or gifts to cover sins. ⁷ Then I said, “Look, I have come. It is written about me in the book. ⁸ I am happy to do Your will, O my God. Your Law is within my heart.”

⁹ I have told the good news about what is right and good in the big meeting with many people. You know I will not close my lips, O Lord. ¹⁰ I have not hidden what is right and good with You in my heart. I have spoken about how faithful You are and about Your saving power. I have not hidden Your loving-kindness and Your truth from the big meeting.

¹¹ O Lord, You will not keep Your loving-pity from me. Your loving-kindness and Your truth will always keep me safe. ¹² Too many troubles gather around me. My sins have taken such a hold on me that I am not able to see. There are more of them than there are hairs on my head. And the strength of my heart has left me.

¹³ Be pleased to save me, O Lord. Hurry, O Lord, to help me. ¹⁴ Let all who want to destroy my life be ashamed and troubled. Let those who want to hurt me be turned away without honor. ¹⁵ Let those who say to me, “O! O!” be filled with fear because of their shame. ¹⁶ But let all who look for You have joy and be glad in You. Let those who love Your saving power always say, “The Lord be honored!” ¹⁷ Because I suffer and am in need, let the Lord think of me. You are my help and the One Who sets me free. O my God, do not wait.

Prayer for a Safe Place

54 Save me by Your name, O God. And stand with me by Your power. ² Hear my prayer, O God. Listen to the words of my mouth. ³ For strangers have risen against me. And men who hurt others want to take my life. They do not think about God.

⁴ See, God is my Helper. The Lord is the One Who keeps my soul alive. ⁵ He will punish those who hate me, for the wrong they have done. He will destroy them because He is faithful.

⁶ I will be glad to give You a gift on the altar. I will give thanks to Your name, O Lord, for it is good. ⁷ For He has taken me out of all trouble. And my eyes have looked without fear upon those who hate me.

Prayer of the Sinner

51 O God, favor me because of Your loving-kindness. Take away my wrong-doing because of the greatness of Your loving-pity. ² Wash me inside and out from my wrong-doing and make me clean from my sin. ³ For I know my wrong-doing, and my sin is always in front of me. ⁴ I have sinned against You, and You only. I have done what is sinful in Your eyes. You are always right when You speak, and fair when You judge.

⁵ See, I was born in sin and was in sin from my very beginning. ⁶ See, You want truth deep within the heart. And You will make me know wisdom in the hidden part. ⁷ Take away my sin, and I will be clean. Wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. ⁸ Make me hear joy and happiness. Let the bones that You have broken be full of joy. ⁹ Hide Your face from my sins. And take away all my wrong-doing.

¹⁰ Make a clean heart in me, O God. Give me a new spirit that will not be moved. ¹¹ Do not throw me away from where You are. And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. ¹² Let the joy of Your saving power return to me. And give me a willing spirit to obey you. ¹³ Then I will teach wrong-doers Your ways. And sinners will turn to You.

¹⁴ Save me from the guilt of blood, O God. You are the God Who saves me. Then my tongue will sing with joy about how right and good You are. ¹⁵ O Lord, open my lips, so my mouth will praise You. ¹⁶ For You are not happy with a gift given on the altar in worship, or I would give it. You are not pleased with burnt gifts. ¹⁷ The gifts on an altar that God wants are a broken spirit. O God, You will not hate a broken heart and a heart with no pride.

¹⁸ Be pleased to do good to Zion. Build the walls of Jerusalem. ¹⁹ Then You will be happy with gifts given on the altar that are right and good, with burnt gifts and whole burnt gifts. Then young bulls will be given on Your altar.

²² Joshua called them and said, “Why have you lied to us, saying, ‘We are very far from you,’ when you are living within our land? ²³ Now you are cursed. You will never stop being servants, cutting wood and bringing water, for the house of my God.” ²⁴ They answered Joshua, “Because it was told to your servants that the Lord your God had told His servant Moses to give you all the land and kill all the people of the land in front of you. We were very much afraid for our lives because of you. That is why we have done this thing. ²⁵ Now see, we are in your hands. Do to us whatever you think is good and right in your eyes.” ²⁶ So he did this to them. He saved them from the hands of the people of Israel. They did not kill them. ²⁷ But on that day Joshua made them cut wood and bring water for the people of Israel and for the altar of the Lord, at whatever place He chooses. That was to be their work to this day.

10 Adoni-zedek king of Jerusalem heard that Joshua had taken Ai and had destroyed it. Joshua had done the same thing to Ai and its king that he had done to Jericho and its king. Adoni-zedek heard that the people of Gibeon had made peace with Israel and were among them. ² He was very much afraid. Because Gibeon was a large city, like one of the cities of a king. It was larger than Ai. All its men were strong. ³ So Adoni-zedek of Jerusalem sent word to Hoham king of Hebron, Piram king of Jarmuth, Japhia king of Lachish, and Debir king of Eglon. He said to them, ⁴ “Come and help me. Let us go fight against Gibeon. For it has made peace with Joshua and the people of Israel.” ⁵ So the five kings of the Amorites, the kings of Jerusalem, Hebron, Jarmuth, Lachish and Eglon, gathered together with all their armies. And they went and set up their tents by Gibeon, to fight against it.

⁶ Then the men of Gibeon sent word to Joshua at the tents at Gilgal, saying, “Do not leave your servants alone. Hurry and help us. For all the kings of the Amorites who live in the hill country have gathered against us.” ⁷ So Joshua went up from Gilgal. He took with him all the men of war and all the strong soldiers. ⁸ The Lord said to Joshua, “Do not be afraid of them. For I have given them into your hands. Not one of them will stand in front of you.” ⁹ So Joshua came upon them by surprise by traveling all night from Gilgal. ¹⁰ The Lord brought trouble upon the Amorites in front of Israel. He killed many of them at Gibeon, and went after them on the way up to Beth-horon. He killed them as far as Azekah and Makkedah. ¹¹ They ran from Israel. And while they ran from Beth-horon, the Lord made large hail-stones fall from heaven on them as far as Azekah, and they died. More died from the hail-stones than the sons of Israel killed with the sword.

¹² Then Joshua spoke to the Lord on the day when the Lord made the Amorites lose the war against the sons of Israel. He said, in the eyes of Israel, “O sun, stand still at Gibeon. O moon, stand still in the valley of Aijalon.” ¹³ So the sun stood still and the moon stopped, until the nation punished those who fought against them. Is it not written in the Book of Jashar? The sun stopped in the center of the sky. It did not hurry to go down for about a whole day. ¹⁴ There has been no day like it before or since, when the Lord listened to the voice of a man. For the Lord fought for Israel. ¹⁵ Then Joshua and all Israel returned to the tents at Gilgal.

¹⁴ I am sure you are wise in all things and full of much good. You are able to help and teach each other. ¹⁵ I have written to you with strong words about some things. I have written so you would remember. God helped me write like this. ¹⁶ I am able to write these things because God made me a missionary to the people who are not Jews. I work as a servant of Jesus Christ. I preach the Good News of God so the people who are not Jews may be as a gift to God. The Holy Spirit will set them apart so God will be pleased with them. ¹⁷ I have reason to be proud of my work for God. It is because I belong to Christ Jesus. ¹⁸ I can only speak of what Christ has done through me. I have helped the people who are not Jews to obey Him. I have done it by words and by living with them. ¹⁹ God showed them His power through me. The Holy Spirit did powerful works through me in front of them. From Jerusalem to the country of Illyricum I have preached the Good News of Christ. ²⁰ It is my desire to preach the Good News where it has never been preached. I want to preach only where Christ is not known. ²¹ The Holy Writings say, “Those who have never known about Him will see. And those who have never heard about Him will understand.” ^(A)

²² This is why I have been kept many times from coming to you. ²³ But now I am finished with my work here. I have been wanting to come and visit you for many years. ²⁴ I hope I can now. I am making plans to go to the country of Spain. On my way there I will stop and visit you. After I have had the joy of visiting you for awhile, you can help me on my way again.

Jesus Stands in Front of Pilate ^(A)

27 Early in the morning all the head religious leaders of the Jews and the leaders of the people gathered together and talked about how they could put Jesus to death. ² They tied Him and took Him away. Then they handed Him over to Pilate who was the leader of the country.

³ Then Judas was sorry he had handed Jesus over when he saw that Jesus was going to be killed. He took back the thirty pieces of silver and gave it to the head religious leaders and the other leaders. ⁴ He said, “I have sinned because I handed over a Man Who has done no wrong.” And they said, “What is that to us? That is your own doing.” ⁵ He threw the money down in the house of God and went outside. Then he went away and killed himself by hanging from a rope.

⁶ The head religious leaders took the money. They said, “It is against the Law to put this money in the house of God. This money has bought blood.” ⁷ They talked about what to do with the money. Then they decided to buy land to bury strangers in. ⁸ Because of this, that land is called the Field of Blood to this day. ⁹ It happened as the early preacher Jeremiah said it would happen. He said, “And they took the thirty pieces of silver which was the price the Jews said they would pay for Him. ¹⁰ And they bought land to bury strangers in, as the Lord told me.” ^(B)