Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 20[a]
Prayer in Praise of the Messiah King
1 For the director.[b] A psalm of David.
2 May the Lord answer you in times of trouble;
may the name[c] of the God of Jacob protect you.
3 May he send you help from the sanctuary
and grant you support from Zion.[d]
4 May he remember[e] all your sacrifices
and accept all your burnt offerings. Selah
5 May he give you your heart’s desire[f]
and grant you success in all your plans.
6 May we shout with joy over your victory
and lift up our banners in the name of our God.[g]
May the Lord grant your every request.
7 Now I know that the Lord will grant victory to his anointed;[h]
he will answer him from his holy heaven,
granting mighty victories with his right hand.
8 [i]Some trust in chariots, and some in horses,
but we trust in the name of the Lord, our God.
9 They will collapse and fall,
but we will rise up and stand firm.
10 O Lord, save the king,
and answer us when we call upon you.[j]
Psalm 21[k]
Thanksgiving for Messianic Blessings
1 For the director.[l] A psalm of David.
2 O Lord, the king rejoices in your strength;
your victories fill him with great joy.[m]
3 You have granted him the desire of his heart[n]
and not withheld from him the request of his lips. Selah
4 You welcomed him with choice blessings[o]
and placed a crown of pure gold upon his head.
5 He asked you for life, and you gave it to him,
length of days forever and ever.[p]
6 He has achieved great glory through your victory;
you have bestowed upon him splendor and majesty.[q]
7 You have conferred everlasting blessings[r] on him;
you gladdened him with the joy of your presence.
8 For the king places his trust in the Lord;
through the kindness[s] of the Most High he will not fall.
9 [t]Your hand will lay hold of all your enemies;
your right hand will overcome all your foes.
10 On the day when you appear,[u]
you will cast them into a fiery furnace.
The Lord’s anger will engulf them,
and fire will consume them.
11 You will blot out their descendants from the earth
and rid the human race of their posterity.[v]
12 They have devised wicked schemes against you,
but, plot though they may, they will not succeed.
13 For you will force them to retreat
when you aim your bows at them.
14 Be exalted, O Lord, in your strength;[w]
we will sing and praise your power.
Psalm 110[a]
The Messiah—King, Prophet, and Conqueror
1 A psalm of David.
The Lord says to my Lord:[b]
“Sit at my right hand
until I have made your enemies a footstool for you.”
2 The Lord will stretch forth from Zion
your scepter of power.[c]
The Lord says:
“Rule in the midst of your enemies![d]
3 Yours is royal dignity in the day of your birth;
in holy splendor, before the daystar,
like the dew, I have begotten you.”[e]
4 The Lord has sworn,
and he will not retract his oath:
“You are a priest forever[f]
according to the order of Melchizedek.”
5 The Lord stands forth at your right hand;[g]
he will crush kings on the day of his wrath.
6 He[h] will judge the nations,
filling their land with corpses
and crushing rulers throughout the earth.
7 He will drink from the stream on his journey,
and then he will lift up his head in triumph.[i]
Psalm 116[a]
Thanksgiving to God for Help Received
1 I love the Lord because he has heard my voice
and listened to my cry for mercy,[b]
2 because he has inclined his ear to me
on the day when I called out to him.[c]
3 The bonds of death[d] encompassed me;
the snares of the netherworld held me tightly.
I was seized by distress and sorrow.
4 Then I cried out in the name[e] of the Lord:
“O Lord, I entreat you to preserve my life.”
5 Gracious is the Lord and righteous;
our God is merciful.
6 The Lord watches over his little ones;[f]
when I was brought low, he saved me.
7 Be at peace once again, O my soul,
for the Lord has shown mercy to you.
8 He has delivered my soul[g] from death,
my eyes from tears,
and my feet from stumbling.
9 I will walk in the presence of the Lord
in the land of the living.[h]
10 I believed; therefore, I said,[i]
“I am greatly afflicted.”
11 In my dismay I cried out,
“All men are liars.”[j]
12 How can I repay the Lord
for all the good he has done for me?
13 I will lift up the cup of salvation[k]
and call on the name of the Lord.
14 I will fulfill my vows[l] to the Lord
in the presence of his people.
15 Precious in the eyes of the Lord
is the death[m] of his faithful ones.
16 O Lord, I am your servant.
I am your servant, the child of your handmaid;[n]
you have loosed my bonds.
17 I will offer you a sacrifice of thanksgiving
and call on the name of the Lord.
18 I will fulfill my vows to the Lord
in the presence of all his people,
19 in the courts of the house of the Lord,
in your midst, O Jerusalem.
Alleluia.[o]
Psalm 117[p]
Universal Praise of God
15 A ruler may be won over by patience,
and a gentle tongue can break bones.
16 If you find honey, eat only enough to satisfy you,
for if you consume too much, you will vomit it up.
17 Do not enter too frequently into your neighbor’s house
lest he become tired of you and begin to hate you.
18 Like a club or a sword or a keen arrow
is one who bears false witness against a neighbor.
19 Like a decaying tooth or a lame foot
is trust in a faithless man on the day of trouble.
20 Like one who takes away clothing on a cold day,
like one who dresses a wound with vinegar,
is one who sings songs to a grieving heart.[a]
21 [b]If your enemy is hungry, give him something to eat;
if he is thirsty, offer him something to drink.
22 By doing so you will heap fiery coals upon his head,
and the Lord will reward you.
23 The north wind produces rain,
and a backbiting tongue causes angry looks.
24 It is better to live on the corner of a roof
than to share a spacious house with a nagging wife.[c]
25 Like cold water to a thirsty throat
is good news from a distant land.
26 Like a muddy spring or a polluted well
is a righteous man who trembles before the wicked.
27 It is not good to eat too much honey,
neither is it honorable to seek one’s own honor.
28 Like a city that has been breached and made defenseless
is the man devoid of self-control.
Introduction
Chapter 1
Address.[a] 1 Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, to all the saints in Christ Jesus at Philippi, together with their bishops and deacons: 2 grace to you and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.
Joyful Prayer for the Philippians.[b] 3 I give thanks to my God every time I think of you. 4 I always pray for you, interceding for you with joy 5 because of your sharing in the gospel from the first day until now. 6 I am confident of this: that the one who began a good work in you will bring it to completion on the day of Christ Jesus.[c]
7 It is only right for me to feel this way toward you, because I hold you in my heart, for you have all shared with me in God’s grace, both during my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel. 8 Indeed, God is my witness how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus.
9 And for this I pray: that your love may increase ever more and more in knowledge and full insight 10 to enable you to discover what is really important, so that on the day of Christ you may be pure and blameless, 11 filled with the fruits of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ for the glory and praise of God.
The Passion—The Supreme Testimony[a]
Chapter 18
Jesus Gives Himself Up Freely.[b] 1 After Jesus had spoken these words, he went out with his disciples and crossed the Kidron[c] valley. He and his disciples entered a garden there. 2 This place was known to Judas, his betrayer, because Jesus had often met there with his disciples. 3 Therefore, Judas went to that garden with a detachment of soldiers,[d] together with temple guards provided by the chief priests and the Pharisees, equipped with lanterns and torches and weapons.
4 Then Jesus, fully aware of everything that was going to happen to him, came forward and asked them, “Whom are you looking for?” 5 They answered, “Jesus the Nazorean.”[e] Jesus replied, “I am.” Judas who betrayed him was standing with them.
6 When Jesus said to them, “I am,” they drew back and fell to the ground. 7 Again, he asked them, “Whom are you looking for?” And they said, “Jesus the Nazorean.” 8 Jesus answered, “I have told you that I am. If you are looking for me, let these men go.” 9 This was to fulfill the word he had spoken, “I did not lose any of those you gave me.”[f]
10 Then Simon Peter, who had a sword, drew it and struck the high priest’s servant, slicing off his right ear. The servant’s name was Malchus. 11 Jesus said to Peter, “Put your sword back into its scabbard! Am I not to drink the cup[g] that the Father has given me?”
12 Jesus and Peter at the Hour of Bearing Witness.[h]Then the detachment of soldiers, their commander, and the Jewish guards seized Jesus and bound him. 13 They took him first to Annas, the father-in-law of Caiaphas who was the high priest that year. 14 It was Caiaphas who had advised the Jews that it was better for one man to die for the people.
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