Book of Common Prayer
A Prayer for Victory[a]
20 May the Lord answer you when you are in trouble!
May the God of Jacob protect you!
2 May he send you help from his Temple
and give you aid from Mount Zion.
3 May he accept all your offerings
and be pleased with all your sacrifices.
4 May he give you what you desire
and make all your plans succeed.
5 Then we will shout for joy over your victory
and celebrate your triumph by praising our God.
May the Lord answer all your requests.
6 Now I know that the Lord gives victory to his chosen king;
he answers him from his holy heaven
and by his power gives him great victories.
7 Some trust in their war chariots
and others in their horses,
but we trust in the power of the Lord our God.
8 Such people will stumble and fall,
but we will rise and stand firm.
9 Give victory to the king, O Lord;
answer[b] us when we call.
Praise for Victory[c]
21 The king is glad, O Lord, because you gave him strength;
he rejoices because you made him victorious.
2 You have given him his heart's desire;
you have answered his request.
3 You came to him with great blessings
and set a crown of gold on his head.
4 He asked for life, and you gave it,
a long and lasting life.
5 His glory is great because of your help;
you have given him fame and majesty.
6 Your blessings are with him forever,
and your presence fills him with joy.
7 The king trusts in the Lord Almighty;
and because of the Lord's constant love
he will always be secure.
8 The king will capture all his enemies;
he will capture everyone who hates him.
9 He will destroy them like a blazing fire
when he appears.
The Lord will devour them in his anger,
and fire will consume them.
10 None of their descendants will survive;
the king will kill them all.
11 They make their plans, and plot against him,
but they will not succeed.
12 He will shoot his arrows at them
and make them turn and run.
13 We praise you, Lord, for your great strength!
We will sing and praise your power.
The Lord and His Chosen King[a]
110 (A)The Lord said to my lord,
“Sit here at my right side
until I put your enemies under your feet.”
2 From Zion the Lord will extend your royal power.
“Rule over your enemies,” he says.
3 On the day you fight your enemies,
your people will volunteer.
Like the dew of early morning
your young men will come to you on the sacred hills.[b]
4 (B)The Lord made a solemn promise and will not take it back:
“You will be a priest forever
in the priestly order of Melchizedek.”[c]
5 The Lord is at your right side;
when he becomes angry, he will defeat kings.
6 He will pass judgment on the nations
and fill the battlefield with corpses;
he will defeat kings all over the earth.
7 The king will drink from the stream by the road,
and strengthened, he will stand victorious.
Someone Saved from Death Praises God
116 I love the Lord, because he hears me;
he listens to my prayers.
2 He listens to me
every time I call to him.
3 The danger of death was all around me;
the horrors of the grave closed in on me;
I was filled with fear and anxiety.
4 Then I called to the Lord,
“I beg you, Lord, save me!”
5 The Lord is merciful and good;
our God is compassionate.
6 The Lord protects the helpless;
when I was in danger, he saved me.
7 Be confident, my heart,
because the Lord has been good to me.
8 The Lord saved me from death;
he stopped my tears
and kept me from defeat.
9 And so I walk in the presence of the Lord
in the world of the living.
10 (A)I kept on believing, even when I said,
“I am completely crushed,”
11 even when I was afraid and said,
“No one can be trusted.”
12 What can I offer the Lord
for all his goodness to me?
13 I will bring a wine offering to the Lord,
to thank him for saving me.
14 In the assembly of all his people
I will give him what I have promised.
15 How painful it is to the Lord
when one of his people dies!
16 I am your servant, Lord;
I serve you just as my mother did.
You have saved me from death.
17 I will give you a sacrifice of thanksgiving
and offer my prayer to you.
18-19 In the assembly of all your people,
in the sanctuary of your Temple in Jerusalem,
I will give you what I have promised.
Praise the Lord!
In Praise of the Lord
117 (B)Praise the Lord, all nations!
Praise him, all peoples!
2 His love for us is strong,
and his faithfulness is eternal.
Praise the Lord!
22 (A)“The Lord created me first of all,
the first of his works, long ago.
23 I was made in the very beginning,
at the first, before the world began.
24 I was born before the oceans,
when there were no springs of water.
25 I was born before the mountains,
before the hills were set in place,
26 before God made the earth and its fields
or even the first handful of soil.
27 (B)I was there when he set the sky in place,
when he stretched the horizon across the ocean,
28 when he placed the clouds in the sky,
when he opened the springs of the ocean
29 and ordered the waters of the sea
to rise no further than he said.
I was there when he laid the earth's foundations.
30 I was beside him like an architect,[a]
I was his daily source of joy,
always happy in his presence—
31 happy with the world
and pleased with the human race.
32 (C)“Now, young people, listen to me.
Do as I say, and you will be happy.
33 Listen to what you are taught.
Be wise; do not neglect it.
34 Those who listen to me will be happy—
those who stay at my door every day,
waiting at the entrance to my home.
35 Those who find me find life,
and the Lord will be pleased with them.
36 Those who do not find me hurt themselves;
anyone who hates me loves death.”
1 (A)From the Elder—
To my dear Gaius, whom I truly love.
2 My dear friend, I pray that everything may go well with you and that you may be in good health—as I know you are well in spirit. 3 I was so happy when some Christians arrived and told me how faithful you are to the truth—just as you always live in the truth. 4 Nothing makes me happier than to hear that my children live in the truth.
Gaius Is Praised
5 My dear friend, you are so faithful in the work you do for other Christians, even when they are strangers. 6 They have spoken to the church here about your love. Please help them to continue their trip in a way that will please God. 7 For they set out on their trip in the service of Christ without accepting any help from unbelievers. 8 We Christians, then, must help these people, so that we may share in their work for the truth.
Diotrephes and Demetrius
9 I wrote a short letter to the church; but Diotrephes, who likes to be their leader, will not pay any attention to what I say. 10 When I come, then, I will bring up everything he has done: the terrible things he says about us and the lies he tells! But that is not enough for him; he will not receive the Christians when they come, and even stops those who want to receive them and tries to drive them out of the church!
11 My dear friend, do not imitate what is bad, but imitate what is good. Whoever does good belongs to God; whoever does what is bad has not seen God.
12 Everyone speaks well of Demetrius; truth itself speaks well of him. And we add our testimony, and you know that what we say is true.
Final Greetings
13 I have so much to tell you, but I do not want to do it with pen and ink. 14 I hope to see you soon, and then we will talk personally.
15 Peace be with you.
All your friends send greetings. Greet all our friends personally.
God's Chosen Servant
15 When Jesus heard about the plot against him, he went away from that place; and large crowds followed him. He healed all the sick 16 and gave them orders not to tell others about him. 17 He did this so as to make come true what God had said through the prophet Isaiah:
18 (A)“Here is my servant, whom I have chosen,
the one I love, and with whom I am pleased.
I will send my Spirit upon him,
and he will announce my judgment to the nations.
19 He will not argue or shout,
or make loud speeches in the streets.
20 He will not break off a bent reed,
nor put out a flickering lamp.
He will persist until he causes justice to triumph,
21 and on him all peoples will put their hope.”
Good News Translation® (Today’s English Version, Second Edition) © 1992 American Bible Society. All rights reserved. For more information about GNT, visit www.bibles.com and www.gnt.bible.