Book of Common Prayer
A prayer by someone who is suffering, when he is weary and pours out his troubles in the Lord’s presence.
102 O Lord, hear my prayer,
and let my cry for help come to you.
2 Do not hide your face from me when I am in trouble.
Turn your ear toward me.
Answer me quickly when I call.
3 My days disappear like smoke.
My bones burn like hot coals.
4 My heart is beaten down and withered like grass
because I have forgotten about eating.
5 I am nothing but skin and bones
because of my loud groans.
6 I am like a desert owl,
like an owl living in the ruins.
7 I lie awake.
I am like a lonely bird on a rooftop.
8 All day long my enemies insult me.
Those who ridicule me use my name as a curse.
9 I eat ashes like bread
and my tears are mixed with my drink
10 because of your hostility and anger,
because you have picked me up and thrown me away.
11 My days are like a shadow that is getting longer,
and I wither away like grass.
12 But you, O Lord, remain forever.
You are remembered throughout every generation.
13 You will rise and have compassion on Zion,
because it is time to grant a favor to it.
Indeed, the appointed time has come.
14 Your servants value Zion’s stones,
and they pity its rubble.
15 The nations will fear the Lord’s name.
All the kings of the earth will fear your glory.
16 When the Lord builds Zion,
he will appear in his glory.
17 He will turn his attention to the prayers
of those who have been abandoned.
He will not despise their prayers.
18 This will be written down for a future generation
so that a people yet to be created may praise the Lord:
19 “The Lord looked down from his holy place high above.
From heaven he looked at the earth.
20 He heard the groans of the prisoners
and set free those who were condemned to death.
21 The Lord’s name is announced in Zion
and his praise in Jerusalem
22 when nations and kingdoms gather
to worship the Lord.”
23 He has weakened my strength along the way.
He has reduced ⌞the number of⌟ my days.
24 I said, “My God, don’t take me now in the middle of my life.
Your years ⌞continue on⌟ throughout every generation.
25 Long ago you laid the foundation of the earth.
Even the heavens are the works of your hands.
26 They will come to an end, but you will still go on.
They will all wear out like clothing.
You will change them like clothes,
and they will be thrown away.
27 But you remain the same, and your life will never end.
28 The children of your servants will go on living ⌞here⌟.
Their descendants will be secure in your presence.”
BOOK FIVE
(Psalms 107–150)
107 Give thanks to the Lord because he is good,
because his mercy endures forever.
2 Let the people the Lord defended repeat these words.
They are the people he defended from the power of their enemies
3 and gathered from other countries,
from the east and from the west,
from the north and from the south.
4 They wandered around the desert on a deserted road
without finding an inhabited city.
5 They were hungry and thirsty.
They began to lose hope.
6 In their distress they cried out to the Lord.
He rescued them from their troubles.
7 He led them on a road that went straight to an inhabited city.
8 Let them give thanks to the Lord because of his mercy.
He performed his miracles for Adam’s descendants.
9 He gave plenty to drink to those who were thirsty.
He filled those who were hungry with good food.
10 Those who lived in the dark, in death’s shadow
were prisoners in misery.
They were held in iron chains
11 because they had rebelled against God’s words and had despised the advice given by the Most High.
12 So he humbled them with hard work.
They fell down, but no one was there to help them.
13 In their distress they cried out to the Lord.
He saved them from their troubles.
14 He brought them out of the dark, out of death’s shadow.
He broke apart their chains.
15 Let them give thanks to the Lord because of his mercy.
He performed his miracles for Adam’s descendants.
16 He shattered bronze gates
and cut iron bars in two.
17 Fools suffered because of their disobedience
and because of their crimes.
18 All food was disgusting to them,
and they came near death’s gates.
19 In their distress they cried out to the Lord.
He saved them from their troubles.
20 He sent his message and healed them.
He rescued them from the grave.
21 Let them give thanks to the Lord because of his mercy.
He performed his miracles for Adam’s descendants.
22 Let them bring songs of thanksgiving as their sacrifice.
Let them tell in joyful songs what he has done.
23 Those who sail on the sea in ships,
who do business on the high seas,
24 have seen what the Lord can do,
the miracles he performed in the depths of the sea.
25 He spoke, and a storm began to blow,
and it made the waves rise high.
26 The sailors aboard ship rose toward the sky.
They plunged into the depths.
Their courage melted in ⌞the face of⌟ disaster.
27 They reeled and staggered like drunks,
and all their skills as sailors became useless.
28 In their distress they cried out to the Lord.
He led them from their troubles.
29 He made the storm calm down,
and the waves became still.
30 The sailors were glad that the storm was quiet.
He guided them to the harbor they had longed for.
31 Let them give thanks to the Lord because of his mercy.
He performed his miracles for Adam’s descendants.
32 Let them glorify him when the people are gathered for worship.
Let them praise him in the company of respected leaders.
17 “ ‘As for you, my sheep, this is what the Almighty Lord says: I will judge disputes between one sheep and another, between rams and male goats. 18 Isn’t it enough for you to feed on the good pasture? Must you trample the rest of the pasture with your feet? You drink clean water. Must you muddy the rest of the water with your feet? 19 Must my sheep eat what your feet have trampled and drink what your feet have muddied?
20 “ ‘So this is what the Almighty Lord says to them: I will judge disputes between the fat sheep and the skinny sheep. 21 You fat sheep push the skinny sheep with your sides and shoulders, and you knock down all the sick sheep with your horns. You have scattered them all over. 22 So I will rescue my sheep, and they will no longer be prey. I will judge between one sheep and another. 23 Then I will place one shepherd over them, my servant David, and he will take care of them. He will take care of them and be their shepherd. 24 I, the Lord, will be their God, and my servant David will be their prince. I, the Lord, have spoken.
25 “ ‘I will promise them peace. I will remove the wild animals from the land so that my sheep can live safely in the wilderness and sleep in the woods. 26 I will bless them and the places around my hill. I will send rain at the right time. These showers will be a blessing to them. 27 Then the trees in the field will produce fruit, the land will yield crops, and my sheep will live safely in their land. Then they will know that I am the Lord, because I will break off the bars on their yokes [a] and rescue them from the people who made them slaves. 28 They will no longer be prey to the nations, and the wild animals will no longer eat them. They will live safely, and no one will frighten them. 29 I will give them a place that is known for its good crops. They will no longer experience hunger in the land, and they will no longer suffer the insults of other nations. 30 Then they will know that I, the Lord their God, am with them and that they, the people of Israel, are my people, declares the Almighty Lord. 31 You, my sheep, are the sheep in my pasture. You are mortal, and I am your God, declares the Almighty Lord.’ ”
Jesus’ Priestly Work Is Superior to Other Priests’ Work
8 The main point we want to make is this: We do have this kind of chief priest. This chief priest holds the honored position—the one next to the majestic God [the Father] on the heavenly throne. 2 He serves as priest of the holy place and of the true tent set up by the Lord and not by any human.
3 Every chief priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices. Therefore, this chief priest had to offer something. 4 If he were on earth, he would not even be a priest. On earth ⌞other⌟ priests offer gifts by following the instructions that Moses gave. 5 They serve at a place that is a pattern, a shadow, of what is in heaven. When Moses was about to make the tent, God warned him, “Be sure to make everything based on the plan I showed you on the mountain.”
6 Jesus has been given a priestly work that is superior to the Levitical priests’ work. He also brings a better promise [a] from God that is based on better guarantees. 7 If nothing had been wrong with the first promise, no one would look for another one. 8 But God found something wrong with his people and said to them,
“The days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new promise to Israel and Judah. 9 It will not be like the promise that I made to their ancestors when I took them by the hand and brought them out of Egypt. They rejected that promise, so I ignored them, says the Lord. 10 But this is the promise that I will make to Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my teachings inside them, and I will write those teachings on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. 11 No longer will each person teach his neighbors or his relatives by saying, ‘Know the Lord.’ All of them from the least important to the most important will all know me 12 because I will forgive their wickedness and I will no longer hold their sins against them.”
13 God made this new promise and showed that the first promise was outdated. What is outdated and aging will soon disappear.
Mary Listens to Jesus
38 As they were traveling along, Jesus went into a village. A woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. 39 She had a sister named Mary. Mary sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to him talk.
40 But Martha was upset about all the work she had to do. So she asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work all by myself? Tell her to help me.”
41 The Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha! You worry and fuss about a lot of things. 42 There’s only one thing you need.[a] Mary has made the right choice, and that one thing will not be taken away from her.”
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