Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 70[a]
Insistent Prayer for Divine Assistance
1 For the director.[b] Of David. For remembrance.
2 [c]Make haste, O God, to rescue me;
O Lord, come quickly to my aid.
3 [d]May all those who seek to take my life
endure shame and confusion.
May all those who desire my ruin
be turned back and humiliated.
4 May those who cry out to me, “Aha! Aha!”[e]
be forced to retreat in shame.
5 But may all who seek you
rejoice in you and be jubilant.
May those who love your salvation
cry out forever, “May God be magnified.”[f]
6 As for me, I am poor and needy;[g]
hasten to my aid, O God.
You are my help and my deliverer;
O Lord, do not delay.
Psalm 71[h]
Prayer of the Righteous in Old Age
1 In you, O Lord, I have taken refuge;
let me never be put to shame.
2 In your righteousness rescue me and deliver me;
hear my plea and save me.
3 Be to me a rock of refuge
to which I can always go;
proclaim the order to save me,
for you are my rock and my fortress.
4 O my God, rescue me from the hands of the impious,
from the grasp of cruel and ruthless foes.
5 You, O Lord, are my hope,
my confidence, O God, from my youth.
6 I have relied upon you since birth,
and you have been my strength from my mother’s womb;
my praise rises unceasingly to you.[i]
7 I have become a portent to many,[j]
but you are my sure refuge.
8 My mouth is filled with your praises
as I relate your glory all day long.
9 Do not cast me off in my old age;
do not forsake me when my strength is completely spent.
10 For my enemies speak against me,
and those who seek my life plot together.
11 They say: “God has abandoned him;
go after him and seize him,
for no one will come to his rescue.”
12 O God, do not remain aloof from me;
come quickly to help me, O my God.
13 Let those who accuse me
be put to shame and perish;
let those who are determined to harm me
incur contempt and disgrace.[k]
14 But I will hope in you continually
and will render even more praise to you.
15 [l]My lips will proclaim your righteous deeds
and your salvation all day long,
though I do not know their extent.[m]
16 I will speak of your mighty deeds, O Lord God,
and declare your righteousness,[n] yours alone.
17 O God, you have taught me from my youth,
and to this day I proclaim your marvelous works.
18 Now that I am old and my hair is gray,[o]
do not abandon me, O God,
until I have extolled your might
to all the generations yet to come,
your strength 19 and your righteousness, O God,
to the highest heavens.
You have done great things;
O God, who is there who is like you?
20 You have shown me many afflictions and hardships,
but you will once again revive me.
From the depths of the earth[p]
you will once again raise me up.
21 You will restore my honor
and console me once again.
22 Then I will also praise[q] you with the harp
for your faithfulness, O my God.
I will sing praises to you with the lyre,
O Holy One of Israel.
23 When I sing to you, my lips will rejoice,
and so will my soul, which you have redeemed.
24 All day long my tongue
will relate your righteousness.
For those who intended to do me harm
will suffer shame and disgrace.
Psalm 74[a]
Prayer in Time of Calamity
1 A maskil[b] of Asaph.
Why, O God, have you cast us off forever?
Why[c] does your anger blaze forth
against the sheep of your pasture?
2 Remember the people that you purchased long ago,
the tribe that you redeemed as your own possession,[d]
and Mount Zion that you chose as your dwelling.
3 Direct now your steps[e] to the endless ruins,
toward the sanctuary destroyed by the enemy.
4 Your foes exulted triumphantly in the place of your assembly
and set up their memorial emblems.
5 They set upon it with their axes
as if it were a thicket of trees.
6 And then, with hatchets and hammers,
they bludgeoned all the carved work.
7 They set your sanctuary ablaze;
they razed and defiled the dwelling place of your name.[f]
8 They said to themselves, “We will utterly crush them,”
and they burned every shrine of God in the land.[g]
9 Now we see no signs,
there are no longer any prophets,
and none of us knows how long this will last.[h]
10 How long, O God, will the foe mock you?
Will the enemy blaspheme your name forever?[i]
11 Why do you hold back your right hand?
Take it out from your robe and destroy them.[j]
12 Yet you, O God, are my King from of old,
working deeds of salvation throughout the earth.
13 [k]By your power you split the sea in two
and shattered the heads of the dragons in the waters.
14 You crushed the heads of Leviathan
and gave him as food for the wild beasts.
15 You opened up springs and torrents
and turned flowing rivers into dry land.[l]
16 [m]Yours is the day, and yours also is the night,
for you set in place both sun and moon.
17 You fixed all the boundaries of the earth
and created both summer and winter.
18 [n]Remember, O Lord, how the enemy has mocked you,
how a foolish people has blasphemed your name.
19 Do not surrender the soul of your dove[o] to wild beasts;
do not forget forever the life of your poor.
20 Have regard for your covenant!
For the land is filled with darkness,
and the pastures are haunts of violence.
21 Do not let the oppressed turn back in shame;
let the poor and needy[p] bless your name.
22 Rise up, O God, and defend your cause;
remember how fools mock you all day long.
23 Do not ignore the outbursts of your enemies,
the unceasing tumult of your foes.
29 Ahab’s Death. So the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, went up to Ramoth-gilead. 30 The king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, “I will go into battle disguised, but you go into battle dressed in your robes.” So the king of Israel went into battle disguised.
31 Now the king of Aram had commanded the captains of his thirty-two chariots, “Do not fight with the small nor the great; save yourselves for the king of Israel.” 32 When the captains of the chariots saw Jehoshaphat, they said, “This is certainly the king of Israel.” They turned to attack him, but when Jehoshaphat cried out, 33 the captains of the chariots realized that it was not the king of Israel. They turned away from pursuing him.
34 But someone drew his bow, and by chance he hit the king of Israel in the joints of his armor. He said to his chariot driver, “Turn around and carry me out of the battle, for I am wounded.”[a] 35 As the battle grew more savage that day, they propped the king up in his chariot facing the Arameans. The blood from his wound dripped onto the floor of the chariot, and that evening he died.
36 As the sun was setting, there was a cry that spread through the army: “Everyone to his own city, everyone to his own land.” 37 And so the king died and was brought to Samaria, and they buried the king in Samaria. 38 Someone washed out the chariot at the pool in Samaria, and the dogs licked up his blood while the prostitutes were bathing. This fulfilled what the word of the Lord had said.
39 Are not the rest of the deeds of Ahab and all that he did, the ivory house and all of the cities that he built, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel? 40 Ahab slept with his fathers, and Ahaziah, his son, reigned in his stead.
41 Jehoshaphat’s Reign. Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, began to reign during the fourth year of the reign of Ahab, the king of Israel. 42 Jehoshaphat was thirty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned for twenty-five years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Azubah, the daughter of Shilhi. 43 [b]He walked in the ways of Asa, his father. He did not turn away from them, from doing what was right in the sight of the Lord. Still, he did not do away with the high places, and the people offered sacrifices and burned incense upon the high places. 44 Jehoshaphat made peace with the king of Israel.
45 Are not the rest of the deeds of Jehoshaphat, his achievements, and how he fought, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?
14 An unspiritual person refuses to accept what pertains to the Spirit of God, for to him such things are foolish. He is unable to understand them because they can be discerned only in a spiritual way. 15 A spiritual person[a] discerns all things, and he is himself subject to no one else’s judgment:
16 “For who has ever known the mind of the Lord?
Who has ever been his instructor?”
But we possess the mind of Christ.
Chapter 3
You Are Still Infants in Christ. 1 Brethren, I could not talk to you as spiritual people, but as worldly, as infants in Christ. 2 I fed you with milk, rather than with solid food that you were not ready to digest. Indeed, even now you are still not ready to receive it, 3 for you are still of the flesh.
As long as jealousy and rivalry continue among you, are you not of the flesh and acting as mere mortals? 4 Whenever someone says, “I belong to Paul,” and another asserts, “I belong to Apollos,” are you not acting in a merely human fashion?
Missionaries and Servants of Christ[b]
God’s Coworkers. 5 What then is Apollos? What is Paul? We are only servants through whom you have come to believe, as the Lord assigned each to accomplish. 6 I planted the seed, and Apollos watered it, but God caused it to grow.
7 Therefore, neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is of any importance but only God who causes the growth. 8 The one who plants and the one who waters have a common end, and each will be rewarded in accordance with his labor. 9 For we are God’s coworkers; you are God’s field, God’s building.
10 By the grace that God has given to me, I laid a foundation like a skilled master builder, and someone else is building on that foundation. But each one must be careful how he builds on it. 11 For no one can lay any foundation other than the one that has already been laid, namely, Jesus Christ.
12 Now if anyone builds on that foundation with gold, silver, and precious stones, or with wood, hay, and straw, 13 the work of each person will come to light. For the Day[c] will disclose it, because it will be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the worth of each person’s work 14 If what has been built survives, the builder will be rewarded. 15 If it burns down, that person will suffer loss. The person will be saved, though only by passing through fire.[d]
Chapter 5
The Sermon on the Mount—Magna Carta of the Christian Life[a]
The Beatitudes.[b] When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on the mountain. After he was seated, his disciples gathered around him. 2 Then he began to teach them as follows:3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4 Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
5 Blessed are the meek,
for they will inherit the earth.
6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for justice,
for they will have their fill.
7 Blessed are the merciful,
for they will obtain mercy.
8 Blessed are the pure of heart, for they will see God.
9 Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they will be called children of God.
10 Blessed are those who are persecuted in the cause of justice,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
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