Book of Common Prayer
Davidic
A Man of Integrity Pleads for Justice
26 Vindicate me, Lord,
because I have walked in integrity;
I have trusted in the Lord without wavering.
2 Examine me, Lord, and inspect me!
Test my heart and mind.[a]
3 For your gracious love precedes me,
and I continuously walk according to your truth.
4 I do not sit with those committed to what is false,
nor do I travel with hypocrites.
5 I hate the company of those who practice evil,
nor do I sit with the wicked.
6 I wash my hands innocently.
I go around your altar, Lord,
7 so I may praise you loudly with thanksgiving
and declare all your wondrous acts.
8 Lord, I love the dwelling place that is your house,
the place where your glory resides.
9 Do not group me[b] with sinners,
nor include me[c] with men who shed blood.
10 Their hands are filled with wicked schemes,
and their right hands with bribes.
11 But as for me,
I walk in my integrity.
Redeem me and be gracious to me!
12 My feet stand on level ground;
among the worshiping congregations
I will bless the Lord.
Davidic
A Prayer for Help
28 To you, Lord, I cry out!
My Rock, do not refuse to answer me.[a]
If you remain silent,
I will become like those who descend into the Pit.[b]
2 Hear the sound of my supplications when I cry to you for help,
as I lift up my hands toward your most holy sanctuary.
3 Do not drag me away with the wicked,
with those who practice iniquity,
who speak peace to their neighbors
while harboring evil in their hearts.
4 Reward them according to their deeds;
according to the evil of their actions.
Reward them based on what they do;[c]
give them what they deserve.
5 Because they do not understand the deeds of the Lord
or the work of his hands,
He will tear them down and never build them up.
6 Blessed be the Lord!
For he has heard the sound of my supplications.
7 The Lord is my strength and my shield;
my heart trusts in him,
and I received help.
My heart rejoices,
and I give thanks to him with my song.
8 The Lord is the strength of his people;[d]
he is a refuge of deliverance for his anointed.
9 Deliver your people
and bless your inheritance!
Shepherd them
and lift them up forever!
To the Director: By the servant of the Lord, David.
An Oracle from the Lord
36 An oracle that came to me[a] about the transgressions of the wicked:
There is no fear of God before his eyes.
2 He flatters himself[b] too much[c] to discover his transgression and hate it.
3 The words from his mouth are vain and deceptive.
He has abandoned behaving wisely and doing good.
4 He devises iniquity on his bed
and is determined to follow a path that is not good.
He does not resist evil.
Praise to the Lord
5 Your gracious love, Lord, reaches to the heavens;
your truth[d] extends to the skies.[e]
6 Your righteousness is like the mountains of God;
your justice is like the great depths of the sea.[f]
You deliver both[g] people and animals, Lord.
7 How precious is your gracious love, God!
The children of men take refuge in the shadow of your wings.
8 They are refreshed from the abundance of your house;
You cause them to drink from the river of your pleasures.
9 For with you is a fountain of life,
and in your light we will see light.
10 Send forth your gracious love to those who know you,
and your righteousness to those who are upright in heart.
11 Do not let the foot of the proud crush me;
and do not let the hand of the wicked dissuade me.
12 There, those who do evil have fallen;
They have been thrown down,
and they cannot get up.
To the Director: To Jeduthun. A Davidic Psalm.
A Prayer about Life’s Priorities
39 I told myself, “I will keep watch over my tongue to keep from sinning.
I will muzzle my mouth when the wicked are around.”
2 I was as silent as a mute person;
I said nothing, not even something good,
and my distress deepened.
3 My heart within me became incensed;[a]
as I thought about it, the fire burned.
Then I[b] spoke out:
4 “Lord, let me know how my life ends,[c]
and the standard by which you will measure[d] my days, whatever it is!
Then I will know how transient my life is.
5 Look, you have made my life span fit in your hand;
It is nothing compared to yours.
Surely every person at their best is a puff of wind.
6 In fact, people walk around as shadows.
Surely, they busy themselves for nothing,
heaping up possessions but not knowing who will get them.
7 How long, Lord, will I wait expectantly?
I have placed my hope in you.
8 Deliver me from all my transgressions,
and do not let fools scorn me.”
9 I remain silent;
I do not open my mouth,
for you are the one who acted.
10 Stop scourging me,
since I have been crushed by your heavy hand.
11 You rebuke by chastening a man with the consequence of iniquities;
you destroy what is attractive to him, as one would treat a moth.
Indeed, every person is a puff of wind.
12 Hear my prayer, Lord,
pay attention to my cry,
and do not ignore my tears.
I am an alien in your presence,
a stranger just like my ancestors were.
13 Stop looking at me with chastisement,[e] so I can smile again,
before I depart and am no more.
The Covenant with Noah
9 God blessed Noah and his sons and ordered them, “Be productive, multiply, and fill the earth. 2 All the living creatures of the earth will be filled with fear and terror of you from now on, including all the creatures that fly in the sky, everything that crawls on the ground, and all the fish of the ocean. They’ve been assigned to live under your dominion.[a]
3 “Every living, moving creature will be food for you. Just as I gave you green plants before, so now you have everything. 4 However, you are not to eat meat with its life—that is, its blood—in it! 5 Also, I will certainly demand an accounting regarding bloodshed, from every animal and from every human being. I’ll demand an accounting from every human being for the life of another human being.
6 “Whoever sheds human blood,
by a human his own blood is to be shed;
because God made human beings
in his own image.
7 Now as for you, be productive
and multiply;
spread out over the land
and multiply throughout it.”
8 Later, God told Noah and his sons, 9 “Pay attention! I’m establishing my covenant with you and with your descendants after you, 10 and with every living creature that is with you—the flying creatures, the livestock, and all the wildlife of the earth that are with you—all the earth’s animals that came out of the ark. 11 I will establish my covenant with you: No living beings will ever be cut off again by flood waters, and there will never again be a flood that destroys the earth.”
The Sign of God’s Covenant
12 God also said, “Here’s the symbol that represents the covenant that I’m making between me and you and every living being with you, for all future generations: 13 I’ve set my rainbow in the sky[b] to symbolize the covenant between me and the earth. 14 Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow becomes visible in the clouds, 15 I’ll remember my covenant between me and you and every living creature, so that water will never again become a flood to destroy all living beings. 16 When the rainbow is in the clouds, I will observe it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living beings on the earth.”
17 God also told Noah, “This is the symbol of the covenant that I’ve established between me and everything[c] that lives on the earth.”
7 As a mortal man,[a] he offered up prayers and appeals with loud cries and tears to the one who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his devotion to God. 8 Son though he was, he learned obedience through his sufferings 9 and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him, 10 having been designated by God to be a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek.
You Still Need Someone to Teach You
11 We have much to say about this,[b] but it is difficult to explain because you have become too lazy to understand. 12 In fact, though by now you should be teachers, you still need someone to teach you the basic truths of God’s word.[c] You have become people who need milk instead of solid food. 13 For everyone who lives on milk is still a baby and does not yet know the difference between right and wrong.[d] 14 But solid food is for mature people, whose minds are trained by practice to distinguish good from evil.
16 “For this is how God loved the world: He gave his uniquely existing Son so that everyone who believes in him would not be lost but have eternal life. 17 Because God sent the Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world would be saved through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe has already been condemned, because he has not believed in the name of God’s uniquely existing Son. 19 And this is the basis for judgment: The light has come into the world, but people loved the darkness more than the light because their actions were evil. 20 Everyone who practices wickedness hates the light and does not come to the light, so that his actions may not be exposed.[a] 21 But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may become evident that his actions have God’s approval.”[b]
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