Book of Common Prayer
Supplication for Rescue and Grateful Trust in God.
To the Chief Musician; set to [the tune of] “Silent Dove Among Those Far Away.” A Mikhtam of David. [A record of memorable thoughts] when the Philistines seized him in Gath.
56 Be gracious to me, O God, for man has trampled on me;
All day long the adversary oppresses and torments me.
2
My enemies have trampled upon me all day long,
For they are many who fight proudly against me.
3
When I am afraid,
I will put my trust and faith in You.
4
In God, whose word I praise;
In God I have put my trust;
I shall not fear.
What can mere man do to me?
5
All day long they twist my words and say hurtful things;
All their thoughts are against me for evil.
6
They attack, they hide and lurk,
They watch my steps,
As they have [expectantly] waited to take my life.
7
Cast them out because of their wickedness.
In anger bring down the peoples, O God!
8
You have taken account of my wanderings;
Put my tears in Your bottle.
Are they not recorded in Your book?
9
Then my enemies will turn back in the day when I call;
This I know, that God is for me.(A)
10
In God, whose word I praise,
In the Lord, whose word I praise,
11
In God have I put my trust and confident reliance; I will not be afraid.
What can man do to me?
12
Your vows are binding upon me, O God;
I will give thank offerings to You.
13
For You have rescued my soul from death,
Yes, and my feet from stumbling,
So that I may walk before God
In the light of life.
Prayer for Rescue from Persecutors.
To the Chief Musician; set to [the tune of] “Do Not Destroy.” A Mikhtam of David. [A record of memorable thoughts of David] when he fled from Saul in the cave.
57 Be gracious to me, O God, be gracious and merciful to me,
For my soul finds shelter and safety in You,
And in the shadow of Your wings I will take refuge and be confidently secure
Until destruction passes by.
2
I will cry to God Most High,
Who accomplishes all things on my behalf [for He completes my purpose in His plan].
3
He will send from heaven and save me;
He calls to account him who tramples me down. Selah.
God will send out His lovingkindness and His truth.
4
My life is among lions;
I must lie among those who breathe out fire—
The sons of men whose teeth are spears and arrows,
And their tongue a sharp sword.
5
Be exalted above the heavens, O God;
Let Your glory and majesty be over all the earth.
6
They [a]set a net for my steps;
My very life was bowed down.
They dug a pit before me;
Into the midst of it they themselves have fallen. Selah.
7
My heart is steadfast, O God, my heart is steadfast and confident!
I will sing, yes, I will sing praises [to You]!
8
Awake, my glory!
Awake, harp and lyre!
I will awaken the dawn.
9
I will praise and give thanks to You, O Lord, among the people;
I will sing praises to You among the nations.
10
For Your faithfulness and lovingkindness are great, reaching to the heavens,
And Your truth to the clouds.
11
Be exalted above the heavens, O God;
Let Your glory and majesty be over all the earth.
Prayer for the Punishment of the Wicked.
To the Chief Musician; set to [the tune of] “Do Not Destroy.” A Mikhtam of David. [A record of memorable thoughts of David].
58 Do you indeed speak righteousness, O gods (heavenly beings)?
Do you judge fairly, O sons of men?(B)
2
No, in your heart you devise wrongdoing;
On earth you deal out the violence of your hands.
3
The wicked are estranged from the womb;
These go astray from birth, speaking lies [even twisted partial truths].
4
Their poison is like the venom of a serpent;
They are like the deaf horned viper that stops up its ear,
5
So that it does not listen to the voice of charmers,
Or of the skillful enchanter casting [cunning] spells.
6
O God, break their teeth in their mouth;
Break out the fangs of the young lions, O Lord.
7
Let them flow away like water that runs off;
When he aims his arrows, let them be as headless shafts.
8
Let them be as a snail which melts away (secretes slime) as it goes along,
Like the miscarriage of a woman which never sees the sun.
9
Before your cooking pots can feel the fire of thorns [burning under them as fuel],
He will sweep them away with a whirlwind, the green and the burning ones alike.
10
The [unyieldingly] righteous will rejoice when he sees the vengeance [of God];
He will wash his feet in the blood of the wicked.
11
Men will say, “Surely there is a reward for the righteous;
Surely there is a God who judges on the earth.”
Prayer for Protection from Secret Enemies.
To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David.
64 Hear my voice, O God, in my [a]complaint;
Guard my life from the terror of the enemy.
2
Hide me from the secret counsel and conspiracy of the ungodly,
From the scheming of those who do wrong,
3
Who have sharpened their tongues like a sword.
They aim venomous words as arrows,
4
To shoot from ambush at the blameless [one];
Suddenly they shoot at him, without fear.
5
They encourage themselves in [their pursuit of] an evil agenda;
They talk of laying snares secretly;
They say, “Who will discover us?”
6
They devise acts of injustice, saying,
“We are ready with a well-conceived plan.”
For the inward thought and the heart of a man are deep (mysterious, unsearchable).
7
But God will shoot them with an [unexpected] arrow;
Suddenly they will be wounded.
8
So they will be caused to stumble;
Their own tongue is against them;
All who gaze at them will shake the head [in scorn].
9
Then all men will fear [God’s judgment];
They will declare the work of God,
And they will consider and wisely acknowledge what He has done.
10
The righteous will rejoice in the Lord and take refuge in Him;
All the upright in heart will glory and offer praise.
God’s Abundant Favor to Earth and Man.
To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David. A Song.
65 To You belongs silence [the submissive wonder of reverence], and [it bursts into] praise in Zion, O God;
And to You the vow shall be performed.
2
O You who hear prayer,
To You all mankind comes.
3
Wickedness and guilt prevail against me;
Yet as for our transgressions,
You forgive them [removing them from Your sight].
4
Blessed is the one whom You choose and bring near
To dwell in Your courts.
We will be filled with the goodness of Your house,
Your holy temple.
5
By awesome and wondrous things You answer us in righteousness, O God of our salvation,
You who are the trust and hope of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest sea;
6
Who creates the mountains by His strength,
Being clothed with power,
7
Who stills the roaring of the seas,
The roaring of their waves,
And the tumult of the peoples,
8
So they who dwell at the ends of the earth stand in awe of Your signs [the evidence of Your presence].(A)
You make the dawn and the sunset shout for joy.
9
You visit the earth and make it overflow [with water];
You greatly enrich it;
The stream of God is full of water;
You provide their grain, when You have prepared the earth.
10
You water its furrows abundantly,
You smooth its ridges;
You soften it with showers,
You bless its growth.
11
You crown the year with Your bounty,
And Your paths overflow.
12
The pastures of the wilderness drip [with dew],
And the hills are encircled with joy.
13
The meadows are clothed with flocks
And the valleys are covered with grain;
They shout for joy and they sing.
46 Now Joseph [had been in Egypt thirteen years and] was thirty years old when he stood before Pharaoh, king of Egypt. Joseph departed from the presence of Pharaoh and went through all the land of Egypt [performing his duties]. 47 In the seven abundant years the earth produced handfuls [for each seed planted]. 48 And Joseph gathered all the [surplus] food of the seven [good] years in the land of Egypt and stored [enormous quantities of] the food in the cities. He stored away in every city the food [collected] from its own surrounding fields. 49 Thus Joseph gathered and stored up grain in great abundance like the sand of the sea, until he stopped counting it, for it could not be measured.
The Sons of Joseph
50 Now two sons were born to Joseph before the years of famine came, whom Asenath, the daughter of Potiphera, priest of On, bore to him. 51 Joseph named the firstborn Manasseh (causing to forget), for he said, “God has made me forget all my trouble and hardship and all [the sorrow of the loss of] my father’s household.” 52 He named the second [son] Ephraim (fruitfulness), for “God has caused me to be fruitful and very successful in the land of my suffering.”
53 When the seven years of plenty came to an end in the land of Egypt, 54 the seven years of famine began to come, just as Joseph had said [they would]; the famine was in all the [surrounding] lands, but in the land of Egypt there was bread (food). 55 So when all the land of Egypt was famished, the people cried out to Pharaoh for food; and Pharaoh said to all the Egyptians, “Go to Joseph; do whatever he says to you.” 56 When the famine was spread over all the land, Joseph opened all the storehouses, and sold [surplus grain] to the Egyptians; and the famine grew [extremely] severe in the land of Egypt. 57 And [the people of] all countries came to Egypt to Joseph to buy grain, because the famine was severe over all the [known] earth.
8 [You behave as if] you are already filled [with spiritual wisdom and in need of nothing more]. Already you have become rich [in spiritual gifts]! You [in your conceit] have ascended your thrones and become kings without us; and how I wish [that it were true and] that you did reign as kings, so that we might reign with you. 9 For, I think, God has exhibited us apostles at the end of the line, like men sentenced to death [and paraded as prisoners in a procession], because we have become a spectacle to the world [a show in the world’s amphitheater], both to angels and to men. 10 We are [regarded as] fools for Christ, but you are so wise in Christ; we are weak, but you are strong; you are highly esteemed, but we are dishonored. 11 To this present hour we are both hungry and thirsty; we are continually poorly dressed, and we are roughly treated, and wander homeless. 12 We work [for our living], working hard with our own hands. When we are reviled and verbally abused, we bless. When we are persecuted, we take it patiently and endure. 13 When we are slandered, we try to be conciliatory and answer softly. We have become like the scum of the world, the dregs of all things, even until now.
14 I do not write these things to shame you, but to warn and advise you as my beloved children. 15 For even if you were to have ten thousand teachers [to guide you] in Christ, yet you would not have many fathers [who led you to Christ and assumed responsibility for you], for I became your father in Christ Jesus through the good news [of salvation]. 16 So I urge you, be imitators of me [just as a child imitates his father]. 17 For this reason I have sent Timothy to you, who is my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, and he will remind you of my way of life in Christ [my conduct and my precepts for godly living], just as I teach everywhere in every church. 18 Now some of you have become arrogant and pretentious, as though I were not coming to see you. 19 But I will come to you soon, if the Lord is willing, and I will find out not just the talk of these arrogant people, but [evaluate] their [spiritual] power [whether they live up to their own claims]. 20 For the kingdom of God is not based on talk but on power. 21 Which do you prefer? Shall I come to you with a rod [of discipline and correction], or with love and a gentle spirit?
7 Jesus withdrew to the sea with His disciples; and a large crowd from Galilee followed Him; and also people from Judea, 8 and from Jerusalem, and from Idumea, and [from the region] beyond the Jordan, and around Tyre and Sidon; a vast number of people came to Him because they were hearing about all [the things] that He was doing. 9 And He told His disciples to have a small boat stand ready for Him because of the many people, so that they would not crowd Him; 10 for He had healed many, and as a result all who had diseases pressed around Him to touch Him. 11 Whenever the unclean spirits saw Him, they fell down before Him and screamed out, “You are the Son of God!” 12 Jesus sternly warned them [again and again] not to tell who He was.
The Twelve Are Chosen
13 He went up on the hillside and called those whom He Himself wanted and chose; and they came to Him. 14 And He appointed [a]twelve [disciples], so that they would be with Him [for instruction] and so that He could send them out to preach [the gospel as apostles—that is, as His special messengers, personally chosen representatives], 15 and to have authority and power to cast out demons. 16 He appointed the twelve: Simon (to whom He gave the name Peter),(A) 17 and James, the son of [b]Zebedee, and John the brother of James (to them He gave the name Boanerges, that is, “Sons of Thunder”); 18 and [He also appointed] Andrew, and Philip, and Bartholomew (Nathanael), and Matthew (Levi the tax collector), and Thomas, and [c]James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus (Judas the son of James), and Simon the Zealot; 19 and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed Him.
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