Book of Common Prayer
For the Director of Music: According to “The Lilies”. A testimony of Asaph. A psalm.
A Prayer for Jerusalem
80 Shepherd of Israel, listen!
The one who leads Joseph like a flock,
the one enthroned on the cherubim,
display your glory.[a]
2 Reveal[b] your power before Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh,
then come to our rescue.
3 God, restore us,
show your favor[c] and deliver us.
4 Lord God of the Heavenly Armies,
when will your smoldering anger[d]
toward your people’s prayers cease?[e]
5 You fed them tears as their food,
and caused them to drink a full measure of tears.
6 You have set us at strife against our neighbors
and our enemies deride us.
7 God of the Heavenly Armies, restore us
and show your favor,[f]
so we may be delivered.
8 You uprooted a vine from Egypt,
and drove out nations to transplant it.
9 You cleared the ground[g] so that its roots grew
and filled the land.
10 Mountains were covered by its shadows,
and the mighty cedars by its branches.
11 Its branches spread out to the Mediterranean[h] Sea
and its shoots to the Euphrates[i] River.
12 Why did you break down its walls
so that those who pass by pluck its fruits?[j]
13 Wild boars of the forest gnaw at it,
and creatures of the field feed on it.
14 God of the Heavenly Armies, return!
Look down from heaven and see.
Show care[k] toward this vine.
15 The root[l] that your right hand planted,
the shoot[m] that you tended for yourself,
16 was burned with fire, cut off,
and destroyed on account of your rebuke.
17 May you support the man at your right hand;
the son of man whom you have raised for yourself.
18 Then we will not turn away from you.
Restore us, so we can call upon your name.
19 God of hosts, restore to us the light of your favor.[n]
Then we’ll be delivered.
To the director: To Jeduthun. A psalm of Asaph.
Remembering God in Times of Trouble
77 I cry out to God!
I cry out to God and he hears me.
2 When I was in distress, I sought the Lord;
my hands were raised at night
and they did not grow weary.
I refused to be comforted.
3 I remember God, and I groan;
I meditate, while my spirit grows faint.
4 You kept my eyes open;
I was troubled and couldn’t speak.
5 I thought of ancient times,
considering years long past.
6 During the night I remembered my song.
I meditate in my heart,
and my spirit ponders.
7 Will the Lord reject me[a] forever
and not show favor again?
8 Has his gracious love ceased forever?
Will his promise be unfulfilled in future generations?
9 Has God forgotten to be gracious?
Has he in anger withheld his compassion?
10 So I say: “It causes me pain
that the right hand of the Most High has changed.”
11 I will remember the Lord’s deeds;
indeed, I will remember your awesome deeds from long ago.
12 As I meditate on all your works,
I will consider your awesome deeds.
13 God, your way is holy.
What god is like our great God?
14 God, you are the one performing awesome deeds.
You reveal your might among the nations.
15 You delivered[b] your people—
the descendants of Jacob and Joseph—
with your power.
16 The waters saw you, God;
the waters saw you and writhed.
Indeed, the depths of the sea quaked.
17 The clouds poured rain;
the skies rumbled.
Indeed, your lightning bolts flashed.[c]
18 Your thunderous sound was in a whirlwind;
your lightning lights up the world;
the earth becomes agitated and quakes.
19 Your way was through the sea,
and your path through mighty waters,
but your footprints cannot be traced.[d]
20 You have led your people like a flock
by the hands of Moses and Aaron.
A Psalm of Asaph
A Prayer for Jerusalem
79 God, nations have invaded your land[a]
to desecrate your holy Temple,
to destroy Jerusalem,
2 to give the corpses of your servants
as food for the birds of the skies
and the flesh of your godly ones
to the beasts of the earth;
3 to make their blood flow like water around Jerusalem,
with no one being buried.
4 We have become a reproach to our neighbors,
a mockery and a derision to those around us.
5 How long, Lord, will you be angry? Forever?
Will your jealousy burn like fire?
6 Pour out your wrath upon the nations
that do not acknowledge you,
and over the kingdoms
that do not call on your name.
7 For they consumed Jacob,
making his dwelling place desolate.
8 Don’t charge[b] us for previous iniquity,
but let your compassion come quickly to us,
for we have been brought very low.
9 Help us, God, our deliverer,
on account of your glorious name,
deliver us and forgive[c] our sins
on account of your name.
10 Why should the nations say, “Where is their God?”
Let vengeance for the blood of your servants be meted[d] out
before our eyes and among the nations.
11 Let the cries of the prisoners reach you.
With the strength of your power,
release those condemned to death.[e]
12 Pay back our neighbors seven times[f]
the reproach with which they reproached you, Lord.
13 Then we, your people, the sheep of your pasture,
will praise you always, from generation to generation.
We will declare your praise.
18 But Judah approached him and begged him, “Your Excellency, please allow your servant to speak to you privately.[a] Please don’t be angry with your servant, since you are equal to Pharaoh. 19 Your Excellency asked his servants, ‘Do you have a father or brother?’ 20 and we answered Your Excellency, ‘We have an aged father and a younger child who was born when he was old. His brother is now dead, so he’s the only surviving son of his mother. His father loves him.’
21 “But then you ordered your servants, ‘Bring him here to me so I can see him for myself.’ 22 So we told Your Excellency, ‘The young man cannot leave his father, because if he were to do so, his father would die.’ 23 But then you told your servants, ‘Unless your youngest brother comes back with you, you won’t see my face again.’ 24 Later on, after we had gone back to your servant, my father, we told him what Your Excellency had said.
25 “‘Go back,’ our father ordered, ‘and buy us a little food.’
26 “But we told him, ‘We can’t go back there. If our youngest brother accompanies us, we’ll go back, but we cannot see the man’s face again unless our youngest brother accompanies us.’
27 “Then your servant, our father, told us, ‘You know my wife bore me two sons. 28 One of them left me, so I concluded “I’m certain that he has been torn to pieces,” and I haven’t seen him since then. 29 If you take this one from me, too, and then something harmful happens to him, then it will be death for me and my sad, gray hair!’[b]
30 “So when I go back to your servant, my father, and the young man isn’t with us, since he’s constantly living life focused on his son,[c] 31 when he notices that the young man hasn’t come back with us, he’ll die, and your servants really will have brought death to your servant, our father,[d] along with his sad, gray hair! 32 Also, your servant pledged his own life as[e] a guarantee of the young man’s safety. I told my father, ‘If I don’t bring him back to you, you can blame me forever.’ 33 Therefore, please allow your servant to remain as a slave to Your Excellency, instead of the young man, and let the young man go back home with his brothers. 34 After all, how can I go back to my father if the young man doesn’t accompany me? I’m afraid of what might happen to my father.”
Concerning Virgins
25 Now concerning virgins, although I do not have any command from the Lord, I will give you my opinion as one who by the Lord’s mercy is trustworthy. 26 In view of the present crisis, I think it is prudent for a man to stay as he is. 27 Have you become committed[a] to a wife? Stop trying to get released from your commitment.[b] Have you been freed from your commitment to[c] a wife? Stop looking for one.[d] 28 But if you do get married, you have not sinned. And if a virgin gets married, she has not sinned. However, these people will experience trouble in this life,[e] and I want to spare you from that.
29 This is what I mean, brothers: The time is short. From now on, those who have wives should live as though they had none, 30 and those who mourn as though they did not mourn, and those who rejoice as though they were not rejoicing, and those who buy as though they did not own a thing, 31 and those who use the things in the world as though they were not dependent on them. For the world in its present form is passing away.
Jesus Heals a Woman and Resurrects a Girl(A)
21 When Jesus again had crossed to the other side in a boat,[a] a large crowd gathered around him by the seashore. 22 Then a synagogue leader named Jairus arrived. When he saw Jesus,[b] he fell at his feet 23 and begged him urgently, saying, “My little daughter is dying. Come and lay your hands on her so that she may get well and live.” 24 So Jesus[c] went with him. A huge crowd kept following him and jostling him.
25 Now there was a woman who had been suffering from chronic bleeding for twelve years. 26 Although she had endured a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all of her money, she had not been helped at all, but rather grew worse. 27 Since she had heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his robe, 28 because she had been saying, “If I can just touch his robe, I will get well.” 29 Her bleeding stopped at once, and she felt in her body that she was healed from her illness.
30 Immediately Jesus became aware that power had gone out of him. So he turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my clothes?”
31 His disciples asked him, “You see the crowd jostling you, and yet you ask, ‘Who touched me?’” 32 But he kept looking around to look at the woman who had done this. 33 So the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came forward fearfully, fell down trembling in front of him, and told him the whole truth.
34 He told her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace and be healed from your illness.”
35 While he was still speaking, some people[d] came from the synagogue leader’s home[e] and said, “Your daughter is dead. Why bother the Teacher anymore?”
36 But when Jesus heard[f] what they said, he told the synagogue leader, “Stop being afraid! Just keep on believing.” 37 Jesus[g] allowed no one to go further with him except Peter, James, and John, the brother of James.
38 When they came to the home of the synagogue leader, Jesus[h] saw mass confusion. People[i] were crying and sobbing loudly. 39 He entered the house[j] and asked them, “Why all this confusion and crying? The child isn’t dead. She’s sleeping.” 40 They laughed and laughed at him. But when he had driven all of them outside, he took the child’s father and mother, along with the men who were with him, and went into the room[k] where the child was.
41 He took her by the hand and told her, “Talitha koum,”[l] which means, “Young lady, I tell you, get up!” 42 The young lady got up at once and started to walk. She was twelve years old. Instantly they were overcome with astonishment. 43 But Jesus[m] strictly ordered them not to let anyone know about this. He also told them to give her something to eat.
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