Book of Common Prayer
Prayer for Relief from Adversaries(A)
To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David. (B)To bring to remembrance.
70 Make haste, (C)O God, to deliver me!
Make haste to help me, O Lord!
2 (D)Let them be ashamed and confounded
Who seek my life;
Let them be [a]turned back and confused
Who desire my hurt.
3 (E)Let them be turned back because of their shame,
Who say, [b]“Aha, aha!”
4 Let all those who seek You rejoice and be glad in You;
And let those who love Your salvation say continually,
“Let God be magnified!”
5 (F)But I am poor and needy;
(G)Make haste to me, O God!
You are my help and my deliverer;
O Lord, do not delay.
God the Rock of Salvation
71 In (H)You, O Lord, I put my trust;
Let me never be put to shame.
2 (I)Deliver me in Your righteousness, and cause me to escape;
(J)Incline Your ear to me, and save me.
3 (K)Be my [c]strong refuge,
To which I may resort continually;
You have given the (L)commandment to save me,
For You are my rock and my fortress.
4 (M)Deliver me, O my God, out of the hand of the wicked,
Out of the hand of the unrighteous and cruel man.
5 For You are (N)my hope, O Lord God;
You are my trust from my youth.
6 (O)By You I have been [d]upheld from birth;
You are He who took me out of my mother’s womb.
My praise shall be continually of You.
7 (P)I have become as a wonder to many,
But You are my strong refuge.
8 Let (Q)my mouth be filled with Your praise
And with Your glory all the day.
9 Do not cast me off in the time of old age;
Do not forsake me when my strength fails.
10 For my enemies speak against me;
And those who lie in wait for my life (R)take counsel together,
11 Saying, “God has forsaken him;
Pursue and take him, for there is none to deliver him.”
12 (S)O God, do not be far from me;
O my God, (T)make haste to help me!
13 Let them be [e]confounded and consumed
Who are adversaries of my life;
Let them be covered with reproach and dishonor
Who seek my hurt.
14 But I will hope continually,
And will praise You yet more and more.
15 My mouth shall tell of Your righteousness
And Your salvation all the day,
For I do not know their limits.
16 I will go in the strength of the Lord God;
I will make mention of Your righteousness, of Yours only.
17 O God, You have taught me from my (U)youth;
And to this day I declare Your wondrous works.
18 Now also (V)when I am old and grayheaded,
O God, do not forsake me,
Until I declare Your strength to this generation,
Your power to everyone who is to come.
19 Also (W)Your righteousness, O God, is [f]very high,
You who have done great things;
(X)O God, who is like You?
20 (Y)You, who have shown me great and severe troubles,
(Z)Shall revive me again,
And bring me up again from the depths of the earth.
21 You shall increase my greatness,
And comfort me on every side.
22 Also (AA)with the lute I will praise You—
And Your faithfulness, O my God!
To You I will sing with the harp,
O (AB)Holy One of Israel.
23 My lips shall greatly rejoice when I sing to You,
And (AC)my soul, which You have redeemed.
24 My tongue also shall talk of Your righteousness all the day long;
For they are confounded,
For they are brought to shame
Who seek my hurt.
A Plea for Relief from Oppressors
A [a]Contemplation of Asaph.
74 O God, why have You cast us off forever?
Why does Your anger smoke against the sheep of Your pasture?
2 Remember Your congregation, which You have purchased of old,
The tribe of Your inheritance, which You have redeemed—
This Mount Zion where You have dwelt.
3 Lift up Your feet to the perpetual desolations.
The enemy has damaged everything in the sanctuary.
4 (A)Your enemies roar in the midst of Your meeting place;
(B)They set up their banners for signs.
5 They seem like men who lift up
Axes among the thick trees.
6 And now they break down its carved work, all at once,
With axes and hammers.
7 They have set fire to Your sanctuary;
They have defiled the dwelling place of Your name to the ground.
8 (C)They said in their hearts,
“Let us [b]destroy them altogether.”
They have burned up all the meeting places of God in the land.
9 We do not see our signs;
(D)There is no longer any prophet;
Nor is there any among us who knows how long.
10 O God, how long will the adversary [c]reproach?
Will the enemy blaspheme Your name forever?
11 (E)Why do You withdraw Your hand, even Your right hand?
Take it out of Your bosom and destroy them.
12 For (F)God is my King from of old,
Working salvation in the midst of the earth.
13 (G)You divided the sea by Your strength;
You broke the heads of the [d]sea serpents in the waters.
14 You broke the heads of [e]Leviathan in pieces,
And gave him as food to the people inhabiting the wilderness.
15 (H)You broke open the fountain and the flood;
(I)You dried up mighty rivers.
16 The day is Yours, the night also is (J)Yours;
(K)You have prepared the light and the sun.
17 You have (L)set all the borders of the earth;
(M)You have made summer and winter.
18 Remember this, that the enemy has reproached, O Lord,
And that a foolish people has blasphemed Your name.
19 Oh, do not deliver the life of Your turtledove to the wild beast!
Do not forget the life of Your poor forever.
20 (N)Have respect to the covenant;
For the [f]dark places of the earth are full of the [g]haunts of [h]cruelty.
21 Oh, do not let the oppressed return ashamed!
Let the poor and needy praise Your name.
22 Arise, O God, plead Your own cause;
Remember how the foolish man [i]reproaches You daily.
23 Do not forget the voice of Your enemies;
The tumult of those who rise up against You increases continually.
26 ‘You shall not eat anything with the blood, nor shall you practice divination or soothsaying. 27 You shall not shave around the sides of your head, nor shall you disfigure the edges of your beard. 28 You shall not (A)make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor tattoo any marks on you: I am the Lord.
29 (B)‘Do not prostitute your daughter, to cause her to be a harlot, lest the land fall into harlotry, and the land become full of wickedness.
30 ‘You shall [a]keep My Sabbaths and (C)reverence My sanctuary: I am the Lord.
31 ‘Give no regard to mediums and familiar spirits; do not seek after (D)them, to be defiled by them: I am the Lord your God.
32 (E)‘You shall [b]rise before the gray headed and honor the presence of an old man, and (F)fear your God: I am the Lord.
33 ‘And (G)if a stranger dwells with you in your land, you shall not mistreat him. 34 (H)The stranger who dwells among you shall be to you as [c]one born among you, and (I)you shall love him as yourself; for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.
35 ‘You shall do no injustice in judgment, in measurement of length, weight, or volume. 36 You shall have (J)honest scales, honest weights, an honest ephah, and an honest hin: I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt.
37 (K)‘Therefore you shall observe all My statutes and all My judgments, and perform them: I am the Lord.’ ”
Greeting
1 Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy,
To the church of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ:
2 (A)Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
God’s Final Judgment and Glory
3 We are bound to thank God always for you, brethren, as it is fitting, because your faith grows exceedingly, and the love of every one of you all abounds toward each other, 4 so that (B)we ourselves boast of you among the churches of God (C)for your patience and faith (D)in all your persecutions and [a]tribulations that you endure, 5 which is (E)manifest[b] evidence of the righteous judgment of God, that you may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, (F)for which you also suffer; 6 (G)since it is a righteous thing with God to repay with [c]tribulation those who trouble you, 7 and to give you who are troubled (H)rest with us when (I)the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, 8 in flaming fire taking vengeance on those who do not know God, and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 (J)These shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and (K)from the glory of His power, 10 when He comes, in that Day, (L)to be (M)glorified in His saints and to be admired among all those who [d]believe, because our testimony among you was believed.
11 Therefore we also pray always for you that our God would (N)count you worthy of this calling, and fulfill all the good pleasure of His goodness and (O)the work of faith with power, 12 (P)that the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you, and you in Him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Do Not Worry(A)
25 “Therefore I say to you, (B)do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? 26 (C)Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27 Which of you by worrying can add one [a]cubit to his [b]stature?
28 “So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; 29 and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not [c]arrayed like one of these. 30 Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?
31 “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 33 But (D)seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.