Book of Common Prayer
To the Director: A Psalm by the descendants of Korah.
Restore Us, God
85 Lord you have favored your land
and restored the fortunes of Jacob.
2 You took away the iniquity of your people,
forgiving all their sins.
3 You withdrew all your wrath
and turned away from your burning anger.
4 Restore us, God of our salvation,
and stop being angry with us.
5 Will you be angry with us forever?
Will you prolong your anger from generation to generation?
6 Will you restore our lives again
so that your people may rejoice in you?
7 Lord, show your gracious love
and deliver us.
8 Let me listen to what God, the Lord, says;
for the Lord will promise peace
to his people, to his holy ones;
may they not return to foolishness.
9 Surely, he will soon deliver those who fear him,
for his glory will live in our land.
10 Gracious love and truth meet;
righteousness and peace kiss.
11 Truth sprouts up from the ground,
while righteousness looks down from the sky.
12 The Lord will also provide what is good,
and our land will yield its produce.
13 Righteousness will go before him
to prepare a path for his steps.
A Davidic prayer
Help Us, God
86 Lord, listen and answer me,
for I am afflicted and needy.
2 Protect me, for I am faithful;[a]
My God, deliver your servant who trusts in you.
3 Have mercy on me Lord,
for I call on you all day long.
4 Your servant rejoices,
because, Lord, I set my hope on[b] you.
5 Indeed you, Lord, are kind and forgiving,
overflowing with gracious love to everyone who calls on you.
6 Hear my prayer, Lord;
attend to my prayer of supplication.
7 In my troubled times I will call on you,
for you will answer me.
8 No one can compare with you among the gods, Lord;
No one can accomplish[c] your work.
9 All the nations that you have established will come
and worship you, my Lord.
They will honor your name.
10 For you are great,
and you are doing awesome things;
you alone are God.
11 Teach me your ways, Lord,
that I may walk in your truth;
let me wholeheartedly[d] revere your name.
12 I will praise you, Lord my God, with my whole being;
and I will honor your name continuously.
13 For great is your gracious love to me;
you’ve delivered me from the depths of Sheol.[e]
14 God, arrogant men rise up against me,
while a company of ruthless individuals want to kill me.
They do not have regard for you.[f]
15 But you, Lord, are a compassionate God,
merciful and patient,[g]
with unending gracious love and faithfulness.
16 Return to me and have mercy on me;
clothe your servant with your strength
and deliver the son of your maid servant.
17 Show me a sign of your goodness,
so that those who hate me will see it and be ashamed.
For you, Lord, will help and comfort me.
A Davidic Psalm[a]
God is My Refuge
91 The one who lives in the shelter of the Most High,
who rests in the shadow of the Almighty,
2 will say to the Lord,
“You are my refuge, my fortress,
and my God in whom I trust!”
3 He will surely deliver you from the hunter’s snare
and from the destructive plague.
4 With his feathers he will cover you,
under his wings you will find safety.
His truth is your shield and armor.
5 You need not fear terror that stalks[b] in the night,
the arrow that flies in the day,
6 plague that strikes in the darkness,
or calamity that destroys at noon.
7 If a thousand fall at your side
or ten thousand at your right hand,
it will not overcome you.
8 Only observe[c] it with your eyes,
and you will see how the wicked are paid back.
9 “Lord, you are my refuge!”
Because you chose the Most High as your dwelling place,
10 no evil will fall upon you,
and no affliction will approach your tent,
11 for he will command his angels
to protect you in all your ways.
12 With their hands they will lift you up
so you will not trip over a stone.
13 You will stomp on lions and snakes;
you will trample young lions and serpents.
The Lord Speaks
14 Because he has focused his love on me,
I will deliver him.
I will protect him[d]
because he knows my name.
15 When he calls out to me,
I will answer him.
I will be with him in his[e] distress.
I will deliver him,
and I will honor him.
16 I will satisfy him with long life;
I will show him my deliverance.
A Psalm. A song for the Sabbath Day
Praise and Thanksgiving to God
92 It is good to give thanks to the Lord
and to sing praise to your name, Most High;
2 to proclaim your gracious love in the morning
and your faithfulness at night,
3 accompanied by a ten-stringed instrument and a lyre,
and the contemplative sound of a harp.
4 Because you made me glad
with your awesome deeds, Lord,
I will sing for joy at the works of your hands.
5 How great are your works, Lord!
Your thoughts are unfathomable.[f]
6 A stupid man doesn’t know,
and a fool can’t comprehend this:
7 Though the wicked sprout like grass;
and all who practice iniquity flourish,
it is they who will be eternally destroyed.
8 But you are exalted forever, Lord.
9 Look at your enemies, Lord!
Look at your enemies, for they are destroyed;
everyone who practices iniquity will be scattered.[g]
10 You’ve grown my strength[h] like the horn of a wild ox;
I was anointed with fresh oil.
11 My eyes gloated over those who lie in wait for me;[i]
when those of evil intent attack me, my ears will hear.
12 The righteous will flourish like palm trees;
they will grow like a cedar in Lebanon.
13 Planted in the Lord’s Temple,
they will flourish in the courtyard of our God.
14 They will still bear fruit even in old age;[j]
they will be luxuriant and green.
15 They will proclaim: “The Lord is upright;
my rock, in whom there is no injustice.”
Hannah’s Thanksgiving Psalm
2 Then Hannah prayed:
“My heart exults in the Lord;
my strength[a] is increased by the Lord.
I will open my mouth to speak[b] against my enemies,
because I rejoice in your deliverance.
2 Indeed,[c] there is no one holy like the Lord,
indeed, there is no one besides you,
there is no rock like our God.
3 Don’t continue to talk proudly,
and don’t speak arrogantly,
for the Lord is a God of knowledge,
and by him actions are weighed.
4 The bows of warriors are shattered,[d]
but those who stumble are equipped with[e] strength.
5 Those who had an abundance of bread
now hire themselves out,
and those who were hungry
hunger no more.[f]
While the barren woman gives birth to seven children,[g]
she who had many children languishes.
6 The Lord kills and gives life,
he brings people down to where the dead are[h]
and he raises them up.
7 The Lord makes people poor
and he makes people rich,
he brings them low,
and he also exalts them.
8 He raises the poor up from the dust,
he lifts up the needy from the trash heap
to make them sit with princes
and inherit a seat of honor.
Indeed the pillars of the earth belong to the Lord,
and he has set the world on them.
9 He guards the steps[i] of his faithful ones,
while the wicked are made silent[j] in darkness.
He grants the request of the one who prays.[k]
He blesses the year of the righteous.[l]
Indeed it’s not by strength that a person prevails.
God Has Brought Us from Death to Life
2 You used to be dead because of your offenses and sins 2 that you once practiced as you lived according to the ways of this present world and according to the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit that is now active in those who are disobedient.[a] 3 Indeed, all of us once behaved like[b] them in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of our flesh and senses. By nature we were destined for[c] wrath, just like everyone else. 4 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of his great love for us[d] 5 even when we were dead because of our offenses, made us alive together with[e] the Messiah[f] (by grace you have been saved), 6 raised us up with him, and seated us with him in the heavenly realm in the Messiah[g] Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might display the limitless riches of his grace that comes to us through his kindness in the Messiah[h] Jesus. 8 For by such grace you have been saved through faith. This does not come from you; it is the gift of God 9 and not the result of actions, to put a stop to all boasting.[i] 10 For we are God’s[j] masterpiece,[k] created in the Messiah[l] Jesus to perform good actions that God prepared long ago to be our way of life.[m]
22 Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, we prophesied in your name, drove out demons in your name, and performed many miracles in your name, didn’t we?’ 23 Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Get away from me, you who practice evil!’”[a]
The Two Foundations(A)
24 “Therefore, everyone who listens to these messages[b] of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on a rock. 25 The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, but it did not collapse because its foundation was on the rock.
26 “Everyone who keeps on hearing these messages[c] of mine and never puts them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. 27 The rain fell, the floods came, the winds blew and battered that house, and it collapsed—and its collapse was total.”
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