Book of Common Prayer
A Cry for Help[a]
88 Lord God, my savior, I cry out all day,
and at night I come before you.
2 Hear my prayer;
listen to my cry for help!
3 So many troubles have fallen on me
that I am close to death.
4 I am like all others who are about to die;
all my strength is gone.[b]
5 I am abandoned among the dead;
I am like the slain lying in their graves,
those you have forgotten completely,
who are beyond your help.
6 You have thrown me into the depths of the tomb,
into the darkest and deepest pit.
7 Your anger lies heavy on me,
and I am crushed beneath its waves.
8 You have caused my friends to abandon me;
you have made me repulsive to them.
I am closed in and cannot escape;
9 my eyes are weak from suffering.
Lord, every day I call to you
and lift my hands to you in prayer.
10 Do you perform miracles for the dead?
Do they rise up and praise you?
11 Is your constant love spoken of in the grave
or your faithfulness in the place of destruction?
12 Are your miracles seen in that place of darkness
or your goodness in the land of the forgotten?
13 Lord, I call to you for help;
every morning I pray to you.
14 Why do you reject me, Lord?
Why do you turn away from me?
15 Ever since I was young, I have suffered and been near death;
I am worn out[c] from the burden of your punishments.
16 Your furious anger crushes me;
your terrible attacks destroy me.
17 All day long they surround me like a flood;
they close in on me from every side.
18 You have made even my closest friends abandon me,
and darkness is my only companion.
God Our Protector
91 Whoever goes to the Lord for safety,
whoever remains under the protection of the Almighty,
2 can say to him,
“You are my defender and protector.
You are my God; in you I trust.”
3 He will keep you safe from all hidden dangers
and from all deadly diseases.
4 He will cover you with his wings;
you will be safe in his care;
his faithfulness will protect and defend you.
5 You need not fear any dangers at night
or sudden attacks during the day
6 or the plagues that strike in the dark
or the evils that kill in daylight.
7 A thousand may fall dead beside you,
ten thousand all around you,
but you will not be harmed.
8 You will look and see
how the wicked are punished.
9 You have made the Lord your[a] defender,
the Most High your protector,
10 and so no disaster will strike you,
no violence will come near your home.
11 (A)God will put his angels in charge of you
to protect you wherever you go.
12 (B)They will hold you up with their hands
to keep you from hurting your feet on the stones.
13 (C)You will trample down lions and snakes,
fierce lions and poisonous snakes.
14 God says, “I will save those who love me
and will protect those who acknowledge me as Lord.
15 When they call to me, I will answer them;
when they are in trouble, I will be with them.
I will rescue them and honor them.
16 I will reward them with long life;
I will save them.”
A Song of Praise[b]
92 How good it is to give thanks to you, O Lord,
to sing in your honor, O Most High God,
2 to proclaim your constant love every morning
and your faithfulness every night,
3 with the music of stringed instruments
and with melody on the harp.
4 Your mighty deeds, O Lord, make me glad;
because of what you have done, I sing for joy.
5 How great are your actions, Lord!
How deep are your thoughts!
6 (D)This is something a fool cannot know;
someone who is stupid cannot understand:
7 the wicked may grow like weeds,
those who do wrong may prosper;
yet they will be totally destroyed,
8 because you, Lord, are supreme forever.
9 We know that your enemies will die,
and all the wicked will be defeated.
10 You have made me as strong as a wild ox;
you have blessed me with happiness.
11 I have seen the defeat of my enemies
and heard the cries of the wicked.
12 The righteous will flourish like palm trees;
they will grow like the cedars of Lebanon.
13 They are like trees planted in the house of the Lord,
that flourish in the Temple of our God,
14 that still bear fruit in old age
and are always green and strong.
15 This shows that the Lord is just,
that there is no wrong in my protector.
The Spies(A)
13 The Lord said to Moses, 2 “Choose one of the leaders from each of the twelve tribes and send them as spies to explore the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the Israelites.” 3-15 Moses obeyed and from the wilderness of Paran he sent out leaders, as follows:
| Tribe | Leader |
|---|---|
| Reuben | Shammua son of Zaccur |
| Simeon | Shaphat son of Hori |
| Judah | Caleb son of Jephunneh |
| Issachar | Igal son of Joseph |
| Ephraim | Hoshea son of Nun |
| Benjamin | Palti son of Raphu |
| Zebulun | Gaddiel son of Sodi |
| Manasseh | Gaddi son of Susi |
| Dan | Ammiel son of Gemalli |
| Asher | Sethur son of Michael |
| Naphtali | Nahbi son of Vophsi |
| Gad | Geuel son of Machi |
21 So the men went north and explored the land from the wilderness of Zin in the south all the way to Rehob, near Hamath Pass in the north. 22 They went first into the southern part of the land and came to Hebron, where the clans of Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, the descendants of a race of giants called the Anakim, lived. (Hebron was founded seven years before Zoan in Egypt.) 23 They came to Eshcol Valley, and there they cut off a branch which had one bunch of grapes on it so heavy that it took two men to carry it on a pole between them. They also brought back some pomegranates and figs. (24 That place was named Eshcol[a] Valley because of the bunch of grapes the Israelites cut off there.)
25 After exploring the land for forty days, the spies returned 26 to Moses, Aaron, and the whole community of Israel at Kadesh in the wilderness of Paran. They reported what they had seen and showed them the fruit they had brought. 27 They told Moses, “We explored the land and found it to be rich and fertile; and here is some of its fruit. 28 But the people who live there are powerful, and their cities are very large and well fortified. Even worse, we saw the descendants of the giants there. 29 Amalekites live in the southern part of the land; Hittites, Jebusites, and Amorites live in the hill country; and Canaanites live by the Mediterranean Sea and along the Jordan River.”
30 Caleb silenced the people who were complaining against[b] Moses, and said, “We should attack now and take the land; we are strong enough to conquer it.”
25 If you obey the Law, your circumcision is of value; but if you disobey the Law, you might as well never have been circumcised. 26 If the Gentile, who is not circumcised, obeys the commands of the Law, will not God regard him as though he were circumcised? 27 And so you Jews will be condemned by the Gentiles because you break the Law, even though you have it written down and are circumcised; but they obey the Law, even though they are not physically circumcised. 28 After all, who is a real Jew, truly circumcised? It is not the man who is a Jew on the outside, whose circumcision is a physical thing. 29 (A)Rather, the real Jew is the person who is a Jew on the inside, that is, whose heart has been circumcised, and this is the work of God's Spirit, not of the written Law. Such a person receives praise from God, not from human beings.
3 Do the Jews then have any advantage over the Gentiles? Or is there any value in being circumcised? 2 Much, indeed, in every way! In the first place, God trusted his message to the Jews. 3 But what if some of them were not faithful? Does this mean that God will not be faithful? 4 (B)Certainly not! God must be true, even though all human beings are liars. As the scripture says,
“You must be shown to be right when you speak;
you must win your case when you are being tried.”
5 But what if our doing wrong serves to show up more clearly God's doing right? Can we say that God does wrong when he punishes us? (This would be the natural question to ask.) 6 By no means! If God is not just, how can he judge the world?
7 But what if my untruth serves God's glory by making his truth stand out more clearly? Why should I still be condemned as a sinner? 8 Why not say, then, “Let us do evil so that good may come”? Some people, indeed, have insulted me by accusing me of saying this very thing! They will be condemned, as they should be.
The Parable of the Unforgiving Servant
21 (A)Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, if my brother keeps on sinning against me, how many times do I have to forgive him? Seven times?”
22 (B)“No, not seven times,” answered Jesus, “but seventy times seven,[a] 23 because the Kingdom of heaven is like this. Once there was a king who decided to check on his servants' accounts. 24 He had just begun to do so when one of them was brought in who owed him millions of dollars. 25 The servant did not have enough to pay his debt, so the king ordered him to be sold as a slave, with his wife and his children and all that he had, in order to pay the debt. 26 The servant fell on his knees before the king. ‘Be patient with me,’ he begged, ‘and I will pay you everything!’ 27 The king felt sorry for him, so he forgave him the debt and let him go.
28 “Then the man went out and met one of his fellow servants who owed him a few dollars. He grabbed him and started choking him. ‘Pay back what you owe me!’ he said. 29 His fellow servant fell down and begged him, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay you back!’ 30 But he refused; instead, he had him thrown into jail until he should pay the debt. 31 When the other servants saw what had happened, they were very upset and went to the king and told him everything. 32 So he called the servant in. ‘You worthless slave!’ he said. ‘I forgave you the whole amount you owed me, just because you asked me to. 33 You should have had mercy on your fellow servant, just as I had mercy on you.’ 34 The king was very angry, and he sent the servant to jail to be punished until he should pay back the whole amount.”
35 And Jesus concluded, “That is how my Father in heaven will treat every one of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart.”
Good News Translation® (Today’s English Version, Second Edition) © 1992 American Bible Society. All rights reserved. For more information about GNT, visit www.bibles.com and www.gnt.bible.