Book of Common Prayer
A Prayer of Confidence[a]
16 Protect me, O God; I trust in you for safety.
2 I say to the Lord, “You are my Lord;
all the good things I have come from you.”
3 How excellent are the Lord's faithful people!
My greatest pleasure is to be with them.
4 Those who rush to other gods
bring many troubles on themselves.[b]
I will not take part in their sacrifices;
I will not worship their gods.
5 You, Lord, are all I have,
and you give me all I need;
my future is in your hands.
6 How wonderful are your gifts to me;
how good they are!
7 I praise the Lord, because he guides me,
and in the night my conscience warns me.
8 I am always aware of the Lord's presence;
he is near, and nothing can shake me.
9 And so I am thankful and glad,
and I feel completely secure,
10 (A)because you protect me from the power of death.
I have served you faithfully,
and you will not abandon me to the world of the dead.
11 (B)You will show me the path that leads to life;
your presence fills me with joy
and brings me pleasure forever.
The Prayer of an Innocent Person[c]
17 Listen, O Lord, to my plea for justice;
pay attention to my cry for help!
Listen to my honest prayer.
2 You will judge in my favor,
because you know what is right.
3 You know my heart.
You have come to me at night;
you have examined me completely
and found no evil desire in me.
I speak no evil,
4 as others do;
I have obeyed your command
and have not followed paths of violence.
5 I have always walked in your way
and have never strayed from it.
6 I pray to you, O God, because you answer me;
so turn to me and listen to my words.
7 Reveal your wonderful love and save me;
at your side I am safe from my enemies.
8 Protect me as you would your very eyes;
hide me in the shadow of your wings
9 from the attacks of the wicked.
Deadly enemies surround me;
10 they have no pity and speak proudly.
11 They are around me now, wherever I turn,
watching for a chance to pull me down.
12 They are like lions, waiting for me,
wanting to tear me to pieces.
13 Come, Lord! Oppose my enemies and defeat them!
Save me from the wicked by your sword;
14 save me from those who in this life have all they want.
Punish them with the sufferings you have stored up for them;
may there be enough for their children
and some left over for their children's children!
15 But I will see you, because I have done no wrong;
and when I awake, your presence will fill me with joy.
A Cry of Anguish and a Song of Praise[a]
22 (A)My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?
I have cried desperately for help,
but still it does not come.
2 During the day I call to you, my God,
but you do not answer;
I call at night,
but get no rest.
3 But you are enthroned as the Holy One,
the one whom Israel praises.
4 Our ancestors put their trust in you;
they trusted you, and you saved them.
5 They called to you and escaped from danger;
they trusted you and were not disappointed.
6 But I am no longer a human being; I am a worm,
despised and scorned by everyone!
7 (B)All who see me make fun of me;
they stick out their tongues and shake their heads.
8 (C)“You relied on the Lord,” they say.
“Why doesn't he save you?
If the Lord likes you,
why doesn't he help you?”
9 It was you who brought me safely through birth,
and when I was a baby, you kept me safe.
10 I have relied on you since the day I was born,
and you have always been my God.
11 Do not stay away from me!
Trouble is near,
and there is no one to help.
12 Many enemies surround me like bulls;
they are all around me,
like fierce bulls from the land of Bashan.
13 They open their mouths like lions,
roaring and tearing at me.
14 My strength is gone,
gone like water spilled on the ground.
All my bones are out of joint;
my heart is like melted wax.
15 My throat[b] is as dry as dust,
and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth.
You have left me for dead in the dust.
16 An evil gang is around me;
like a pack of dogs they close in on me;
they tear at[c] my hands and feet.
17 All my bones can be seen.
My enemies look at me and stare.
18 (D)They gamble for my clothes
and divide them among themselves.
19 O Lord, don't stay away from me!
Come quickly to my rescue!
20 Save me from the sword;
save my life from these dogs.
21 Rescue me from these lions;
I am helpless[d] before these wild bulls.
22 (E)I will tell my people what you have done;
I will praise you in their assembly:
23 “Praise him, you servants of the Lord!
Honor him, you descendants of Jacob!
Worship him, you people of Israel!
24 He does not neglect the poor or ignore their suffering;
he does not turn away from them,
but answers when they call for help.”
25 In the full assembly I will praise you for what you have done;
in the presence of those who worship you
I will offer the sacrifices I promised.
26 The poor will eat as much as they want;
those who come to the Lord will praise him.
May they prosper forever!
27 All nations will remember the Lord.
From every part of the world they will turn to him;
all races will worship him.
28 The Lord is king,
and he rules the nations.
29 All proud people will bow down to him;[e]
all mortals will bow down before him.
30 Future generations will serve him;
they will speak of the Lord to the coming generation.
31 People not yet born will be told:
“The Lord saved his people.”
7 Then Moses called Joshua and said to him in the presence of all the people of Israel, “Be determined and confident; you are the one who will lead these people to occupy the land that the Lord promised to their ancestors. 8 (A)The Lord himself will lead you and be with you. He will not fail you or abandon you, so do not lose courage or be afraid.”
The Law Is to Be Read Every Seven Years
9 So Moses wrote down God's Law and gave it to the levitical priests, who were in charge of the Lord's Covenant Box, and to the leaders of Israel. 10 (B)He commanded them, “At the end of every seven years, when the year that debts are canceled comes around, read this aloud at the Festival of Shelters. 11 Read it to the people of Israel when they come to worship the Lord your God at the one place of worship. 12 Call together all the men, women, and children, and the foreigners who live in your towns, so that everyone may hear it and learn to honor the Lord your God and to obey his teachings faithfully. 13 In this way your descendants who have never heard the Law of the Lord your God will hear it. And so they will learn to obey him as long as they live in the land that you are about to occupy across the Jordan.”
24 Moses wrote God's Law in a book, taking care not to leave out anything. 25 When he finished, he said to the levitical priests, who were in charge of the Lord's Covenant Box, 26 “Take this book of God's Law and place it beside the Covenant Box of the Lord your God, so that it will remain there as a witness against his people. 27 I know how stubborn and rebellious they are. They have rebelled against the Lord during my lifetime, and they will rebel even more after I am dead. 28 Assemble all your tribal leaders and officials before me, so that I can tell them these things; I will call heaven and earth to be my witnesses against them. 29 I know that after my death the people will become wicked and reject what I have taught them. And in time to come they will meet with disaster, because they will have made the Lord angry by doing what he has forbidden.”
The Song of Moses
30 Then Moses recited the entire song while all the people of Israel listened.
32 “Earth and sky, hear my words,
listen closely to what I say.
2 My teaching will fall like drops of rain
and form on the earth like dew.
My words will fall like showers on young plants,
like gentle rain on tender grass.
3 I will praise the name of the Lord,
and his people will tell of his greatness.
4 “The Lord is your mighty defender,
perfect and just in all his ways;
Your God is faithful and true;
he does what is right and fair.
10 My friends, how I wish with all my heart that my own people might be saved! How I pray to God for them! 2 I can assure you that they are deeply devoted to God; but their devotion is not based on true knowledge. 3 They have not known the way in which God puts people right with himself, and instead, they have tried to set up their own way; and so they did not submit themselves to God's way of putting people right. 4 For Christ has brought the Law to an end, so that everyone who believes is put right with God.
Salvation Is for All
5 (A)Moses wrote this about being put right with God by obeying the Law: “Whoever obeys the commands of the Law will live.” 6 (B)But what the scripture says about being put right with God through faith is this: “You are not to ask yourself, Who will go up into heaven?” (that is, to bring Christ down). 7 “Nor are you to ask, Who will go down into the world below?” (that is, to bring Christ up from death). 8 What it says is this: “God's message is near you, on your lips and in your heart”—that is, the message of faith that we preach. 9 If you confess that Jesus is Lord and believe that God raised him from death, you will be saved. 10 For it is by our faith that we are put right with God; it is by our confession that we are saved. 11 (C)The scripture says, “Whoever believes in him will not be disappointed.” 12 This includes everyone, because there is no difference between Jews and Gentiles; God is the same Lord of all and richly blesses all who call to him. 13 (D)As the scripture says, “Everyone who calls out to the Lord for help will be saved.”
The Awful Horror(A)
15 (B)“You will see ‘The Awful Horror’ of which the prophet Daniel spoke. It will be standing in the holy place.” (Note to the reader: understand what this means!) 16 “Then those who are in Judea must run away to the hills. 17 (C)Someone who is on the roof of a house must not take the time to go down and get any belongings from the house. 18 Someone who is in the field must not go back to get a cloak. 19 How terrible it will be in those days for women who are pregnant and for mothers with little babies! 20 Pray to God that you will not have to run away during the winter or on a Sabbath! 21 (D)For the trouble at that time will be far more terrible than any there has ever been, from the beginning of the world to this very day. Nor will there ever be anything like it again. 22 But God has already reduced the number of days; had he not done so, nobody would survive. For the sake of his chosen people, however, God will reduce the days.
23 “Then, if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Messiah!’ or ‘There he is!’—do not believe it. 24 For false Messiahs and false prophets will appear; they will perform great miracles and wonders in order to deceive even God's chosen people, if possible. 25 Listen! I have told you this ahead of time.
26 (E)“Or, if people should tell you, ‘Look, he is out in the desert!’—don't go there; or if they say, ‘Look, he is hiding here!’—don't believe it. 27 For the Son of Man will come like the lightning which flashes across the whole sky from the east to the west.
28 (F)“Wherever there is a dead body, the vultures will gather.
The Coming of the Son of Man(G)
29 (H)“Soon after the trouble of those days, the sun will grow dark, the moon will no longer shine, the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers in space will be driven from their courses. 30 (I)Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky; and all the peoples of earth will weep as they see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. 31 The great trumpet will sound, and he will send out his angels to the four corners of the earth, and they will gather his chosen people from one end of the world to the other.
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.