Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 5
For the worship leader. A song of David accompanied by flutes.[a]
The various psalms reflect nearly every human emotion: unbridled joy, deep-seated jealousy, seething anger, hope, and depression. These are only a few of the emotions behind the poetry we hear expressed in individual psalms. Feelings and emotions are central to what it means to be human. We cannot escape them nor should we. Psalms invites us to take the emotions we feel and bring them before God. This book models how to come before God in times of sadness, brokenness, and joy. Psalm 5 is a cry for help and a plea for guidance by a person who suffered at the hands of an enemy. It talks about the morning as the time to pray and listen for God to answer. Like many laments, it begins with a cry but ends in confidence.
1 Bend Your ear to me and listen to my words, O Eternal One;
hear the deep cry of my heart.
2 Listen to my call for help,
my King, my True God;
to You alone I pray.
3 In the morning, O Eternal One, listen for my voice;
in the day’s first light, I will offer my prayer to You and watch expectantly for Your answer.
4 You’re not a God who smiles at sin;
You cannot abide with evil.
5 The proud wither in Your presence;
You hate all who pervert and destroy what is good.
6 You destroy those with lying lips;
the Eternal detests those who murder and deceive.
7 Yet I, by Your loving grace,
am welcomed into Your house;
I will turn my face toward Your holy place
and fall on my knees in reverence before You.
8 O Eternal One, lead me in the path of Your righteousness
amidst those who wish me harm;
make Your way clear to me.
9 Their words cannot be trusted;
they are destructive to their cores.
What comes out of their mouths is as foul as a rotting corpse;
their words stink of flattery.
10 Find them guilty, O True God;
let their own devices bring them ruin.
Throw them out, and let them drown in the deluge of their sin,
for in revolt they brazenly spit in Your face.
11 But let those who run to You for safety be glad they did;
let them break out in joyful song.
May You keep them safe—
their love for You resounding in their hearts.
12 You, O Eternal, are the One who lays all good things in the laps of the right-hearted.
Your blessings surround them like a shield.
Psalm 6
For the worship leader. A song of David accompanied by the lyre.[b]
1 O Eternal One, don’t punish me in Your anger
or harshly correct me.
2 Show me grace, Eternal God. I am completely undone.
Bring me back together, Eternal One. Mend my shattered bones.
3 My soul is drowning in darkness.
How long can You, the Eternal, let things go on like this?
4 Come back, Eternal One, and lead me to Your saving light.
Rescue me because I know You are truly compassionate.
5 I’m alive for a reason—I can’t worship You if I’m dead.
If I’m six feet under, how can I thank You?
6 I’m exhausted. I cannot even speak, my voice fading as sighs.
Every day ends in the same place—lying in bed, covered in tears,
my pillow wet with sorrow.
7 My eyes burn, devoured with grief;
they grow weak as I constantly watch for my enemies.
8 All who are evil, stay away from me
because the Eternal hears my voice, listens as I cry.
9 The Eternal God hears my simple prayers;
He receives my request.
10 All who seek to destroy me will be humiliated;
they will turn away and suddenly crumble in shame.
Psalm 10[a]
1 Why, O Eternal One, are You so far away?
Why can’t You be found during troubling times?
2 Mean and haughty people hunt down the poor.
May they get caught up in their own wicked schemes.
3 For the wicked celebrates the evil cravings of his heart
as the greedy curses and rejects the Eternal.
4 The arrogance of the wicked one keeps him from seeking the True God.
He truly thinks, “There is no God.”
5 His ways seem always to be successful;
Your judgments, too, seem far beyond him, out of his reach.
He looks down on all his enemies.
6 In his heart he has decided, “Nothing will faze me.
From generation to generation I will not face trouble.”
7 His mouth is full of curses, lies, and oppression.[b]
Beneath his tongue lie trouble and wickedness.
8 He hides in the shadows of the villages,
waiting to ambush and kill the innocent in dark corners.
He eyes the weak and the poor.
9 Ominously, like a lion in its lair,
he lurks in secret to waylay those who are downtrodden.
When he catches them, he draws them in and drags them off with his net.
10 Quietly crouching, lying low,
ready to overwhelm the next by his strength,
11 The wicked thinks in his heart, “God has forgotten us!
He has covered His face and will never notice!”
12 Arise, O Eternal, my True God. Lift up Your hand.
Do not forget the downtrodden.
13 Why does the wicked revile the True God?
He has decided, “He will not hold me responsible.”
14 But wait! You have seen,
and You will consider the trouble and grief he caused.
You will impose consequences for his actions.
The helpless, the orphans, commit themselves to You,
and You have been their Helper.
15 Break the arm of the one guilty of doing evil;
investigate all his wicked acts;
hold him responsible for every last one of them.
16 The Eternal will reign as King forever.
The other nations will be swept off His land.
17 O Eternal One, You have heard the longings of the poor and lowly.
You will strengthen them; You who are of heaven will hear them,
18 Vindicating the orphan and the oppressed
so that men who are of the earth will terrify them no more.
Psalm 11
For the worship leader. A song of David.
Psalm 11 is a Davidic psalm expressing trust in the Eternal as a refuge and fortress for those who do what is right. David spent many years struggling first with Saul, then with the neighboring nations, and finally against the rebellion led by his son Absalom.
1 I am already in the soft embrace of the Eternal,
so why do you beckon me to leave, saying,
“Fly like a bird to the mountains.
2 Look! The wicked approach with bows bent,
sneaking around in the shadows,
setting their arrows against their bowstrings to pierce everyone whose heart is pure.
3 If the foundations are crumbling,
is there hope for the righteous?”
4 But the Eternal has not moved; He remains in His holy temple.
He sits squarely on His heavenly throne.
He observes the sons of Adam and daughters of Eve, examining us within and without,
exploring every fiber of our beings.
5 The Eternal searches the hearts of those who are good,
but He despises all those who can’t get enough of perversion and violence.
6 If you are evil, He will rain hot lava over your head,
will fill your cup with burning wind and liquid fire to scorch your insides.
7 The Eternal is right in all His ways;
He cherishes all that is upright.
Those who do what is right in His eyes will see His face.
The first of Job’s three wise friends, Eliphaz, is a man guided by strong convictions and a belief in the accumulated knowledge of his ancestors. Because he thinks Job is suffering due to his own unintended sins, Eliphaz dwells on God’s responses to the wicked and the righteous, believing he will encourage Job to accept God’s correction of his sins. Although his intentions are good, Eliphaz does not realize that Job will have a different perspective on his words. Eliphaz’s intended encouragement instead upsets Job more. These powerful convictions are expressed in the wrong place and time.
6 Job answered Eliphaz.
2 Job: Would that my anguish were weighed,
laid on a scale together with the disaster I’ve suffered!
3 For there is not enough sand in the seas to outweigh it!
It’s no wonder my untamed words are but incoherent stammering.
4 The arrows of the Highest One[a] have sunk deeply into me;
my spirit drinks their poison.
The terrors of God assemble like soldiers marching against me.
8 If only my one request were answered,
if only God would grant me the fulfillment of my only hope:
9 That God would be willing to crush me, to kill me,
that God would release His hand and cut me off.
10 At least then I would have a crumb of consolation,
one source of joy in the midst of this relentless agony:
I never denied the words of the Holy One in my pain.
It is possible to imagine God’s creation as fabric on a loom and God as a weaver. The threads of the world are stretched out vertically on a large loom, creating the warp of the fabric; and God weaves the threads of our lives horizontally, pushing them back and forth quickly around the vertical threads with His shuttle, creating the weft of the fabric. Job pictures his life ending when the thread runs out (7:6), but here he asks God to release His guidance on Job’s life and cut him away from this world prematurely. To do so, God would cut across the warp, thus affecting all of creation and not just Job himself. Even though God does not grant Job’s wish, Job has no thought of suicide; he knows only God has the right to begin and end life.
11 Job: What strength do I have, that I should persist in this life?
And what is my life’s end, that I should forestall it?
12 Is my strength like that of stones?
Is my flesh like bronze?
13 Can I even hope to help myself,
or has any chance of help been driven away?
14 A despondent person deserves kindness from his friend,
even though he strays from the fear of the Highest One.
15 But you, my brothers, are unpredictable
like an unexpected flood of the wadi that quickly rises and then falls,
21 Now you, too, have come to nothing.
You see my terror and are afraid for yourselves.
32 Peter hadn’t been idle during all this time. He was having a number of amazing experiences of his own, traveling from group to group and visiting the various communities of believers. Once he came to a town called Lydda, a border town between Samaria and Judea, and met with God’s special people there. 33 He visited a man named Aeneas. This poor fellow had been paralyzed for eight years, unable to leave his bed.
Peter: 34 Aeneas, Jesus the Anointed heals you. Get up! Now you can make your own bed!
And immediately—he got up! 35 All the local residents—both of Lydda and nearby Sharon—saw Aeneas healthy and strong again, so they turned to the Lord.
36 In a nearby coastal city, Joppa, there lived a disciple whose Aramaic name was Tabitha, or Dorcas in Greek. She was a good woman—devotedly doing good and giving to the poor. 37 While Peter was in Lydda, she fell sick and died. Her fellow disciples washed her body and laid her in an upstairs room. 38 They had heard Peter was nearby, so two of them went with an urgent message, “Please come to Joppa as soon as possible.”
39 Peter went with them and immediately entered the room where the corpse had been placed. It was quite a scene—the widows of the community were crowded in the room, weeping, showing the various items of clothing that Dorcas had made for them.
40 Peter asked them to leave the room; then he got on his knees. He prayed for a while and then turned to her body.
Peter: Tabitha, get up!
She opened her eyes, saw Peter, and sat up. 41 Giving her his hand, Peter lifted her up. Then he called in the other disciples—including the widows—and reintroduced them to their beloved friend. 42 The news of this miracle spread throughout the city, and many believed in the Lord. 43 Peter stayed in Joppa for some time as the guest of Simon, a tanner by profession.
60 Many disciples heard what He said, and they had questions of their own.
Disciples: How are we supposed to understand all of this? It is a hard teaching.
61 Jesus was aware that even His disciples were murmuring about this.
How is it possible to follow this path and believe these truths? To be honest, it is not easy. In fact, some find this so hard that they leave Jesus for good. The rest readily admit they are still working on what it means to follow Him. So Jesus leaves behind a number of practices to help believers. One of these is known as the Lord’s Supper. Jesus instructs His disciples to break bread and share wine to remember how He will allow His body to be broken for all humankind. In some beautiful, mysterious way, Jesus is present in the simple elements of bread and wine, so the worshiper may touch Him, taste His richness, and remember His most glorious hours on the cross. In that moment, He embraces all darkness and shame and transforms them into light. As believers come to the table together and feast on His light, life seems more hopeful and complete. Taking the bread and the wine means affirming the reality that the One who has come to liberate souls is among and within His people.
Jesus: Has My teaching offended you? 62 What if you were to see the Son of Man ascend to return to where He came from? 63 The Spirit brings life. The flesh has nothing to offer. The words I have been teaching you are spirit and life, 64 but some of you do not believe.
From the first day Jesus began to call disciples, He knew those who did not have genuine faith. He knew, too, who would betray Him.
Jesus: 65 This is why I have been telling you that no one comes to Me without the Father’s blessing and guidance.
66 After hearing these teachings, many of His disciples walked away and no longer followed Jesus.
Jesus (to the twelve): 67 Do you want to walk away too?
Simon Peter: 68 Lord, if we were to go, whom would we follow? You speak the words that give everlasting life. 69 We believe and recognize that You are the Holy One sent by God.[a]
Jesus: 70 I chose each one of you, the twelve, Myself. But one of you is a devil.
71 This cryptic comment referred to Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, for he was the one of the twelve who was going to betray Him.
The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.