Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 69
For the worship leader. A song of David to the tune “Lilies.”[a]
This Davidic lament complains to God of enemies, false witnesses, insults, abandonment by friends and family, and even poisoning. Early Christians interpreted this psalm prophetically in order to understand Jesus’ experience in His suffering and death on the cross.
1 Reach down for me, True God; deliver me.
The waters have risen to my neck; I am going down!
2 My feet are swallowed in this murky bog;
I am sinking—there is no sturdy ground.
I am in the deep;
the floods are crashing in!
3 I am weary of howling;
my throat is scratched dry.
I still look for my God
even though my eyes fail.
4 My enemies despise me without any cause;
they outnumber the hairs on my head.
They torment me with their power;
they have absolutely no reason to hate me.
Now I am set to pay for crimes
I have never committed!
5 O True God, my foolish ways are plain before You;
my mistakes—no, nothing can be hidden from You.
6 Don’t let Your hopeful followers face disgrace because of me,
O Lord, Eternal One, Commander of heaven’s armies;
Don’t let Your seekers be shamed on account of me,
O True God of Israel.
7 I have been mocked when I stood up for You;
I cower, shamefaced.
8 You know my brothers and sisters?
They now reject me—they act as if I never existed.
I’m like a stranger to my own family.
9 And here’s why: I am consumed with You, completely devoted to protecting Your house;
when they insult You, they insult me.
10 When I mourn and discipline my soul by fasting,
they deride me.
11 And when I put on sackcloth,
they mock me.
12 Those who sit at the gate gossip about me;
I am shamed by the slurred songs of drunkards.
13 But, Eternal One, I just pray the time is right
that You would hear me. And, True God,
because You are enduring love, that You would answer.
In Your faithfulness, please, save me.
14 Pluck me from this murky bog;
don’t let it pull me down!
Pull me from this rising water;
take me away from my enemies to dry land.
15 Don’t let the flood take me under
or let me, Your servant, be swallowed into the deep
or let the yawning pit seal me in!
16 O Eternal One, hear me. Answer me. For Your enduring love is good comfort;
in Your great mercy, turn toward me.
17 Yes, shine Your face upon me, Your servant;
put an end to my anguish—don’t wait another minute.
18 Come near; rescue me!
Set me free from my enemies.
19 You know all my opponents;
You see them, see the way they treat me—
humiliating me with insults, trying to disgrace me.
20 All this ridicule has broken my heart,
killed my spirit.
I searched for sympathy, and I came up empty.
I looked for supporters, but there was no one.
21 Even more, they gave me poison for my food
and offered me only sour vinegar to drink.
22 Let them be ambushed at the dinner table,
caught in a trap when they least expect it.
23 Cloud their vision so they cannot see;
make their bodies shake, their knees knock in terror.
24 Pour out Your fiery wrath upon them!
Make a clean sweep; engulf them with Your flaming fury.
25 May their camps be bleak
with not one left in any tent.
26 Because they have persecuted the one You have struck,
add insult to those whom You have wounded.
27 Compound their sins; don’t let them off the hook!
Keep them from entering into Your mercy.
28 Blot out their names from Your book of life
so they will not be recorded alongside those who are upright before You.
29 I am living in pain; I’m suffering,
so save me, True God, and keep me safe in troubled times!
30 The name of the True God will be my song,
an uplifting tune of praise and thanksgiving!
31 My praise will please the Eternal more than if I were to sacrifice an ox
or the finest bull. (Horns, hooves, and all!)
32 Those who humbly serve will see and rejoice!
All you seekers-after-God will revive your souls!
33 The Eternal listens to the prayers of the poor
and has regard for His people held in bondage.
34 All God’s creation: join together in His praise! All heaven, all earth,
all seas, all creatures of the ocean deep!
35 The True God will save Zion
and rebuild the cities of Judah
So that His servants may own it and live there once again.
36 Their children and children’s children shall have it as their inheritance,
and those who love His name will live in it.
Book Three
Many of the psalms in Book Three (Psalms 73–89) are attributed to Asaph. He was a Levite musician appointed by David to lead the worship that surrounded the covenant chest in the congregation tent (1 Chronicles 16:4–6). Asaph and his descendants continued this work through much of Israel’s history, specifically when Solomon dedicated the temple (2 Chronicles 5:12), when Josiah revived the worship of the Eternal One in Jerusalem (2 Chronicles 35:15), and when Ezra and Nehemiah dedicated the wall around Jerusalem (Nehemiah 12:35).
The psalms attributed to Asaph were liturgical, that is, they were chanted or sung as a part of the regular worship of God in the temple by the priests, Levites, and perhaps other worshipers too. Whether songs of lament, requests for guidance, or pleas for mercy, these psalms were sung in the one place God would hear them best—at His temple—the nexus between heaven and earth.
Psalm 73
A song of Asaph.
1 Truly God is good to His people, Israel,
to those with pure hearts.
2 Though I know this is true, I almost lost my footing;
yes, my steps were on slippery ground.
3 You see, there was a time when I envied arrogant men
and thought, “The wicked look pretty happy to me.”
4 For they seem to live carefree lives, free of suffering;
their bodies are strong and healthy.
5 They don’t know trouble as we do;
they are not plagued with problems as the rest of us are.
6 They’ve got pearls of pride strung around their necks;
they clothe their bodies with violence.
7 They have so much more than enough.
Their eyes bulge because they are so fat with possessions.
They have more than their hearts could have ever imagined.
8 There is nothing sacred, and no one is safe.
Vicious sarcasm drips from their lips;
they bully and threaten to crush their enemies.
9 They even mock God as if He were not above;
their arrogant tongues boast throughout the earth; they feel invincible.
10 Even God’s people turn and are carried away by them;
they watch and listen, yet find no fault in them.
11 You will hear them say, “How can the True God possibly know anyway? He’s not even here.
So how can the Most High have any knowledge of what happens here?”
12 Let me tell you what I know about the wicked:
they are comfortably at rest while their wealth is growing and growing.
13 Oh, let this not be me! It seems I have scrubbed my heart to keep it clean
and washed my hands in innocence.
And for what? Nothing.
14 For all day long, I am being punished,
each day awakening to stern chastisement.
15 If I had said to others these kinds of things about the plight of God’s good people,
then I know I would have betrayed the next generation.
16 Trying to solve this mystery on my own exhausted me;
I couldn’t bear to look at it any further.
17 So I took my questions to the True God,
and in His sanctuary I realized something so chilling and final: their lives have a deadly end.
18 Because You have certainly set the wicked upon a slippery slope,
You’ve set them up to slide to their destruction.
19 And they won’t see it coming. It will happen so fast:
first, a flash of terror, and then desolation.
20 It is like a dream from which someone awakes.
You will wake up, Lord, and loathe what has become of them.
21 You see, my heart overflowed with bitterness and cynicism;
I felt as if someone stabbed me in the back.
22 But I didn’t know the truth;
I have been acting like a stupid animal toward You.
23 But look at this: You are still holding my right hand;
You have been all along.
24 Even though I was angry and hard-hearted, You gave me good advice;
when it’s all over, You will receive me into Your glory.
25 For all my wanting, I don’t have anyone but You in heaven.
There is nothing on earth that I desire other than You.
26 I admit how broken I am in body and spirit,
but God is my strength, and He will be mine forever.
27 It will happen: whoever shuns You will be silenced forever;
You will bring an end to all who refuse to be true to You.
28 But the closer I am to You, my God, the better because life with You is good.
O Lord, the Eternal, You keep me safe—
I will tell everyone what You have done.
17 And then one of the seven messengers entrusted with the seven bowls came over to me.
Guide: Come, and I will show you the true nature and God’s judgment of the great whore who is sitting on the many waters. 2 She has seduced all the kings of the earth into committing lewd, sexual acts; and most earth dwellers have become intoxicated with the wine of her harlotry.
3 Immediately I was in the Spirit, and the guide picked me up and carried me off. In the middle of a vast desert, I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet-colored beast covered with blasphemous names. The beast had seven heads and ten horns like the beast I had seen earlier rising out of the sea. 4 The woman was dressed in purple and scarlet fabrics; she shimmered with gold and jewels and pearls. I looked closer and saw that her hand held a golden cup brimming with abominations, bubbling over with the impurities of her sexual exploits. 5 On her forehead was inscribed a name, a mystery: “Babylon the great, the mother of whores and the abominations that defile the earth.” 6 I looked and saw that the woman was drunk because she had gorged herself on the blood of the saints and the blood of those people who refused to deny Jesus even to save their own lives. When I saw her, I was filled with wonder.
Guide: 7 Why are you so amazed? I will reveal to you the mystery of this woman and of the beast with seven heads and ten horns that carries her. 8 The beast you saw was, and is not, and is about to come up out of the abyss and go away into eternal destruction. And the earth dwellers, whose names have not been inscribed in the book of life from the foundation of the world, will be astonished when they see the beast because it was and is not and is to come.
9 Here is the mind possessing wisdom: The seven heads signify the seven mountains where the woman is seated. They also stand for seven kings. 10 Five have fallen, one is alive, and the last has not yet come to reign. But when he does come, he will be allowed to reign only a short time. 11 Regarding the beast that was and is not, it is actually an eighth ruler that springs from the seven and goes away into eternal destruction. 12 The ten horns you saw stand for ten kings who have not yet ascended to power, but they will be invested with royal authority for a single hour and will reign together with the beast. 13 These come together for one purpose and one purpose alone: to yield their power and authority to the beast. 14 Together they will make war on the Lamb, and the Lamb will be victorious over them because He is the Lord over all lords and the King over all kings; and those who stand with Him are called, elect, and faithful.
15 (continuing to speak to me) The waters you saw, where the whore is seated, represent the peoples and multitudes, ethnicities and languages. 16 The beast and the ten horns you saw will despise the whore; they will make her a wasteland and strip her naked. They will gorge themselves on her flesh and incinerate her with fire. 17 For God has placed in their hearts to do what He has purposed, that is, to become one in mind and to surrender their kingdoms over to the beast until the words of God accomplish their end. 18 And the woman you saw—she is the great city that rules over the kings of the earth.
Jesus’ response shows that the Jewish people will be surprised by who enters the kingdom of God. It will not be just the Jews but people from all around the world—east and west, north and south. And they will also be surprised by who does not enter the kingdom, since some Jews will be on the outside looking in.
31 Right then some Pharisees came and warned Him.
Pharisees: You’d better get out of here because Herod is plotting Your murder.
Jesus: 32 You can give that sly fox this message: “Watch as I cast out demons and perform healings today and tomorrow, and on the third day I’ll reach My destination. 33 But for today and tomorrow and the next day, I have to continue My journey, for no prophet should perish outside of Jerusalem.”
34 O Jerusalem! O Jerusalem! You kill the prophets and you stone the messengers who are sent to you. How often I wanted to gather in your children as a hen gathers in her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing to come to Me. 35 Look now, your house is abandoned and empty. You won’t see Me until you welcome Me with the words of the psalms, “Anyone who comes in the name of the Eternal One will be blessed!”[a]
The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.