Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 102
A Prayer of the afflicted; when he is overwhelmed and faint and pours out his complaint to God.
1 Hear my prayer, O Lord, and let my cry come to You.
2 Hide not Your face from me in the day when I am in distress! Incline Your ear to me; in the day when I call, answer me speedily.
3 For my days consume away like smoke, and my bones burn like a firebrand or like a hearth.
4 My heart is smitten like grass and withered, so that [in absorption] I forget to eat my food.
5 By reason of my loud groaning [from suffering and trouble] my flesh cleaves to my bones.
6 I am like a melancholy pelican or vulture of the wilderness; I am like a [desolate] owl of the waste places.
7 I am sleepless and lie awake [mourning], like a bereaved sparrow alone on the housetop.
8 My adversaries taunt and reproach me all the day; and they who are angry with me use my name as a curse.
9 For I have eaten the ashes [in which I sat] as if they were bread and have mingled my drink with weeping
10 Because of Your indignation and Your wrath, for You have taken me up and cast me away.
11 My days are like an evening shadow that stretches out and declines [with the sun]; and I am withered like grass.
12 But You, O Lord, are enthroned forever; and the fame of Your name endures to all generations.
13 You will arise and have mercy and loving-kindness for Zion, for it is time to have pity and compassion for her; yes, the set time has come [the moment designated].(A)
14 For Your servants take [melancholy] pleasure in the stones [of her ruins] and show pity for her dust.
15 So the nations shall fear and worshipfully revere the name of the Lord, and all the kings of the earth Your glory.(B)
16 When the Lord builds up Zion, He will appear in His glory;
17 He will regard the plea of the destitute and will not despise their prayer.
18 Let this be recorded for the generation yet unborn, that a people yet to be created shall praise the Lord.
19 For He looked down from the height of His sanctuary, from heaven did the Lord behold the earth,
20 To hear the sighing and groaning of the prisoner, to loose those who are appointed to death,
21 So that men may declare the name of the Lord in Zion and His praise in Jerusalem
22 When peoples are gathered together, and the kingdoms, to worship and serve the Lord.
23 He has afflicted and weakened my strength, humbling and bringing me low [with sorrow] in the way; He has shortened my days [aging me prematurely].
24 I said, O my God, take me not away in the midst of my days, You Whose years continue throughout all generations.
25 At the beginning You existed and laid the foundations of the earth; the heavens are the work of Your hands.
26 They shall perish, but You shall remain and endure; yes, all of them shall wear out and become old like a garment. Like clothing You shall change them, and they shall be changed and pass away.
27 But You remain the same, and Your years shall have no end.(C)
28 The children of Your servants shall dwell safely and continue, and their descendants shall be established before You.
Book Five
Psalm 107
1 O give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; for His mercy and loving-kindness endure forever!
2 Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom He has delivered from the hand of the adversary,
3 And gathered them out of the lands, from the east and from the west, from the north and from the [Red] Sea in the south.
4 Some wandered in the wilderness in a solitary desert track; they found no city for habitation.
5 Hungry and thirsty, they fainted; their lives were near to being extinguished.
6 Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and He delivered them out of their distresses.
7 He led them forth by the straight and right way, that they might go to a city where they could establish their homes.
8 Oh, that men would praise [and confess to] the Lord for His goodness and loving-kindness and His wonderful works to the children of men!
9 For He satisfies the longing soul and fills the hungry soul with good.
10 Some sat in darkness and in the shadow of death, being bound in affliction and in irons,(A)
11 Because they had rebelled against the words of God and spurned the counsel of the Most High.
12 Therefore He bowed down their hearts with hard labor; they stumbled and fell down, and there was none to help.
13 Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and He saved them out of their distresses.
14 He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death and broke apart the bonds that held them.(B)
15 Oh, that men would praise [and confess to] the Lord for His goodness and loving-kindness and His wonderful works to the children of men!
16 For He has broken the gates of bronze and cut the bars of iron apart.
17 Some are fools [made ill] because of the way of their transgressions and are afflicted because of their iniquities.
18 They loathe every kind of food, and they draw near to the gates of death.
19 Then they cry to the Lord in their trouble, and He delivers them out of their distresses.
20 He sends forth His word and heals them and rescues them from the pit and destruction.(C)
21 Oh, that men would praise [and confess to] the Lord for His goodness and loving-kindness and His wonderful works to the children of men!(D)
22 And let them sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving and rehearse His deeds with shouts of joy and singing!
23 Some go down to the sea and travel over it in ships to do business in great waters;
24 These see the works of the Lord and His wonders in the deep.
25 For He commands and raises up the stormy wind, which lifts up the waves of the sea.
26 [Those aboard] mount up to the heavens, they go down again to the deeps; their courage melts away because of their plight.
27 They reel to and fro and stagger like a drunken man and are at their wits’ end [all their wisdom has come to nothing].
28 Then they cry to the Lord in their trouble, and He brings them out of their distresses.
29 He hushes the storm to a calm and to a gentle whisper, so that the waves of the sea are still.(E)
30 Then the men are glad because of the calm, and He brings them to their desired haven.
31 Oh, that men would praise [and confess to] the Lord for His goodness and loving-kindness and His wonderful works to the children of men!
32 Let them exalt Him also in the congregation of the people and praise Him in the company of the elders.
3 Behold, I send My [a]messenger, and he shall prepare the way before Me. And the Lord [the Messiah], Whom you seek, will suddenly come to His temple; the [b]Messenger or Angel of the covenant, Whom you desire, behold, He shall come, says the Lord of hosts.(A)
2 But who can endure the day of His coming? And who can stand when He appears? For He is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap;(B)
3 He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and He will purify the priests, the sons of Levi, and refine them like gold and silver, that they may offer to the Lord offerings in righteousness.
4 Then will the offering of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasing to the Lord as in the days of old and as in ancient years.
5 Then I will draw near to you for judgment; I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, against the adulterers, against the false swearers, and against those who oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow and the fatherless, and who turn aside the temporary resident from his right and fear not Me, says the Lord of hosts.
6 For I am the Lord, I do not change; that is why you, O sons of Jacob, are not consumed.
7 Even from the days of your fathers you have turned aside from My ordinances and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts. But you say, How shall we return?
8 Will a man rob or defraud God? Yet you rob and defraud Me. But you say, In what way do we rob or defraud You? [You have withheld your] tithes and offerings.
9 You are cursed with the curse, for you are robbing Me, even this whole nation.(C)
10 Bring all the tithes (the whole tenth of your income) into the storehouse, that there may be food in My house, and prove Me now by it, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.(D)
11 And I will rebuke the devourer [insects and plagues] for your sakes and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground, neither shall your vine drop its fruit before the time in the field, says the Lord of hosts.
12 And all nations shall call you happy and blessed, for you shall be a land of delight, says the Lord of hosts.
7 So be patient, brethren, [as you wait] till the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits expectantly for the precious harvest from the land. [See how] he keeps up his patient [vigil] over it until it receives the early and late rains.
8 So you also must be patient. Establish your hearts [strengthen and confirm them in the final certainty], for the coming of the Lord is very near.
9 Do not complain, brethren, against one another, so that you [yourselves] may not be judged. Look! The Judge is [already] standing at the very door.
10 [As] an example of suffering and ill-treatment together with patience, brethren, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord [as His messengers].
11 You know how we call those blessed (happy) who were steadfast [who endured]. You have heard of the endurance of Job, and you have seen the Lord’s [purpose and how He richly blessed him in the] end, inasmuch as the Lord is full of pity and compassion and tenderness and mercy.(A)
12 But above all [things], my brethren, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or by any other oath; but let your yes be [a simple] yes, and your no be [a simple] no, so that you may not sin and fall under condemnation.
18 Also [Jesus] told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not to [a]turn coward (faint, lose heart, and give up).
2 He said, In a certain city there was a judge who neither reverenced and feared God nor respected or considered man.
3 And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, Protect and defend and give me justice against my adversary.
4 And for a time he would not; but later he said to himself, Though I have neither reverence or fear for God nor respect or consideration for man,
5 Yet because this widow continues to bother me, I will defend and protect and avenge her, lest she give me [b]intolerable annoyance and wear me out by her continual coming or [c]at the last she come and rail on me or [d]assault me or [e]strangle me.
6 Then the Lord said, Listen to what the unjust judge says!
7 And will not [our just] God defend and protect and avenge His elect (His chosen ones), who cry to Him day and night? Will He [f]defer them and [g]delay help on their behalf?
8 I tell you, He will defend and protect and avenge them speedily. However, when the Son of Man comes, will He find [[h]persistence in] faith on the earth?
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