Book of Common Prayer
To the Director: To the tune of[a] “The Lilies”. Davidic.
When God Seems Distant
69 Deliver me, God,
because the waters are up to my neck.[b]
2 I am sinking in deep mire,
and there is no solid ground.[c]
I have come into deep water,
and the flood overwhelms me.
3 I am exhausted from calling for help.
My throat is parched.
My eyes are strained from looking for God.
4 Those who hate me without cause
are more than the hairs of my head.
My persecutors are mighty,
and they want to destroy me.
Must I be forced to return what I did not steal?
5 God, you know my sins,
and my guilt is not hidden from you.
6 Do not let those who look up to you be ashamed
because of me,
Lord God of the Heavenly Armies.
Let not those who seek you be humiliated
because of me,
God of Israel.
7 I am being mocked because of you.
Dishonor overwhelms me.
8 I am a stranger to my brothers,
a foreigner to my mother’s sons.
9 Zeal for your house consumes me,
and the mockeries of those who insult you fall on me.
10 I weep and fast,
and I am mocked for it.
11 When I dressed in sackcloth,
I became an object of gossip among them.
12 The prominent people mock me,
composing drinking songs.
Seeking God for Deliverance
13 As for me, Lord, may my prayer to you come at a favorable time.
God, in the abundance of your gracious love,
answer me with your sure deliverance.
14 Rescue me from the mud
and do not let me sink.
Rescue me from those who hate me,
and from the deep waters.
15 Let neither the floodwaters overwhelm me
nor let the deep swallow me up,
nor the mouth of the well close over me.
16 Answer me, Lord, for your gracious love is good;
Turn to me in keeping with your great compassion,
17 and[d] do not ignore your servant,
because I am in distress.
Hurry to answer me!
18 Draw near and redeem me;
ransom me because of my enemies.
19 Truly you know my reproach, shame, and disgrace.
All my enemies are known to[e] you.
20 Insults broke my heart.
I despaired and looked for sympathy;
but there was none,
for comforters, but I found none.
21 They put poison in my food,
in my thirst they forced me to drink vinegar.
22 May their dining[f] tables entrap them,
and become a snare for their allies.
23 May their eyes be blinded
and may their bodies tremble continuously.
24 May you pour out your fury on them.
May your burning anger overtake them.
25 May their camp become desolate
and their tents remain unoccupied.
26 For they persecute those whom you have struck,
and they brag about the pain of those you have wounded.
27 May you punish them for their crimes;
may they receive no verdict of innocence[g] from you.
28 May they be erased from the Book of Life,
and their names not be written with the righteous.
29 As for me, I am afflicted and hurting;
may your deliverance, God, establish me on high.
30 Let me praise the name of God with a song
that I may magnify him with thanksgiving.
31 That will please the Lord
more than oxen and bulls with horns and hooves.
32 The afflicted will watch and rejoice.
May you who seek God take courage.
33 For the Lord listens to the needy
and doesn’t despise those in bondage.
34 Let the heavens and earth praise him,
along with the sea and its swarming creatures.[h]
35 For God will deliver Zion
and will rebuild the cities of Judah
so they may live there and possess them.
36 The descendants of his servants will inherit it,
and those who cherish his name will live there.
BOOK III (Psalms 73-89)
A song of Asaph.
A Plea for Deliverance
73 God is indeed good to Israel,
to those pure in heart.
2 Now as for me, my feet nearly stumbled,
as I almost lost my step.
3 For I was envious of the proud
when I observed the prosperity of the wicked.
4 For there is no struggle at their deaths,
and their bodies are healthy.
5 They do not experience problems common to ordinary people;
they aren’t afflicted as others[a] are.
6 Therefore pride is their necklace
and violence covers them like a garment.
7 Their eyes bulge from obesity
and the imaginations of their mind cross the border into sin.[b]
8 In their mockery they speak evil;
from their arrogant position they speak oppression.
9 They choose to speak[c] against heaven;
while they talk about things on earth.
10 Therefore God’s[d] people return there
and drink it all in like water until they’re satiated.
11 Then they say,
“How can God know?
Does the Most High have knowledge?”
12 Just look at these wicked people!
They’re perpetually carefree
as they increase their wealth.
13 I kept my heart pure for nothing
and kept my hands clean from guilt.
14 For I suffer all day long
and I am punished every morning.
15 If I say, “I will talk like this,”
I would betray a generation of your children.
16 When I tried to understand this,
it was too difficult for me
17 until I entered the sanctuaries of God.
Then I understood their destiny.
18 You have certainly set them in slippery places;
you will make them fall to their ruin.
19 How desolate they quickly become,
completely destroyed by calamities.
20 Like a dream when one awakens, Lord,
you will despise their image when you arise.
21 When I chose to be bitter
I was emotionally pained.
22 Then, I was too stupid
and didn’t realize I was acting like[e] a wild animal with you.
23 But now I am always with you,
for you keep holding my right hand.
24 You will guide me with your wise advice,
and later you will receive me with honor.
25 Whom do I have in heaven but you?
I desire nothing on this [f]earth.
26 My body and mind may fail,
but God is my strength[g] and my portion forever.
27 Those far from you will perish;
you will destroy those who are unfaithful to you.
28 As for me, how good for me it is that God is near!
I have made the Lord God my refuge
so I can tell about all your deeds.
An Oracle against Jehoiakim
13 “How terrible for him who builds his house
without righteousness,
and its upper rooms without justice,
who makes his neighbor work for nothing,
and does not pay him his wage.
14 How terrible for[a] him who says, ‘I’ll build a large
house for myself with spacious upper rooms,
who cuts out windows for it,
paneling it with cedar and painting it red.’
15 Are you a king because you try to outdo
everyone with cedar?
Your father ate and drank and upheld
justice and righteousness, did he not?
And then it went well for him.
16 He judged the case of the poor and needy.
And then it went well for him.
Isn’t this what it means to know me?
17 But your eyes and heart are on nothing but
your dishonest gain,
shedding the blood of innocent people,
and practicing oppression and extortion.”
18 Therefore, this is what the Lord says about Josiah’s son Jehoiakim, king of Judah,
“They won’t lament for him with these words:[b]
‘How terrible, my brother,
How terrible, my sister!’
They won’t lament for him with these words:[c]
‘How terrible, lord,
How terrible, your[d] majesty!’
19 He will receive[e] a donkey’s burial,
dragged out and thrown outside the gates of Jerusalem.”
An Oracle against Jerusalem
20 Go up to Lebanon and cry out,
to Bashan and lift up your voice.
Cry out from Abarim, for all your lovers[f]
have been crushed.
21 I spoke to you when you were secure,[g]
but you said, “I won’t listen!”
This has been your way since your youth,
for you haven’t obeyed me.
22 The wind will shepherd[h] all your shepherds,[i]
and your lovers[j] will go into exile.
Indeed, you will then be ashamed and humiliated
because of all your wickedness.
23 You who live in Lebanon,
who build your nest in the cedars,
how you will groan when pains come upon you,
pain like that of a woman giving birth.
12 Consequently, brothers, we are not—with respect to human nature, that is—under an obligation to live according to human nature. 13 For if you live according to human nature, you are going to die, but if by the Spirit you continuously put to death the activities of the body, you will live. 14 For all who are led by God’s Spirit are God’s children. 15 For you have not received a spirit of slavery that leads you into fear again. Instead, you have received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba![a] Father!” 16 The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. 17 Now if we are children, we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with the Messiah[b]—if, in fact, we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.
God’s Spirit Helps Us
18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed to us. 19 For the creation is eagerly awaiting the revelation of God’s children, 20 because the creation has become subject to futility, though not by anything it did.[c] The one who subjected it did so in the certainty[d] 21 that the creation itself would also be set free from corrupting bondage in order to share the glorious freedom of God’s children. 22 For we know that all the rest of creation has been groaning with the pains of childbirth up to the present time. 23 However, not only the creation, but we who have the first fruits of the Spirit also groan inwardly as we eagerly await our adoption, the redemption of our bodies. 24 For we were saved with this hope in mind.[e] Now a hope that can be observed is not really hope, for who hopes for what can be seen? 25 But if we hope for what we do not yet observe, we eagerly wait for it with patience.
26 In the same way, the Spirit also helps us in our weakness, since we do not know how to pray as we should. But the Spirit himself intercedes for us[f] with groans too deep for words, 27 and the one who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, for the Spirit[g] intercedes for the saints according to God’s will.[h]
41 Then the Jewish leaders[a] began grumbling about him because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.”
42 They kept saying, “This is Jesus, the son of Joseph, isn’t it, whose father and mother we know? So how can he say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?”
43 Jesus answered them, “Stop grumbling among yourselves. 44 No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him to life on the last day. 45 It is written in the Prophets, ‘And all of them will be taught by God.’[b] Everyone who has listened to the Father and has learned anything comes to me. 46 Not that anyone has seen the Father except the one who comes from God. This one has seen the Father. 47 Truly, I tell all of you[c] emphatically, the one who believes in me[d] has eternal life. 48 I’m the bread of life. 49 Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness and died. 50 This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that a person may eat it and not die. 51 I’m the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats this bread, he’ll live forever. And the bread I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”
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