Book of Common Prayer
A Prayer for Deliverance from Enemies
For the music director. Of David. To bring to remembrance.[a]
70 O God, make haste to deliver me.
O Yahweh, make haste to help me.
2 Let them be ashamed and abashed
who seek my life.
Let them be repulsed and humiliated
who desire my harm.
3 let them turn back because of their shame,
those who say, “Aha! Aha!”
4 Let them rejoice and be glad in you,
all those who seek you.
Let them say continually, “God is great!”
those who love your salvation.
5 But I am poor and needy;
O God hasten to me.
You are my help and my deliverer.
O Yahweh, do not delay.
A Prayer to God the Rock of Refuge
71 In you, O Yahweh, I have taken refuge;
let me never be put to shame.
2 In your righteousness deliver me and rescue me;
incline your ear to me and save me.
3 Be for me a rock of refuge to resort to always;
you have ordained[b] to save me,
because you are my rock and my fortress.
4 My God, rescue me from the hand of the wicked,
from the grasp[c] of the evildoer and the oppressor,
5 because you are my hope,
O Lord Yahweh, my confidence from my youth.
6 Upon you I have leaned from birth.[d]
It was you who took[e] me from the womb of my mother.
My praise is of you continually.
7 I have become a wonder to many,
but you are my strong refuge.
8 My mouth is filled with your praise,
with your glory all the day.
9 Do not cast me away in the time of old age;
when my strength fails do not abandon me.
10 For my enemies talk concerning me,
and those who watch for my life conspire together,
11 saying, “His God has abandoned him.
Pursue and seize him, because there is no deliverer.”
12 O God, do not be far from me.
My God, hurry to help me.
13 Let them be ashamed; let them perish
who are my adversaries.[f]
Let them wrap themselves with scorn and disgrace
who seek my harm.
14 But as for me, I will hope continually
and increase your praise.
15 My mouth will tell of your righteousness,
your salvation all day long,[g]
though I do not know the full sum of them.
16 I will come in to tell the mighty deeds of Lord Yahweh.
I will make known[h] your righteousness, yours only.
17 O God, you have taught me from my youth,
and up to now I have proclaimed your wonderful deeds.
18 And even when I am old and gray,
O God, do not abandon me
until I proclaim your strength[i] to this generation,
your power to every one that comes after.
19 And your righteousness, O God, is to the height of heaven.
You who have done great things,
O God, who is like you?
20 You who have caused me[j] to see many troubles and evils,
you will again revive me.[k]
And from the depths of the earth
you will again bring me up.
21 You will increase my greatness,
and you will comfort me all around.[l]
22 On my part, I will praise you with a stringed instrument,
and your faithfulness, O my God.
I will sing praises to you with a lyre,
O Holy One of Israel.
23 My lips will sing for joy when I sing praises to you,
and my soul, which you have redeemed.
24 My tongue also
will speak of your righteousness all the day,
because they have been put to shame, because they have been humiliated
who seek my harm.
A Lament in Time of National Defeat
A maskil of Asaph.[a]
74 Why, O God, have you rejected us forever?
Why does your anger smoke
against the sheep of your pasture?
2 Remember your congregation that you bought long ago,
when you redeemed the tribe of your inheritance.
Remember Mount Zion[b] where you have dwelt.
3 Lift your steps to the perpetual ruins,
to all that the enemy has ruined in the sanctuary.
4 Your enemies have roared in the midst of your meeting place;
they have set up their signs for signs.
5 They are[c] known to be like those who wield[d]
axes in a thicket of trees.
6 And now[e] its[f] carved works altogether
they have smashed with axe and hammer.
7 They have set fire to your sanctuary.
They have defiled to the ground,
the dwelling place for your name.
8 They have said in their heart,
“We will completely[g] oppress them.”
They burned all the meeting places of God in the land.
9 We do not see our signs,
and there is no longer a prophet.
No one with us knows how long.
10 How long, O God, will the adversary taunt?
Will the enemy treat your name with contempt forever?
11 Why do you draw back your hand, even your right hand?
Take it from your bosom;[h] destroy them!
12 But God has been my king from long ago,
working salvation in the midst of the earth.
13 You split open the sea by your strength;
You broke the heads of the sea monsters in the waters.
14 You crushed the heads of Leviathan;
you gave him as food to the desert dwelling creatures.
15 You split open spring and wadi.[i]
You dried up ever-flowing rivers.
16 Yours is the day, yours is the night also.
You established light and the sun.
17 You defined[j] all the boundaries of the earth;
Summer and winter—you formed them.
18 O Yahweh, remember this: the enemy taunts,
and foolish people treat your name with contempt.
19 Do not give to beasts the life of your dove;
do not ever forget the life of your afflicted ones.
20 Have regard for the covenant,
because the dark places of the land are full of
the haunts of violence.
21 Do not let the oppressed turn back humiliated;
let the poor and needy praise your name.
22 Rise up, O God, plead your cause;
remember the reproaching of you by the foolish all day long.[k]
23 Do not forget the sound of your adversaries,
the roar of those rising up against you ascending continually.
Do Not Pass Judgment on One Another
14 Now receive the one who is weak in faith, but not for quarrels about opinions. 2 One believes he may eat all things, but the one who is weak eats only vegetables. 3 The one who eats must not despise the one who does not eat, and the one who does not eat must not judge the one who eats, because God has accepted him. 4 Who are you, who passes judgment on the domestic slave belonging to someone else? To his own master he stands or falls, and he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand.
5 One person[a] prefers one day over another day, and another person regards every day alike. Each one must be fully convinced in his own mind. 6 The one who is intent on the day is intent on it for the Lord, and the one who eats eats for the Lord, because he is thankful to God, and the one who does not eat does not eat for the Lord, and he is thankful to God. 7 For none of us lives for himself and none dies for himself. 8 For if we live, we live for the Lord, and if we die, we die for the Lord. Therefore whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s. 9 For Christ died and became alive again for this reason, in order that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living.
10 But why do you judge your brother? Or also, why do you despise your brother? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God. 11 For it is written,
“As I live, says the Lord, every knee will bow to me,
and every tongue will praise God.”[b]
12 So[c] each one of us will give an account concerning himself.[d]
A Demon-possessed Gerasene Healed
26 And they sailed to the region of the Gerasenes, which is opposite Galilee. 27 And as[a] he got out on the land, a certain man from the town met him[b] who had demons and for a considerable time had not worn clothes and did not live in a house, but among the tombs. 28 And when he[c] saw Jesus, he cried out, fell down before him, and said with a loud voice, “What do I have to do with you,[d] Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, do not torment me!” 29 For he had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. (For it had seized him many times, and he was bound with chains and shackles and[e] was guarded, and breaking the bonds he would be driven by the demon into the deserted places.) 30 So Jesus asked him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Legion,” because many demons had entered into him. 31 And they began imploring[f] him that he would not order them to depart into the abyss. 32 Now there was a large herd of pigs feeding there on the hill, and they implored him that he would permit them to enter into those pigs. And he permitted them. 33 So the demons came out of the man and[g] entered into the pigs, and the herd rushed headlong down the steep slope into the lake and were drowned. 34 And when[h] the herdsmen saw what had happened, they fled and reported it[i] in the town and in the countryside. 35 So they went out to see what had happened, and they came to Jesus and found the man from whom the demons had gone out sitting there clothed and in his right mind, at the feet of Jesus, and they were afraid. 36 And those who had seen it[j] reported to them how the man who had been demon-possessed had been healed. 37 And all the people of the surrounding region of the Gerasenes asked him to depart from them, because they had been seized with great fear. So he got into the boat and[k] returned. 38 And the man from who the demons had gone out was begging him to stay with him, but he sent him away, saying, 39 “Return to your home and tell all that God has done for you.” And he went away, proclaiming throughout the whole town all that Jesus had done for him.
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