Book of Common Prayer
16 Save me, O God, because I have come to you for refuge. 2 I said to him, “You are my Lord; I have no other help but yours.” 3 I want the company of the godly men and women in the land; they are the true nobility. 4 Those choosing other gods shall all be filled with sorrow; I will not offer the sacrifices they do or even speak the names of their gods.
5 The Lord himself is my inheritance, my prize. He is my food and drink, my highest joy! He guards all that is mine. 6 He sees that I am given pleasant brooks and meadows as my share![a] What a wonderful inheritance! 7 I will bless the Lord who counsels me; he gives me wisdom in the night. He tells me what to do.
8 I am always thinking of the Lord; and because he is so near, I never need to stumble or fall.
9 Heart, body, and soul are filled with joy. 10 For you will not leave me among the dead; you will not allow your beloved one to rot in the grave. 11 You have let me experience the joys of life and the exquisite pleasures of your own eternal presence.
17 I am pleading for your help, O Lord; for I have been honest and have done what is right, and you must listen to my earnest cry! 2 Publicly acquit me, Lord, for you are always fair. 3 You have tested me and seen that I am good. You have come even in the night and found nothing amiss and know that I have told the truth. 4 I have followed your commands and have not gone along with cruel and evil men. 5 My feet have not slipped from your paths.
6 Why am I praying like this? Because I know you will answer me, O God! Yes, listen as I pray. 7 Show me your strong love in wonderful ways, O Savior of all those seeking your help against their foes. 8 Protect me as you would the pupil of your eye; hide me in the shadow of your wings as you hover over me.
9 My enemies encircle me with murder in their eyes. 10 They are pitiless and arrogant. Listen to their boasting. 11 They close in upon me and are ready to throw me to the ground. 12 They are like lions eager to tear me apart, like young lions hiding and waiting their chance.
13-14 Lord, arise and stand against them. Push them back! Come and save me from these men of the world whose only concern is earthly gain—these men whom you have filled with your treasures so that their children and grandchildren are rich and prosperous.
15 But as for me, my contentment is not in wealth but in seeing you and knowing all is well between us. And when I awake in heaven, I will be fully satisfied, for I will see you face-to-face.
22 My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why do you refuse to help me or even to listen to my groans? 2 Day and night I keep on weeping, crying for your help, but there is no reply— 3-4 for you are holy.
The praises of our fathers surrounded your throne; they trusted you and you delivered them. 5 You heard their cries for help and saved them; they were never disappointed when they sought your aid.
6 But I am a worm, not a man, scorned and despised by my own people and by all mankind. 7 Everyone who sees me mocks and sneers and shrugs. 8 “Is this the one who rolled his burden on the Lord?” they laugh. “Is this the one who claims the Lord delights in him? We’ll believe it when we see God rescue him!”
9-11 Lord, how you have helped me before![a] You took me safely from my mother’s womb and brought me through the years of infancy. I have depended upon you since birth; you have always been my God. Don’t leave me now, for trouble is near and no one else can possibly help.
12 I am surrounded by fearsome enemies, strong as the giant bulls from Bashan. 13 They come at me with open jaws, like roaring lions attacking their prey. 14 My strength has drained away like water, and all my bones are out of joint. My heart melts like wax; 15 my strength has dried up like sun-baked clay; my tongue sticks to my mouth, for you have laid me in the dust of death. 16 The enemy, this gang of evil men, circles me like a pack of dogs; they have pierced my hands and feet. 17 I can count every bone in my body. See these men of evil gloat and stare; 18 they divide my clothes among themselves by a toss of the dice.
19 O Lord, don’t stay away. O God my Strength, hurry to my aid. 20 Rescue me from death; spare my precious life from all these evil men.[b] 21 Save me from these lions’ jaws and from the horns of these wild oxen. Yes, God will answer me and rescue me.
22 I will praise you to all my brothers; I will stand up before the congregation and testify of the wonderful things you have done. 23 “Praise the Lord, each one of you who fears him,” I will say. “Each of you[c] must fear and reverence his name. Let all Israel sing his praises, 24 for he has not despised my cries of deep despair; he has not turned and walked away. When I cried to him, he heard and came.”
25 Yes, I will stand and praise you[d] before all the people. I will publicly fulfill my vows in the presence of all who reverence your name.
26 The poor[e] shall eat and be satisfied; all who seek the Lord shall find him and shall praise his name. Their hearts shall rejoice with everlasting joy. 27 The whole earth shall see it and return to the Lord; the people of every nation shall worship him.
28 For the Lord is King and rules the nations. 29 Both proud and humble together, all who are mortal—born to die—shall worship him. 30 Our children too shall serve him, for they shall hear from us about the wonders of the Lord; 31 generations yet unborn shall hear of all the miracles he did for us.
4 So Boaz went down to the marketplace[a] and found the relative he had mentioned.
“Say, come over here,” he called to him. “I want to talk to you a minute.”
So they sat down together. 2 Then Boaz called for ten of the chief men of the village and asked them to sit as witnesses.
3 Boaz said to his relative, “You know Naomi, who came back to us from Moab. She is selling our brother Elimelech’s property. 4 I felt that I should speak to you about it so that you can buy it if you wish, with these respected men as witnesses. If you want it,[b] let me know right away, for if you don’t take it, I will. You have the first right to purchase it and I am next.”
The man replied, “All right, I’ll buy it.”
5 Then Boaz told him, “Your purchase of the land from Naomi requires your marriage to Ruth so that she can have children to carry on her husband’s name and to inherit the land.”
6 “Then I can’t do it,” the man replied. “For her son would become an heir to my property too;[c] you buy it.”
7 In those days it was the custom in Israel for a man transferring a right of purchase to pull off his sandal and hand it to the other party; this publicly validated the transaction. 8 So, as the man said to Boaz, “You buy it for yourself,” he drew off his sandal.
9 Then Boaz said to the witnesses and to the crowd standing around, “You have seen that today I have bought all the property of Elimelech, Chilion, and Mahlon, from Naomi, 10 and that with it I have purchased Ruth the Moabitess, the widow of Mahlon, to be my wife, so that she can have a son to carry on the family name of her dead husband.”
11 And all the people standing there and the witnesses replied, “We are witnesses. May the Lord make this woman, who has now come into your home, as fertile as Rachel and Leah, from whom all the nation of Israel descended! May you be a great and successful man in Bethlehem, 12 and may the descendants the Lord will give you from this young woman be as numerous and honorable as those of our ancestor Perez, the son of Tamar and Judah.”
13 So Boaz married Ruth, and when he slept with her, the Lord gave her a son.
14 And the women of the city said to Naomi, “Bless the Lord who has given you this little grandson; may he be famous in Israel. 15 May he restore your youth and take care of you in your old age; for he is the son of your daughter-in-law who loves you so much, and who has been kinder to you than seven sons!”
16-17 Naomi took care of the baby, and the neighbor women said, “Now at last Naomi has a son again!”
And they named him Obed. He was the father of Jesse and grandfather of King David.
17 Pastors who do their work well should be paid well and should be highly appreciated, especially those who work hard at both preaching and teaching. 18 For the Scriptures say, “Never tie up the mouth of an ox when it is treading out the grain—let him eat as he goes along!” And in another place, “Those who work deserve their pay!”
19 Don’t listen to complaints against the pastor unless there are two or three witnesses to accuse him. 20 If he has really sinned, then he should be rebuked in front of the whole church so that no one else will follow his example.
21 I solemnly command you in the presence of God and the Lord Jesus Christ and of the holy angels to do this whether the pastor is a special friend of yours or not. All must be treated exactly the same. 22 Never be in a hurry about choosing a pastor; you may overlook his sins, and it will look as if you approve of them. Be sure that you yourself stay away from all sin. 23 (By the way, this doesn’t mean you should completely give up drinking wine. You ought to take a little sometimes as medicine for your stomach because you are sick so often.)
24 Remember that some men, even pastors, lead sinful lives, and everyone knows it. In such situations you can do something about it. But in other cases only the judgment day will reveal the terrible truth. 25 In the same way, everyone knows how much good some pastors do, but sometimes their good deeds aren’t known until long afterward.
14 1-2 One Sabbath as he was in the home of a member of the Jewish Council, the Pharisees were watching him like hawks to see if he would heal a man who was present who was suffering from dropsy.
3 Jesus said to the Pharisees and legal experts standing around, “Well, is it within the Law to heal a man on the Sabbath day, or not?”
4 And when they refused to answer, Jesus took the sick man by the hand and healed him and sent him away.
5 Then he turned to them: “Which of you doesn’t work on the Sabbath?” he asked. “If your cow falls into a pit, don’t you proceed at once to get it out?”
6 Again they had no answer.
7 When he noticed that all who came to the dinner were trying to sit near the head of the table, he gave them this advice: 8 “If you are invited to a wedding feast, don’t always head for the best seat. For if someone more respected than you shows up, 9 the host will bring him over to where you are sitting and say, ‘Let this man sit here instead.’ And you, embarrassed, will have to take whatever seat is left at the foot of the table!
10 “Do this instead—start at the foot; and when your host sees you he will come and say, ‘Friend, we have a better place than this for you!’ Thus you will be honored in front of all the other guests. 11 For everyone who tries to honor himself shall be humbled; and he who humbles himself shall be honored.”
The Living Bible copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.