Book of Common Prayer
(A psalm by David for the music leader.)
A Prayer in Time of Sickness
1 You, Lord God, bless everyone
who cares for the poor,
and you rescue those people
in times of trouble.
2 You protect them
and keep them alive.
You make them happy here
in this land,
and you don't hand them over
to their enemies.
3 You always heal them
and restore their strength
when they are sick.
4 I prayed, “Have pity, Lord!
Heal me, though I have sinned
against you.”
5 My vicious enemies ask me,
“When will you die
and be forgotten?”
6 When visitors come,
all they ever bring
are worthless words,
and when they leave,
they spread gossip.
7 My enemies whisper about me.
They think the worst,
8 and they say,
“You have some fatal disease!
You'll never get well.”
9 (A) My most trusted friend
has turned against me,
though he ate at my table.
10 Have pity, Lord! Heal me,
so I can pay them back.
11 Then my enemies
won't defeat me,
and I will know
that you really care.
12 You have helped me
because I am innocent,
and you will always
be close to my side.
13 (B) You, the Lord God of Israel,
will be praised forever!
Amen and amen.
(A special psalm by David for the music leader. He wrote this when Doeg from Edom went to Saul and said, “David has gone to Ahimelech's house.”)
God Is in Control
1 (A) You people may be strong
and brag about your sins,
but God can be trusted
day after day.
2 You plan brutal crimes,
and your lying words cut
like a sharp razor.
3 You would rather do evil
than good, and tell lies
than speak the truth.
4 You love to say cruel things,
and your words are a trap.
5 God will destroy you forever!
He will grab you and drag you
from your homes.
You will be uprooted
and left to die.
6 When good people see
this fearsome sight,
they will laugh and say,
7 “Just look at them now!
Instead of trusting God,
they trusted their wealth
and their cruelty.”
8 But I am like an olive tree
growing in God's house,
and I can count on his love
forever and ever.
9 I will always thank God
for what he has done;
I will praise his good name
when his people meet.
(A special psalm by the clan of Korah and for the music leader.)
A Prayer for Help
1 Our God, our ancestors told us
what wonders you worked
and we listened carefully.
2 You chased off the nations
by causing them trouble
with your powerful arm.
Then you let our ancestors
take over their land.
3 Their strength and weapons
were not what won the land
and gave them victory!
You loved them and fought
with your powerful arm
and your shining glory.
4 You are my God and King,
and you give victory[a]
to the people of Jacob.
5 By your great power,
we knocked our enemies down
and trampled on them.
6 I don't depend on my arrows
or my sword to save me.
7 But you saved us
from our hateful enemies,
and you put them to shame.
8 We boast about you, our God,
and we are always grateful.
9 But now you have rejected us;
you don't lead us into battle,
and we look foolish.
10 You made us retreat,
and our enemies have taken
everything we own.
11 You let us be slaughtered
like sheep,
and you scattered us
among the nations.
12 You sold your people
for little or nothing,
and you earned no profit.
13 You made us look foolish
to our neighbors;
people who live nearby
insult us and sneer.
14 Foreigners joke about us
and shake their heads.
15 I am embarrassed every day,
and I blush with shame.
16 But others mock and sneer,
as they watch my enemies
take revenge on me.
17 All this happened to us,
though we didn't forget you
or break our agreement.
18 We always kept you in mind
and followed your teaching.
19 But you crushed us,
and you covered us
with deepest darkness
where wild animals live.
20 We did not forget you
or lift our hands in prayer
to foreign gods.
21 You would have known it
because you discover
every secret thought.
22 (A) We face death all day for you.
We are like sheep on their way
to be slaughtered.
23 Wake up! Do something, Lord!
Why are you sleeping?
Don't desert us forever.
24 Why do you keep looking away?
Don't forget our sufferings
and all our troubles.
25 We are flat on the ground,
holding on to the dust.
26 Do something! Help us!
Show how kind you are
and come to our rescue.
13 (A) The Lord your God commands you to love him and to serve him with all your heart and soul. If you obey him, 14-15 he will send rain at the right seasons,[a] so you will have more than enough food, wine, and olive oil, and there will be plenty of grass for your cattle.
16 But watch out! You will be tempted to turn your backs on the Lord. And if you worship other gods, 17 the Lord will become angry and keep the rain from falling. Nothing will grow in your fields, and you will die and disappear from the good land that the Lord is giving you.
18 (B) Memorize these laws and think about them. Write down copies and tie them to your wrists and your foreheads to help you obey them. 19 Teach them to your children. Talk about them all the time—whether you're at home or walking along the road or going to bed at night, or getting up in the morning.
Bringing People to God
11 We know what it means to respect the Lord, and we encourage everyone to turn to him. God himself knows what we are like, and I hope you also know what kind of people we are. 12 We are not trying once more to brag about ourselves. But we want you to be proud of us, when you are with those who are not sincere and brag about what others think of them.
13 If we seem out of our minds, it is between God and us. But if we are in our right minds, it is for your good. 14 We are ruled by Christ's love for us. We are certain that if one person died for everyone else, then all of us have died. 15 And Christ did die for all of us. He died so we would no longer live for ourselves, but for the one who died and was raised to life for us.
16 We are careful not to judge people by what they seem to be, though we once judged Christ in this way. 17 Anyone who belongs to Christ is a new person. The past is forgotten, and everything is new. 18 God has done it all! He sent Christ to make peace between himself and us, and he has given us the work of making peace between himself and others.
19 What we mean is that God was in Christ, offering peace and forgiveness to the people of this world. And he has given us the work of sharing his message about peace. 20 We were sent to speak for Christ, and God is begging you to listen to our message. We speak for Christ and sincerely ask you to make peace with God. 21 Christ never sinned! But God treated him as a sinner, so Christ could make us acceptable to God.
6 We work together with God, and we beg you to make good use of God's gift of undeserved grace. 2 (A) In the Scriptures God says,
“When the time came,
I listened to you,
and when you needed help,
I came to save you.”
That time has come. This is the day for you to be saved.
Faith and Service
(Matthew 18.6,7,21,22; Mark 9.42)
17 Jesus said to his disciples:
There will always be something that causes people to sin. But anyone who causes them to sin is in for trouble. A person who causes even one of my little followers to sin 2 would be better off thrown into the ocean with a heavy stone tied around their neck. 3 (A) So be careful what you do.
Correct any followers[a] of mine who sin, and forgive the ones who say they are sorry. 4 Even if one of them mistreats you seven times in one day and says, “I am sorry,” you should still forgive that person.
5 The apostles said to the Lord, “Make our faith stronger!”
6 Jesus replied:
If you had faith no bigger than a tiny mustard seed, you could tell this mulberry tree to pull itself up, roots and all, and to plant itself in the ocean. And it would!
7 If your servant comes in from plowing or from taking care of the sheep, would you say, “Welcome! Come on in and have something to eat”? 8 No, you wouldn't say that. You would say, “Prepare me something to eat. Get ready to serve me, so I can have my meal. Then later on you can eat and drink.” 9 Servants don't deserve special thanks for doing what they are supposed to do. 10 And that's how it should be with you. When you've done all you should, then say, “We are merely servants, and we have simply done our duty.”
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