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.
19 The king said to Ittai the Gittite, Why do you go with us also? Return to your place and remain with the king [Absalom], for you are a foreigner and an exile.
20 Since you came only yesterday, should I make you go up and down with us? Since I must go where I may, you return, and take back your brethren with you. May loving-kindness and faithfulness be with you.
21 But Ittai answered the king, As the Lord lives, and as my lord the king lives, wherever my lord the king shall be, whether for death or life, even there also will your servant be.
22 So David said to Ittai, Go on and pass over [the Kidron]. And Ittai the Gittite passed over and all his men and all the little ones who were with him.
23 All the country wept with a loud voice as all the people passed over. The king crossed the brook Kidron, and all the people went on toward the wilderness.
24 Abiathar [the priest] and behold, Zadok came also, and all the Levites with him, bearing the ark of the covenant of God. And they set down the ark of God until all the people had gone from the city.
25 Then the king told Zadok, Take back the ark of God to the city. If I find favor in the Lord’s eyes, He will bring me back and let me see both it and His house.
26 But if He says, I have no delight in you, then here I am; let Him do to me what seems good to Him.
27 The king also said to Zadok the priest, Are you not a seer? [You and Abiathar] return to the city in peace, and your two sons with you, Ahimaaz your son and Jonathan son of Abiathar.
28 See, I will wait at the fords [at the Jordan] of the wilderness until word comes from you to inform me.
29 Zadok, therefore, and Abiathar carried the ark of God back to Jerusalem and they stayed there.
30 And David went up over the Mount of Olives and wept as he went, barefoot and his head covered. And all the people who were with him covered their heads, weeping as they went.
31 David was told, Ahithophel [your counselor] is among the conspirators with Absalom. David said, O Lord, I pray You, turn Ahithophel’s counsel into foolishness.
32 When David came to the summit [of Olivet], where he worshiped God, behold, Hushai the Archite came to meet him with his coat rent and earth upon his head.
33 David said to him, If you go with me, you will be a burden to me.
34 But if you return to the city and say to Absalom, I will be your servant, O king; as I have been your father’s servant in the past, so will I be your servant now, then you may defeat for me the counsel of Ahithophel.
35 Will not Zadok and Abiathar the priests be with you? So whatever you hear from the king’s house, just tell it to [them].
36 Behold, their two sons are there with them, Ahimaaz, Zadok’s son and Jonathan, Abiathar’s son; and by them send to me everything you hear.
37 So Hushai, David’s friend, returned, and Absalom also came into Jerusalem.
37 Just as Paul was about to be taken into the barracks, he asked the commandant, May I say something to you? And the man replied, Can you speak Greek?
38 Are you not then [as I supposed] the Egyptian who not long ago stirred up a rebellion and led those 4,000 men who were cutthroats out into the wilderness (desert)?
39 Paul answered, I am a Jew, from Tarsus in Cilicia, a citizen of no insignificant or undistinguished city. I beg you, allow me to address the people.
40 And when the man had granted him permission, Paul, standing on the steps, gestured with his hand to the people; and there was a great hush. Then he spoke to them in the Hebrew dialect, saying:
22 Brethren and fathers, listen to the defense which I now make in your presence.
2 And when they heard that he addressed them in the Hebrew tongue, they were all the more quiet. And he continued,
3 I am a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia but reared in this city. At the feet of Gamaliel I was educated according to the strictest care in the Law of our fathers, being ardent [even a zealot] for God, as all of you are today.
4 [Yes] I harassed (troubled, molested, and persecuted) this Way [of the Lord] to the death, putting in chains and committing to prison both men and women,
5 As the high priest and whole council of elders (Sanhedrin) can testify; for from them indeed I received letters with which I was on my way to the brethren in Damascus in order to take also those [believers] who were there, and bring them in chains to Jerusalem that they might be punished.
6 But as I was on my journey and approached Damascus, about noon a great blaze of light flashed suddenly from heaven and shone about me.
7 And I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to me, Saul, Saul, why do you persecute Me [harass and trouble and molest Me]?
8 And I replied, Who are You, Lord? And He said to me, I am Jesus the Nazarene, Whom you are persecuting.
9 Now the men who were with me saw the light, but they did not hear [[a]the sound of the uttered words of] the voice of the One Who was speaking to me [so that they could [b]understand it].
10 And I asked, What shall I do, Lord? And the Lord answered me, Get up and go into Damascus, and there it will be told you all that it is destined and appointed for you to do.
11 And since I could not see because [of the dazzlingly glorious intensity] of the brightness of that light, I was led by the hand by those who were with me, and [thus] I arrived in Damascus.
12 And one Ananias, a devout man according to the Law, well spoken of by all the Jews who resided there,
13 Came to see me, and standing by my side said to me, Brother Saul, [c]look up and receive back your sight. And in that very [d]instant I [recovered my sight and] looking up saw him.
14 And he said, The God of our forefathers has destined and appointed you to come progressively to know His will [to perceive, to recognize more strongly and clearly, and to become better and more intimately acquainted with His will], and to see the Righteous One (Jesus Christ, the Messiah), and to hear a voice from His [own] mouth and a message from His [own] lips;
15 For you will be His witness unto all men of everything that you have seen and heard.
16 And now, why do you delay? Rise and be baptized, and [e]by calling upon His name, wash away your sins.
46 Then they came to Jericho. And as He was leaving Jericho with His disciples and a great crowd, Bartimaeus, a blind beggar, a son of Timaeus, was sitting by the roadside.
47 And when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout, saying, Jesus, Son of David, have pity and mercy on me [[a]now]!
48 And many [b]severely censured and reproved him, telling him to keep still, but he kept on shouting out all the more, You Son of David, have pity and mercy on me [now]!
49 And Jesus stopped and said, Call him. And they called the blind man, telling him, Take courage! Get up! He is calling you.
50 And throwing off his outer garment, he leaped up and came to Jesus.
51 And Jesus said to him, What do you want Me to do for you? And the blind man said to Him, Master, let me receive my sight.
52 And Jesus said to him, Go your way; your faith has healed you. And at once he received his sight and accompanied Jesus on the road.(A)
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