Book of Common Prayer
145 I am praying with great earnestness; answer me, O Lord, and I will obey your laws. 146 “Save me,” I cry, “for I am obeying.” 147 Early in the morning before the sun is up, I am praying and pointing out how much I trust in you. 148 I stay awake through the night to think about your promises. 149 Because you are so loving and kind, listen to me and make me well again.
150 Here come these lawless men to attack me, 151 but you are near, O Lord; all your commandments are based on truth. 152 I have known from earliest days that your will never changes.
153 Look down upon my sorrows and rescue me, for I am obeying your commands. 154 Yes, rescue me and give me back my life again just as you have promised. 155 The wicked are far from salvation, for they do not care for your laws. 156 Lord, how great is your mercy; oh, give me back my life again.
157 My enemies are so many. They try to make me disobey, but I have not swerved from your will. 158 I loathed these traitors because they care nothing for your laws. 159 Lord, see how much I really love your demands. Now give me back my life and health because you are so kind. 160 There is utter truth in all your laws; your decrees are eternal.
161 Great men have persecuted me, though they have no reason to, but I stand in awe of only your words. 162 I rejoice in your laws like one who finds a great treasure. 163 How I hate all falsehood, but how I love your laws. 164 I will praise you seven times a day because of your wonderful laws.
165 Those who love your laws have great peace of heart and mind and do not stumble. 166 I long for your salvation, Lord, and so I have obeyed your laws. 167 I have looked for your commandments, and I love them very much; 168 yes, I have searched for them. You know this because everything I do is known to you.
169 O Lord, listen to my prayers; give me the common sense you promised. 170 Hear my prayers; rescue me as you said you would. 171 I praise you for letting me learn your laws. 172 I will sing about their wonder, for each of them is just. 173 Stand ready to help me because I have chosen to follow your will. 174 O Lord, I have longed for your salvation, and your law is my delight. 175 If you will let me live, I will praise you; let your laws assist me.
176 I have wandered away like a lost sheep; come and find me, for I have not turned away from your commandments.
128 Blessings on all who reverence and trust the Lord—on all who obey him!
2 Their reward shall be prosperity and happiness. 3 Your wife shall be contented in your home. And look at all those children! There they sit around the dinner table as vigorous and healthy as young olive trees. 4 That is God’s reward to those who reverence and trust him.
5 May the Lord continually bless you with heaven’s blessings[a] as well as with human joys. 6 May you live to enjoy your grandchildren! And may God bless Israel!
129 Persecuted from my earliest youth (Israel is speaking), 2 and faced with never-ending discrimination—but not destroyed! My enemies have never been able to finish me off!
3-4 Though my back is cut to ribbons with their whips, the Lord is good. For he has snapped the chains that evil men had bound me with.
5 May all who hate the Jews be brought to ignominious defeat. 6-7 May they be as grass in shallow soil, turning sere and yellow when half grown, ignored by the reaper, despised by the binder. 8 And may those passing by refuse to bless them by saying, “Jehovah’s blessings be upon you; we bless you in Jehovah’s name.”
130 O Lord, from the depths of despair I cry for your help: 2 “Hear me! Answer! Help me!”
3-4 Lord, if you keep in mind our sins, then who can ever get an answer to his prayers? But you forgive! What an awesome thing this is! 5 That is why I wait expectantly, trusting God to help, for he has promised. 6 I long for him more than sentinels long for the dawn.
7 O Israel, hope in the Lord; for he is loving and kind and comes to us with armloads of salvation. 8 He himself shall ransom Israel from her slavery to sin.
19 Then Zadok’s son Ahimaaz said, “Let me run to King David with the good news that the Lord has saved him from his enemy Absalom.”
20 “No,” Joab told him, “it wouldn’t be good news to the king that his son is dead. You can be my messenger some other time.”
21 Then Joab said to a man from Cush, “Go tell the king what you have seen.” The man bowed and ran off.
22 But Ahimaaz pleaded with Joab, “Please let me go too.”
“No, we don’t need you now, my boy,” Joab replied. “There is no further news to send.”
23 “Yes, but let me go anyway,” he begged.
And Joab finally said, “All right, go ahead.” Then Ahimaaz took a shortcut across the plain and got there ahead of the man from Cush.
23-24 Then the commander called two of his officers and ordered, “Get 200 soldiers ready to leave for Caesarea at nine o’clock tonight! Take 200 spearmen and 70 mounted cavalry. Give Paul a horse to ride and get him safely to Governor Felix.”
25 Then he wrote this letter to the governor:
26 “From: Claudius Lysias
“To: His Excellency, Governor Felix.
“Greetings!
27 “This man was seized by the Jews, and they were killing him when I sent the soldiers to rescue him, for I learned that he was a Roman citizen. 28 Then I took him to their Council to try to find out what he had done. 29 I soon discovered it was something about their Jewish beliefs, certainly nothing worthy of imprisonment or death. 30 But when I was informed of a plot to kill him, I decided to send him on to you and will tell his accusers to bring their charges before you.”
31 So that night, as ordered, the soldiers took Paul to Antipatris. 32 They returned to the armory the next morning, leaving him with the cavalry to take him on to Caesarea.
33 When they arrived in Caesarea, they presented Paul and the letter to the governor. 34 He read it and then asked Paul where he was from.
“Cilicia,” Paul answered.
35 “I will hear your case fully when your accusers arrive,” the governor told him, and ordered him kept in the prison at King Herod’s palace.
13 But they sent other religious and political leaders to talk with him and try to trap him into saying something he could be arrested for.
14 “Teacher,” these spies said, “we know you tell the truth no matter what! You aren’t influenced by the opinions and desires of men, but sincerely teach the ways of God. Now tell us, is it right to pay taxes to Rome, or not?”
15 Jesus saw their trick and said, “Show me a coin and I’ll tell you.”
16 When they handed it to him he asked, “Whose picture and title is this on the coin?” They replied, “The emperor’s.”
17 “All right,” he said, “if it is his, give it to him. But everything that belongs to God must be given to God!” And they scratched their heads in bafflement at his reply.
18 Then the Sadducees stepped forward—a group of men who say there is no resurrection. Here was their question:
19 “Teacher, Moses gave us a law that when a man dies without children, the man’s brother should marry his widow and have children in his brother’s name. 20-22 Well, there were seven brothers and the oldest married and died, and left no children. So the second brother married the widow, but soon he died too and left no children. Then the next brother married her and died without children, and so on until all were dead, and still there were no children; and last of all, the woman died too.
23 “What we want to know is this:[a] In the resurrection, whose wife will she be, for she had been the wife of each of them?”
24 Jesus replied, “Your trouble is that you don’t know the Scriptures and don’t know the power of God. 25 For when these seven brothers and the woman rise from the dead, they won’t be married—they will be like the angels.
26
27 “God was telling Moses that these men, though dead for hundreds of years,[b]
The Living Bible copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.