Book of Common Prayer
A Prayer for Help in Despair
A song. A psalm of the sons of Korah.
For the music director; according to Mahalath Leannoth.
A maskil of Heman the Ezrahite.[a]
88 O Yahweh, God of my salvation,
I cry out by day and through the night before you.
2 Let my prayer come before you;
incline your ear to my cry.
3 For my soul is full with troubles,
and my life approaches Sheol.
4 I am reckoned with those descending to the pit.
I am like a man[b] without strength,[c]
5 set free[d] among the dead,
like the slain lying in the grave,
whom you no longer remember,
even those cut off from your hand.
6 You have set me in the pit below,
in dark places, in the depths.
7 Your wrath presses upon me,
and you afflict me with all your waves. Selah
8 You have removed my acquaintances far from me.
You have made me detestable[e] to them.
I am confined and cannot go out.
9 My eye languishes from misery.
I call on you, O Yahweh, every day;
I spread out my hands[f] to you.
10 Do you work wonders[g] for the dead?
Or do the departed spirits[h] rise up to praise you? Selah
11 Is your loyal love told in the grave,
or your faithfulness in the underworld?[i]
12 Are your wonders[j] known in the darkness,
or your righteousness[k] in the land of forgetfulness?
13 But as for me, I cry for help to you, O Yahweh,
and in the morning my prayer comes before you.
14 Why do you reject my soul, O Yahweh?
Why do you hide your face from me?
15 I am afflicted and perishing from my youth.
I bear your terrors. I am distraught.[l]
16 Your burning anger has passed over me;
your sudden fears have destroyed me.
17 They surround me like water all the day;
they circle about me altogether.
18 You have removed loved one and friend far from me,
my acquaintances far from my darkness.
God’s Protection in Times of Crisis
91 One who lives in the secret place[a] of the Most High
will lodge in the shadow of Shaddai.[b]
2 I will say to Yahweh, “You are my refuge and my fortress,
my God in whom I trust.”
3 For he will deliver[c] you from the snare of the fowler,
from the plague of destruction.
4 With his feathers he will cover you,
and under his wings you can take refuge.
His faithfulness will be a shield and a buckler.[d]
5 You need not fear the terror of the night,
or the arrow that flies by day,
6 or the plague that spreads in the darkness,
or the destruction that devastates at noon.
7 A thousand may fall at your side,
and ten thousand at your right hand,
but it will not come near you.
8 You will only look with your eyes,
and see the punishment of the wicked.
9 For you, O Yahweh, are my refuge.
You have made the Most High your dwelling place.[e]
10 No harm will befall you,
and no plague will come near your tent.
11 For he will command his angels concerning you,
to watch over you in all your ways.
12 In their hands they will bear you up,
lest you strike your foot against a stone.
13 You will tread on lion and viper;
you will trample young lion and serpent.
14 Because he loves me, therefore I will deliver him;
I will protect[f] him because he knows my name.
15 He will call upon me and I will answer him;
I will be with him in trouble;
I will rescue and honor him.
16 With long life[g] I will satisfy him,
and show him my salvation.
Thanksgiving to Yahweh for Victory
A psalm. A song. For the Sabbath day.[h]
92 It is good to give thanks to Yahweh,
and to sing praise concerning your name, O Most High;
2 to declare in the morning your loyal love
and your faithfulness in the night,
3 on the ten string, and on the harp,
with a melody on the lyre.
4 For you, O Yahweh, have made me glad by your work;
by the deeds of your hands I sing for joy.
5 How great are your deeds, O Yahweh;
how very deep are your thoughts.
6 The brutish man does not know,
and the fool cannot understand this.
7 When the wicked flourish like grass
and all the workers of evil blossom,
it is so they can be destroyed forever.
8 But you are on high forever, O Yahweh.
9 For behold, your enemies, O Yahweh,
for behold, your enemies will perish.
All the workers of evil will be scattered.
10 But you have exalted my horn like that of a wild ox;
you have anointed me[i] with fresh oil.
11 And so my eye looks on my enemies.[j]
My ears hear those evildoers who rise up against me.
12 The righteous[k] will flourish like the date palm.
They will grow like a cedar in Lebanon.
13 Planted in the house[l] of Yahweh,
they will flourish in the courts of our God.
14 They will still prosper in old age.
They will be fat and luxuriant,[m]
15 to declare that Yahweh is upright.
He is my rock, and there is no injustice[n] in him.
17 Now the watchman was standing on the tower in Jezreel, and he saw the company of Jehu when he came, and he said, “I see a company.” Joram said, “Take a horseman and send him to meet them.” And he said, “Is it peace?” 18 So the rider of the horse went out to meet him, and he said, “Thus the king asks, ‘Is it peace?’” Then Jehu said, “What do you have to do with peace?[a] Turn after me.” Then the watchman reported, saying, “The messenger went up to them, but he did not return.” 19 Then he sent out a second horseman, and he came to them and said, “Thus the king asks, ‘Is it peace?’” Then Jehu said, “What do you have to do with peace?[b] Turn after me.” 20 So the sentinel reported, saying, “He went up to them, but he did not return, and the driving is like the driving of Jehu the son of Nimshi, for he drives with madness.”
21 Then Joram said, “Get ready,” so he got his chariot ready. Joram king of Israel went out, and Ahaziah king of Judah, each with his chariot. They went out to meet Jehu, and they found him at the tract of land of Naboth the Jezreelite. 22 When Joram saw Jehu, he asked, “Is it peace?” And he said, “What peace is there while the prostitutions of your mother Jezebel and her sorceries are numerous?” 23 Joram turned his chariot[c] and fled and said to Ahaziah, “It’s treason, Ahaziah!” 24 Then Jehu drew his bow[d] and shot Joram between his shoulders so that the arrow went out from his heart, and he slumped down in his chariot. 25 He said to Bidkar his third servant, “Lift him out and throw him on the plot of the field of Naboth the Jezreelite, for remember, you and I were with the pair of chariots behind Ahab his father when Yahweh pronounced this oracle against him: 26 ‘“Since I saw the blood of Naboth and the blood of his children yesterday,” declares Yahweh, “I will requite it for you in this tract of land,” declares Yahweh.’ So then lift him out and throw him on the tract of land according to the word of Yahweh.”
Jehu Orders the Assassination of Ahaziah
27 When Ahaziah king of Judah saw, he fled the way of Beth-Haggen. Jehu pursued after him and said, “Shoot him also, in the chariot.” They shot him at the ascent of Gur which is in Ibleam, and he fled to Megiddo, but he died there. 28 Then his officers carried him to Jerusalem, and they buried him in his tomb with his ancestors[e] in the city of David. 29 In the eleventh year of Joram the son of Ahab, Ahaziah had become king over Judah.
Jezebel Loses Her High Position
30 When Jehu came to Jezreel, Jezebel heard of it, so she painted her eyes with black eye paint and adorned her head and looked through the window. 31 Now Jehu had come in the gate, so she said, “Is it peace, O Zimri, murderer of his master?” 32 When he lifted up his face to the window, he asked, “Who is with me?” Two or three eunuchs looked down to him. 33 So he said, “Throw her down.” So they threw her down, and her blood spattered on the wall and on the horses, and they trampled her. 34 Then he came and ate and drank, and said, “Please take care of this cursed one and bury her, for she is the daughter of a king.” 35 When they went to bury her, they could not find her, except the skull, the feet, and the palms of the hands. 36 They returned and told him, and he said, “This is the word of Yahweh which he spoke by the hand of his servant Elijah the Tishbite, saying, ‘On the plot of ground of Jezreel, the dogs shall eat the flesh of Jezebel.’” 37 So the dead body of Jezebel became dung on the surface spread on the field in the plot of ground of Jezreel, so one cannot say, “This is Jezebel.”
Concerning Christian Marriage
7 Now concerning the things about which you wrote: “It is good for a man not to touch[a] a woman.” 2 But because of sexual immorality, let each man have[b] his own wife and let each woman have her own husband. 3 The husband must fulfill his obligation to his wife, and likewise also the wife to her husband. 4 The wife does not have authority over her own body, but her husband does. And likewise also the husband does not have authority over his own body, but his wife does. 5 Do not defraud one another, except perhaps by agreement, for a time, in order that you may devote yourselves to prayer, and then you should be together[c] again, lest Satan tempt you because of your lack of self control. 6 But I say this as a concession, not as a command. 7 I wish all people could be like myself, but each one has his own gift from God, one in this way and another in that way.
8 Now I say to the unmarried and to the widows: It is good for them if they remain as I am. 9 But if they cannot control themselves, they should marry, for it is better to marry than to burn with sexual desire.
7 “But when you[a] pray, do not babble repetitiously like the pagans, for they think that because of their many words they will be heard. 8 Therefore do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need[b] before you ask him. 9 Therefore you pray in this way:
“Our Father who is in heaven,
may your name be treated as holy.
10 May your kingdom come,
may your will be done
on earth as it is in heaven.
11 Give us today our daily bread,
12 and forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
13 And do not bring us into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one.[c]
14 For if you forgive people their sins, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 But if you do not forgive people, neither will your Father forgive your sins.
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