Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 25[a]
Of David.
25 I offer my life[b] to you, Lord.
2 My God, I trust you.
Please don’t let me be put to shame!
Don’t let my enemies rejoice over me!
3 For that matter,
don’t let anyone who hopes in you
be put to shame;
instead, let those who are treacherous without excuse be put to shame.
4 Make your ways known to me, Lord;
teach me your paths.
5 Lead me in your truth—teach it to me—
because you are the God who saves me.
I put my hope in you all day long.
6 Lord, remember your compassion and faithful love—
they are forever!
7 But don’t remember the sins of my youth or my wrongdoing.
Remember me only according to your faithful love
for the sake of your goodness, Lord.
8 The Lord is good and does the right thing;
he teaches sinners which way they should go.
9 God guides the weak to justice,
teaching them his way.
10 All the Lord’s paths are loving and faithful
for those who keep his covenant and laws.
11 Please, for the sake of your good name, Lord, forgive my sins, which are many!
12 Where are the ones who honor the Lord?
God will teach them which path to take.
13 They will live a good life,
and their descendants will possess the land.
14 The Lord counsels those who honor him;
he makes his covenant known to them.
15 My eyes are always looking to the Lord
because he will free my feet from the net.
16 Turn to me, God, and have mercy on me
because I’m alone and suffering.
17 My heart’s troubles keep getting bigger—
set me free from my distress!
18 Look at my suffering and trouble—
forgive all my sins!
19 Look at how many enemies I have
and how violently they hate me!
20 Please protect my life! Deliver me!
Don’t let me be put to shame
because I take refuge in you.
21 Let integrity and virtue guard me
because I hope in you.
22 Please, God, save Israel from all its troubles!
Psalm 9[a]
For the music leader. According to Muth-labben.[b] A psalm of David.
9 I will thank you, Lord, with all my heart;
I will talk about all your wonderful acts.
2 I will celebrate and rejoice in you;
I will sing praises to your name, Most High.
3 When my enemies turn and retreat,
they fall down and die right in front of you
4 because you have established justice
for me and my claim,
because you rule from the throne,
establishing justice rightly.
5 You’ve denounced the nations,
destroyed the wicked.
You’ve erased their names for all time.
6 Every enemy is wiped out,
like something ruined forever.
You’ve torn down their cities—
even the memory of them is dead.
7 But the Lord rules forever!
He assumes his throne
for the sake of justice.
8 He will establish justice in the world rightly;
he will judge all people fairly.
9 The Lord is a safe place for the oppressed—
a safe place in difficult times.
10 Those who know your name trust you
because you have not abandoned
any who seek you, Lord.
11 Sing praises to the Lord, who lives in Zion!
Proclaim his mighty acts among all people!
12 Because the one who avenges bloodshed
remembers those who suffer;
the Lord hasn’t forgotten their cries for help.
13 Have mercy on me, Lord!
Just look how I suffer
because of those who hate me.
But you are the one who brings me back
from the very gates of death
14 so I can declare all your praises,
so I can rejoice in your salvation
in the gates of Daughter Zion.
15 The nations have fallen
into the hole they themselves made!
Their feet are caught
in the very net they themselves hid!
16 The Lord is famous for the justice he has done;
it’s his own doing that the wicked are trapped. Higgayon.[c] Selah
17 Let the wicked go straight to the grave,[d]
the same for every nation that forgets God.
18 Because the poor won’t be forgotten forever,
the hope of those who suffer won’t be lost for all time.
19 Get up, Lord! Don’t let people prevail!
Let the nations be judged before you.
20 Strike them with fear, Lord.
Let the nations know they are only human. Selah
Psalm 15
A psalm of David.
15 Who can live in your tent, Lord?
Who can dwell on your holy mountain?
2 The person who
lives free of blame,
does what is right,
and speaks the truth sincerely;
3 who does no damage with their talk,
does no harm to a friend,
doesn’t insult a neighbor;
4 someone who despises
those who act wickedly,
but who honors those
who honor the Lord;
someone who keeps their promise even when it hurts;
5 someone who doesn’t lend money with interest,
who won’t accept a bribe against any innocent person.
Whoever does these things will never stumble.
Jeremiah’s final words to Judeans in Egypt
44 Jeremiah received the Lord’s word for the Judeans living in the land of Egypt, those living in Migdol, Tahpanhes, and Memphis and in the land of Pathros. 2 The Lord of heavenly forces, the God of Israel, proclaims: You have seen the disaster I brought on Jerusalem and the towns of Judah. They are now a wasteland with no one left 3 because of their evil ways. They have angered me by making offerings and worshipping other gods that neither they nor you nor your ancestors knew. 4 Yet time and again I sent you all my servants the prophets, saying, “Don’t do these detestable things that I hate.” 5 But they wouldn’t listen or pay attention or turn from their evil ways. They continued making offerings to other gods. 6 So my fierce anger poured out and blazed against the towns of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem. And they were reduced to an utter wasteland, as they are today.
7 Now the Lord of heavenly forces, the God of Israel, proclaims: Why are you committing this huge mistake that will cost you your lives? Every man, woman, child, and infant will be eliminated from the midst of Judah, and no one will be left. 8 Why do you anger me by what you do: by burning incense to other gods in the land of Egypt where you have come to live? You will be eliminated and become an object of cursing and disgrace among all the nations of the earth. 9 Have you forgotten the sins of your ancestors and the sins of the kings of Judah and their wives?[a] Have you forgotten the sins that you and your wives committed in the land of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? 10 To this day you[b] haven’t shown any sorrow for what you have done. And you haven’t revered me or followed my Instruction and my laws that I set before you and your ancestors.
11 Therefore, the Lord of heavenly forces, the God of Israel, proclaims: I’m determined to bring disaster on you, to eliminate all of Judah. 12 I will take the few remaining Judeans who were determined to go to the land of Egypt to live. They will all perish there. They will fall by the sword and perish due to famine. The least to the greatest will die by the sword and by famine. They will become an object of cursing, scorn, contempt, and disgrace. 13 I will punish those who live in the land of Egypt, just as I punished Jerusalem with war, famine, and disease. 14 From the few remaining in Judah, no fugitive or survivor who came to live here in the land of Egypt will be able to return to the land of Judah. Even though they want to return and live there, they won’t be able to return, except for some fugitives.
30 And what about us? Why are we in danger all day every day? 31 Brothers and sisters, I swear by the pride I have in you in Christ Jesus our Lord, I’m facing death every day. 32 From a human point of view, what good does it do me if I fought wild animals in Ephesus? If the dead aren’t raised, let’s eat and drink because tomorrow we’ll die.[a] 33 Don’t be deceived, bad company corrupts good character. 34 Sober up by acting like you should and don’t sin. Some of you are ignorant about God—I say this because you should be ashamed of yourselves!
35 But someone will say, “How are the dead raised? What kind of body will they have when they come back?” 36 Look, fool! When you put a seed into the ground, it doesn’t come back to life unless it dies. 37 What you put in the ground doesn’t have the shape that it will have, but it’s a bare grain of wheat or some other seed. 38 God gives it the sort of shape that he chooses, and he gives each of the seeds its own shape. 39 All flesh isn’t alike. Humans have one kind of flesh, animals have another kind of flesh, birds have another kind of flesh, and fish have another kind. 40 There are heavenly bodies and earthly bodies. The heavenly bodies have one kind of glory, and the earthly bodies have another kind of glory. 41 The sun has one kind of glory, the moon has another kind of glory, and the stars have another kind of glory (but one star is different from another star in its glory).
This generation
16 “To what will I compare this generation? It is like a child sitting in the marketplaces calling out to others, 17 ‘We played the flute for you and you didn’t dance. We sang a funeral song and you didn’t mourn.’ 18 For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon.’ 19 Yet the Human One[a] came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look, a glutton and a drunk, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.’ But wisdom is proved to be right by her works.”
Condemnation of Bethsaida and Capernaum
20 Then he began to scold the cities where he had done his greatest miracles because they didn’t change their hearts and lives. 21 “How terrible it will be for you, Chorazin! How terrible it will be for you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles done among you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have changed their hearts and lives and put on funeral clothes and ashes a long time ago. 22 But I say to you that Tyre and Sidon will be better off on Judgment Day than you. 23 And you, Capernaum, will you be honored by being raised up to heaven? No, you will be thrown down to the place of the dead. After all, if the miracles that were done among you had been done in Sodom, it would still be here today. 24 But I say to you that it will be better for the land of Sodom on the Judgment Day than it will be for you.”
Copyright © 2011 by Common English Bible