Book of Common Prayer
To the director: A song of David to help people remember.
70 Please, God, rescue me!
Lord, hurry and help me!
2 People are trying to kill me.
Please disappoint them.
Humiliate them!
They want to hurt me.
Make them run away in shame.
3 May those who make fun of me
be too embarrassed to speak.
4 But may those who come to you
be happy and rejoice.
May those who love being saved by you
always be able to say, “Praise God!”[a]
5 I am only a poor, helpless man.
God, please hurry to me.
You are my helper, the one who can save me.
Lord, don’t be too late!
71 Lord, I depend on you for protection.
Don’t let me be disappointed.
2 You always do what is right, so come and save me.
Listen to me and save me.
3 Be my Rock, my place of safety.
Be my fortress, and protect me!
You are my Rock and my protection.
4 My God, save me from wicked people.
Save me from cruel, evil people.
5 Lord God, you are my hope.
I have trusted you since I was a young boy.
6 I depended on you even before I was born.
I relied on you even in my mother’s womb.
I have always prayed to you.[b]
7 You are my source of strength,
so I have been an example to others.
8 I am always singing about the wonderful things you do.
9 Don’t throw me away just because I am old.
Don’t leave me as I lose my strength.
10 My enemies make plans against me.
They have met together and are making plans to kill me.
11 They say, “Go get him!
God has left him, so there is no one to help him.”
12 God, don’t leave me!
My God, hurry and help me!
13 Defeat my enemies.
Destroy them completely!
They are trying to hurt me.
Let them suffer shame and disgrace.
14 Then I will always trust in you
and praise you more and more.
15 I will tell people how good you are.
I will tell about all the times you saved me—
too many times to count.
16 I will tell about your greatness, my Lord God.
I will talk only about you and your goodness.
17 God, you have taught me since I was a young boy.
And to this day I have told people about the wonderful things you do.
18 Now that I am old and my hair is gray, don’t leave me, God.
I must tell the next generation about your power and greatness.
19 God, your goodness reaches far above the skies.
You have done wonderful things.
God, there is no one like you.
20 You have let me see troubles and hard times,
but you will give me new life;
you will lift me up from this pit of death!
21 You will help me do even greater things.
You will comfort me again!
22 I will play the harp and praise you.
My God, I will sing about your faithfulness.
I will play songs on my lyre
for the Holy One of Israel.
23 I will shout for joy,
singing songs of praise to you for saving me.
24 My tongue will sing about your goodness all the time,
because those who wanted to kill me
have been defeated and disgraced.
A maskil of Asaph.
74 God, why have you turned away from us for so long?
Why are you still angry with us, your own flock?
2 Remember the people you bought so long ago.
You saved us, and we belong to you.
And remember Mount Zion, the place where you lived.
3 God, come walk through these ancient ruins.
Come back to the Holy Place that the enemy destroyed.
4 The enemy shouted their war cries in the Temple.
They put up their flags there to show they had won the war.
5 Their soldiers attacked the doors,
like workmen chopping down trees.
6 Using axes and hatchets,
they smashed the carved panels inside.
7 They burned down your Holy Place.
It was built to honor your name,
but they pulled it down to the ground.
8 The enemy decided to crush us completely.
They burned every holy place[a] in the country.
9 We do not see any of our signs.[b]
There are no more prophets.
And no one knows how long this will last.
10 God, how much longer will the enemy make fun of us?
Will you let them insult your name forever?
11 Why won’t you help us?
Use your power to defeat our enemies!
12 God, you have been our King for a long time.
You have saved us many times on this earth.
13 With your great power you split open the sea
and broke the heads of the sea monster.
14 Yes, you smashed the heads of Leviathan[c]
and left his body for animals to eat.
15 You make the springs and rivers flow,
and you make the rivers dry up.
16 You control the day and the night.
You made the sun and the moon.
17 You set the limits for everything on earth.
And you created summer and winter.
18 Lord, remember, the enemy insulted you!
Those foolish people hate your name!
19 Don’t give us like a helpless dove to those wild animals.
Never forget your poor, suffering people.
20 Remember the agreement you gave us,
because violence fills every dark place in this land.
21 Your people were treated badly.
Don’t let them be hurt anymore.
Let your poor, helpless people praise you.
22 God, get up and defend yourself!
Remember, those fools challenged you.
23 Don’t forget the shouts of your enemies.
They insulted you again and again.
Sarah Dies
23 Sarah lived to be 127 years old. 2 She died in the city of Kiriath Arba (Hebron) in the land of Canaan. Abraham was very sad and cried for her there. 3 Then he left his dead wife and went to talk to the Hittites. He said, 4 “I am only a foreigner staying in your country. I have no place to bury my wife. Please give me some land so that I can bury her.”
5 The Hittites answered Abraham, 6 “Sir, you are a great leader[a] among us. You can have the best place we have to bury your dead. You can have any of our burying places that you want. None of us will stop you from burying your wife there.”
7 Abraham got up and bowed to the people. 8 He said to them, “If you really want to help me bury my dead wife, speak to Ephron the son of Zohar for me. 9 I would like to buy the cave of Machpelah, which belongs to Ephron. It is at the end of his field. I will pay him the full price. I want all of you to be witnesses that I am buying it as a burial place.”
10 Ephron was sitting there among the people. He answered Abraham, 11 “No, sir. Here in front of my people, I give you that land and the cave on it so that you can bury your wife.”
12 Abraham bowed before the Hittites. 13 He said to Ephron before all the people, “But I want to give you the full price for the field. Accept my money, and I will bury my dead.”
14 Ephron answered Abraham, 15 “Sir, listen to me. Ten pounds[b] of silver mean nothing to you or me. Take the land and bury your dead wife.”
16 Abraham understood that Ephron was telling him the price of the land.[c] So Abraham paid him for the land. He weighed out ten pounds of silver for Ephron and gave it to the merchant.[d]
17-18 So the field of Ephron changed owners. This field was in Machpelah, near Mamre. Abraham became the owner of the field, the cave in it, and all the trees in the field. Everyone in the city saw the agreement between Ephron and Abraham. 19 After this, Abraham buried his wife Sarah in the cave of that field near Mamre (Hebron) in the land of Canaan. 20 Abraham bought the field and the cave in it from the Hittites. So this became his property to be used as a burial place.
32 Do I need to give you more examples? I don’t have enough time to tell you about Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, and the prophets. 33 All of them had great faith. And with that faith they defeated kingdoms. They did what was right, and God helped them in the ways he promised. With their faith some people closed the mouths of lions. 34 And some were able to stop blazing fires. Others escaped from being killed with swords. Some who were weak were made strong. They became powerful in battle and defeated other armies. 35 There were women who lost loved ones but got them back when they were raised from death. Others were tortured but refused to accept their freedom. They did this so that they could be raised from death to a better life. 36 Some were laughed at and beaten. Others were tied up and put in prison. 37 They were killed with stones. They were cut in half. They were killed with swords. The only clothes some of them had were sheepskins or goatskins. They were poor, persecuted, and treated badly by others. 38 The world was not good enough for these great people. They had to wander in deserts and mountains, living in caves and holes in the ground.
39 God was pleased with all of them because of their faith. But not one of them received God’s great promise. 40 God planned something better for us. He wanted to make us perfect. Of course, he wanted those great people to be made perfect too, but not before we could all enjoy that blessing together.
We Also Should Follow Jesus’ Example
12 We have all these great people around us as examples. Their lives tell us what faith means. So we, too, should run the race that is before us and never quit. We should remove from our lives anything that would slow us down and the sin that so often makes us fall. 2 We must never stop looking to Jesus. He is the leader of our faith, and he is the one who makes our faith complete. He suffered death on a cross. But he accepted the shame of the cross as if it were nothing because of the joy he could see waiting for him. And now he is sitting at the right side of God’s throne.
Many Followers Leave Jesus
60 When Jesus’ followers heard this, many of them said, “This teaching is hard. Who can accept it?”
61 Jesus already knew that his followers were complaining about this. So he said, “Is this teaching a problem for you? 62 Then what will you think when you see the Son of Man going up to where he came from? 63 It is the Spirit that gives life. The body is of no value for that. But the things I have told you are from the Spirit, so they give life. 64 But some of you don’t believe.” (Jesus knew the people who did not believe. He knew this from the beginning. And he knew the one who would hand him over to his enemies.) 65 Jesus said, “That is why I said, ‘Anyone the Father does not help to come to me cannot come.’”
66 After Jesus said these things, many of his followers left and stopped following him.
67 Jesus asked the twelve apostles, “Do you want to leave too?”
68 Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, where would we go? You have the words that give eternal life. 69 We believe in you. We know that you are the Holy One from God.”
70 Then Jesus answered, “I chose all twelve of you. But one of you is a devil.” 71 He was talking about Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot. Judas was one of the twelve apostles, but later he would hand Jesus over to his enemies.
Copyright © 2006 by Bible League International