Book of Common Prayer
To the Music director. Davidic. As a memorial.
A Call for Help
70 God, come to my rescue.
Lord, hurry to help me.
2 May those who seek to kill me be publicly humiliated.
May those who take pleasure in my harm
be turned back in humiliation.
3 May those who say “Aha! Aha!”
be turned back because of their shameful deeds.[a]
4 Let those who seek you greatly rejoice in you.
Let those who love your deliverance say,
“May God be continuously exalted.”
5 As for me, I am poor and needy.
God, come quickly to me.
You are my helper and my deliverer.
Lord, please do not delay.
A Prayer for Deliverance
71 In you, Lord, I take refuge;
let me never be humiliated.
2 Rescue and deliver me,[b] because you are righteous.
Turn your ear to me and save me.
3 Be my sheltering refuge where I may go continuously;
command my deliverance
for you are my rock and fortress.
4 My God, deliver me from the power of the wicked
and the grasp of ruthless practicers of evil.
5 For you are my hope, Lord God,
my security since I was young.
6 I depended on you since birth,[c]
when you brought me[d] from my mother’s womb;
I praise you continuously.
7 I have become an example to many
that you are my strong refuge.
8 My mouth is filled with your praise
and your splendor daily.
9 Don’t throw me away when I am old;
do not abandon me when my strength fails.
10 For my enemies talk against me;
those who seek to kill me plot together
11 and say, “God has abandoned him.
Run after him and seize him,
because there’s no deliverer.”
12 God, do not be distant from me.
My God, come quickly to help me.
13 Let my adversaries be ashamed and consumed;[e]
let those who seek my destruction
be covered with scorn and disgrace.
14 As for me, I will hope continuously
and will praise you more and more.
15 I[f] will declare your righteousness
and your salvation every day,
though I do not fully understand
what the outcome will be.[g]
16 Lord God, I will come in the power of[h] your mighty acts,
remembering your righteousness—yours alone.
17 God, you taught me from my youth,
so I am still declaring your awesome deeds.
18 Also, when I reach old age and have gray hair,
God, do not forsake me,
until I have declared your power
to this generation
and your might to the next one.
19 Your many righteous deeds,[i] God, are great,
20 God, who can compare to you,
who caused me to experience[j] troubles
that were numerous and disastrous?
You will return to revive me
and lift me up from the depths of the earth.
21 You will increase my honor
and comfort me once again.
22 I also will praise you with the harp;
because of your faithfulness, my God,
I will praise you with the lyre—
Holy One of Israel.
23 My lips will shout for joy when I sing praise to you,
whose life you have redeemed.
24 Moreover, my tongue will speak all day about your justice;
for those who seek my destruction will be utterly humiliated.
An instruction[a] of Asaph
A Plea for Deliverance
74 Why, God? Have you rejected us forever?
Your anger is burning against the sheep of your pasture.
2 Remember your community,
whom you purchased long ago,
the tribe whom you redeemed
for your possession.
Remember[b] Mount Zion,
where you live.
3 Hurry! Look at the permanent ruins—
every calamity the enemy brought upon the Holy Place.
4 Those who are opposing you roar
where we were meeting with you;
they unfurl their war banners as signs.
5 As one blazes a trail
through a forest with an ax,
6 now they’re tearing down all its carved work
with hatchets and hammers.
7 They burned your sanctuary to the ground,
desecrating your dwelling place.
8 They say to themselves,
“We’ll crush them completely;”
They burned down all the meeting places of God in the land.
9 We see no signs for us;
there is no longer a prophet,
and no one among us knows the future.[c]
10 God, how long will the adversary scorn
while the enemy despises your name endlessly?
11 Why do you not withdraw your hand—
your right hand—from your bosom
and destroy them?[d]
12 But God is my king from ancient times,
who brings acts of deliverance throughout the earth.
13 You split the sea by your own power.
You shattered the heads of sea monsters in the water.
14 You crushed the heads of Leviathan.
You set it as food for desert creatures.[e]
15 You opened both the spring and the river;
you dried up flowing rivers.
16 Yours is the day, and yours is the night;
you established the moon and the sun.
17 You set all the boundaries of the earth;
you made summer and winter.
18 Remember this: The enemy scorns the Lord
and a foolish people despises your name.
19 Don’t hand over the life of your dove to beasts;
do not continuously forget your afflicted ones.
20 Pay attention to your covenant,
for the dark regions of the earth are full of violence.
21 Don’t let the oppressed return in humiliation.
The poor and needy will praise your name.
22 Get up, God, and prosecute your case—
remember that you’re being scorned
by fools all day long.
23 Don’t ignore the shout of those opposing you,
The uproar of those who rebel against you continuously.
A Burial Place for Sarah
23 Sarah lived for 127 years. That’s how long Sarah’s life was. 2 She died in Kiriath-arba (that is, in Hebron) in the land of Canaan. Abraham went in[a] to mourn for Sarah and to weep for her. 3 Then Abraham stood up from beside his dead wife[b] and addressed the Hittites. He said, 4 “I am an alien and an outsider among you. Give me a cemetery among you where I can bury my dead away from my presence.”
5 The Hittites responded to Abraham, 6 “Listen to us, sir.[c] You are a mighty prince[d] among us. Bury your dead in the choicest of our burial tombs. None of us would refuse you his tomb for burying your dead.”
7 Abraham rose and bowed before the Hittites, the people of the land, 8 and addressed them, “If you are willing that I should bury my dead out of my sight, listen to me and make a request of Zohar’s son Ephron on my behalf. 9 Give me the cave of Machpelah that belongs to him, at the end of his field. He should sell[e] it to me in your presence at full price for a burial site.”
10 Now since Ephron the Hittite had taken a seat there among the Hittites, he responded publicly to Abraham where the Hittites and everyone who was entering the gate of his city could hear him: 11 “No, sir.[f] Listen to me! I’ll give you the field, and I’ll give you the cave that’s in it. I give it to you publicly, in the sight of my people. Bury your dead.”
12 Abraham bowed before the people of the land 13 and then addressed Ephron so all the people of the land could hear him: “Please listen to me! I’m willing to pay the price of the field. Accept it from me, so I may bury my dead there.”
14 So Ephron answered Abraham, 15 “Sir,[g] listen to me! The land is worth 400 shekels of silver, but what’s that between us? You may bury your dead.”
16 Abraham agreed with Ephron, so he[h] weighed out to Ephron the money to which he had agreed publicly while the Hittites were listening: 400 shekels of silver at the current merchant rate.
17 That’s how Ephron’s field in Machpelah, east of[i] Mamre—the field, the cave that was in it, and all the trees that were within the boundaries of[j] the field—came to be deeded 18 to Abraham in the presence of all the Hittites and everyone who was entering the city gate. 19 After this, Abraham buried his wife Sarah in the cave at the field of Machpelah, east of Mamre (that is, in Hebron) in the land of Canaan. 20 And so the field with its cave was deeded by the Hittites to Abraham as a burial site.
32 And what more should I say? For time would fail me to tell you about Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, and the prophets. 33 Through faith they conquered kingdoms, administered justice, received promises, shut the mouths of lions, 34 put out raging fires, escaped death by[a] the sword, found strength in weakness, became powerful in battle, and routed foreign armies. 35 Women received their dead raised back to life. Other people were brutally tortured, but refused to be ransomed, so that they might gain a better resurrection. 36 Still others endured taunts and floggings, and even chains and imprisonment. 37 They were stoned to death, sawed in half, and killed with swords. They went around in sheepskins and goatskins. They were needy, oppressed, and mistreated. 38 The world wasn’t worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and from caves to holes in the ground.
39 All these people won approval for their faith but they did not receive what was promised, 40 since God had planned something better for us, so that they would not be perfected without us.
We Must Look Off to Jesus
12 Therefore, having so vast a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, and throwing off everything that hinders us and especially the sin that so easily entangles[b] us, let us keep running with endurance the race set before us, 2 fixing our attention on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of the faith, who, in view of[c] the joy set before him, endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
The Words of Eternal Life
60 When many of his disciples heard this, they said, “This is a difficult statement. Who can accept[a] it?”
61 But Jesus, knowing within himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, asked them, “Does this offend you? 62 What if you saw the Son of Man going up to the place where he was before? 63 It’s the Spirit who gives life; the flesh accomplishes nothing. The words that I’ve spoken to you are spirit and life. 64 But there are some among you who don’t believe...”—because Jesus knew from the beginning those who weren’t believing, as well as the one who would betray him. 65 So he said, “That’s why I told you that no one can come to me unless it be granted him by the Father.” 66 As a result,[b] many of his disciples turned back and no longer associated[c] with him.
67 So Jesus asked the Twelve, “You don’t want to leave, too, do you?”
68 Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words of eternal life. 69 Besides, we have believed and remain convinced that you are the Holy One of God.”[d]
70 Jesus answered them, “I chose you, the Twelve, didn’t I? Yet one of you is a devil.” 71 Now he was speaking about Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot,[e] because this man was going to betray him, even though he was one of the Twelve.
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