Book of Common Prayer
To the director: With instruments. A maskil of David.
55 God, hear my prayer.
Don’t ignore my cry for help.
2 Please listen and answer me.
Let me speak to you and tell you what upsets me.
3 My enemies shout at me and threaten me.
In their anger they attack me.
They bring troubles crashing down on me.
4 My heart is pounding inside me.
I am afraid to die.
5 I am trembling with fear.
I am terrified!
6 Oh, I wish I had wings like a dove.
I would fly away and find a place to rest.
7 I would go far into the desert and stay there. Selah
8 I would run away.
I would escape from this storm of trouble.
9 My Lord, confuse their words and stop their plans.
I see so much cruelty and fighting in this city.
10 Day and night, in every neighborhood,
the city is filled with evil and trouble.
11 There is so much crime in the streets.
People who hurt and cheat others are everywhere.
12 If it were an enemy insulting me,
I could bear it.
If it were my enemies attacking me,
I could hide.
13 But it is you, the one so close to me,
my companion, my good friend, who does this.
14 We used to share our secrets with one another,
as we walked through the crowds together in God’s Temple.
15 I wish death would take my enemies by surprise!
I wish the earth would open up and swallow them alive,[a]
because they plan such terrible things together.
16 I will call to God for help,
and the Lord will save me.
17 I speak to God morning, noon, and night.
I tell him what upsets me, and he listens to me!
18 I have fought in many battles,
but he has always rescued me and brought me back safely.
19 God, who has always ruled as king,
will hear me and punish my enemies. Selah
But they will never change.
They don’t fear and respect God.
20 This one who was once my friend now attacks his friends.
He is breaking every promise he made.
21 His words about peace are as smooth as butter,
but he has only war on his mind.
His words are as slick as oil,
but they cut like a knife.
22 Give your worries to the Lord,
and he will care for you.
He will never let those who are good be defeated.
23 But, God, you will send those liars and murderers to the grave.
They will die before their life is half finished!
As for me, I will put my trust in you.
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.
The Lord Destroyed Jerusalem
2 Look how the Lord has covered daughter Zion[a]
with the cloud of his anger.
He has thrown her, the glory of Israel,
from the sky to the ground.
In his anger he showed no care even for the Temple
where he rests his feet.[b]
2 The Lord destroyed the houses of Jacob.
He destroyed them without mercy.
In his anger he destroyed the fortresses of Daughter Judah.
He threw the kingdom of Judah and its rulers to the ground.
He ruined the kingdom of Judah.
3 He was angry, and he destroyed
all the strength of Israel.
He took away his right hand from Israel.
He did this when the enemy came.
He burned like a flaming fire in Jacob.
He was like a fire that burns all around.
4 He bent his bow like an enemy.
He held his sword in his right hand.
He killed all the good-looking men of Judah.
He killed them as if they were the enemy.
He poured out his anger
like a fire on the tents of Zion.
5 The Lord has become like an enemy.
He has swallowed up Israel.
He has swallowed up all her palaces
and all her fortresses.
He has made much sadness and crying
for the dead in Daughter Judah.
6 He pulled up his own tent[c]
as if it were a garden.
He has ruined the place where the people
came together to worship him.
The Lord has made people forget
the special assemblies and special days of rest[d] in Zion.
He rejected the king and the priests.
He was angry and rejected them.
7 He rejected his altar,
and he left his holy place of worship.
He let the enemy pull down the walls
of the palaces of Jerusalem.
The enemy shouted with joy in the Lord’s Temple.
They made noise as though it were a festival.
8 The Lord planned to destroy
the wall of Daughter Zion.
He marked the wall with a measuring line.
He didn’t stop himself from destroying it.
He made all the walls cry out in sadness.
Together they wasted away.
9 Jerusalem’s gates have sunk into the ground.
The bars on her gates are completely destroyed.
Her king and princes have been taken to other nations.
The teaching of the law has stopped.
And her prophets no longer receive
visions from the Lord.
14 Your prophets saw visions for you,
but their visions were only worthless lies.
They didn’t speak against your sins.
They didn’t try to make things better.
They spoke messages for you,
but they were false messages that fooled you.
15 Those who pass by on the road
clap their hands and laugh at you.
They make fun of Jerusalem,
shaking their heads at the sight of her.
They ask, “Is this the city that people called
‘The Most Beautiful City’
and ‘The Joy of all the Earth’?”
16 All your enemies laugh at you.
They whistle and grind their teeth at you.
They say, “We have swallowed them up!
This is the day we were hoping for.
We have finally seen this happen!”
17 The Lord did what he planned to do.
He did what he said he would do.
He did what he commanded a long time ago.
He destroyed, and he had no pity.
He made your enemies happy because of what happened to you.
He made your enemies strong.
23 I tell you this, and I ask God to be my witness that this is true: The reason I did not come back to Corinth was that I did not want to punish or hurt you. 24 I don’t mean that we are trying to control your faith. You are strong in faith. But we are workers with you for your own happiness.
2 So I decided that my next visit to you would not be another visit to make you sad. 2 If I make you sad, then who will make me happy? Only you can make me happy—you, the ones I made sad. 3 I wrote you a letter so that when I came to you I would not be made sad by those who should make me happy. I felt sure that all of you would share my joy. 4 When I wrote to you before, I was very troubled and my heart was full of sadness. I wrote with many tears. I did not write to make you sad, but to let you know how much I love you.
Forgive the Person Who Did Wrong
5 Someone in your group has caused sadness—not to me, but to all of you. I mean he has caused sadness to all in some way. (I don’t want to make it sound worse than it really is.) 6 The punishment that most of your group gave him is enough for him. 7 But now you should forgive him and encourage him. This will keep him from having too much sadness and giving up completely. 8 So I beg you to show him that you love him. 9 This is why I wrote to you. I wanted to test you and see if you obey in everything. 10 If you forgive someone, then I also forgive them. And what I have forgiven—if I had anything to forgive—I forgave it for you, and Christ was with me. 11 I did this so that Satan would not win anything from us. We know very well what his plans are.
God Sends His Son(A)
12 Jesus used stories to teach the people. He said, “A man planted a vineyard. He put a wall around the field and dug a hole for a winepress. Then he built a tower. He leased the land to some farmers and left for a trip.
2 “Later, it was time for the grapes to be picked. So the man sent a servant to the farmers to get his share of the grapes. 3 But the farmers grabbed the servant and beat him. They sent him away with nothing. 4 Then the man sent another servant to the farmers. They hit this servant on the head, showing no respect for him. 5 So the man sent another servant. The farmers killed this servant. The man sent many other servants to the farmers. The farmers beat some of them and killed the others.
6 “The man had only one person left to send to the farmers. It was his son. He loved his son, but he decided to send him. He said, ‘The farmers will respect my son.’
7 “But the farmers said to each other, ‘This is the owner’s son, and this vineyard will be his. If we kill him, it will be ours.’ 8 So they took the son, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him.
9 “So what will the man who owns the vineyard do? He will go and kill those farmers. Then he will lease the land to others. 10 Surely you have read this in the Scriptures:
‘The stone that the builders refused to accept
became the cornerstone.
11 The Lord did this,
and it is wonderful to us.’” (B)
Copyright © 2006 by Bible League International