Book of Common Prayer
To the director: To the tune “Lilies of the Agreement.” One of Asaph’s songs of praise.
80 Shepherd of Israel, listen to us.
You lead your people[a] like sheep.
You sit on your throne above the Cherub angels.
Let us see you.
2 Shepherd of Israel, show your greatness to the tribes of Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh.
Come and save your people.
3 God, accept us again.
Smile down on us and save us!
4 Lord God All-Powerful, when will you listen to our prayers?
How long will you be angry with us?
5 Instead of bread and water,
you gave your people tears.
6 You made us the target of everyone’s hatred.
Our enemies make fun of us.
7 God All-Powerful, accept us again.
Smile down on us and save us!
8 When you brought us out of Egypt,
we were like your special vine.
You forced other nations to leave this land,
and you planted that vine here.
9 You prepared the ground for it,
and it sent its roots down deep and spread throughout the land.
10 It covered the mountains,
and its leaves shaded even the giant cedar trees.
11 Its branches spread to the Mediterranean Sea,
its shoots to the Euphrates River.
12 God, why did you pull down the walls that protect your vine?
Now everyone who passes by picks its grapes.
13 Wild pigs come and ruin it.
Wild animals eat the leaves.
14 God All-Powerful, come back.
Look down from heaven at your vine and protect it.
15 Look at the vine you planted with your own hands.
Look at the young plant[b] you raised.
16 Our enemies have cut it down and burned it up.
Show them how angry you are and destroy them.
To the director, Jeduthun.[a] One of Asaph’s songs.
77 I cry out to God for help.
I cry out to you, God; listen to me!
2 My Lord, in my time of trouble I came to you.
I reached out for you all night long.
My soul refused to be comforted.
3 I thought about you, God,
and tried to tell you how I felt, but I could not.
4 You would not let me sleep.
I tried to say something, but I was too upset.
5 I kept thinking about the past,
about things that happened long ago.
6 During the night, I thought about my songs.
I talked to myself, trying to understand what is happening.
7 I wondered, “Has our Lord rejected us forever?
Will he ever accept us again?
8 Is his love gone forever?
Will he never again speak to us?
9 Has God forgotten what mercy is?
Has his compassion changed to anger?” Selah
10 Then I said to myself, “What bothers me most is the thought
that God Most High has lost his power.”
11 Lord, I remember what you have done.
I remember the amazing things you did long ago.
12 I think about those things.
I think about them all the time.
13 God, all that you do is holy.
No god is as great as you are.
14 You are the God who does amazing things.
You showed the nations your great power.
15 By your power you saved your people,
the descendants of Jacob and Joseph. Selah
16 God, the water saw you and became afraid.
The deep water shook with fear.
17 The thick clouds dropped their water.
Thunder roared in the sky above.
Your arrows of lightning flashed through the clouds.
18 There were loud claps of thunder.
Lightning lit up the world.
The earth shook and trembled.
19 You walked through the water and crossed the deep sea,
but you left no footprints.
20 You led your people like sheep,
using Moses and Aaron to guide them.
One of Asaph’s songs of praise.
79 God, some people from other nations came to fight your people.
They ruined your holy Temple.
They left Jerusalem in ruins.
2 They left the bodies of your servants for the wild birds to eat.
They let wild animals eat the bodies of your followers.
3 Blood flowed like water all over Jerusalem.
No one is left to bury the bodies.
4 The countries around us insult us.
The people around us laugh at us and make fun of us.
5 Lord, will you be angry with us forever?
Will your strong feelings[a] continue to burn like a fire?
6 Turn your anger against the nations that do not know you,
against the people who do not honor you as God.
7 Those nations killed Jacob’s family
and destroyed their land.
8 Please don’t punish us for the sins of our ancestors.
Hurry, show us your mercy!
We need you so much!
9 Our God and Savior, help us!
That will bring glory to your name.
Save us and forgive our sins
for the good of your name.
10 Don’t give the other nations a reason to say,
“Where is their God? Can’t he help them?”
Let us see you punish those people.
Punish them for killing your servants.
11 Listen to the sad cries of the prisoners!
Use your great power to free those who are sentenced to die.
12 Punish the nations around us!
Pay them back seven times for what they did to us.
Punish them for insulting you.
13 We are your people, the sheep of your flock.
We will praise you forever.
We will praise you forever and ever!
The Cloud and the Fire
15 On the day the Holy Tent, the Tent of the Agreement, was set up, a cloud covered it. At night the cloud over the Holy Tent looked like fire. 16 The cloud stayed over the Holy Tent all the time. And at night the cloud looked like fire. 17 When the cloud moved from its place over the Holy Tent, the Israelites followed it. When the cloud stopped, that is the place where the Israelites camped. 18 This was the way the Lord showed the Israelites when to move and when to stop and set up camp. While the cloud stayed over the Holy Tent, the people continued to camp in that same place. 19 Sometimes the cloud would stay over the Holy Tent for a long time. The Israelites obeyed the Lord and did not move. 20 Sometimes the cloud was over the Holy Tent for only a few days. So the people obeyed the Lord’s command—they followed the cloud when it moved. 21 Sometimes the cloud stayed only during the night—the next morning the cloud moved. So the people gathered their things and followed it. If the cloud moved, during the day or during the night, they followed it. 22 If the cloud stayed over the Holy Tent for two days, a month, or a year, the people stayed at that place. They did not leave until the cloud moved. When the cloud rose from its place and moved, they also moved. 23 So the people obeyed the Lord’s commands. They camped when the Lord told them to, and they moved when he told them to. They watched carefully and obeyed the Lord’s commands to Moses.
29 Hobab was the son of Reuel, the Midianite. (Reuel was Moses’ father-in-law.) Moses said to Hobab, “We are traveling to the land that the Lord promised to give to us. Come with us and we will be good to you. The Lord has promised good things to the Israelites.”
30 But Hobab answered, “No, I will not go with you. I will go back to my homeland and to my own people.”
31 Then Moses said, “Please don’t leave us. You know more about the desert than we do. You can be our guide. 32 If you come with us, we will share with you all the good things that the Lord gives us.”
33 So they began traveling from the mountain of the Lord. The priests took the Box of the Lord’s Agreement and walked in front of the people. They carried the Holy Box for three days, looking for a place to camp. 34 The Lord’s cloud was over them every day. And when they left their camp every morning, the cloud was there to lead them.
35 When the people lifted the Holy Box to move the camp, Moses always said,
“Get up, Lord!
May your enemies be scattered.
May your enemies run away from you.”
36 And when the Holy Box was put in its place, Moses always said,
“Come back, Lord,
to the millions of Israelites.”
1 Greetings from Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus.
God chose me to be an apostle and gave me the work of telling his Good News. 2 God promised long ago through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures to give this Good News to his people. 3-4 The Good News is about God’s Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. As a human, he was born from the family of David, but through the Holy Spirit[a] he was shown to be God’s powerful Son when he was raised from death.
5 Through Christ, God gave me the special work of an apostle—to lead people of all nations to believe and obey him. I do all this to honor Christ. 6 You are some of those who have been chosen to belong to Jesus Christ.
7 This letter is to all of you in Rome. God loves you, and he has chosen you to be his holy people.
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
A Prayer of Thanks
8 First I want to say that I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you. I thank him because people everywhere in the world are talking about your great faith. 9-10 Every time I pray, I always remember you. God knows this is true. He is the one I serve with all my heart by telling people the Good News about his Son. I pray that I will be allowed to come to you. It will happen if God wants it. 11 I want very much to see you and give you some spiritual gift to make your faith stronger. 12 I mean that I want us to help each other with the faith that we have. Your faith will help me, and my faith will help you.
13 Brothers and sisters, I want you to know that I have planned many times to come to you, but something always happens to change my plans. I would like to see the same good result among you that I have had from my work among the other non-Jewish people.
14 I must serve all people—those who share in Greek culture and those who are less civilized,[b] the educated as well as the ignorant. 15 That is why I want so much to tell the Good News to you there in Rome.
Jesus Frees a Boy From an Evil Spirit(A)
14 Jesus and the followers went back to the people. A man came to Jesus and bowed before him. 15 The man said, “Lord, be kind to my son. He suffers so much from the seizures he has. He often falls into the fire or into the water. 16 I brought him to your followers, but they could not heal him.”
17 Jesus answered, “You people today have no faith. Your lives are so wrong! How long must I stay with you? How long must I continue to be patient with you? Bring the boy here.” 18 Jesus gave a strong command to the demon inside the boy. The demon came out of the boy, and the boy was healed.
19 Then the followers came to Jesus alone. They said, “We tried to force the demon out of the boy, but we could not. Why were we not able to make the demon go out?”
20 Jesus answered, “You were not able to make the demon go out, because your faith is too small. Believe me when I tell you, if your faith is only as big as a mustard seed you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. You will be able to do anything.” 21 [a]
Copyright © 2006 by Bible League International