Book of Common Prayer
For the director of music. According to mahalath leannoth. A song. A psalm of the Sons of Korah. A maskil of Heman the Ezrahite.
88 Lord, you are the God who saves me.
Day and night I cry out to you.
2 Please hear my prayer.
Pay attention to my cry for help.
3 I have so many troubles
I’m about to die.
4 People think my life is over.
I’m like someone who doesn’t have any strength.
5 People treat me as if I were dead.
I’m like those who have been killed and are now in the grave.
You don’t even remember them anymore.
They are cut off from your care.
6 It’s as if you have put me deep down in the grave.
It’s as if you have put me in that deep, dark place.
7 Your great anger lies heavy on me.
All the waves of your anger have crashed over me.
8 You have taken my closest friends away from me.
You have made me sickening to them.
I feel trapped and can’t escape.
9 I’m crying so much I can’t see very well.
Lord, I call out to you every day.
I lift up my hands to you in prayer.
10 Do you do wonderful things for those who are dead?
Do their spirits rise up and praise you?
11 Do those who are dead speak about your love?
Do those who are in the grave tell how faithful you are?
12 Are your wonderful deeds known in that dark place?
Are your holy acts known in that land where the dead are forgotten?
13 Lord, I cry out to you for help.
In the morning I pray to you.
14 Lord, why do you say no to me?
Why do you turn your face away from me?
15 I’ve been in pain ever since I was young.
I’ve been close to death.
You have made me suffer terrible things.
I have lost all hope.
16 Your great anger has swept over me.
Your terrors have destroyed me.
17 All day long they surround me like a flood.
They have closed in all around me.
18 You have taken my friends and neighbors away from me.
Darkness is my closest friend.
91 Whoever rests in the shadow of the Most High God
will be kept safe by the Mighty One.
2 I will say about the Lord,
“He is my place of safety.
He is like a fort to me.
He is my God. I trust in him.”
3 He will certainly save you from hidden traps
and from deadly sickness.
4 He will cover you with his wings.
Under the feathers of his wings you will find safety.
He is faithful. He will keep you safe like a shield or a tower.
5 You won’t have to be afraid of the terrors that come during the night.
You won’t have to fear the arrows that come at you during the day.
6 You won’t have to be afraid of the sickness that attacks in the darkness.
You won’t have to fear the plague that destroys at noon.
7 A thousand may fall dead at your side.
Ten thousand may fall near your right hand.
But no harm will come to you.
8 You will see with your own eyes
how God punishes sinful people.
9 Suppose you say, “The Lord is the one who keeps me safe.”
Suppose you let the Most High God be like a home to you.
10 Then no harm will come to you.
No terrible plague will come near your tent.
11 The Lord will command his angels
to take good care of you.
12 They will lift you up in their hands.
Then you won’t trip over a stone.
13 You will walk on lions and cobras.
You will crush mighty lions and poisonous snakes.
14 The Lord says, “I will save the one who loves me.
I will keep him safe, because he trusts in me.
15 He will call out to me, and I will answer him.
I will be with him in times of trouble.
I will save him and honor him.
16 I will give him a long and full life.
I will save him.”
A psalm. A song for the Sabbath day.
92 Lord, it is good to praise you.
Most High God, it is good to make music to honor you.
2 It is good to sing every morning about your love.
It is good to sing every night about how faithful you are.
3 I sing about it to the music of the lyre that has ten strings.
I sing about it to the music of the harp.
4 Lord, you make me glad by your deeds.
I sing for joy about what you have done.
5 Lord, how great are the things you do!
How wise your thoughts are!
6 Here is something that people without sense don’t know.
Here is what foolish people don’t understand.
7 Those who are evil spring up like grass.
Those who do wrong succeed.
But they will be destroyed forever.
8 But Lord, you are honored forever.
9 Lord, your enemies will certainly die.
All those who do evil will be scattered.
10 You have made me as strong as a wild ox.
You have poured the finest olive oil on me.
11 I’ve seen my evil enemies destroyed.
I’ve heard that they have lost the battle.
12 Those who do what is right will grow like a palm tree.
They will grow strong like a cedar tree in Lebanon.
13 Their roots will be firm in the house of the Lord.
They will grow strong and healthy in the courtyards of our God.
14 When they get old, they will still bear fruit.
Like young trees they will stay fresh and strong.
15 They will say to everyone, “The Lord is honest.
He is my Rock, and there is no evil in him.”
Twelve Men Check Out the Land of Canaan
13 The Lord said to Moses, 2 “Send some men to check out the land of Canaan. I am giving it to the Israelites. Send one leader from each of Israel’s tribes.”
3 So Moses sent them out from the Desert of Paran. He sent them as the Lord had commanded. All of them were leaders of the Israelites.
21 So the men went up and checked out the land. They went from the Desert of Zin as far as Rehob. It was in the direction of Lebo Hamath. 22 They went up through the Negev Desert and came to Hebron. That’s where Ahiman, Sheshai and Talmai lived. They belonged to the family line of Anak. Hebron had been built seven years before Zoan. Zoan was a city in Egypt. 23 The men came to the Valley of Eshkol. There they cut off a branch that had a single bunch of grapes on it. Two of them carried it on a pole between them. They carried some pomegranates and figs along with it. 24 That place was called the Valley of Eshkol. That’s because the men of Israel cut off a bunch of grapes there. 25 At the end of 40 days, the men returned from checking out the land.
The Men Report on What They Found
26 The men came back to Moses, Aaron and the whole community of Israel. The people were at Kadesh in the Desert of Paran. There the men reported to Moses and Aaron and all the people. They showed them the fruit of the land. 27 They gave Moses their report. They said, “We went into the land you sent us to. It really does have plenty of milk and honey! Here’s some fruit from the land. 28 But the people who live there are powerful. Their cities have high walls around them and are very large. We even saw members of the family line of Anak there. 29 The Amalekites live in the Negev Desert. The Hittites, Jebusites and Amorites live in the central hill country. The Canaanites live near the Mediterranean Sea. They also live along the Jordan River.”
30 Then Caleb interrupted the men speaking to Moses. He said, “We should go up and take the land. We can certainly do it.”
25 Circumcision has value if you obey the law. But if you break the law, it is just as if you hadn’t been circumcised. 26 And sometimes those who aren’t circumcised do what the law requires. Won’t God accept them as if they had been circumcised? 27 Many are not circumcised physically, but they obey the law. They will prove that you are guilty. You are breaking the law, even though you have the written law and are circumcised.
28 A person is not a Jew if they are a Jew only on the outside. And circumcision is more than just something done to the outside of a man’s body. 29 No, a person is a Jew only if they are a Jew on the inside. And true circumcision means that the heart has been circumcised by the Holy Spirit. The person whose heart has been circumcised does more than obey the written law. The praise that matters for that kind of person does not come from other people. It comes from God.
God Is Faithful
3 Is there any advantage in being a Jew? Is there any value in being circumcised? 2 There is great value in every way! First of all, the Jews have been given the very words of God.
3 What if some Jews were not faithful? Will the fact that they weren’t faithful keep God from being faithful? 4 Not at all! God is true, even if every human being is a liar. It is written,
“You are right when you sentence me.
You are fair when you judge me.” (Psalm 51:4)
5 Doesn’t the fact that we are wrong prove more clearly that God is right? Then what can we say? Can we say that God is not fair when he brings his anger down on us? As you can tell, I am just using human ways of thinking. 6 God is certainly fair! If he weren’t, how could he judge the world? 7 Someone might argue, “When I lie, it becomes clearer that God is truthful. It makes his glory shine more brightly. Why then does he find me guilty of sin?” 8 Why not say, “Let’s do evil things so that good things will happen”? Some people actually lie by reporting that this is what we say. They are the ones who will rightly be found guilty.
The Servant Who Had No Mercy
21 Peter came to Jesus. He asked, “Lord, how many times should I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?”
22 Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but 77 times.
23 “The kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to collect all the money his servants owed him. 24 As the king began to do it, a man who owed him 10,000 bags of gold was brought to him. 25 The man was not able to pay. So his master gave an order. The man, his wife, his children, and all he owned had to be sold to pay back what he owed.
26 “Then the servant fell on his knees in front of him. ‘Give me time,’ he begged. ‘I’ll pay everything back.’ 27 His master felt sorry for him. He forgave him what he owed and let him go.
28 “But then that servant went out and found one of the other servants who owed him 100 silver coins. He grabbed him and began to choke him. ‘Pay back what you owe me!’ he said.
29 “The other servant fell on his knees. ‘Give me time,’ he begged him. ‘I’ll pay it back.’
30 “But the first servant refused. Instead, he went and had the man thrown into prison. The man would be held there until he could pay back what he owed. 31 The other servants saw what had happened and were very angry. They went and told their master everything that had happened.
32 “Then the master called the first servant in. ‘You evil servant,’ he said. ‘I forgave all that you owed me because you begged me to. 33 Shouldn’t you have had mercy on the other servant just as I had mercy on you?’ 34 In anger his master handed him over to the jailers. He would be punished until he paid back everything he owed.
35 “This is how my Father in heaven will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother or sister from your heart.”
Copyright © 1995, 1996, 1998, 2014 by Biblica, Inc.®. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.