Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 70(A)
For the Music Director. A Psalm of David. To bring remembrance.
1 Make haste, O God, to deliver me!
Make haste to help me, O Lord.
2 May those who seek my life
be ashamed and confused;
may those who desire my harm
be driven back and humiliated.
3 May they turn back as a consequence of their shame
who say “Aha! Aha!”
4 May all those who seek You
rejoice and be glad in You;
and may those who love Your salvation continually say,
“God be magnified!”
5 But I am poor and needy;
make haste to me, O God!
You are my help and my deliverer;
O Lord, do not delay!
Psalm 71(B)
1 In You, O Lord, I seek refuge;
may I never be put to shame.
2 Deliver me in Your righteousness and help me escape;
incline Your ear to me and save me.
3 Be my rock of refuge
to enter continually;
You have given commandment to save me;
for You are my rock and my stronghold.
4 Deliver me, O my God, out of the hand of the wicked,
out of the hand of the unjust and cruel man.
5 For You are my hope, O Lord God;
You are my confidence from my youth.
6 On You I have supported myself from the womb;
You took me out of my mother’s womb.
My praise will continually be about You.
7 I am like a wondrous sign to many;
You are my strong refuge.
8 My mouth will be filled with Your praise
and with Your glory all the day.
9 Do not cast me off in the time of old age;
do not forsake me when my strength fails.
10 For my enemies speak against me;
and those who watch for my life take counsel together,
11 saying, “God has forsaken him;
pursue and catch him,
for there is none to deliver him.”
12 O God, do not be far from me;
O my God, act quickly to help me.
13 May the adversaries of my life be ashamed and confused;
may those who seek my harm
be enveloped in scorn and dishonor.
14 But I will hope continually,
and will add to all Your praise.
15 My mouth will declare Your righteousness
and Your salvation all the day,
for I cannot know their numbers.
16 I will go in the strength of the Lord God;
I will make mention of Your righteousness, of Yours only.
17 O God, You have taught me from my youth;
and until now I have proclaimed Your wondrous works.
18 Now also when I am old and gray,
O God, do not forsake me,
until I have proclaimed Your strength to this generation,
and Your power to everyone who is to come.
19 Your righteousness, O God, reaches to the heights;
You have done great deeds;
O God, who is like You?
20 You who have shown me great distresses and troubles
will revive me again,
and will bring me up again
from the depths of the earth.
21 You will increase my greatness,
and You will encircle and comfort me.
22 I will give You thanks with the harp,
even Your truth, O my God;
to You I will sing with the lyre,
O Holy One of Israel.
23 My lips will rejoice
when I sing to You,
and my soul, which You have redeemed.
24 My tongue also will speak of Your righteousness
all the day long;
for those who seek my harm are ashamed,
for they have been put to shame.
Psalm 74
A Contemplative Maskil of Asaph.
1 O God, why have You cast us off forever?
Why does Your anger smoke against the sheep of Your pasture?
2 Remember Your congregation, which You have purchased of old,
the rod of Your inheritance, which You have redeemed,
this Mount Zion, where You have lived.
3 Move Your footsteps to the perpetual desolations,
to all the harm the enemy has done in the sanctuary.
4 Your enemies roar in the midst of Your meeting place;
they set up their miracles for signs.
5 They seem like men who lift up axes
on a thicket of trees.
6 But now they strike down its carved work altogether
with axes and hammers.
7 They have cast fire into Your sanctuary;
they have defiled the dwelling place of Your name to the ground.
8 They said in their hearts, “Let us destroy them together.”
They have burned up all the meeting places of God in the land.
9 We do not see our signs;
there is no longer any prophet,
nor is there among us any who knows how long.
10 O God, how long will the adversary scorn?
Will the enemy blaspheme Your name forever?
11 Why do You withdraw Your hand, Your right hand?
Draw it out of Your bosom and destroy them!
12 For God is my King of old,
working salvation in the midst of the earth.
13 You divided the sea by Your strength;
You broke the heads of the dragons on the waters.
14 You crushed the heads of Leviathan in pieces,
and gave him for food to the people inhabiting the wilderness.
15 You split the fountain and the flood;
You dried up ever-flowing rivers.
16 The day is Yours, the night also is Yours;
You have prepared the light and the sun.
17 You have established all the borders of the earth;
You have made summer and winter.
18 Remember this, that the enemy has scorned, O Lord,
and that the foolish people have blasphemed Your name.
19 Do not give the life of Your turtledove to a wild animal;
do not forget the life of Your poor forever.
20 Have regard for the covenant;
for the dark places of the earth are full of the habitations of violence.
21 May the oppressed not return ashamed;
may the poor and needy praise Your name.
22 Arise, O God, plead Your own cause;
remember how the fool insults You daily.
23 Do not forget the voice of Your enemies,
the tumult of those who rise up against You continually.
4 Now Deborah, the wife of Lappidoth, was a prophetess. She judged Israel at that time. 5 She would sit under the palm tree of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim. The children of Israel would go up to her for her to render judgment. 6 She sent for Barak son of Abinoam from Kedesh in Naphtali and said to him, “The Lord God of Israel commands you, ‘Go and deploy troops at Mount Tabor, and take ten thousand men from the tribes of Naphtali and Zebulun with you. 7 I will draw Sisera, the commander of the army of Jabin, with his chariots and large army to you at the River Kishon and give him into your hands.’ ”
8 Barak said to her, “If you will go with me, then I will go, but if you will not go with me, then I will not go.”
9 She said, “I will indeed go with you. However, the way you are going will gain you no glory, for the Lord will deliver Sisera into the hand of a woman.” Then Deborah got up and went with Barak to Kedesh. 10 Barak called Zebulun and Naphtali to Kedesh. Ten thousand men went up on foot with him, and Deborah went up with him also.
11 Now Heber the Kenite had moved away from the Kenites, who were descendants of Hobab, Moses’ father-in-law. He pitched his tent at the oak in Zaanannim, near Kedesh.
12 Then they told Sisera that Barak son of Abinoam had gone up to Mount Tabor. 13 So Sisera summoned all his nine hundred iron chariots and all the people with him, from Harosheth Haggoyim to the River Kishon.
14 Then Deborah said to Barak, “Get up, for this is the day that the Lord has given Sisera into your hands. Has not the Lord gone out before you?” So Barak went down from Mount Tabor with ten thousand men behind him. 15 The Lord routed Sisera and all of his chariots and all of his army with the edge of the sword in front of Barak. Sisera dismounted his chariot and fled on foot.
16 Barak chased after the chariots and the army as far as Harosheth Haggoyim. The whole army of Sisera fell by the edge of the sword. Not a single man survived. 17 Sisera fled on foot to the tent of Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, for there was peace between King Jabin of Hazor and the family of Heber the Kenite.
18 Jael went out to meet Sisera and said to him, “Turn aside, my lord. Turn aside to me. Do not be afraid.” So he turned aside to her into the tent, and she covered him with a rug.
19 He said to her, “Please give me a little water to drink, for I am thirsty.” So she opened a leather milk container, gave it to him to drink, and covered him.
20 He said to her, “Stand in the entrance to the tent, and if anyone comes and asks you, ‘Is there a man here?’ then you say, ‘No.’ ”
21 Then Jael the wife of Heber took a tent peg and a hammer in her hand and went quietly to him, for he was fast asleep and tired. She drove the tent peg into his temple, and it went down into the ground, so he died.
22 Now as Barak had been chasing Sisera, Jael came out to meet him and said, “Come, and I will show you the man whom you seek.” When he came in, there was Sisera fallen dead with a tent peg in his temple.
23 So God humbled King Jabin of Canaan before the children of Israel that day.
15 In those days Peter stood up among the disciples (the number of people together was about a hundred and twenty), and said, 16 “Brothers, this Scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit previously spoke by the mouth of David concerning Judas, who became the guide to those who seized Jesus. 17 For he was numbered with us and took part in this ministry.”
18 (Now this man purchased a field with the reward of iniquity. And falling headlong, he burst asunder in the middle and all his organs spilled out. 19 It became known to all the residents of Jerusalem. So this field is called in their dialect Akeldama, that is, Field of Blood.)
20 “For it is written in the Book of Psalms,
‘Let his habitation become desolate,
and let no one live in it,’[a]
and,
‘Let another take his office.’[b]
21 Therefore, of these men who have accompanied us while the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, 22 beginning from the baptism of John until the very day that He was taken up from us, one of these men must become with us a witness of His resurrection.”
23 So they proposed two, Joseph, called Barsabbas, who was surnamed Justus, and Matthias. 24 Then they prayed, “You, Lord, who knows the hearts of all men, show which of these two You have chosen 25 to take the place in this ministry and apostleship, from which Judas by transgression fell, to go to his own place.” 26 Then they cast lots, and the lot fell on Matthias. So he was numbered with the eleven apostles.
55 Many women who were there watching from afar followed Jesus from Galilee, serving Him, 56 among whom was Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and the mother of Zebedee’s sons.
The Burial of Jesus(A)
57 When the evening came, there came a rich man of Arimathea, named Joseph, who also was a disciple of Jesus. 58 He went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then Pilate commanded the body to be given to him. 59 When Joseph had taken the body, he wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, 60 and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had cut out of the rock. And he rolled a large stone to the door of the tomb and departed. 61 Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were there, sitting opposite the tomb.
The Guard at the Tomb
62 The next day, following the Day of Preparation, the chief priests and Pharisees gathered before Pilate, 63 saying, “Sir, we remember that deceiver saying while He was still alive, ‘After three days I will rise.’ 64 Therefore command that the tomb be made secure until the third day, lest His disciples come by night and steal Him away, and tell the people, ‘He has risen from the dead.’ The last deception will be worse than the first.”
65 Pilate said to them, “You have a guard. Go your way. Make it as secure as you can.” 66 So they went and made the tomb secure by sealing the stone and posting the guard.
The Holy Bible, Modern English Version. Copyright © 2014 by Military Bible Association. Published and distributed by Charisma House.