Book of Common Prayer

119 Happy are all who perfectly follow the laws of God. ² Happy are all who search for God and always do his will, ³ rejecting compromise with evil and walking only in his paths. ⁴ You have given us your laws to obey— ⁵ oh, how I want to follow them consistently. ⁶ Then I will not be disgraced, for I will have a clean record.

⁷ After you have corrected me,^[a] I will thank you by living as I should! ⁸ I will obey! Oh, don’t forsake me and let me slip back into sin again.^[b]

⁹ How can a young man stay pure? By reading your Word and following its rules. ¹⁰ I have tried my best to find you—don’t let me wander off from your instructions. ¹¹ I have thought much about your words and stored them in my heart so that they would hold me back from sin.

¹² Blessed Lord, teach me your rules. ¹³ I have recited your laws ¹⁴ and rejoiced in them more than in riches. ¹⁵ I will meditate upon them and give them my full respect. ¹⁶ I will delight in them and not forget them.

¹⁷ Bless me with life^[c] so that I can continue to obey you. ¹⁸ Open my eyes to see wonderful things in your Word. ¹⁹ I am but a pilgrim here on earth: how I need a map—and your commands are my chart and guide. ²⁰ I long for your instructions more than I can tell.

²¹ You rebuke those cursed proud ones who refuse your commands— ²² don’t let them scorn me for obeying you. ²³ For even princes sit and talk against me, but I will continue in your plans. ²⁴ Your laws are both my light and my counselors.

12 Lord! Help! Godly men are fast disappearing. Where in all the world can dependable men be found? ² Everyone deceives and flatters and lies. There is no sincerity left.

^3-4 But the Lord will not deal gently with people who act like that; he will destroy those proud liars who say, “We will lie to our heart’s content. Our lips are our own; who can stop us?”

⁵ The Lord replies, “I will arise and defend the oppressed, the poor, the needy. I will rescue them as they have longed for me to do.” ⁶ The Lord’s promise is sure. He speaks no careless word; all he says is purest truth, like silver seven times refined. ⁷ O Lord, we know that you will forever preserve your own from the reach of evil men, ⁸ although they prowl on every side and vileness is praised throughout the land.

13 How long will you forget me, Lord? Forever? How long will you look the other way when I am in need? ² How long must I be hiding daily anguish in my heart? How long shall my enemy have the upper hand?

³ Answer me, O Lord my God; give me light in my darkness lest I die. ⁴ Don’t let my enemies say, “We have conquered him!” Don’t let them gloat that I am down.

⁵ But I will always trust in you and in your mercy and shall rejoice in your salvation. ⁶ I will sing to the Lord because he has blessed me so richly.

14 That man is a fool who says to himself, “There is no God!” Anyone who talks like that is warped and evil and cannot really be a good person at all.

² The Lord looks down from heaven on all mankind to see if there are any who are wise, who want to please God. ³ But no, all have strayed away; all are rotten with sin. Not one is good, not one! ⁴ They eat my people like bread and wouldn’t think of praying! Don’t they really know any better?

⁵ Terror shall grip them, for God is with those who love him. ⁶ He is the refuge of the poor and humble when evildoers are oppressing them. ⁷ Oh, that the time of their rescue were already here, that God would come from Zion now to save his people. What gladness when the Lord has rescued Israel!

6 Job’s reply:

7 “How mankind must struggle. A man’s life is long and hard, like that of a slave. ² How he longs for the day to end. How he grinds on to the end of the week and his wages. ³ And so to me also have been allotted months of frustration, these long and weary nights. ⁴ When I go to bed I think, ‘Oh, that it were morning,’ and then I toss till dawn.

⁵ “My skin is filled with worms and blackness. My flesh breaks open, full of pus. ⁶ My life drags by—day after hopeless day. ⁷ My life is but a breath, and nothing good is left. ⁸ You see me now, but not for long. Soon you’ll look upon me dead. ⁹ As a cloud disperses and vanishes, so those who die shall go away forever— ¹⁰ gone forever from their family and their home—never to be seen again. ¹¹ Ah, let me express my anguish. Let me be free to speak out of the bitterness of my soul.

¹² “O God, am I some monster that you never leave me alone? ^13-14 Even when I try to forget my misery in sleep, you terrify with nightmares. ¹⁵ I would rather die of strangulation than go on and on like this. ¹⁶ I hate my life. Oh, leave me alone for these few remaining days. ¹⁷ What is mere man that you should spend your time persecuting him? ¹⁸ Must you be his inquisitor every morning and test him every moment of the day? ¹⁹ Why won’t you leave me alone—even long enough to spit?

²⁰ “Has my sin harmed you, O God, watcher of mankind? Why have you made me your target, and made my life so heavy a burden to me? ²¹ Why not just pardon my sin and take it all away? For all too soon I’ll lie down in the dust and die, and when you look for me, I shall be gone.”

10 In Caesarea there lived a Roman army officer, Cornelius, a captain of an Italian regiment. ² He was a godly man, deeply reverent, as was his entire household. He gave generously to charity and was a man of prayer. ³ While wide awake one afternoon he had a vision—it was about three o’clock—and in this vision he saw an angel of God coming toward him.

“Cornelius!” the angel said.

⁴ Cornelius stared at him in terror. “What do you want, sir?” he asked the angel.

And the angel replied, “Your prayers and charities have not gone unnoticed by God! ^5-6 Now send some men to Joppa to find a man named Simon Peter, who is staying with Simon, the tanner, down by the shore, and ask him to come and visit you.”

⁷ As soon as the angel was gone, Cornelius called two of his household servants and a godly soldier, one of his personal bodyguard, ⁸ and told them what had happened and sent them off to Joppa.

^9-10 The next day as they were nearing the city, Peter went up on the flat roof of his house to pray. It was noon and he was hungry, but while lunch was being prepared, he fell into a trance. ¹¹ He saw the sky open and a great canvas sheet,^[a] suspended by its four corners, settle to the ground. ¹² In the sheet were all sorts of animals, snakes, and birds forbidden to the Jews for food.^[b]

¹³ Then a voice said to him, “Go kill and eat any of them you wish.”

¹⁴ “Never, Lord,” Peter declared, “I have never in all my life eaten such creatures, for they are forbidden by our Jewish laws.”

¹⁵ The voice spoke again, “Don’t contradict God! If he says something is kosher, then it is.”

¹⁶ The same vision was repeated three times. Then the sheet was pulled up again to heaven.

7 After this, Jesus went to Galilee, going from village to village, for he wanted to stay out of Judea where the Jewish leaders were plotting his death. ² But soon it was time for the Tabernacle Ceremonies, one of the annual Jewish holidays, ³ and Jesus’ brothers urged him to go to Judea for the celebration.

“Go where more people can see your miracles!” they scoffed. ⁴ “You can’t be famous when you hide like this! If you’re so great, prove it to the world!” ⁵ For even his brothers didn’t believe in him.

⁶ Jesus replied, “It is not the right time for me to go now. But you can go anytime and it will make no difference, ⁷ for the world can’t hate you; but it does hate me, because I accuse it of sin and evil. ⁸ You go on, and I’ll come later^[a] when it is the right time.” ⁹ So he remained in Galilee.

¹⁰ But after his brothers had left for the celebration, then he went too, though secretly, staying out of the public eye. ¹¹ The Jewish leaders tried to find him at the celebration and kept asking if anyone had seen him. ¹² There was a lot of discussion about him among the crowds. Some said, “He’s a wonderful man,” while others said, “No, he’s duping the public.” ¹³ But no one had the courage to speak out for him in public for fear of reprisals from the Jewish leaders.