Book of Common Prayer
A prayer for a time of suffering, when anyone feels weak and wants to tell their complaints to the Lord.
102 Lord, hear my prayer.
Listen to my cry for help.
2 Don’t turn away from me when I have troubles.
Listen to me, and answer me quickly when I cry for help.
3 My life is passing away like smoke.
My life is like a fire slowly burning out.
4 My strength is gone—
I am like dry, dying grass.
I even forget to eat.
5 Because of my sadness, I am losing so much weight
that my skin hangs from my bones.
6 I am lonely, like an owl living in the desert,
like an owl living among old ruined buildings.
7 I cannot sleep.
I am like a lonely bird on the roof.
8 My enemies insult me all the time.
They make fun of me and use me as an example in their curses.
9 My great sadness is my only food.
My tears fall into my drink.
10 You were angry with me,
so you picked me up and threw me away.
11 My life is almost finished, like the long shadows at the end of the day.
I am like dry and dying grass.
12 But you, Lord, will rule as king forever!
Your name will continue forever and ever!
13 You will rise up and comfort Zion.
The time has come for you to be kind to Zion.
14 Your servants love her stones.
They love even the dust of that city!
15 The nations will worship the Lord’s name.
All the kings on earth will honor you.
16 The Lord will rebuild Zion,
and people will again see her glory.
17 He will listen to the prayers of those in poverty.
He will not ignore them.
18 Write these things for future generations,
so that they will praise the Lord.
19 The Lord will look down from his Holy Place above.
He will look down at the earth from heaven.
20 And he will hear the prisoner’s prayers.
He will free those who were condemned to die.
21 Then people in Zion will tell about the Lord.
They will praise his name in Jerusalem
22 when nations gather together
and kingdoms come to serve the Lord.
23 My strength failed me.
My life is cut short.
24 So I said, “Don’t let me die while I am still young.
God, you will live forever and ever!
25 Long ago, you made the world.
You made the sky with your own hands!
26 The earth and sky will end,
but you will live forever!
They will wear out like clothes,
and like clothes, you will change them.
27 But you never change.
You will live forever!
28 We are your servants today.
Our children will live here,
and their descendants will come here to worship you.”
Book 5
(Psalms 107-150)
107 Praise the Lord, because he is good!
His faithful love will last forever!
2 Everyone the Lord has saved should repeat that word of thanks.
Praise him, all who have been rescued from the enemy.
3 He gathered his people together from many different countries.
He brought them from east and west, north and south.[a]
4 Some of them wandered in the dry desert.
They were looking for a place to live,
but they could not find a city.
5 They were hungry and thirsty
and growing weak.
6 Then they called to the Lord for help,
and he saved them from their troubles.
7 He led them straight to the city where they would live.
8 Thank the Lord for his faithful love
and for the amazing things he does for people.
9 He satisfies those who are thirsty.
He fills those who are hungry with good things.
10 Some of God’s people were prisoners,
locked behind bars in dark prisons.
11 That was because they had fought against what God said.
They refused to listen to the advice of God Most High.
12 God made life hard for those people
because of what they did.
They stumbled and fell,
and there was no one to help them.
13 They were in trouble, so they called to the Lord for help,
and he saved them from their troubles.
14 He took them out of their dark prisons.
He broke the ropes that held them.
15 Thank the Lord for his faithful love
and for the amazing things he does for people.
16 He breaks down their bronze gates.
He shatters their iron bars.
17 Some people became fools and turned against God,
and they suffered for the evil they did.
18 They became so sick that they refused to eat,
so they almost died.
19 They were in trouble, so they called to the Lord for help,
and he saved them from their troubles.
20 He gave the command and healed them,
so they were saved from the grave.
21 Thank the Lord for his faithful love
and for the amazing things he does for people.
22 Offer sacrifices of thanks to him.
Sing with joy about all that he has done.
23 Some sailed the sea in ships.
Their work carried them across the water.
24 They saw what the Lord can do.
They saw the amazing things he did at sea.
25 He gave the command, and a strong wind began to blow.
The waves became higher and higher.
26 The waves lifted them high into the sky
and dropped them into the deep sea.
The storm was so dangerous that the men lost their courage.
27 They were stumbling and falling like someone who is drunk.
Their skill as sailors was useless.
28 They were in trouble, so they called to the Lord for help,
and he saved them from their troubles.
29 He stopped the storm
and calmed the waves.
30 The sailors were happy that the sea became calm,
and he led them safely to where they wanted to go.
31 Thank the Lord for his faithful love
and for the amazing things he does for people.
32 Praise God in the great assembly.
Praise him when the older leaders meet together.
Israel’s Riches Led to Its Worship of Idols
10 Israel is like a vine
that grows plenty of fruit.
But as Israel got more and more things,
he built more and more altars to honor false gods.
His land became better and better,
so he put up better and better stones to honor false gods.
2 The people of Israel tried to trick God,
but now they must accept their guilt.
He will break down their altars
and destroy their memorial stones.
The Evil Decisions of the Israelites
3 Now the Israelites say, “We have no king. We don’t honor the Lord. And his king cannot do anything to us.”
4 They make promises, but they are only telling lies. They don’t keep their promises. They make agreements with other countries. God does not like those agreements. The judges are like poisonous weeds growing in a plowed field.
5 The people from Samaria worship the calves at Beth Aven.[a] They will cry. The priests will cry, because their beautiful idol is gone. It was carried away. 6 It was carried away as a gift to the great king of Assyria. He will keep Ephraim’s shameful idol. Israel will be ashamed of its idol.[b] 7 Samaria’s false god[c] will be destroyed. It will be like a piece of wood floating away on the water’s surface.
8 Israel sinned and built many high places. The high places of Aven[d] will be destroyed. Thorns and weeds will grow on their altars. Then they will say to the mountains, “Cover us!” and to the hills, “Fall on us!”
Israel Will Pay for Sin
9 “Israel, you have sinned since the time of Gibeah. (And the people have continued to sin there.) Those evil people at Gibeah will be trapped by war. 10 I will come to punish them. Armies will come together against them and punish the Israelites for both of their sins.[e]
11 “Ephraim is like a trained young cow that loves to walk on grain on the threshing floor. I will put a good yoke on her neck. I will put the ropes on Ephraim. Then Judah will begin plowing. Jacob will break the ground himself.”
12 If you plant goodness, you will harvest faithful love. Plow your ground, and you will harvest with the Lord. He will come, and he will make goodness fall on you like rain.
13 But you planted evil, and you harvested trouble. You ate the fruit of your lies, because you had trusted in your power and your soldiers. 14 So your armies will hear the noise of battle, and all your fortresses will be destroyed. It will be like the time Shalman[f] destroyed Beth Arbel. At that time of war, mothers were killed with their children. 15 And this will happen to you at Bethel, because you did so many evil things. When that day begins, the king of Israel will be fully destroyed.
37 When the soldiers were ready to take Paul into the army building, he asked the commander, “Can I say something to you?”
The commander said, “Oh, you speak Greek? 38 Then you are not the man I thought you were. I thought you were the Egyptian who started some trouble against the government not long ago and led four thousand terrorists out to the desert.”
39 Paul said, “No, I am a Jew from Tarsus in the country of Cilicia. I am a citizen of that important city. Please, let me speak to the people.”
40 The commander told Paul he could speak. So he stood on the steps and waved his hand so that the people would be quiet. The people became quiet and Paul spoke to them in Aramaic.
Paul Speaks to the People
22 Paul said, “My brothers and fathers, listen to me! I will make my defense to you.”
2 When the Jews heard Paul speaking Aramaic, they became very quiet. Then Paul said,
3 “I am a Jew, born in Tarsus in the country of Cilicia. I grew up in this city. I was a student of Gamaliel,[a] who carefully taught me everything about the law of our fathers. I was very serious about serving God, the same as all of you here today. 4 I persecuted the people who followed the Way. Some of them were killed because of me. I arrested men and women and put them in jail.
5 “The high priest and the whole council of older Jewish leaders can tell you that this is true. One time these leaders gave me some letters. The letters were to the Jewish brothers in the city of Damascus. I was going there to arrest the followers of Jesus and bring them back to Jerusalem for punishment.
Paul Tells About His Conversion
6 “But something happened to me on my way to Damascus. It was about noon when I came close to Damascus. Suddenly a bright light from heaven shined all around me. 7 I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to me, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?’
8 “I asked, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ The voice said, ‘I am Jesus from Nazareth, the one you are persecuting.’ 9 The men who were with me did not understand the voice, but they saw the light.
10 “I said, ‘What shall I do, Lord?’ The Lord answered, ‘Get up and go into Damascus. There you will be told all that I have planned for you to do.’ 11 I could not see, because the bright light had made me blind. So the men led me into Damascus.
12 “In Damascus a man named Ananias[b] came to me. He was a man who was devoted to God and obeyed the Law of Moses. All the Jews who lived there respected him. 13 He came to me and said, ‘Saul, my brother, look up and see again!’ Immediately I was able to see him.
14 “Ananias told me, ‘The God of our fathers chose you long ago to know his plan. He chose you to see the Righteous One and to hear words from him. 15 You will be his witness to all people. You will tell them what you have seen and heard. 16 Now, don’t wait any longer. Get up, be baptized and wash away your sins, trusting in Jesus to save you.[c]’
Jesus Chooses His Twelve Apostles(A)
12 A few days later, Jesus went out to a mountain to pray. He stayed there all night praying to God. 13 The next morning he called his followers. He chose twelve of them and called them apostles. These are the ones he chose:
14 Simon (Jesus named him Peter),
Andrew, brother of Peter,
James,
John,
Philip,
Bartholomew,
15 Matthew,
Thomas,
James, the son of Alphaeus,
Simon, called the Zealot,
16 Judas, the son of James,
Judas Iscariot (the one who turned against Jesus).
Jesus Teaches and Heals the People(B)
17 Jesus and the apostles came down from the mountain. Jesus stood on a flat place. A large crowd of his followers was there. Also, there were many people from all around Judea, Jerusalem, and the seacoast cities of Tyre and Sidon. 18 They all came to hear Jesus teach and to be healed of their sicknesses. He healed the people who were troubled by evil spirits. 19 Everyone was trying to touch him, because power was coming out from him. Jesus healed them all.
20 Jesus looked at his followers and said,
“Great blessings belong to you who are poor.
God’s kingdom belongs to you.
21 Great blessings belong to you who are hungry now.
You will be filled.
Great blessings belong to you who are crying now.
You will be happy and laughing.
22 “People will hate you because you belong to the Son of Man. They will make you leave their group. They will insult you. They will think it is wrong even to say your name. When these things happen, know that great blessings belong to you. 23 You can be happy then and jump for joy, because you have a great reward in heaven. The ancestors of those people did the same things to the prophets.
24 “But how bad it will be for you rich people,
because you had your easy life.
25 How bad it will be for you people who are full now,
because you will be hungry.
How bad it will be for you people who are laughing now,
because you will be sad and cry.
26 “How bad it is when everyone says nothing but good about you. Just look at the false prophets. Their ancestors always said good things about them.
Copyright © 2006 by Bible League International