Book of Common Prayer
Praise to God for His Deliverance
For the music director. Of David, the servant of Yahweh,
who spoke to Yahweh the words of this song
when[a] Yahweh delivered him from the hand of all his enemies,
and from the hand of Saul.[b]
18 And he said:
“I love you, O Yahweh, my strength.”
2 Yahweh is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer,
my God, my rock in whom I have taken refuge,
my shield and the horn of my deliverance, my stronghold.
3 I called upon Yahweh, who is worthy to be praised,
and I was saved from my enemies.
4 The ropes of death encircled me,
and streams of ruin overwhelmed me.
5 The ropes of Sheol surrounded me;
the snares of death confronted me.
6 In my trouble I called on Yahweh,
and to my God I cried for help.
He heard my voice from his temple,
and my cry for help
came up before his presence into his ears.
7 Then the earth shook and quaked,
and the foundations of the mountains trembled,
and they staggered because he was angry.
8 Smoke went forth from his nose,
and fire from his mouth consumed.
Burning coals blazed from him.
9 So he bowed the heavens and came down
with a thick cloud under his feet.
10 And he mounted a cherub and flew,
and he swooped down on wings of wind.
11 He made darkness his hiding place;
all about him his covering
was a darkness of waters, thick clouds.[c]
12 From the brightness before him
his clouds passed over
with hail and coals of fire.
13 And Yahweh thundered from the heavens,
and the Most High uttered his voice
with hail and coals of fire.
14 And he shot his arrows and scattered them,[d]
and many lightning bolts and routed them.
15 Then the channels of the sea became visible,
and the foundations of the world were uncovered
by your rebuke, O Yahweh,
by the blast[e] of the wind of your nose.
16 He reached[f] from on high; he seized me.
He drew me from many waters.
17 He delivered me from my strong enemy,
and from those who hated me
because they were stronger than I.
18 They confronted me on the day of disaster,
but Yahweh was my support.
19 So he brought me out to a spacious place.
He delivered me because he delighted in me.
20 Yahweh has rewarded me according to my righteousness;
According to the cleanness of my hands
he has repaid me.
21 Because I have kept the ways of Yahweh,
and have not acted wickedly against my God,
22 because all his ordinances are before me,
and his statutes I have not removed from me,
23 and I was blameless before him,
and I kept myself from my guilt.
24 Therefore Yahweh has repaid me according to my righteousness,
according to the cleanness of my hands in his sight.
25 To the loyal you show yourself loyal.
To the blameless you show yourself blameless.
26 To the pure you show yourself pure.
but to the wicked you show yourself shrewd.
27 For you deliver humble people,
but haughty eyes you humiliate.
28 For you light my lamp;
Yahweh, my God, lights up my darkness.
29 For with you I can charge a troop,
and with my God I can scale a wall.
30 This[g] God—his way is blameless.
The word of Yahweh is flawless.[h]
He is a shield for all those who take refuge in him.
31 For who is God apart from Yahweh,
and who is a rock except our God?
32 The God who girded me with strength,
and made safe[i] my way,
33 he made my feet like the deer’s,
and on my high places he makes me stand.
34 He trains my hands for war,
so that my arms can bend a bow of bronze.
35 You also gave me the shield of your salvation,
and your right hand supported me,
and your humility made me great.
36 You enlarged my step under me,
and my ankles did not slip.
37 I chased my enemies and overtook them;
I did not turn back until they were finished off.
38 I struck them and they were not able to stand up;
they fell under my feet.
39 And you girded me with strength for the battle;
those rising against me you made to kneel under me.
40 And you made my enemies turn their backs,[j]
then I destroyed those who hated me.
41 They cried out but there was no rescuer,
even to Yahweh, but he did not answer them.
42 And I ground them like dust in the wind,[k]
I emptied them[l] out like mud of the streets.
43 You rescued me from strife with people;
you set me as head (over) nations.
People I did not know served me;
44 as soon as they heard,[m] they obeyed me.
The children of a foreign land feigned obedience before me.
45 The children of a foreign land lost heart,[n]
and they came trembling from their strongholds.
46 Yahweh lives, and blessed be my rock,
and may the God of my salvation be exalted—
47 the God who executed vengeance for me,
and subdued peoples under me,
48 who delivered me from my enemies.
Indeed, you exalted me higher than those who rose against me.
You delivered me from the man of violence.
49 Therefore I will give thanks to you among the nations, O Yahweh,
and I will sing the praise of your name:
50 the one who makes great victories for his king,
and who shows loyal love for his anointed,
to David and to his descendants forever.
The People of Nineveh Repent at Jonah’s Proclamation
3 And the word of Yahweh came to Jonah a second time, saying, 2 “Get up! Go to Nineveh, the great city, and proclaim to it the message that I am telling you.” 3 So Jonah got up[a] and went to Nineveh according to the word of Yahweh. Now Nineveh was an extraordinarily great city[b]—a journey of three days across.[c] 4 And Jonah began to go into the city a journey of one day, and he cried out and said, “Forty more days and Nineveh will be demolished!”[d] 5 And the people of Nineveh believed in God, and they proclaimed a fast and put on sackcloth—from the greatest of them to the least important.[e]
The King’s Proclamation
6 And the news reached the king of Nineveh, and he rose from his throne and removed his royal robe, put on sackcloth, and sat in the ashes. 7 And he had a proclamation made, and said,
“In Nineveh, by a decree of the king and his nobles:
“No human being or animal, no herd or flock, shall taste anything! They must not eat, and they must not drink water! 8 And the human beings and the animals must be covered with sackcloth! And they must call forcefully to God, and each must turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his[f] hands. 9 Who knows? God may relent and change his mind and turn from his blazing anger[g] so that[h] we will not perish.”
10 And God saw their deeds—that they turned from their evil ways—and God changed his mind about the evil that he had said he would bring upon them, and he did not do it.[i]
Jonah Is Angry at Yahweh’s Compassion
4 And this[j] was greatly displeasing[k] to Jonah, and he became furious.[l] 2 And he prayed to Yahweh and said, “O Yahweh, was this not what I said[m] while I was in my homeland? Therefore I originally fled[n] to Tarshish, because I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and having great steadfast love,[o] and one who relents concerning calamity.[p] 3 And so then, Yahweh, please take my life from me, because for me death is better than life!” 4 And Yahweh said, “Is it right for you to be angry?”[q]
5 And Jonah went out from the city and sat down east of the city, and he made for himself a shelter there. And he sat under it in the shade, waiting to see[r] what would happen with the city. 6 And Yahweh God appointed a plant,[s] and he made it grow up over Jonah to be a shade over his head, to save him from his discomfort. And Jonah was very glad[t] about the plant. 7 So God appointed a worm at daybreak[u] the next day, and it attacked the plant, and it withered. 8 And when the sun rose,[v] God appointed a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on Jonah’s head and he grew faint. And he asked that he could die[w] and said, “My death is better than my life!” 9 So God said to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry[x] about the plant?” And he said, “It is right for me to be angry enough to die!”[y]
10 But Yahweh said, “You are troubled about the plant, for which you did not labor nor cause it to grow. It grew up in a night and it perished in a night![z] 11 And should I not be concerned about Nineveh, the great city, in which there are[aa] more than one hundred and twenty thousand[ab] people who do not know right from left,[ac] plus many animals?”
27 And when the fourteenth night had come, as[a] we were being driven in the Adriatic Sea about the middle of the night, the sailors suspected they were approaching some land.[b] 28 And taking soundings, they found twenty fathoms. So going on a little further and taking soundings again, they found fifteen fathoms. 29 And because they[c] were afraid lest somewhere we run aground against rough places, they threw down four anchors from the stern and[d] prayed for day to come. 30 And when[e] the sailors were seeking to escape from the ship and were lowering the ship’s boat into the sea, pretending as if they were going to lay out anchors from the bow, 31 Paul said to the centurion and the soldiers, “Unless these men remain with the ship, you cannot be saved!” 32 Then the soldiers cut away the ropes of the ship’s boat and let it fall away.[f]
33 And until the day was about to come, Paul was urging them all to take some food, saying, “Today is the fourteenth day you have waited anxiously, and[g] you have continued without eating, having taken nothing. 34 Therefore I urge you to take some food, for this is necessary for your preservation. For not a hair from your head will be lost.” 35 And after he[h] said these things and took bread, he gave thanks to God in front of them all, and after[i] breaking it,[j] he began to eat. 36 So they all were[k] encouraged and partook of food themselves. 37 (Now we were in all two hundred seventy six persons on the ship.) 38 And when they[l] had eaten their fill of food, they lightened the ship by[m] throwing the wheat[n] into the sea.
The Shipwreck
39 Now when day came, they did not recognize the land, but they noticed a certain bay having a beach, onto which they decided to run the ship ashore if they could. 40 And slipping the anchors, they left them[o] in the sea, at the same time loosening the ropes[p] of the steering oars. And hoisting the foresail to the wind that was blowing, they held course for the beach. 41 But falling into a place of crosscurrents,[q] they ran the ship aground. And the bow stuck fast and[r] stayed immovable, but the stern was being broken up by the violence.[s] 42 Now the plan of the soldiers was that they would kill the prisoners lest any escape by[t] swimming away, 43 but the centurion, because he[u] wanted to save Paul, prevented them from doing what they intended,[v] and gave orders that those who were able to swim should jump in first to get to the land, 44 and then the rest, some of whom floated[w] on planks and some of whom on anything that was from the ship. And in this way all were brought safely to the land.
Peter’s Confession
18 And it happened that while he was praying alone, the disciples were with him. And he asked them, saying, “Who do the crowds say that I am?” 19 And they answered and[a] said, “John the Baptist, but others, Elijah, and others, that one of the ancient prophets has risen.” 20 And he said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” And Peter answered and[b] said, “The Christ of God.”
Jesus Predicts His Death and Resurrection
21 But he warned and[c] commanded them to tell this to no one, 22 saying, “It is necessary for the Son of Man to suffer many things and to be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and to be killed, and to be raised on the third day.
Taking Up One’s Cross to Follow Jesus
23 And he said to them all, “If anyone wants to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross every day and follow me. 24 For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life on account of me, this person will save it. 25 For what is a person benefited if he[d] gains the whole world but loses or forfeits himself? 26 For whoever is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of this person when he comes in his glory and the glory[e] of the Father and of the holy angels. 27 But I tell you truly, there are some of those standing here who will never experience death until they see the kingdom of God.”
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