Book of Common Prayer
For the choir director; a psalm by David.
20 The Lord will answer you in times of trouble.
The name of the God of Jacob will protect you.
2 He will send you help from his holy place
and support you from Zion.
3 He will remember all your grain offerings
and look with favor on your burnt offerings. Selah
4 He will give you your heart’s desire
and carry out all your plans.
5 We will joyfully sing about your victory.
We will wave our flags in the name of our God.
The Lord will fulfill all your requests.
6 Now I know that the Lord will give victory to his anointed king.
He will answer him from his holy heaven
with mighty deeds of his powerful hand.
7 Some ⌞rely⌟ on chariots and others on horses,
but we will boast in the name of the Lord our God.
8 They will sink to their knees and fall,
but we will rise and stand firm.
9 Give victory to the king, O Lord.
Answer us when we call.
For the choir director; a psalm by David.
21 The king finds joy in your strength, O Lord.
What great joy he has in your victory!
2 You gave him his heart’s desire.
You did not refuse the prayer from his lips. Selah
3 You welcomed him with the blessings of good things
and set a crown of fine gold on his head.
4 He asked you for life.
You gave him a long life, forever and ever.
5 Because of your victory his glory is great.
You place splendor and majesty on him.
6 Yes, you made him a blessing forever.
You made him glad with the joy of your presence.
7 Indeed, the king trusts the Lord,
and through the mercy of the Most High, he will not be moved.
8 Your hand will discover all your enemies.
Your powerful hand will find all who hate you.
9 When you appear, you will make them ⌞burn⌟ like a blazing furnace.
The Lord will swallow them up in his anger.
Fire will devour them.
10 You will destroy their children from the earth
and their offspring from among Adam’s descendants.
11 Although they scheme and plan evil against you,
they will not succeed.
12 They turn their backs ⌞and flee⌟
because you aim your bow at their faces.
13 Arise, O Lord, in your strength.
We will sing and make music to praise your power.
A psalm by David.
23 The Lord is my shepherd.
I am never in need.
2 He makes me lie down in green pastures.
He leads me beside peaceful waters.
3 He renews my soul.
He guides me along the paths of righteousness
for the sake of his name.
4 Even though I walk through the dark valley of death,
because you are with me, I fear no harm.
Your rod and your staff give me courage.
5 You prepare a banquet for me while my enemies watch.
You anoint my head with oil.
My cup overflows.
6 Certainly, goodness and mercy will stay close to me all the days of my life,
and I will remain in the Lord’s house for days without end.
By David.
27 The Lord is my light and my salvation.
Who is there to fear?
The Lord is my life’s fortress.
Who is there to be afraid of?
2 Evildoers closed in on me to tear me to pieces.
My opponents and enemies stumbled and fell.
3 Even though an army sets up camp against me,
my heart will not be afraid.
Even though a war breaks out against me,
I will still have confidence ⌞in the Lord⌟.
4 I have asked one thing from the Lord.
This I will seek:
to remain in the Lord’s house all the days of my life
in order to gaze at the Lord’s beauty
and to search for an answer in his temple.
5 He hides me in his shelter when there is trouble.
He keeps me hidden in his tent.
He sets me high on a rock.
6 Now my head will be raised above my enemies who surround me.
I will offer sacrifices with shouts of joy in his tent.
I will sing and make music to praise the Lord.
7 Hear, O Lord, when I cry aloud.
Have pity on me, and answer me.
8 ⌞When you said,⌟
“Seek my face,”
my heart said to you,
“O Lord, I will seek your face.” [a]
9 Do not hide your face from me.
Do not angrily turn me away.
You have been my help.
Do not leave me!
Do not abandon me, O God, my savior!
10 Even if my father and mother abandon me, the Lord will take care of me.
11 Teach me your way, O Lord.
Lead me on a level path
because I have enemies who spy on me.
12 Do not surrender me to the will of my opponents.
False witnesses have risen against me.
They breathe out violence.
13 I believe that I will see the goodness of the Lord
in this world of the living.
14 Wait with hope for the Lord.
Be strong, and let your heart be courageous.
Yes, wait with hope for the Lord.
The Lord Protects the Weak
25 O Lord, you are my God.
I will highly honor you; I will praise your name.
You have done miraculous things.
You have been completely reliable
in carrying out your plans from long ago.
2 You have turned cities into ruins,
fortified cities into piles of rubble,
and foreigners’ palaces into cities that will never be rebuilt.
3 That is why strong people will honor you,
and cities ruled by the world’s tyrants will fear you.
4 You have been a refuge for the poor,
a refuge for the needy in their distress,
a shelter from the rain, and shade from the heat.
(A tyrant’s breath is like a rainstorm against a wall,
5 like heat in a dry land.)
You calm the uproar of foreigners.
The song of tyrants is silenced
like heat that is ⌞reduced⌟ by the shadow of a cloud.
Death Will Be Swallowed Up
6 On this mountain the Lord of Armies will prepare for all people
a feast with the best foods,
a banquet with aged wines,
with the best foods and the finest wines.
7 On this mountain he will remove
the veil of grief covering all people
and the mask covering all nations.
8 He will swallow up death forever.
The Almighty Lord will wipe away tears from every face,
and he will remove the disgrace of his people from the whole earth.
The Lord has spoken.
9 On that day ⌞his people⌟ will say,
“This is our God; we have waited for him, and now he will save us.
This is the Lord; we have waited for him.
Let us rejoice and be glad because he will save us.”
9 I am John, your brother. I share your suffering, ruling, and endurance because of Jesus. I was ⌞exiled⌟ on the island of Patmos because of God’s word and the testimony about Jesus. 10 I came under the Spirit’s power on the Lord’s day. I heard a loud voice behind me like a trumpet, 11 saying, “Write on a scroll what you see, and send it to the seven churches: Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea.”
12 I turned toward the voice which was talking to me, and when I turned, I saw seven gold lamp stands. 13 There was someone like the Son of Man among the lamp stands. He was wearing a robe that reached his feet. He wore a gold belt around his waist. 14 His head and his hair were white like wool—like snow. His eyes were like flames of fire. 15 His feet were like glowing bronze refined in a furnace. His voice was like the sound of raging waters. 16 In his right hand he held seven stars, and out of his mouth came a sharp, two-edged sword. His face was like the sun when it shines in all its brightness.
17 When I saw him, I fell down at his feet like a dead man. Then he laid his right hand on me and said, “Don’t be afraid! I am the first and the last, 18 the living one. I was dead, but now I am alive forever. I have the keys of death and hell. 19 Therefore, write down what you have seen, what is, and what is going to happen after these things. 20 The hidden meaning of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand and the seven gold lamp stands is this: The seven stars are the messengers of the seven churches, and the seven lamp stands are the seven churches.
53 Then each of them went home.
A Woman Caught in Adultery
8 Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. 2 Early the next morning he returned to the temple courtyard. All the people went to him, so he sat down and began to teach them.
3 The experts in Moses’ Teachings and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught committing adultery. They made her stand in front of everyone 4 and asked Jesus, “Teacher, we caught this woman in the act of adultery. 5 In his teachings, Moses ordered us to stone women like this to death. What do you say?” 6 They asked this to test him. They wanted to find a reason to bring charges against him.
Jesus bent down and used his finger to write on the ground. 7 When they persisted in asking him questions, he straightened up and said, “The person who is sinless should be the first to throw a stone at her.” 8 Then he bent down again and continued writing on the ground.
9 One by one, beginning with the older men, the experts in Moses’ Teachings and Pharisees left. Jesus was left alone with the woman. 10 Then Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Where did they go? Has anyone condemned you?”
11 The woman answered, “No one, sir.”
Jesus said, “I don’t condemn you either. Go! From now on don’t sin.”
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