Book of Common Prayer
To the director: To the tune “The Lilies.” A song of David.
69 God, save me from all my troubles!
The rising water has reached my neck.
2 I have nothing to stand on.
I am sinking down, down into the mud.
I am in deep water,
and the waves are about to cover me.
3 I am getting weak from calling for help.
My throat is sore.
I have waited and looked for your help
until my eyes are hurting.
4 I have more enemies than the hairs on my head.
They hate me for no reason.
They try hard to destroy me.
My enemies tell lies about me.
They say I stole from them
and they demand that I pay for things I did not steal.
5 God, you know my faults.
I cannot hide my sins from you.
6 My Lord God All-Powerful, don’t let me embarrass your followers.
God of Israel, don’t let me bring disgrace to those who worship you.
7 My face is covered with shame.
I carry this shame for you.
8 My own brothers treat me like a stranger.
They act as if I came from a foreign land.
9 My strong devotion to your Temple is destroying me.
Those who insult you are also insulting me.
10 When I spend time crying and fasting,
they make fun of me.
11 When I wear sackcloth to show my sorrow,
they tell jokes about me.
12 They talk about me in public places.
The beer drinkers make up songs about me.
13 As for me, Lord, this is my prayer to you:
Please accept me!
God, I want you to answer me with love.
I know I can trust you to save me.
14 Pull me from the mud,
and don’t let me sink down deeper.
Save me from those who hate me.
Save me from this deep water.
15 Don’t let the waves drown me.
Don’t let the deep sea swallow me
or the grave close its mouth on me.
16 Answer me, Lord, from the goodness of your faithful love.
Out of your great kindness turn to me and help me!
17 Don’t turn away from your servant.
I am in trouble, so hurry and help me!
18 Come save my soul.
Rescue me from my enemies.
19 You know the shame I have suffered.
You know all my enemies.
You saw how they humiliated me.
20 I feel the pain of their insults.
The shame makes me feel like dying!
I wanted some sympathy,
but there was none.
I waited for someone to comfort me,
but no one came.
21 They gave me poison, not food.
They gave me vinegar, not wine.
22 Their tables are covered with food.
Let their fellowship meals destroy them.
23 Let them go blind and their backs become weak.
24 Show them how angry you are.
Let them feel what your anger can do.
25 Make their homes empty.
Don’t let anyone live there.
26 They try to hurt people you have already punished.
They tell everyone about the suffering you gave them.
27 Punish them for the bad things they have done.
Don’t show them how good you can be.
28 Erase their names from the book of life.
Don’t let their names appear on the list of those who do what is right.
29 I am sad and hurting.
God, lift me up and save me!
30 I will praise God’s name in song.
I will honor him by giving him thanks.
31 The Lord will be happier with this
than with the offering of an ox or a full-grown bull as a sacrifice.
32 Poor people, you came to worship God.
You will be happy to know these things.
33 The Lord listens to poor, helpless people.
He does not turn away from those who are in prison.
34 Praise him, heaven and earth!
Sea and everything in it, praise him!
35 God will save Zion.
He will rebuild the cities of Judah.
The people will settle there again and own the land.
36 The descendants of his servants will get that land.
Those who love his name will live there.
Book 3
(Psalms 73-89)
Asaph’s song of praise.
73 God is so good to Israel,
to those whose hearts are pure.
2 But I almost slipped and lost my balance.
I almost fell into sin.
3 I saw that wicked people were successful,
and I became jealous of those proud people.
4 They are healthy.
They don’t have to struggle to survive.[a]
5 They don’t suffer like the rest of us.
They don’t have troubles like other people.
6 So they are proud and hateful.
This is as easy to see as the jewels and fancy clothes they wear.
7 If they see something they like, they go and take it.
They do whatever they want.
8 They make fun of others and say cruel things about them.
In their pride they make plans to hurt people.
9 They think they are gods!
They think they are the rulers of the earth.
10 [b] Even God’s people turn to them
and do what they say.
11 Those evil people say, “God does not know what we are doing!
God Most High does not know!”
12 Those proud people are wicked,
but they are rich and getting richer.
13 Clearly, then, I gain nothing by keeping my thoughts pure!
What good is it to keep myself from sin?
14 God, I suffer all day long,
and you punish me every morning.
15 I wanted to tell others these things,
but that would have made me a traitor to your people.
16 I tried hard to understand all this,
but it was too hard for me.
17 But then, God, I went to your Temple,
and I understood what will happen to the wicked.
18 Clearly, you have put them in danger.
You make it easy for them to fall and be destroyed.
19 Trouble can come suddenly,
and they will be ruined.
Terrible things can happen to them,
and they will be finished.
20 Then they will be like a dream
that we forget when we wake up.
You will make them disappear
like the monsters in our dreams.
21-22 I was so stupid.
I thought about such people and became upset.
God, I was upset and angry with you!
I acted like a senseless animal.
23 But I am always with you.
You hold my hand.
24 You lead me and give me good advice,
and later you will lead me to glory.[c]
25 In heaven, God, I have only you.
And if I am with you, what on earth could I want?
26 Maybe my mind[d] and body will become weak,
but God is my source of strength.[e]
He is mine forever!
27 God, people who leave you will be lost.
You will destroy all who are not faithful to you.
28 As for me, all I need is to be close to God.
I have made the Lord God my place of safety.
And, God, I will tell about all that you have done.
All Nations Will Follow the Lord
56 The Lord said these things, “Be fair to all people. Do what is right, because soon my salvation will come to you. My goodness will soon be shown to the whole world. 2 I will bless those who refuse to do wrong and who obey the law about the Sabbath.”
3 Some foreigners will choose to follow the Lord. They should not say, “The Lord will not really accept me like the rest of his people.” A eunuch should not say, “I am only a dry piece of wood. I cannot have any children.”
4 They should not say that because the Lord says, “Some eunuchs obey the laws about the Sabbath. They choose to do what I want, and they follow my agreement.[a] 5 So I will put a memorial stone in my Temple for them. Their name will be remembered in my city! Yes, I will give those eunuchs something better than sons and daughters. I will give them a name that will last forever! They will not be cut off[b] from my people.
6 “Some foreigners have chosen to follow the Lord. They do this so that they can serve him and love his name and be his servants. They keep the Sabbath as a special day of worship, and they will continue to follow closely my agreement. 7 So I will bring them to my holy mountain and make them happy in my house of prayer. The offerings and sacrifices they give me will please me, because my Temple will be called a house of prayer for all nations.” 8 The Lord God said these things.
The Israelites were forced to leave their country, but the Lord will gather them together again. He says, “I will bring them back together again!”
The Spirit and Human Nature
16 So I tell you, live the way the Spirit leads you. Then you will not do the evil things your sinful self wants. 17 The sinful self wants what is against the Spirit, and the Spirit wants what is against the sinful self. They are always fighting against each other, so that you don’t do what you really want to do. 18 But if you let the Spirit lead you, you are not under law.[a]
19 The wrong things the sinful self does are clear: committing sexual sin, being morally bad, doing all kinds of shameful things, 20 worshiping false gods, taking part in witchcraft, hating people, causing trouble, being jealous, angry or selfish, causing people to argue and divide into separate groups, 21 being filled with envy, getting drunk, having wild parties, and doing other things like this. I warn you now as I warned you before: The people who do these things will not have a part in God’s kingdom. 22 But the fruit that the Spirit produces in a person’s life is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these kinds of things. 24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified their sinful self. They have given up their old selfish feelings and the evil things they wanted to do.
Jesus Is Seen With Moses and Elijah(A)
2 Six days later, Jesus took Peter, James, and John and went up on a high mountain. They were all alone there. While these followers watched him, Jesus was changed. 3 His clothes became shining white—whiter than anyone on earth could make them. 4 Then two men were there talking with Jesus. They were Elijah and Moses.
5 Peter said to Jesus, “Teacher, it is good that we are here. We will put three tents here—one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” 6 Peter did not know what to say, because he and the other two followers were so afraid.
7 Then a cloud came and covered them. A voice came from the cloud and said, “This is my Son, the one I love. Obey him!”
8 The followers looked, but they saw only Jesus there alone with them.
9 As Jesus and the followers were walking back down the mountain, he gave them these instructions: “Don’t tell anyone about what you saw on the mountain. Wait until after the Son of Man rises from death. Then you can tell people what you saw.”
10 So the followers waited to say anything about what they saw. But they discussed among themselves what Jesus meant about rising from death. 11 They asked him, “Why do the teachers of the law say that Elijah must come[a] first?”
12 Jesus answered, “They are right to say that Elijah must come first. Elijah makes all things the way they should be. But why do the Scriptures say that the Son of Man will suffer much and that people will think he is worth nothing? 13 I tell you that Elijah has already come. And people did to him all the bad things they wanted to do. The Scriptures said this would happen to him.”
Copyright © 2006 by Bible League International