Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 83
Surrounded by Enemies
Heading
A song. A psalm by Asaph.
Opening Plea
1 God, do not keep silent.
Do not be deaf. Do not be quiet, God.
A Catalog of Enemies
2 Look! Your enemies are in an uproar,
and those who hate you have raised their head.
3 Against your people they devise deceptive schemes,
and they plot together against the people you treasure.
4 They say, “Come, let us wipe them out as a nation,
so the name of Israel will not be remembered anymore.”
5 Indeed, with one mind they plot together.
They form an alliance against you—
6 the tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites,
Moab and the Hagrites,
7 Gebal[a] and Ammon and Amalek,
Philistia, with the inhabitants of Tyre.
8 Even Ashshur has joined with them. Interlude
They have become the arm of the sons of Lot.[b]
Prayer for Destruction of the Enemies
9 Do to them as you did to Midian,
as you did to Sisera and Jabin at the stream Kishon.
10 They perished at Endor.
They became like manure for the ground.
11 Make their nobles like Oreb and like Zeeb,
all their princes like Zebah and Zalmunna,
12 who said, “Let us take possession of God’s pastures for ourselves.”
13 My God, make them like tumbleweed,
like chaff before the wind.
14 As fire burns the forest,
or as a flame sets the mountains on fire,
15 so pursue them with your violent wind,
and terrify them with your storm.
16 Fill their faces with shame
so that they will seek your name, O Lord.
17 May they be ashamed and terrified forever.
May they be disgraced and perish.
18 Let them know that you, whose name is the Lord,
you alone are the Most High over all the earth.
Book II
Psalms 42–72
Psalms 42 & 43
An Exile’s Prayer: Why Are You Cast Down?[a]
Heading
For the choir director. A maskil[b] by the Sons of Korah.[c]
Longing for the Temple
1 As a doe pants for streams of water,
so my soul pants for you, O God.
2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
When can I go and appear before God?[d]
3 My tears have been food for me day and night,
while people are saying to me all day,
“Where is your God?”
4 I am overcome by my emotions
whenever I remember these things:
how I used to arrive with the crowd,
as I led the procession to the house of God,
with loud shouts of thanksgiving,
with the crowd celebrating the festival.
Refrain
5 Why are you so depressed,[e] O my soul?
Why so disturbed within me?
Hope in God, for I will again praise him
for salvation from his presence.[f]
Remembrance of the Lord
6 My God, my soul is depressed within me.
Therefore I will remember you from the land of the Jordan,
from the heights of Hermon, from Mount Mizar.
7 Deep calls to deep in the roar of your rapids.
All your breakers and your waves have swept over me.
8 By day the Lord commands his mercy,
and at night his song is with me—a prayer to the God of my life.
9 I say to God my Rock, “Why have you forgotten me?
Why must I go around mourning because of oppression by the enemy?”
10 It is like breaking my bones when my foes taunt me.
All day long they say to me, “Where is your God?”
Refrain
11 Why are you so depressed, O my soul?
Why so disturbed within me?
Hope in God, for I will again praise him
for my salvation from the face of my God.[g]
Psalm 43
A Plea for Vindication
1 Judge me justly, O God,
and plead my case against an ungodly nation.
Rescue me from the deceitful, wicked man.
2 I know you are God, my stronghold.
Why have you rejected me?
Why must I go around mourning
because of oppression by the enemy?
3 Send out your light and your truth.
Let them guide me.
Let them bring me to your holy mountain,
to your dwelling.
4 Then I will go to the altar of God,
to God, my joy and gladness.
Then I will praise you with the lyre, O God, my God.
Refrain
5 Why are you so depressed, O my soul?
Why so disturbed within me?
Hope in God, for I will again praise him
for my salvation from the face of my God.[h]
Psalm 85
You Showed Favor to Your Land
Heading
For the choir director. By the Sons of Korah. A psalm.
Past Goodness
1 You showed favor to your land, O Lord.
You restored Jacob.
2 You removed the guilt of your people. Interlude
You covered all their sin.
3 You put away all your wrath.
You turned from your burning anger.
Present Distress
4 Restore us, O God who saves us.
Put an end to your indignation with us.
5 Will you be angry with us forever?
Will you extend your anger through all generations?
6 Will you not turn and revive us,
so that your people may rejoice in you?
Hope for the Future
7 Show us your mercy, O Lord,
and give us your salvation.
8 I will hear what the true God, the Lord, will say.
He indeed speaks peace to his people, to his favored ones,
but do not let them turn to foolish ways.
9 Surely his salvation is near for those who fear him,
so that glory may dwell in our land.
10 Mercy and truth meet together.
Righteousness and peace kiss each other.
11 Truth springs up from the earth,
and righteousness looks down from heaven.
12 The Lord will indeed give good things,
and our land will yield its harvest.
13 Righteousness walks in front of him.
It prepares the way for his footsteps.
Psalm 86
Guard My Life
Heading
A prayer by David.
David’s Need and David’s Faith
1 Turn your ear, O Lord.
Answer me, for I am poor and needy.
2 Guard my life, for I am favored by you.[a]
You are my God.
Save your servant, who trusts in you.
3 Have mercy on me, O Lord,
for I call to you all day long.
4 Bring joy to the soul of your servant,
for to you, O Lord, I lift up my soul.
God’s Grace
5 Indeed, you, Lord, are good and forgiving
and abounding in mercy to all who call to you.
6 Give ear to my prayer, O Lord.
Pay attention to the sound of my cries for mercy.
God’s Ruling Power
7 In the day of my distress I will call to you,
because you will answer me.
8 There is no one like you among the gods, O Lord.
There are no deeds like your deeds.
9 All the nations you have made will come.
They will bow before you, O Lord,
and they will give glory to your name,
10 because you are great and do marvelous deeds.
You alone are God.
God’s Praise
11 Teach me your way, O Lord.
I will walk in your truth.
Give me wholehearted commitment to fear your name.
12 I will thank you, O Lord my God, with all my heart,
and I will glorify your name forever.
13 For great is your mercy toward me,
and you have delivered my soul from “the lowest hell.”[b]
The Plea Repeated
14 God, the arrogant rise against me.
A mob of ruthless men seeks my life.
They pay no attention to you.
15 But you, Lord, are a compassionate and gracious God,
slow to anger, abounding in mercy and faithfulness.
16 Turn to me and have mercy on me.
Give your strength to your servant.
Save the son of your maidservant.
17 Give a sign of your goodness for me.
Then those who hate me will see it and be put to shame,
because you, Lord, have helped me and comforted me.
11 You are to say this to them:
“These gods, who did not make the heavens and the earth,
will perish from the earth and from under the heavens.”[a]
12 But the one who made the earth by his power,
established the world by his wisdom,
and stretched out the heavens by his understanding—
13 he thunders, and the waters in the heavens roar.
He makes storm clouds rise from the ends of the earth.
He makes lightning for the rain,
and he brings out the wind from his warehouses.
14 But as for mankind, they are all stupid.
Their knowledge has dried up.
Every goldsmith is embarrassed by his idols.
The images he makes are false.
There is no breath in them.
15 They are worthless,
an achievement to be mocked.
At the time of their punishment, they will perish.
16 He who is the Portion of Jacob is not like these,
because he is the Maker of all things,
including Israel, the tribe that belongs to him.
The Lord of Armies is his name.
17 Pick up your pack from the ground,
you who live under siege.
18 For this is what the Lord says.
Watch, I am going to throw out those who live in the land at this time.
I am going to bring them distress that they will feel.
Jeremiah’s Lament
19 Woe to me because of my wound!
My injury is severe!
But I said, “Yes, this is my suffering,
and I must bear it.”
20 My tent is destroyed.
All its ropes are broken.
My children are gone, and they are no more.
No one is left to pitch my tent
or to set up my dwelling.
21 The shepherds have become as senseless as animals.
They do not seek the Lord.
That is why they do not prosper
and all their flock is scattered.
22 Listen! I hear noise—
a great commotion from a land in the north.
It will make the cities of Judah desolate.
It will make them a haunt for jackals.
Jeremiah’s Prayer
23 I know, Lord, that a man’s way is not his own,
nor can a man direct his own steps.
24 Correct me, Lord, but with justice,
not in your anger,
or you will reduce me to nothing.
Both Adam and Christ Had an Effect on All People
12 So then, just as sin entered the world through one man and death through sin, so also death spread to all people because all sinned. 13 For even before the law was given, sin was in the world. Now, sin is not charged to one’s account if there is no law, 14 and yet death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those whose sin was not like the transgression of Adam, who is a pattern[a] of the one who was to come.
15 But the gracious gift is not like Adam’s trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of this one man, it is even more certain that God’s grace, and the gift given by the grace of the one man Jesus Christ, overflowed to the many!
16 And the gift is not like the effect of the one man’s sin, for the judgment that followed the one trespass resulted in a verdict of condemnation, but the gracious gift that followed many trespasses resulted in a verdict of justification.
17 Indeed, if by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through the one man, it is even more certain that those who receive the overflowing grace of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ!
18 So then, just as one trespass led to a verdict of condemnation for all people, so also one righteous verdict led to life-giving justification[b] for all people. 19 For just as through the disobedience of one man the many became sinners, so also through the obedience of one man the many will become righteous.
20 The law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace overflowed much more, 21 so that just as sin reigned in death, so also grace would reign through righteousness, resulting in eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
21 So he told them again, “I am going away. You will look for me, and you will die in your sin. Where I am going, you cannot come.”
22 So the Jews asked, “He won’t kill himself, will he, because he says, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come’?”
23 “You are from below,” he told them. “I am from above. You are of this world. I am not of this world. 24 That is why I told you that you will die in your sins. For if you do not believe that I am the one, you will die in your sins.”
25 “Who are you?” they asked.
Jesus replied, “What I have been telling you from the beginning. 26 I have many things to say and to judge concerning you. But the one who sent me is true. And what I heard from him, these are the things I am telling the world.” 27 They did not understand that he was talking to them about the Father.
28 So Jesus said to them, “When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am the one, and that I do nothing on my own. But I speak exactly as the Father taught me. 29 The one who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone, because I always do what pleases him.”
30 As he was saying these things, many believed in him.
31 So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you remain in my word, you are really my disciples. 32 You will also know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.