Book of Common Prayer
For the Director of Music: According to “The Lilies”. A testimony of Asaph. A psalm.
A Prayer for Jerusalem
80 Shepherd of Israel, listen!
The one who leads Joseph like a flock,
the one enthroned on the cherubim,
display your glory.[a]
2 Reveal[b] your power before Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh,
then come to our rescue.
3 God, restore us,
show your favor[c] and deliver us.
4 Lord God of the Heavenly Armies,
when will your smoldering anger[d]
toward your people’s prayers cease?[e]
5 You fed them tears as their food,
and caused them to drink a full measure of tears.
6 You have set us at strife against our neighbors
and our enemies deride us.
7 God of the Heavenly Armies, restore us
and show your favor,[f]
so we may be delivered.
8 You uprooted a vine from Egypt,
and drove out nations to transplant it.
9 You cleared the ground[g] so that its roots grew
and filled the land.
10 Mountains were covered by its shadows,
and the mighty cedars by its branches.
11 Its branches spread out to the Mediterranean[h] Sea
and its shoots to the Euphrates[i] River.
12 Why did you break down its walls
so that those who pass by pluck its fruits?[j]
13 Wild boars of the forest gnaw at it,
and creatures of the field feed on it.
14 God of the Heavenly Armies, return!
Look down from heaven and see.
Show care[k] toward this vine.
15 The root[l] that your right hand planted,
the shoot[m] that you tended for yourself,
16 was burned with fire, cut off,
and destroyed on account of your rebuke.
17 May you support the man at your right hand;
the son of man whom you have raised for yourself.
18 Then we will not turn away from you.
Restore us, so we can call upon your name.
19 God of hosts, restore to us the light of your favor.[n]
Then we’ll be delivered.
To the director: To Jeduthun. A psalm of Asaph.
Remembering God in Times of Trouble
77 I cry out to God!
I cry out to God and he hears me.
2 When I was in distress, I sought the Lord;
my hands were raised at night
and they did not grow weary.
I refused to be comforted.
3 I remember God, and I groan;
I meditate, while my spirit grows faint.
4 You kept my eyes open;
I was troubled and couldn’t speak.
5 I thought of ancient times,
considering years long past.
6 During the night I remembered my song.
I meditate in my heart,
and my spirit ponders.
7 Will the Lord reject me[a] forever
and not show favor again?
8 Has his gracious love ceased forever?
Will his promise be unfulfilled in future generations?
9 Has God forgotten to be gracious?
Has he in anger withheld his compassion?
10 So I say: “It causes me pain
that the right hand of the Most High has changed.”
11 I will remember the Lord’s deeds;
indeed, I will remember your awesome deeds from long ago.
12 As I meditate on all your works,
I will consider your awesome deeds.
13 God, your way is holy.
What god is like our great God?
14 God, you are the one performing awesome deeds.
You reveal your might among the nations.
15 You delivered[b] your people—
the descendants of Jacob and Joseph—
with your power.
16 The waters saw you, God;
the waters saw you and writhed.
Indeed, the depths of the sea quaked.
17 The clouds poured rain;
the skies rumbled.
Indeed, your lightning bolts flashed.[c]
18 Your thunderous sound was in a whirlwind;
your lightning lights up the world;
the earth becomes agitated and quakes.
19 Your way was through the sea,
and your path through mighty waters,
but your footprints cannot be traced.[d]
20 You have led your people like a flock
by the hands of Moses and Aaron.
A Psalm of Asaph
A Prayer for Jerusalem
79 God, nations have invaded your land[a]
to desecrate your holy Temple,
to destroy Jerusalem,
2 to give the corpses of your servants
as food for the birds of the skies
and the flesh of your godly ones
to the beasts of the earth;
3 to make their blood flow like water around Jerusalem,
with no one being buried.
4 We have become a reproach to our neighbors,
a mockery and a derision to those around us.
5 How long, Lord, will you be angry? Forever?
Will your jealousy burn like fire?
6 Pour out your wrath upon the nations
that do not acknowledge you,
and over the kingdoms
that do not call on your name.
7 For they consumed Jacob,
making his dwelling place desolate.
8 Don’t charge[b] us for previous iniquity,
but let your compassion come quickly to us,
for we have been brought very low.
9 Help us, God, our deliverer,
on account of your glorious name,
deliver us and forgive[c] our sins
on account of your name.
10 Why should the nations say, “Where is their God?”
Let vengeance for the blood of your servants be meted[d] out
before our eyes and among the nations.
11 Let the cries of the prisoners reach you.
With the strength of your power,
release those condemned to death.[e]
12 Pay back our neighbors seven times[f]
the reproach with which they reproached you, Lord.
13 Then we, your people, the sheep of your pasture,
will praise you always, from generation to generation.
We will declare your praise.
Remember the Lord’s Provisions
8 “Be careful to observe every command that I’m instructing you today, in order that you may live, increase, and enter and take possession of the land that the Lord promised by an oath to your ancestors. 2 Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way these 40 years in the desert to humble[a] and test you in order to make known what was in your heart—whether or not you would keep his commands. 3 He humbled[b] you, causing you to be hungry, yet he fed you with manna that neither you nor your ancestors had known, in order to teach you that human beings are not to live by food alone—instead human beings are to live by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord.
4 “The clothes you wore[c] did not wear out, nor did your feet blister during these 40 years. 5 Be convinced in your heart that as a father disciplines his son, so the Lord your God disciplines you. 6 Observe the commands of the Lord your God by walking in his ways and by fearing[d] him, 7 because the Lord your God is bringing you to a good land—a land with rivers and deep springs flowing to the valleys and hills. 8 It’s a land filled[e] with wheat, barley, vines, fig trees, and pomegranates. It’s a land filled[f] with olive oil and honey— 9 a land without scarcity. You’ll eat food in it and lack nothing. It’s a land where its rocks are iron and you can dig copper from its mountains.”
Remember the Source of Blessings
10 “When you have eaten and are satisfied, bless the Lord your God for the good land that he has given you.
Greetings
1 From:[a] James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus, the Messiah.[b]
To: The twelve tribes in the Dispersion.[c]
Greetings.
Responding Wisely to Life
2 Consider it pure joy, my brothers, when you are involved in various trials, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance. 4 But you must let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking nothing.
5 Now if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives to everyone generously without a rebuke, and it will be given to him. 6 But he must ask in faith, without any doubts, for the one who has doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. 7 Such a person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. 8 He is a double-minded man, unstable in all he undertakes.[d]
9 A brother of humble means should rejoice in his having been exalted, 10 and a rich person in his having been humbled, because he will fade away like a wild flower. 11 For the sun comes up with its scorching heat and dries up the grass. The flower in it drops off, and its beauty is gone. That is how the rich person will fade away in his pursuits.
Trial and Temptation
12 How blessed is the man who endures temptation! When he has passed the test, he will receive the victor’s crown of life that God[e] has promised to those who keep on loving him. 13 When someone is tempted, he should not say, “I am being tempted by God,” because God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone. 14 Instead, each person is tempted by his own desire, being lured and trapped by it. 15 When that desire becomes pregnant, it gives birth to sin; and when that sin grows up, it gives birth to death.
Peter Declares His Faith in Jesus(A)
18 One day, while Jesus[a] was praying privately and the disciples were with him, he asked them, “Who do the crowds say I am?”
19 They answered, “Some say[b] John the Baptist, others Elijah, and still others one of the ancient prophets who has come back to life.”
20 He asked them, “But who do you say I am?”
“God’s Messiah,”[c] Peter replied.
Jesus Predicts His Death and Resurrection(B)
21 He gave them strict orders, commanding them not to tell this to anyone. 22 He said, “The Son of Man must suffer a great deal and be rejected by the elders, the high priests, and the scribes. Then he must be killed, but on the third day he will be raised.”
23 Then he told all of them, “If anyone wants to come with me, he must deny himself, pick up his cross every day, and follow me continuously, 24 because whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. 25 What profit will a person have if he gains the whole world, but destroys himself or is lost? 26 If anyone is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his glory and the glory of[d] the Father and the holy angels. 27 I tell you with certainty, some people who are standing here won’t experience[e] death until they see the kingdom of God.”
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