Book of Common Prayer
Yahweh Is a Fortress
For the music director. A psalm of David.[a]
31 In you, O Yahweh, I have taken refuge.
Let me not be put to shame ever.
Deliver me by your righteousness.
2 Incline your ear to me.
Quickly deliver me.
Become my rock of refuge,
a fortified keep[b] to save me.
3 For you are my rock and my fortress.
So, for the sake of your name,
lead me and guide me.
4 Bring me out of the net that they have secretly set for me,
for you are my refuge.
5 Into your hand I commit my spirit.
You have redeemed me, O Yahweh, faithful God.[c]
6 I hate those devoted to useless idols,
but I trust Yahweh.
7 I will exult and rejoice in your loyal love.
Because you have seen my misery,
you know the distresses of my life.[d]
8 And you have not delivered me
into the hand of the enemy.
You have set my feet in a broad place.
9 Be gracious to me, O Yahweh,
because I have distress.
My eye wastes away because of vexation,
along with my soul and my body.[e]
10 For my life is at an end with sorrow,
and my years with sighing.
My strength stumbles because of my iniquity,
and my bones waste away.
11 Because of all my adversaries I have become a disgrace,
especially to my neighbors,
and a dread to my acquaintances.
Those who see me in the street flee from me.
12 I have become forgotten like one dead, out of mind.[f]
I am like a destroyed vessel.
13 For I hear the rumor of many,
“Terror on every side!”
When conspiring together against me,
they have plotted to take my life.
14 But as for me, I trust you, O Yahweh.
I say, “You are my God.”
15 My times[g] are in your hand.
Deliver me from the hand of my enemies
and from those who pursue me.
16 Shine your face upon your servant.
Save me by your loyal love.
17 O Yahweh, let me not be put to shame, for I call on you.
Let the wicked be put to shame.
Let them go silently[h] to Sheol.
18 Let lying lips be dumb,
that speak against the righteous[i] unrestrained
with arrogance and contempt.
19 How abundant is your goodness
that you have stored up for those who fear you,
that you perform for those who take refuge in you
before the children of humankind.
20 You will hide them in the protection of your presence
from the plots of man.
You will hide them in a shelter from the strife of tongues.
21 Blessed is Yahweh,
because he has worked marvelously his loyal love to me
in a besieged city.
22 As for me, I said in my alarm,
“I am cut off from before your eyes.”
However you heard the voice of my supplications
when I cried to you for help.
23 Love Yahweh, all you his faithful ones.
Yahweh preserves the faithful
but repays abundantly the one who acts arrogantly.
24 Be strong and let your[j] heart show strength,
all you who wait for Yahweh.
A Prayer for Rescue from Enemies
Of David.[a]
35 Contend, O Yahweh, with my contenders;
fight those who fight me.
2 Grasp buckler and shield
and rise to my aid.
3 And draw the spear and javelin to meet those who pursue me.
Say to my soul, “I am your salvation.”
4 Let those who seek my life be shamed and humiliated.
Let those who plot calamity against me be repulsed and ashamed.
5 Let them be like chaff before the wind,
with the angel of Yahweh driving them.[b]
6 Let their way be dark and slippery,
with the angel of Yahweh pursuing them.
7 For without cause they secretly hide the pit with their net for me;
without cause they dug it for my life.
8 Let unforeseen ruin[c] come on him,
and his net that he hid, let it catch him.
Let him fall into it in ruin.
9 Then my soul will rejoice in Yahweh;
it will rejoice in his salvation.
10 All of my bones shall say, “O Yahweh, who is like you,
who delivers the poor from one stronger than he
and the poor and needy from the one who robs him?”
11 Violent witnesses rise up;
they ask me concerning what I do not know.
12 They repay me evil in place of good.
It is bereavement to my soul.
13 But as for me, when they were sick, my clothing was sackcloth.
I weakened my soul with fasting,
and my prayer returned to me unanswered.[d]
14 I behaved[e] as though he were a friend or as a brother to me.
As one lamenting a mother, I was bowed down in mourning.
15 But at my stumbling they rejoiced and gathered together;
smiters whom I did not know gathered against me.
They tore and did not cease.
16 Among the ungodly of the mockers at feasts,[f]
they gnashed at me with their teeth.
17 My Lord, how long will you watch?
Restore my life from their ravages,[g]
my only life from the young lions.
18 I will give thanks to you in the great assembly;
among the mighty people I will praise you.
19 Let not those who are wrongfully my enemies[h] rejoice over me.
Nor let those who hate me without cause wink the eye.
20 For they do not speak peace,
but against the quiet ones of the land
they plan deceitful words.
21 They also made wide their mouths[i] against me.
They said, “Aha! Aha!
Our eyes have seen it.”
22 You have seen, O Yahweh. Do not be deaf.
O Lord, do not be far from me.
23 Wake up and rouse yourself for my right,
for my cause, O my God and my Lord.
24 Vindicate me according to your righteousness,
O Yahweh my God,
and do not let them rejoice over me.
25 Do not let them say in their hearts,[j] “Aha, our desire.”
Let them not say, “We have swallowed him up.”
26 Let them be shamed and abashed altogether,
who rejoice at my misfortune.
Let them put on shame and insult,
who magnify themselves against me.
27 Let them shout for joy and be glad,
who delight in my vindication;
and let them say continually, “Yahweh is great,
who delights in the welfare of his servant.”
28 Then my tongue will proclaim your righteousness,
and your praise all day.
Basic Stipulations
5 And then Moses summoned all of Israel and said to them, “Hear, Israel, the rules and the regulations that I am speaking in your ears today,[a] and you shall learn them, and you must observe them diligently.[b] 2 Yahweh our God made a covenant with us at Horeb. 3 It was not with our ancestors[c] that Yahweh made this covenant, but with these of us who are here alive today. 4 Face to face[d] Yahweh spoke with you at the mountain from the midst of the fire. 5 I was standing between Yahweh and you[e] at that time to report[f] to you the word of Yahweh, for you were afraid because of the presence of[g] the fire, and so you did not go up the mountain. He said,[h]
6 ‘I am Yahweh your God, who brought you out from the land of Egypt, from the house of slavery. 7 There shall not be for you other gods besides me.[i]
8 ‘You shall not make for yourself a divine image of any type of form that is in the heaven above or that is on the earth beneath or that is in the water under the earth.
9 ‘You shall not bow down to them, and you shall not serve them, for I, Yahweh your God, am a jealous God, punishing the guilt of fathers upon their children and upon the third and upon the fourth generation of those hating me, 10 but showing loyal love to thousands of those who love me and of those who keep my commandments.
11 ‘You shall not take up the name of Yahweh your God for a worthless purpose, for Yahweh will not leave unpunished anyone who uses his name for a worthless purpose.
12 ‘Observe the Sabbath day[j] to make it holy,[k] just as Yahweh your God has commanded you. 13 Six days you shall work, and you shall do all of your work, 14 but the seventh day is a Sabbath unto Yahweh your God; you shall not do any work, or your son, or your daughter, or your slave, or your slave woman, or your ox, or your donkey, or any of your domestic animals, or your resident alien who is in your towns,[l] so that your slave and your slave woman may rest as you rest. 15 And you shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and Yahweh your God brought you out with a strong hand and with an outstretched arm; therefore, Yahweh your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath.[m]
16 ‘Honor your father and your mother, as Yahweh your God commanded you, so that it will be good for you[n] in the land[o] that Yahweh your God is giving to you.
17 ‘You shall not murder.
18 ‘And you shall not commit adultery.
19 ‘And you shall not steal.
20 ‘And you shall not falsely bear evidence against your neighbor.
21 ‘And you shall not covet the wife of your neighbor, and you shall not crave the house of your neighbor, his field or his slave or his slave woman or his ox and his donkey or anything that belongs to your neighbor.’[p]
22 “These words Yahweh spoke to your whole assembly at the mountain from the midst of the fire and the very thick cloud with a loud voice, and he did not add anything,[q] and then he wrote them on two tablets of stone and gave them to me.
Proclaiming Jesus Christ as Lord
4 Because of this, since we[a] have this ministry, just as we have been shown mercy, we do not lose heart, 2 but we have renounced shameful hidden things, not behaving with craftiness or adulterating the word of God, but with the open proclamation of the truth commending ourselves to every person’s conscience before God. 3 But if indeed our gospel is veiled, it is veiled among those who are perishing, 4 among whom the god of this age has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, so that they would not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. 5 For we do not proclaim ourselves, but Christ Jesus[b] as Lord, and ourselves as your slaves for the sake of Jesus. 6 For God who said, “Light will shine out of darkness,”[c] is the one who has shined in our hearts for the enlightenment of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.[d]
Treasure in Earthenware Jars
7 But we have this treasure in earthenware jars, in order that the extraordinary degree of the power may be from God and not from us. 8 We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing; 9 persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed; 10 always carrying around the death of Jesus in our body, in order that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. 11 For we who are alive are continually being handed over to death because of Jesus, in order that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our mortal flesh. 12 So then, death is at work in us, but life in you.
10 “The one who is faithful in very little is also faithful in much, and the one who is dishonest in very little is also dishonest in much. 11 If then you have not been faithful with unrighteous wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches?[a] 12 And if you have not been faithful with what belongs to another, who will give you your own? 13 No domestic slave is able to serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and will despise the other. You are not able to serve God and money.”
Hypocrisy, Law, and the Kingdom of God
14 Now the Pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard all these things, and they ridiculed him. 15 And he said to them, “You are the ones who justify themselves in the sight of men, but God knows your hearts! For what is considered exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God.
16 “The law and the prophets were until John; from that time on the kingdom of God has been proclaimed, and everyone is urgently pressed[b] into it. 17 But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one stroke of a letter of the law to become invalid.
On Divorce
18 “Everyone who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery, and the one who marries a woman divorced from her husband commits adultery.
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