Book of Common Prayer
Trust in God for Deliverance from Enemies
To the choirmaster: for the flutes. A Psalm of David.
5 Give ear to my words, O Lord;
give heed to my groaning.
2 Hearken to the sound of my cry,
my King and my God,
for to thee do I pray.
3 O Lord, in the morning thou dost hear my voice;
in the morning I prepare a sacrifice for thee, and watch.
4 For thou art not a God who delights in wickedness;
evil may not sojourn with thee.
5 The boastful may not stand before thy eyes;
thou hatest all evildoers.
6 Thou destroyest those who speak lies;
the Lord abhors bloodthirsty and deceitful men.
7 But I through the abundance of thy steadfast love
will enter thy house,
I will worship toward thy holy temple
in the fear of thee.
8 Lead me, O Lord, in thy righteousness
because of my enemies;
make thy way straight before me.
9 For there is no truth in their mouth;
their heart is destruction,
their throat is an open sepulchre,
they flatter with their tongue.
10 Make them bear their guilt, O God;
let them fall by their own counsels;
because of their many transgressions cast them out,
for they have rebelled against thee.
11 But let all who take refuge in thee rejoice,
let them ever sing for joy;
and do thou defend them,
that those who love thy name may exult in thee.
12 For thou dost bless the righteous, O Lord;
thou dost cover him with favor as with a shield.
Prayer for Recovery from Grave Illness
To the choirmaster: with stringed instruments; according to The Sheminith. A Psalm of David.
6 O Lord, rebuke me not in thy anger,
nor chasten me in thy wrath.
2 Be gracious to me, O Lord, for I am languishing;
O Lord, heal me, for my bones are troubled.
3 My soul also is sorely troubled.
But thou, O Lord—how long?
4 Turn, O Lord, save my life;
deliver me for the sake of thy steadfast love.
5 For in death there is no remembrance of thee;
in Sheol who can give thee praise?
6 I am weary with my moaning;
every night I flood my bed with tears;
I drench my couch with my weeping.
7 My eye wastes away because of grief,
it grows weak because of all my foes.
8 Depart from me, all you workers of evil;
for the Lord has heard the sound of my weeping.
9 The Lord has heard my supplication;
the Lord accepts my prayer.
10 All my enemies shall be ashamed and sorely troubled;
they shall turn back, and be put to shame in a moment.
Prayer for Deliverance from Enemies
10 Why dost thou stand afar off, O Lord?
Why dost thou hide thyself in times of trouble?
2 In arrogance the wicked hotly pursue the poor;
let them be caught in the schemes which they have devised.
3 For the wicked boasts of the desires of his heart,
and the man greedy for gain curses and renounces the Lord.
4 In the pride of his countenance the wicked does not seek him;
all his thoughts are, “There is no God.”
5 His ways prosper at all times;
thy judgments are on high, out of his sight;
as for all his foes, he puffs at them.
6 He thinks in his heart, “I shall not be moved;
throughout all generations I shall not meet adversity.”
7 His mouth is filled with cursing and deceit and oppression;
under his tongue are mischief and iniquity.
8 He sits in ambush in the villages;
in hiding places he murders the innocent.
His eyes stealthily watch for the hapless,
9 he lurks in secret like a lion in his covert;
he lurks that he may seize the poor,
he seizes the poor when he draws him into his net.
10 The hapless is crushed, sinks down,
and falls by his might.
11 He thinks in his heart, “God has forgotten,
he has hidden his face, he will never see it.”
12 Arise, O Lord; O God, lift up thy hand;
forget not the afflicted.
13 Why does the wicked renounce God,
and say in his heart, “Thou wilt not call to account”?
14 Thou dost see; yea, thou dost note trouble and vexation,
that thou mayst take it into thy hands;
the hapless commits himself to thee;
thou hast been the helper of the fatherless.
15 Break thou the arm of the wicked and evildoer;
seek out his wickedness till thou find none.
16 The Lord is king for ever and ever;
the nations shall perish from his land.
17 O Lord, thou wilt hear the desire of the meek;
thou wilt strengthen their heart, thou wilt incline thy ear
18 to do justice to the fatherless and the oppressed,
so that man who is of the earth may strike terror no more.
Song of Trust in God
To the choirmaster. Of David.
11 In the Lord I take refuge;
how can you say to me,
“Flee like a bird to the mountains;[a]
2 for lo, the wicked bend the bow,
they have fitted their arrow to the string,
to shoot in the dark at the upright in heart;
3 if the foundations are destroyed,
what can the righteous do”?
4 The Lord is in his holy temple,
the Lord’s throne is in heaven;
his eyes behold, his eyelids test, the children of men.
5 The Lord tests the righteous and the wicked,
and his soul hates him that loves violence.
6 On the wicked he will rain coals of fire and brimstone;
a scorching wind shall be the portion of their cup.
7 For the Lord is righteous, he loves righteous deeds;
the upright shall behold his face.
Israel’s Guilt and Punishment
3 Hear this word that the Lord has spoken against you, O people of Israel, against the whole family which I brought up out of the land of Egypt:
2 “You only have I known
of all the families of the earth;
therefore I will punish you
for all your iniquities.
3 “Do two walk together,
unless they have made an appointment?
4 Does a lion roar in the forest,
when he has no prey?
Does a young lion cry out from his den,
if he has taken nothing?
5 Does a bird fall in a snare on the earth,
when there is no trap for it?
Does a snare spring up from the ground,
when it has taken nothing?
6 Is a trumpet blown in a city,
and the people are not afraid?
Does evil befall a city,
unless the Lord has done it?
7 Surely the Lord God does nothing,
without revealing his secret
to his servants the prophets.
8 The lion has roared;
who will not fear?
The Lord God has spoken;
who can but prophesy?”
9 Proclaim to the strongholds in Assyria,[a]
and to the strongholds in the land of Egypt,
and say, “Assemble yourselves upon the mountains of Samar′ia,
and see the great tumults within her,
and the oppressions in her midst.”
10 “They do not know how to do right,” says the Lord,
“those who store up violence and robbery in their strongholds.”
11 Therefore thus says the Lord God:
“An adversary shall surround the land,
and bring down your defenses from you,
and your strongholds shall be plundered.”
12 Therefore I intend always to remind you of these things, though you know them and are established in the truth that you have. 13 I think it right, as long as I am in this body,[a] to arouse you by way of reminder, 14 since I know that the putting off of my body[b] will be soon, as our Lord Jesus Christ showed me. 15 And I will see to it that after my departure you may be able at any time to recall these things.
Eyewitnesses of Christ’s Glory
16 For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty.[c] 17 For when he received honor and glory from God the Father and the voice was borne to him by the Majestic Glory, “This is my beloved Son,[d] with whom I am well pleased,” 18 we heard this voice borne from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain. 19 And we have the prophetic word made more sure. You will do well to pay attention to this as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. 20 First of all you must understand this, that no prophecy of scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation, 21 because no prophecy ever came by the impulse of man, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.[e]
Jesus Cleanses the Temple
12 And Jesus entered the temple of God[a] and drove out all who sold and bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. 13 He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer’; but you make it a den of robbers.”
14 And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them. 15 But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying out in the temple, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” they were indignant; 16 and they said to him, “Do you hear what these are saying?” And Jesus said to them, “Yes; have you never read,
‘Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings
thou hast brought perfect praise’?”
17 And leaving them, he went out of the city to Bethany and lodged there.
Jesus Curses the Fig Tree
18 In the morning, as he was returning to the city, he was hungry. 19 And seeing a fig tree by the wayside he went to it, and found nothing on it but leaves only. And he said to it, “May no fruit ever come from you again!” And the fig tree withered at once. 20 When the disciples saw it they marveled, saying, “How did the fig tree wither at once?” 21 And Jesus answered them, “Truly, I say to you, if you have faith and never doubt, you will not only do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ it will be done. 22 And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith.”
The Revised Standard Version of the Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1965, 1966 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.