Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 31(A)
For the Music Director. A Psalm of David.
1 In You, O Lord, do I seek refuge;
may I never be ashamed;
deliver me in Your righteousness.
2 Incline Your ear to me;
deliver me speedily;
be my strong rock,
a strong fortress to save me.
3 For You are my rock and my fortress;
for Your name’s sake lead me and guide me.
4 Lead me out of the net that they have hidden for me,
for You are my strength.
5 Into Your hand I commit my spirit;
You have redeemed me, O Lord, God of truth.
6 I have hated those who regard worthless vanity,
but I trust in the Lord.
7 I will be glad and rejoice in Your lovingkindness,
for You have seen my trouble;
You have known my soul in adversities,
8 and have not delivered me up into the hand of the enemy;
You have set my feet in a broad place.
9 Be gracious to me, O Lord, for I am in trouble;
my eye wastes away with grief,
yes, my soul and my body.
10 For my life is spent with grief,
and my years with sighing;
my strength fails because of my iniquity,
and my bones waste away.
11 I became a reproach among all my enemies,
but especially among my neighbors,
and a dread to my acquaintances;
those who saw me outside fled from me.
12 I am forgotten as a dead man out of mind;
I am like a broken vessel.
13 For I have heard the slander of many;
fear was on every side;
while they took counsel together against me,
they planned to take away my life.
14 But I trusted in You, O Lord;
I said, “You are my God.”
15 My times are in Your hand;
deliver me from the hand of my enemies
and my pursuers.
16 Make Your face to shine on Your servant;
save me by Your lovingkindness.
17 Do not let me be ashamed, O Lord,
for I have called on You;
let the wicked be ashamed,
and let them be silent in the grave.
18 Let the lying lips be put to silence,
who speak arrogantly
in pride and contempt against the righteous.
19 Oh, how great is Your goodness,
which You have laid up for those who fear You,
which You have done for those
seeking refuge in You before people!
20 You will hide them in the secret of Your presence
from conspirators;
You will keep them secretly in a shelter
from the strife of tongues.
21 Blessed be the Lord,
for He has shown me His marvelous lovingkindness
in a fortified city.
22 For I said in my haste,
“I am cut off from before Your eyes.”
Nevertheless You heard the voice of my supplications
when I cried to You.
23 Oh, love the Lord, all you His saints,
for the Lord preserves the faithful,
but amply repays the one who acts in pride.
24 Be strong, and He will strengthen your heart,
all you who wait for the Lord.
Psalm 35
A Psalm of David.
1 Plead my cause, O Lord, with my adversaries;
fight those who fight me.
2 Take hold of the large shield and small shield,
and rise up for my help.
3 Draw the spear and javelin
against those who pursue me.
Say to my soul,
“I am Your salvation.”
4 May those who seek my life
be ashamed and humiliated;
may those who plan my injury
be turned back and put to shame.
5 May they be as chaff before the wind,
and may the angel of the Lord cast them down.
6 May their way be dark and slippery,
and may the angel of the Lord pursue them.
7 For without cause they have hidden their net for me in a pit,
which they have dug without cause for my soul.
8 Let destruction come on him without warning,
and let the net that he hid ensnare him;
let him fall into it, to his destruction.
9 My soul will be joyful in the Lord;
it will rejoice in His salvation.
10 All my bones will say,
“Lord, who is like You,
who delivers the poor from a stronger one,
the poor and the needy from the one who robs them?”
11 Witnesses intent on violence rose up;
they accused me of things I knew nothing about.
12 They rewarded me evil for good,
the bereavement of my soul.
13 But as for me, when they were sick, my clothing was sackcloth;
I humbled my soul with fasting;
and my prayer returns to my own heart.
14 I paced as though he were my friend or brother;
I bowed down lamenting,
as one who mourns for a mother.
15 But in my adversity they rejoiced and gathered together;
assailants gathered together against me, though I was unaware;
they tore me apart and did not stop;
16 with hypocritical mockers in feasts,
they gnashed on me with their teeth.
17 Lord, how long will You look on?
Rescue my soul from their destructions,
my life from the lions.
18 I will give You thanks in the great congregation;
I will praise You among a mighty people.
19 May my deceitful enemies
not rejoice over me;
nor may those who hate me without cause
wink with their eye.
20 For they do not speak peace,
but they devise deceitful matters
against the restful ones in the land.
21 They opened their mouth wide against me,
and said, “Aha, aha, our eye has seen it.”
22 This You have seen, O Lord; do not be silent;
O Lord, be not far from me.
23 Rouse Yourself and awake for my judgment,
for my cause, my God and my Lord.
24 Judge me, O Lord my God, according to Your righteousness,
and may they not rejoice over me.
25 May they not say in their hearts, “Ah, we have our soul’s desire.”
May they not say, “We have swallowed him up.”
26 May those who rejoice at my harm be ashamed
and altogether put to shame;
may they be clothed with shame and dishonor
who magnify themselves against me.
27 May those who favor my righteous cause
shout for joy and be glad;
may they say continually, “The Lord be magnified,
who delights in the peace of His servant.”
28 My tongue will speak of Your righteousness
and of Your praise all the day long.
God’s Command to Rebuild the Temple
1 In the second year of King Darius, in the sixth month, on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came by Haggai the prophet to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, saying,
2 Thus says the Lord of Hosts: These people say, The time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the Lord.
3 Then the word of the Lord came by Haggai the prophet, saying: 4 Is it time for you yourselves to live in paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins?
5 Now, therefore, thus says the Lord of Hosts: Consider your ways. 6 You have sown much, and harvested little. You eat, but you do not have enough; you drink, but you are not filled with drink; you clothe yourselves, but no one is warm; and he who earns wages earns wages to put them into a bag with holes.
7 Thus says the Lord of Hosts: Consider your ways. 8 Go up to the mountain and bring wood and rebuild the house, that I may take pleasure in it and be glorified, says the Lord. 9 You looked for much, and it came to little; and when you brought it home, I blew it away. Why? says the Lord of Hosts. Because of My house that lies in ruins while each of you runs to his own house. 10 Therefore the heavens above you have withheld the dew, and the earth has withheld its crops. 11 I called for a drought on the land and the mountains, on the grain, on the new wine, on the oil, on what the ground brings forth, on men, on livestock, and on all the labor of your hands.
The People Obey God’s Command
12 Then Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, with all the remnant of the people, obeyed the voice of the Lord their God, and the words of Haggai the prophet, as the Lord their God had sent him. And the people feared the Lord.
13 Then Haggai, the messenger of the Lord, spoke the message of the Lord to the people, saying: I am with you, says the Lord. 14 And the Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the spirit of all the remnant of the people. And they came and worked on the house of the Lord of Hosts their God, 15 on the twenty-fourth day of the sixth month, in the second year of King Darius.
The Message to Thyatira
18 “To the angel of the church in Thyatira write:
“The Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire, and whose feet are like fine brass, says these things: 19 I know your works, love, service, faith, and your patience, and that your last works are more than the first.
20 “But I have a few things against you: You permit that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, to teach and seduce My servants to commit sexual immorality and eat food sacrificed to idols. 21 I gave her time to repent of her sexual immorality, but she did not repent. 22 Look! I will throw her onto a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation, unless they repent of their deeds. 23 I will put her children to death, and all the churches shall know that I am He who searches the hearts and minds. I will give to each one of you according to your deeds.
24 “Now to you I say, and to the rest in Thyatira, as many as do not have this teaching, who have not known what some call the ‘depths of Satan,’ I will put on you no other burden. 25 But hold firmly what you have until I come.
26 “To him who overcomes and keeps My works to the end, I will give authority over the nations—
27 He ‘shall rule them with a rod of iron;
like the vessels of a potter they shall be broken in pieces’[a]—
even as I myself have received authority from My Father. 28 And I will give him the morning star. 29 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
27 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and of all uncleanness. 28 So you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.
29 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You build the tombs of the prophets, and adorn the memorials of the righteous, 30 and say, ‘If we lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have partaken with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’ 31 Therefore you are witnesses against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. 32 Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers’ guilt.
33 “You serpents! You generation of vipers! How can you escape the judgment of hell? 34 Therefore I send you prophets, and wise men, and scribes. Some of them you will kill and crucify, and some you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute them from city to city, 35 that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Berekiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. 36 Truly I say to you, all these things will come on this generation.
The Lament Over Jerusalem(A)
37 “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those who are sent to you, how often I would have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you would not! 38 Look, your house is left to you desolate. 39 For I tell you, you shall not see Me again until you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.’[a]”
The Holy Bible, Modern English Version. Copyright © 2014 by Military Bible Association. Published and distributed by Charisma House.