Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 70
A Call for Deliverance
For the choir director. Of David. To bring remembrance.(A)
1 God, hurry to rescue me.
Lord, hurry to help me!(B)
2 Let those who seek to kill me
be disgraced and confounded;
let those who wish me harm
be turned back and humiliated.
3 Let those who say, “Aha, aha!”
retreat because of their shame.(C)
4 Let all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you;
let those who love your salvation
continually say, “God is great!” (D)
5 I am oppressed and needy;
hurry to me, God.
You are my help and my deliverer;
Lord, do not delay.(E)
Psalm 71
God’s Help in Old Age
1 Lord, I seek refuge in you;
let me never be disgraced.(F)
2 In your justice, rescue and deliver me;
listen closely to me and save me.(G)
3 Be a rock of refuge for me,
where I can always go.
Give the command to save me,
for you are my rock and fortress.(H)
4 Deliver me, my God, from the power of the wicked,
from the grasp of the unjust and oppressive.(I)
5 For you are my hope, Lord God,
my confidence from my youth.(J)
6 I have leaned on you from birth;
you took me from my mother’s womb.(K)
My praise is always about you.(L)
7 I am like a miraculous sign to many,
and you are my strong refuge.(M)
8 My mouth is full of praise
and honor to you all day long.(N)
9 Don’t discard me in my old age.
As my strength fails, do not abandon me.(O)
10 For my enemies talk about me,
and those who spy on me plot together,(P)
11 saying, “God has abandoned him;
chase him and catch him,
for there is no one to rescue him.”(Q)
12 God, do not be far from me;
my God, hurry to help me.(R)
13 May my adversaries be disgraced and destroyed;
may those who intend to harm me
be covered with disgrace and humiliation.(S)
14 But I will hope continually
and will praise you more and more.(T)
15 My mouth will tell about your righteousness
and your salvation all day long,
though I cannot sum them up.(U)
16 I come because of the mighty acts of the Lord God;
I will proclaim your righteousness, yours alone.(V)
17 God, you have taught me from my youth,
and I still proclaim your wondrous works.(W)
18 Even while I am old and gray,
God, do not abandon me,(X)
while I proclaim your power
to another generation,
your strength to all who are to come.(Y)
19 Your righteousness reaches the heights, God,
you who have done great things;
God, who is like you?(Z)
20 You caused me to experience
many troubles and misfortunes,(AA)
but you will revive me again.(AB)
You will bring me up again,
even from the depths of the earth.(AC)
21 You will increase my honor
and comfort me once again.(AD)
22 Therefore, I will praise you with a harp
for your faithfulness, my God;
I will sing to you with a lyre,
Holy One of Israel.(AE)
23 My lips will shout for joy
when I sing praise to you
because you have redeemed me.(AF)
24 Therefore, my tongue will proclaim
your righteousness all day long,
for those who intend to harm me
will be disgraced and confounded.(AG)
Psalm 74
Prayer for Israel
A Maskil of Asaph.(A)
1 Why have you rejected us forever, God?
Why does your anger burn
against the sheep of your pasture?(B)
2 Remember your congregation,
which you purchased long ago
and redeemed as the tribe for your own possession.(C)
Remember Mount Zion where you dwell.(D)
3 Make your way[a] to the perpetual ruins,
to all that the enemy has destroyed in the sanctuary.(E)
4 Your adversaries roared in the meeting place
where you met with us.[b]
They set up their emblems as signs.(F)
5 It was like men in a thicket of trees,
wielding axes,(G)
6 then smashing all the carvings
with hatchets and picks.(H)
7 They set your sanctuary on fire;
they utterly[c] desecrated
the dwelling place of your name.(I)
8 They said in their hearts,
“Let’s oppress them relentlessly.”
They burned every place throughout the land
where God met with us.[d](J)
9 There are no signs for us to see.
There is no longer a prophet.
And none of us knows how long this will last.(K)
10 God, how long will the enemy mock?
Will the foe insult your name forever?(L)
11 Why do you hold back your hand?
Stretch out[e] your right hand and destroy them!(M)
12 God my King is from ancient times,
performing saving acts on the earth.(N)
13 You divided the sea with your strength;
you smashed the heads of the sea monsters in the water;(O)
14 you crushed the heads of Leviathan;
you fed him to the creatures of the desert. (P)
15 You opened up springs and streams;(Q)
you dried up ever-flowing rivers.(R)
16 The day is yours, also the night;
you established the moon and the sun.(S)
17 You set all the boundaries of the earth;
you made summer and winter.(T)
18 Remember this: the enemy has mocked the Lord,
and a foolish people has insulted your name.(U)
19 Do not give to beasts the life of your dove;[f]
do not forget the lives of your poor people forever.(V)
20 Consider the covenant,(W)
for the dark places of the land are full of violence.(X)
21 Do not let the oppressed turn away in shame;
let the poor and needy praise your name.(Y)
22 Rise up, God, champion your cause!(Z)
Remember the insults
that fools bring against you all day long.(AA)
23 Do not forget the clamor of your adversaries,
the tumult of your opponents that goes up constantly.(AB)
Sarah’s Burial
23 Now Sarah lived 127 years; these were all the years of her life. 2 Sarah died in Kiriath-arba (that is, Hebron(A)) in the land of Canaan, and Abraham went in to mourn for Sarah and to weep for her.
3 When Abraham got up from beside his dead wife, he spoke to the Hethites: 4 “I am an alien residing among you.(B) Give me burial property among you so that I can bury my dead.”[a](C)
5 The Hethites replied to Abraham,[b] 6 “Listen to us, my lord. You are a prince of God[c] among us. Bury your dead in our finest burial place.[d] None of us will withhold from you his burial place for burying your dead.”
7 Then Abraham rose and bowed down to the Hethites, the people of the land. 8 He said to them, “If you are willing for me to bury my dead, listen to me and ask Ephron son of Zohar on my behalf 9 to give me the cave of Machpelah that belongs to him; it is at the end of his field. Let him give it to me in your presence, for the full price, as burial property.”
10 Ephron was sitting among the Hethites. So in the hearing[e] of all the Hethites who came to the gate of his city,(D) Ephron the Hethite answered Abraham: 11 “No, my lord. Listen to me. I give you the field, and I give you the cave that is in it. I give it to you in the sight[f] of my people. Bury your dead.”
12 Abraham bowed down to the people of the land 13 and said to Ephron in the hearing of the people of the land, “Listen to me, if you please. Let me pay the price of the field. Accept it from me, and let me bury my dead there.”
14 Ephron answered Abraham and said to him, 15 “My lord, listen to me. Land worth four hundred shekels of silver(E)—what is that between you and me? Bury your dead.” 16 Abraham agreed with Ephron, and Abraham weighed out to Ephron the silver that he had agreed to in the hearing of the Hethites: four hundred standard shekels[g] of silver.(F) 17 So Ephron’s field(G) at Machpelah near Mamre—the field with its cave and all the trees anywhere within the boundaries of the field—became 18 Abraham’s possession in the sight of all the Hethites who came to the gate of his city. 19 After this, Abraham buried his wife Sarah in the cave of the field at Machpelah near Mamre (that is, Hebron) in the land of Canaan. 20 The field with its cave passed from the Hethites to Abraham(H) as burial property.
32 And what more can I say? Time is too short for me to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah,(A) David, Samuel, and the prophets,(B) 33 who by faith conquered kingdoms,(C) administered justice, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions,(D) 34 quenched the raging of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, gained strength in weakness, became mighty in battle, and put foreign armies to flight.(E) 35 Women received their dead, raised to life again. Other people were tortured, not accepting release, so that they might gain a better resurrection. 36 Others experienced mockings and scourgings, as well as bonds and imprisonment.(F) 37 They were stoned,[a](G) they were sawed in two, they died by the sword, they wandered about in sheepskins, in goatskins,(H) destitute, afflicted, and mistreated. 38 The world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and on mountains, hiding in caves and holes in the ground.
39 All these were approved through their faith, but they did not receive what was promised, 40 since God had provided something better for us, so that they would not be made perfect without us.(I)
The Call to Endurance
12 Therefore, since we also have such a large cloud of witnesses(J) surrounding us, let us lay aside every hindrance and the sin that so easily ensnares us. Let us run with endurance(K) the race that lies before us, 2 keeping our eyes on Jesus,[b] the pioneer and perfecter[c] of our faith. For the joy that lay before him,[d] he endured the cross, despising the shame,(L) and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Many Disciples Desert Jesus
60 Therefore, when many of his disciples heard this, they said, “This teaching is hard. Who can accept[a] it?”
61 Jesus, knowing in himself(A) that his disciples were grumbling about this, asked them, “Does this offend you? 62 Then what if you were to observe the Son of Man(B) ascending(C) to where he was before? 63 The Spirit(D) is the one who gives life. The flesh doesn’t help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life. 64 But there are some among you who don’t believe.” (For Jesus knew from the beginning(E) those who did not[b] believe and the one who would betray(F) him.) 65 He said, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me(G) unless it is granted to him by the Father.”
66 From that moment[c] many of his disciples turned back and no longer accompanied him. 67 So Jesus said to the Twelve,(H) “You don’t want to go away too, do you?”
68 Simon Peter(I) answered, “Lord, to whom will we go? You have the words of eternal life. 69 We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.”[d](J)
70 Jesus replied to them, “Didn’t I choose you, the Twelve?(K) Yet one of you is a devil.”(L) 71 He was referring to Judas,(M) Simon Iscariot’s son,[e] one of the Twelve, because he was going to betray(N) him.
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