Book of Common Prayer

70 Rescue me, O God! Lord, hurry to my aid! ^2-3 They are after my life and delight in hurting me. Confuse them! Shame them! Stop them! Don’t let them keep on mocking me! ⁴ But fill the followers of God with joy. Let those who love your salvation exclaim, “What a wonderful God he is!” ⁵ But I am in deep trouble. Rush to my aid, for only you can help and save me. O Lord, don’t delay.

71 Lord, you are my refuge! Don’t let me down! ² Save me from my enemies, for you are just! Rescue me! Bend down your ear and listen to my plea and save me. ³ Be to me a great protecting Rock, where I am always welcome, safe from all attacks. For you have issued the order to save me. ⁴ Rescue me, O God, from these unjust and cruel men. ⁵ O Lord, you alone are my hope; I’ve trusted you from childhood. ⁶ Yes, you have been with me from birth and have helped me constantly—no wonder I am always praising you! ⁷ My success—at which so many stand amazed—is because you are my mighty protector. ⁸ All day long I’ll praise and honor you, O God, for all that you have done for me.

⁹ And now, in my old age, don’t set me aside. Don’t forsake me now when my strength is failing. ¹⁰ My enemies are whispering, ¹¹ “God has forsaken him! Now we can get him. There is no one to help him now!” ¹² O God, don’t stay away! Come quickly! Help! ¹³ Destroy them! Cover them with failure and disgrace—these enemies of mine.

¹⁴ I will keep on expecting you to help me. I praise you more and more. ¹⁵ I cannot count the times when you have faithfully rescued me from danger. I will tell everyone how good you are, and of your constant, daily care. ¹⁶ I walk in the strength of the Lord God. I tell everyone that you alone are just and good. ¹⁷ O God, you have helped me from my earliest childhood—and I have constantly testified to others of the wonderful things you do. ¹⁸ And now that I am old and gray, don’t forsake me. Give me time to tell this new generation (and their children too) about all your mighty miracles. ¹⁹ Your power and goodness, Lord, reach to the highest heavens. You have done such wonderful things. Where is there another God like you? ²⁰ You have let me sink down deep in desperate problems. But you will bring me back to life again, up from the depths of the earth. ²¹ You will give me greater honor than before and turn again and comfort me.

²² I will praise you with music, telling of your faithfulness to all your promises, O Holy One of Israel. ²³ I will shout and sing your praises for redeeming me. ²⁴ I will talk to others all day long about your justice and your goodness. For all who tried to hurt me have been disgraced and dishonored.

74 O God, why have you cast us away forever? Why is your anger hot against us—the sheep of your own pasture? ² Remember that we are your people—the ones you chose in ancient times from slavery and made the choicest of your possessions. You chose Jerusalem^[a] as your home on earth!

³ Walk through the awful ruins of the city and see what the enemy has done to your sanctuary. ⁴ There they shouted their battle cry and erected their idols to flaunt their victory. ^5-6 Everything lies in shambles like a forest chopped to the ground. They came with their axes and sledgehammers and smashed and chopped the carved paneling; ⁷ they set the sanctuary on fire, and razed it to the ground—your sanctuary, Lord. ⁸ “Let’s wipe out every trace of God,” they said, and went through the entire country burning down the assembly places where we worshiped you.

^9-10 There is nothing left to show that we are your people. The prophets are gone, and who can say when it all will end? How long, O God, will you allow our enemies to dishonor your name? Will you let them get away with this forever? ¹¹ Why do you delay? Why hold back your power? Unleash your fist and give them a final blow.

¹² God is my King from ages past; you have been actively helping me everywhere throughout the land. ^13-14 You divided the Red Sea with your strength; you crushed the sea god’s heads! You gave him to the desert tribes to eat! ¹⁵ At your command the springs burst forth to give your people water; and then you dried a path for them across the ever-flowing Jordan. ¹⁶ Day and night alike belong to you; you made the starlight and the sun. ¹⁷ All nature is within your hands; you make the summer and the winter too. ¹⁸ Lord, see how these enemies scoff at you. O Jehovah, an arrogant nation has blasphemed your name.

¹⁹ O Lord, save me! Protect your turtledove from the hawks.^[b] Save your beloved people from these beasts. ²⁰ Remember your promise! For the land is full of darkness and cruel men. ²¹ O Lord, don’t let your downtrodden people be constantly insulted. Give cause for these poor and needy ones to praise your name! ²² Arise, O God, and state your case against our enemies. Remember the insults these rebels have hurled against you all day long. ²³ Don’t overlook the cursing of these enemies of yours; it grows louder and louder.

²⁶ “I am Jehovah your God! You must not eat meat with undrained blood nor use fortune-telling or witchcraft.

²⁷ “You must not trim off your hair on your temples or clip the edges of your beard, as the heathen do.^{[a] 28} You shall not cut yourselves nor put tattoo marks upon yourselves in connection with funeral rites; I am the Lord.

²⁹ “Do not violate your daughter’s sanctity by making her a prostitute, lest the land become full of enormous wickedness.

³⁰ “Keep my Sabbath laws and reverence my Tabernacle, for I am the Lord.

³¹ “Do not defile yourselves by consulting mediums and wizards, for I am Jehovah your God.

³² “You shall give due honor and respect to the elderly, in the fear of God. I am Jehovah.

³³ “Do not take advantage of foreigners in your land; do not wrong them. ³⁴ They must be treated like any other citizen; love them as yourself, for remember that you too were foreigners in the land of Egypt. I am Jehovah your God.

^35-36 “You must be impartial in judgment. Use accurate measurements—lengths, weights, and volumes—and give full measure, for I am Jehovah your God who brought you from the land of Egypt. ³⁷ You must heed all of my commandments and ordinances, carefully obeying them, for I am Jehovah.”

1 From: Paul, Silas, and Timothy.

To: The church of Thessalonica—kept safe in God our Father and in the Lord Jesus Christ.

² May God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ give you rich blessings and peace-filled hearts and minds.

³ Dear brothers, giving thanks to God for you is not only the right thing to do, but it is our duty to God because of the really wonderful way your faith has grown and because of your growing love for each other. ⁴ We are happy to tell other churches about your patience and complete faith in God, in spite of all the crushing troubles and hardships you are going through.

⁵ This is only one example of the fair, just way God does things, for he is using your sufferings to make you ready for his Kingdom, ⁶ while at the same time he is preparing judgment and punishment for those who are hurting you.

⁷ And so I would say to you who are suffering, God will give you rest along with us when the Lord Jesus appears suddenly from heaven in flaming fire with his mighty angels, ⁸ bringing judgment on those who do not wish to know God and who refuse to accept his plan to save them through our Lord Jesus Christ. ⁹ They will be punished in everlasting hell, forever separated from the Lord, never to see the glory of his power ¹⁰ when he comes to receive praise and admiration because of all he has done for his people, his saints. And you will be among those praising him because you have believed what we told you about him.

¹¹ And so we keep on praying for you, that our God will make you the kind of children he wants to have—will make you as good as you wish you could be!—rewarding your faith with his power. ¹² Then everyone will be praising the name of the Lord Jesus Christ because of the results they see in you; and your greatest glory will be that you belong to him. The tender mercy of our God and of the Lord Jesus Christ has made all this possible for you.

²⁵ “So my counsel is: Don’t worry about things—food, drink, and clothes. For you already have life and a body—and they are far more important than what to eat and wear. ²⁶ Look at the birds! They don’t worry about what to eat—they don’t need to sow or reap or store up food—for your heavenly Father feeds them. And you are far more valuable to him than they are. ²⁷ Will all your worries add a single moment to your life?

²⁸ “And why worry about your clothes? Look at the field lilies! They don’t worry about theirs. ²⁹ Yet King Solomon in all his glory was not clothed as beautifully as they. ³⁰ And if God cares so wonderfully for flowers that are here today and gone tomorrow, won’t he more surely care for you, O men of little faith?

^31-32 “So don’t worry at all about having enough food and clothing. Why be like the heathen? For they take pride in all these things and are deeply concerned about them. But your heavenly Father already knows perfectly well that you need them, ³³ and he will give them to you if you give him first place in your life and live as he wants you to.

³⁴ “So don’t be anxious about tomorrow. God will take care of your tomorrow too. Live one day at a time.^[a]