Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 55[a]
Prayer in Time of Betrayal by a Friend
1 For the director.[b] On stringed instruments. A maskil of David.
2 [c]Give ear to my prayer, O God,
do not ignore my supplication.
3 Listen to my cry and answer me,
for my troubles afford me no peace.
4 I am terrified by the shouts of the enemy
and the uproar of the wicked.
For they inflict troubles upon me,
and in their anger they revile me.
5 [d]My heart[e] is filled with anguish,
and I am beset by the terrors of death.
6 Fear and trembling overpower me;
horror overwhelms me.
7 I say, “If only I had wings like a dove
so that I could fly away and be at rest!
8 I would flee away
and seek shelter in the wilderness. Selah
9 I would hurry to a place of refuge,
far from the savage wind and tempest.”
10 [f]Restrain the wicked, O Lord, and confound their speech,[g]
for I see violence and strife in the city.
11 Day and night they make their rounds on its walls,
and within it are iniquity and malice.
12 Destruction is also in its midst;
oppression and treachery pervade its streets.
13 [h]If it was an enemy who reviled me,
I could endure that.
If a foe had treated me with contempt,
I could manage to avoid him.
14 But it was you, one like myself,
a companion and a dear friend,
15 with whom I engaged in pleasant conversation
as we walked with the festive throng
in the house of God.
16 Let death strike my enemies by surprise;
let them descend alive to the netherworld,
for evil dwells in their homes
and in the depths of their hearts.[i]
17 [j]But I make my appeal to God,
and the Lord will save me.
18 Evening, morning, and noon[k]
I will cry out in my distress,
and he will hear my voice.
19 [l]He will deliver me in peace and safety
from those who are arrayed against me,
even though there are many of them.
20 God will hear me and humiliate them,
he who has been enthroned forever. Selah
For they neither change their ways
nor have any fear of God.
21 My companion treats his friends harshly
and breaks his covenant.
22 His speech is smoother than butter,
but war is in his heart.
His words are more soothing than oil,
yet in reality they are drawn swords.
23 Entrust your cares to the Lord,
and he will uphold you;[m]
he will never allow the righteous to waver.
24 But you, O God, will send the wicked
down to the pit of destruction;[n]
those who are bloodthirsty and treacherous
will not live out half their days.
But as for me,
I will put my trust in you.
Psalm 138[a]
Thanksgiving for God’s Favor
1 Of David.
I offer you thanks, O Lord, with all my heart;[b]
before the “gods” I sing your praise.
2 I bow down toward your holy temple
and I praise your name[c]
for your kindness and your faithfulness,
for you have exalted above all things
your name and your word.
3 On the day I cried out, you answered me
and granted strength to my spirit.
4 [d]All the kings of the earth will praise you, O Lord,
when they hear the words of your mouth.
5 They will sing of the ways of the Lord:
“How great is the Lord’s glory!”
6 For though the Lord is exalted, he cares for the lowly,[e]
but he remains far distant from the proud.
7 Although I walk in the midst of hostility,
you preserve my life.
You stretch out your hand against the wrath of my enemies,
and with your right hand[f] you deliver me.
8 The Lord will fulfill his plan for me.
Your kindness, O Lord, endures forever;
do not forsake the work of your hands.[g]
Psalm 139[h]
God’s Infinite Knowledge and Universal Power
1 For the director.[i] A psalm of David.
[j]O Lord, you have examined me
and you know me.
2 You know when I sit and when I stand;[k]
you perceive my thoughts from a distance.
3 You mark when I go out and when I lie down;
all my ways are open to you.
4 A word is not even on my tongue
and you, O Lord, are completely aware of it.
5 You enfold me from in front and from behind,
and you place your hand upon me.[l]
6 Your knowledge is beyond my comprehension,
far too sublime for me to attain.
7 [m]Where can I go to hide from your spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
8 If I ascend to the heavens, you are there;
if I take my rest in the netherworld, you are also there.
9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn[n]
and settle at the farthest limits of the sea,
10 even there your hand will guide me,
and your right hand will hold me fast.
11 [o]If I say, “Surely the darkness will conceal me
and the day around me will turn to night,”
12 even the darkness is not dark to you;
the night is as bright as the day,
for to you darkness and light are the same.
13 [p]You created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
14 I praise you because I am wonderfully made;
awesome are your works,
as I know very well.
15 My body was not hidden from you
when I was being made in secret.
When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,
you saw me in the womb.[q]
16 [r]The sum total of my days
were all recorded in your book.[s]
My life was fashioned
before it had come into being.
17 How precious to me are your designs, O God!
How vast in number they are!
18 If I were to attempt to count them,
they would outnumber the grains of sand.
When I awake,[t]
I am still with you.
19 [u]If only you would slay the wicked, O God,
and the bloodthirsty would leave me![v]
20 They blaspheme your name
and treacherously rise up against you.[w]
21 Do I not hate those who hate you, O Lord,
and loathe those who rise up against you?
22 My hatred for them is unlimited;
I regard them as my personal enemies.
23 Examine me, O God, and know my heart;[x]
test me and understand my thoughts.
8 A country is best served when a king is in charge of the fertile fields.[a]
Money: An Insatiable Desire
9 One who is covetous will never be satisfied with money,
nor will the lover of wealth be content with gain.
This too is vanity.
10 When riches increase,
so do those who are eager to accumulate them,
and those who have accumulated them must remain content
simply to feast their eyes on them.
11 Sleep is sweet to the laborer,
whether he has much or little to eat,
but the vast riches of a wealthy man
do not allow him to sleep.
12 There is a grievous evil that I have seen under the sun:
Riches are hoarded by their owner to his disadvantage,
13 or riches are lost by some misfortune,
so that he has nothing remaining to leave to his son.
14 Just as he came forth naked from his mother’s womb,
so shall he depart, naked as he came,
with nothing remaining from his labor
that he can carry away in his hands.
15 This too is a grievous evil:
Just as he came, so must he go,
and what profit can he have after toiling for the wind?
16 All of his days are spent in darkness
with great anxiety, sickness, and resentment.
17 The Happiness Suitable for Humans. This is the conclusion I have reached: it is fitting for a man to eat and drink and find satisfaction in the results of his labors under the sun during the brief span of life that God has allotted him. 18 Moreover, the one to whom God grants wealth and possessions and the ability to enjoy them and to find contentment in his toil receives a gift from God. 19 For it is unlikely that he will brood about the passing years inasmuch as God keeps his heart filled with joy.[b]
23 The Benefit of Faith.[a]Now before faith came, we were prisoners of the Law, confined as we waited for the faith that would eventually be revealed. 24 Therefore, the Law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, so that we might be justified by faith. 25 However, now that faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor.
26 Children of God in Christ. Through faith you are all children of God in Christ Jesus. 27 For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves in Christ. 28 There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free man, there is no longer male or female. For all of you are one in Christ Jesus. 29 And if you are Christ’s, then you are the offspring of Abraham and heirs according to the promise.
Chapter 4
Set Free by Christ. 1 What I am saying is that as long as an heir is a minor, he is no different from a slave, even though he is the owner of it all. 2 He remains under the supervision of guardians and trustees until the date designated by the father. 3 This is also true of us. As long as we were children, we were enslaved to the forces of this world.
4 However, when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, 5 in order to redeem those who were under the Law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.
6 And because you are sons, God has sent into our hearts the Spirit of his Son, crying out “Abba! Father!” 7 Therefore, you are no longer a slave but a son; and if you are a son, then through God you are also an heir.
No Return to Slavery.[b] 8 Previously, when you did not know God, you were slaves to forces who were not really gods at all. 9 But now that you have come to know God—or rather to be known by God—how can you turn back once again to those powerless and destitute forces? How can you consider becoming enslaved once again? 10 You even observe special days and months and seasons and years. 11 Now I am afraid for you, that I have labored among you in vain.
Chapter 15
Traditions That Falsify the Law of God. 1 Then Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem and asked, 2 [a]“Why do your disciples ignore the tradition of the elders? They do not wash their hands before eating.” 3 He answered them, “And why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? 4 For God said, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and ‘Whoever curses his father or mother shall be put to death.’ 5 But you say, ‘If anyone says to his father or mother, “Anything I might have used for your support is dedicated to God,” 6 then he is excused from his duty to honor his father or mother.’ To uphold your tradition you have made God’s word null and void. 7 You hypocrites! How rightly did Isaiah prophesy about you when he said:
8 ‘This people honors me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me;
9 in vain do they worship me,
teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’ ”
10 Clean and Unclean.[b] Then he called the people to him and said to them, “Listen and understand. 11 It is not what goes into one’s mouth that defiles a person; what comes out of the mouth is what defiles him.”
12 The disciples approached and said to him, “Do you realize that the Pharisees were greatly offended when they heard what you said?” 13 He answered, “Every plant that my Father has not planted will be uprooted. 14 Leave them alone. They are blind guides. And if one blind person guides another, they will both fall into a pit.”
15 Peter said to him, “Explain that parable to us.” 16 Jesus replied, “Are even you still without understanding? 17 Do you not realize that whatever goes into the mouth passes through the stomach and is discharged into the sewer? 18 But what comes out of the mouth originates in the heart, and this is what defiles a person. 19 For from the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, perjury, slander. 20 These are the things that defile a person, but to eat with unwashed hands does not make anyone unclean.”
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