Book of Common Prayer

A Prayer for Israel

83 O God, do not keep quiet. Do not be quiet, O God, and do not hold Your peace. ² For, look, those who hate You are making much noise. Those who fight against You have honored themselves. ³ They make bad plans against Your people. They plan against those You care for. ⁴ They say, “Come, let us destroy them as a nation. Let the name of Israel be remembered no longer.” ⁵ For they plan together with one mind. They make an agreement against You: ⁶ The tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites; Moab and the Hagarites; ⁷ Gebal, and Ammon, and Amalek; Philistia with those who live in Tyre; ⁸ Assyria has joined them also. They help the children of Lot.

⁹ Do to them as You did to Midian, and to Sisera and Jabin at the river of Kishon. ¹⁰ They were destroyed at Endor. They were spread over the field. ¹¹ Make their respected men like Oreb and Zeeb. Make their princes like Zebah and Zalmunna, ¹² who said, “Let us take for ourselves the fields of God.”

¹³ O my God, make them like dust turning in the wind, like parts of the grass that have no worth and are blown away. ¹⁴ As the fire that burns up the trees and spreads over the mountains, ¹⁵ so go behind them with Your storm. Make them afraid with Your storm. ¹⁶ Fill their faces with shame, so they will look to Your name, O Lord. ¹⁷ Let them be ashamed and afraid forever. Let them be put to shame and lost. ¹⁸ Then they may know that You alone, Whose name is the Lord, are the Most High over all the earth.

A Song of Praise

145 I will praise You, my God and King. I will honor Your name forever and ever. ² I will honor You every day, and praise Your name forever and ever. ³ The Lord is great and our praise to Him should be great. He is too great for anyone to understand. ⁴ Families of this time will praise Your works to the families-to-come. They will tell about Your powerful acts. ⁵ I will think about the shining-greatness of Your power and about Your great works. ⁶ Men will speak of Your powerful acts that fill us with fear. And I will tell of Your greatness. ⁷ Many words will come from their mouths about how good You are. They will sing for joy about how right You are.

⁸ The Lord is full of loving-favor and pity, slow to anger and great in loving-kindness. ⁹ The Lord is good to all. And His loving-kindness is over all His works. ¹⁰ All Your works will give thanks to You, O Lord. And all those who belong to You will honor You. ¹¹ They will speak of the shining-greatness of Your holy nation, and talk of Your power. ¹² They will make Your powerful acts and the great power of Your holy nation known to the sons of men. ¹³ Your holy nation is a nation that lasts forever. And Your rule lasts for all time.

¹⁴ The Lord holds up all who fall. He raises up all who are brought down. ¹⁵ The eyes of all look to You. And You give them their food at the right time. ¹⁶ You open Your hand and fill the desire of every living thing.

¹⁷ The Lord is right and good in all His ways, and kind in all His works. ¹⁸ The Lord is near to all who call on Him, to all who call on Him in truth. ¹⁹ He will fill the desire of those who fear Him. He will also hear their cry and will save them. ²⁰ The Lord takes care of all who love Him. But He will destroy all the sinful. ²¹ My mouth will speak the praise of the Lord. And all flesh will honor His holy name forever and ever.

A Prayer for the Nation’s Good

85 O Lord, You showed favor to Your land. You have returned those of Jacob who were taken away. ² You have forgiven the sins of Your people. You have covered all their sin. ³ You have taken away all Your anger. You have turned away from Your burning anger.

⁴ O God Who saves us, give us life again. Make Your anger toward us stop. ⁵ Will You be angry with us forever? Will You spread out Your anger to families of all times? ⁶ Will You not bring us back to life again so that Your people may be happy in You? ⁷ Show us Your loving-kindness, O Lord, and save us.

⁸ I will listen to what God the Lord will say. For He will speak peace to His people, to those who are right with Him. But do not let them turn again to foolish things. ⁹ For sure His saving power is near those who fear Him, so His shining-greatness may live in the land. ¹⁰ Loving-kindness and truth have met together. Peace and what is right and good have kissed each other. ¹¹ Truth comes up from the earth. And what is right and good looks down from heaven. ¹² Yes, the Lord will give what is good. And our land will give its fruit. ¹³ What is right and good will go before Him and make a way for His steps.

A Prayer for Help

86 Hear, O Lord, and answer me. For I am suffering and in need. ² Keep my life, for I am faithful to You. You are my God. Save Your servant who trusts in You. ³ Show me loving-kindness, O Lord. For I cry to You all day long. ⁴ Bring joy to Your servant. For I lift up my soul to You, O Lord. ⁵ For You are good and ready to forgive, O Lord. You are rich in loving-kindness to all who call to You. ⁶ Hear my prayer, O Lord. Listen to my cry for help. ⁷ I will call to You in the day of my trouble. For You will answer me. ⁸ There is no one like You among the gods, O Lord. And there are no works like Yours. ⁹ All the nations You have made will come and worship before You, O Lord. And they will bring honor to Your name. ¹⁰ For You are great and do great things. You alone are God.

¹¹ Teach me Your way, O Lord. I will walk in Your truth. May my heart fear Your name. ¹² O Lord my God, I will give thanks to You with all my heart. I will bring honor to Your name forever. ¹³ For Your loving-kindness toward me is great. And You have saved my soul from the bottom of the grave.

¹⁴ O God, proud men have come up against me. A group of fighting men want to take my life. And they do not think of You. ¹⁵ But You, O Lord, are a God full of love and pity. You are slow to anger and rich in loving-kindness and truth. ¹⁶ Turn to me, and show me loving-kindness. Give Your strength to Your servant. And save the son of your woman servant. ¹⁷ Give me something special to see of Your favor. Then those who hate me may see it and be ashamed. Because You, O Lord, have helped me and comforted me.

²² Then the men of Israel said to Gideon, “Rule over us, both you and your son, and your grandson also. For you have set us free from the power of Midian.” ²³ But Gideon said to them, “I will not rule over you. And my son will not rule over you. The Lord will rule over you.” ²⁴ Gideon said to them, “I only ask that each of you give me the gold objects you have taken to be worn on the ear.” (They had objects to be worn on the ear because they were Ishmaelites.) ²⁵ And they said, “For sure we will give them.” So they spread out a coat, and every one of them threw into it an object he had taken. ²⁶ The gold objects Gideon had asked for were as heavy as 1,700 pieces of gold money. He took the objects and purple clothing worn by the kings of Midian also. And he took the religious objects that were around the camels’ necks. ²⁷ Gideon made it into a holy vest and put it in his city, Ophrah. All Israel worshiped it there. So it became a trap to Gideon and those of his house. ²⁸ Midian was put under the power of the people of Israel. They did not lift up their heads any more. And the land had peace for forty years, during the life of Gideon.

The Death of Gideon

²⁹ Joash’s son Jerubbaal (that is, Gideon) went and lived in his own house. ³⁰ Gideon had seventy sons born to him, for he had many wives. ³¹ The woman in Shechem who acted as his wife gave birth to Gideon’s son also. He was given the name Abimelech. ³² Gideon the son of Joash died when he was very old. He was buried in the grave of his father Joash, in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.

³³ As soon as Gideon was dead, the people of Israel started again to worship the false gods of Baal. They made Baal-berith their god. ³⁴ The people of Israel did not remember the Lord their God, Who had saved them from the power of all those around who hated them. ³⁵ They did not show kindness to the family of Jerubbaal (that is, Gideon). They did not remember all the good he had done to Israel.

Peter and John Are Put in Prison

4 The religious leaders and the leader of the house of God and some of the religious group who believe no one will be raised from the dead came to Peter and John while they were talking to the people. ² They were angry because Peter and John had been teaching the people and preaching that Jesus had been raised from the dead. ³ So they took them and put them in prison until the next day because it was evening. ⁴ But many of those who heard what Peter and John said put their trust in Christ. The group of followers was now about 5,000 men.

Peter Speaks to the Religious Leaders’ Court

⁵ The next day the leaders of the court and the leaders of the people and the teachers of the Law came together in Jerusalem. ⁶ Annas the head religious leader was there. Caiaphas and John and Alexander were there also and all who were in the family of the head religious leader. ⁷ They put the missionaries in front of them and asked, “By what power or in whose name have you done this?”

⁸ Then Peter, having been filled with the Holy Spirit, said, “You who are leaders of the people, ⁹ are you asking us today about the good work we did to a man who needed help? Are you asking how he was healed? ¹⁰ You and all the Jews must know that it was by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, the One you nailed to a cross and God raised from the dead. It is through Him that this man stands in front of you well and strong. ¹¹ Christ is the Stone that was put aside by you workmen. But He has become the most important Stone in the building. ^{(A) 12} There is no way to be saved from the punishment of sin through anyone else. For there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we can be saved.”

Jesus Calls Philip And Nathanael

⁴³ The next day Jesus wanted to go to the country of Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, “Follow Me.” ⁴⁴ Philip was from the town of Bethsaida. Andrew and Peter were from this town also. ⁴⁵ Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found the One Moses wrote about in the Law. He is the One the early preachers wrote about. He is Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of Joseph.” ⁴⁶ Nathanael said, “Can anything good come out of the town of Nazareth?” Philip said, “Come and see.”

⁴⁷ Jesus saw Nathanael coming to Him and said, “See! There is a true Jew. There is nothing false in him.” ⁴⁸ Nathanael said to Jesus, “How do You know me?” Jesus answered him, “Before Philip talked to you, I saw you under the fig tree.” ⁴⁹ Nathanael said to Him, “Teacher, You are the Son of God. You are the King of the Jews.” ⁵⁰ Jesus said to him, “Do you believe because I said I saw you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than that. ⁵¹ For sure, I tell you, you will see heaven opened and God’s angels going up and coming and down on the Son of Man.”