Book of Common Prayer
Thanksgiving to God
118 Give thanks to the Lord,
for he is good;
his gracious love is eternal.
2 Let Israel now say,
“His gracious love is eternal.”
3 Let the house of Aaron now say,
“His gracious love is eternal.”
4 Let those who fear the Lord now say,
“His gracious love is eternal.”
5 I called on the Lord in my distress;
the Lord answered me openly.[a]
6 The Lord is with me.
I will not be afraid.
What can people do to me?
7 With the Lord beside me as my helper,
I will triumph over those who hate me.
8 It is better to take shelter[b] in the Lord
than to trust in people.
9 It is better to take shelter[c] in the Lord
than to trust in princes.
10 All the nations surrounded me;
but in the name of the Lord I will defeat them.
11 They surrounded me, they are around me;
but in the name of the Lord I will defeat them.
12 They surrounded me like bees;
but they will be extinguished like[d] burning thorns.
In the name of the Lord I will defeat them.
13 Indeed, you[e] oppressed me so much that I nearly fell,
but the Lord helped me.
14 The Lord is my strength and protector,[f]
for he has become my deliverer.[g]
15 There’s exultation[h] for deliverance in the tents of the righteous:
“The right hand of the Lord is victorious![i]
16 The right hand of the Lord is exalted!
The right hand of the Lord is victorious!”[j]
17 I will not die, but I will live
to recount the deeds of the Lord.
18 The Lord will discipline me severely,
but he won’t hand me over to die.
19 Open for me the righteous gates
so I may enter through them to give thanks to the Lord.
20 This is the Lord’s gate—
The righteous will enter through it.
21 I will praise you because you have answered me
and have become my deliverer.
22 The stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone.
23 This is from the Lord—
it is awesome in our sight.
24 This is the day that the Lord has made;
let’s rejoice and be glad in it.
25 Please Lord, deliver us!
Please Lord, hurry[k] and bring success now!
26 Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!
Let us bless you from the Lord’s house.
27 The Lord is God—he will be our light!
Bind the festival sacrifice with ropes
to the horn at the altar.
28 You are my God, and I will praise you;
my God, and I will exalt you.
29 Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good
and his gracious love is eternal.
A Davidic Psalm[a]
Praising God for His Works
145 I will speak highly of you, my God and King,
and I will bless your name forever and ever.
2 I will bless you every day
and I will praise your name forever and ever.
3 The Lord is great,
and to be praised highly,
though his greatness is indescribable.
4 One generation will acclaim your works to another
and will describe your mighty actions.
5 I[b] will speak about the glorious splendor of your majesty
as well as[c] your awesome actions.
6 People[d] will speak about the might of your great deeds,
and I will announce your greatness.
7 They will extol the fame of your abundant goodness,
and will sing out loud about your righteousness.
8 Gracious and merciful is the Lord,
slow to become angry,
and overflowing with gracious love.
9 The Lord is good to everyone
and his mercies extend to everything he does.
10 Lord, everything you have done will praise you,
and your holy ones will bless you.
11 They will speak about the glory of your kingdom,
and they will talk about your might,
12 in order to make known your mighty acts to mankind[e]
as well as the majestic splendor of your kingdom.
13 Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom,
and your authority endures from one generation to another.
13b God[f] is faithful about everything he says
and merciful in everything he does.
14 The Lord supports everyone who falls
and raises up those who are bowed down.
15 Everyone’s eyes are on you,
as you give them their food in due time.
16 You[g] open your hand
and keep on satisfying the desire of every living thing.
17 The Lord is righteous in all of his ways
and graciously loving in all of his activities.
18 The Lord remains near to all who call out to him,
to everyone who calls out to him sincerely.[h]
19 He fulfills the desire of those who fear him,
hearing their cry and saving them.
20 The Lord preserves everyone who loves him,
but he will destroy all of the wicked.
21 My mouth will praise the Lord,
and all creatures will bless his holy name forever and ever.
Samson Tells Delilah His Secret
15 Some time later, she asked him, “How can you keep saying ‘I love you!’ when your heart isn’t with me? These three times you’ve lied to me and haven’t told me where your great strength lies.” 16 She nagged him every day with this speech, pestering him until he[a] was annoyed nearly[b] to death.
17 So he finally disclosed everything. He told her,[c] “A razor has never touched my head, because I’ve been a Nazirite for God before I was born.[d] If I am shaved, then my strength will abandon me and I will become weak like every human being.”
18 When Delilah realized that he had disclosed everything[e] to her, she sent for the Philistine officials and told them, “Hurry up and come here at once, because he has told me everything.”[f] So the Philistine officials went to her and brought their money with them. 19 So she enticed him to fall asleep on her lap, called for a man to shave off his seven locks of hair[g] from his head, and so began to humiliate him. Then his strength abandoned him.
20 When she cried out, “The Philistines are attacking you, Samson!” he woke from his sleep and told himself,[h] “I’ll go out like I did at other times like this and shake myself free.” But he didn’t know that the Lord had abandoned him.
Samson is Imprisoned by the Philistines
21 Then the Philistines grabbed him, gouged out his eyes, brought him down to Gaza, tied him up in bronze chains,[i] and made him grind grain in their prison.[j] 22 But the hair on his head began to grow again after it had been shaved off.
23 Some time later, the Philistine officials got together to present a magnificent sacrifice to their god Dagon, and to throw a party, because they were claiming, “Our god has given Samson into our control!”
24 When the people saw Samson,[k] they praised their god, claiming:
Our god has given our enemy into our control;
the one who was destroying our land,
and who has killed many of us.
25 Because they all got good and drunk,[l] they ordered, “Go get Samson, so he can entertain us.” So they called for Samson from the prison, and he entertained them while they made him stand between the pillars.
Samson Kills Himself and 3,000 Philistines
26 Then Samson told the young man who had been leading him around by the hand, “Let me touch and feel the pillars on which this building rests, and I’ll support myself against them.” 27 Now the building was full of men, women, and all the Philistine officials, with about 3,000 men and women on the roof watching Samson while he was entertaining them.
28 Then Samson cried out to the Lord, “Lord God, please remember me. And please strengthen me this one time, God, so that I can repay the Philistines right now for my two eyes.” 29 Then Samson grabbed the two middle pillars upon which the house rested and braced himself against them with one pillar in his right hand and the other in his left.
30 Then Samson said, “Let me die with the Philistines!” He strained with all his strength until the building collapsed on the officials and every person in it. As a result, the dead whom he killed at his death were more than those whom he killed during his lifetime. 31 Afterwards, his brothers and his father’s household servants[m] came down, took him, brought him back, and buried him in his father Manoah’s tomb between Zorah and Eshtaol. He had governed Israel for 20 years.
Final Warnings
13 This will be the third time I am coming to you. “Every accusation must be verified by two or three witnesses.”[a] 2 I have already warned those who sinned previously and all the rest. Although I am absent now, I am warning them as I did on my second visit: If I come back, I will not spare you, 3 since you want proof that the Messiah[b] is speaking through me. He is not weak in dealing with you but is making his power felt among you. 4 Though he was crucified in weakness, he lives by God’s power. We are weak with him, but by God’s power we will live for you.
5 Keep examining yourselves to see whether you are continuing in the faith. Test yourselves! You know, don’t you, that Jesus the Messiah[c] lives in you? Could it be that you are failing the test? 6 I hope you will realize that we haven’t failed our test. 7 We pray to God that you will not do anything wrong—not to show that we have not failed the test, but so that you may do what is right, even if we seem to have failed. 8 For we cannot do anything against the truth, but only for the truth. 9 We are glad when we are weak and you are strong. That is what we are praying for—your maturity.
10 For this reason I am writing this while I am away from you: When I come I do not want to be severe in using the authority the Lord gave me to build you up and not to tear you down.
Final Greetings and Benediction
11 Finally, brothers, goodbye. Keep on growing to maturity. Keep listening to my appeals. Continue agreeing with each other and living in peace. Then the God of love and peace will be with you.
25 Now there was a woman who had been suffering from chronic bleeding for twelve years. 26 Although she had endured a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all of her money, she had not been helped at all, but rather grew worse. 27 Since she had heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his robe, 28 because she had been saying, “If I can just touch his robe, I will get well.” 29 Her bleeding stopped at once, and she felt in her body that she was healed from her illness.
30 Immediately Jesus became aware that power had gone out of him. So he turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my clothes?”
31 His disciples asked him, “You see the crowd jostling you, and yet you ask, ‘Who touched me?’” 32 But he kept looking around to look at the woman who had done this. 33 So the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came forward fearfully, fell down trembling in front of him, and told him the whole truth.
34 He told her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace and be healed from your illness.”
Copyright © 1995-2014 by ISV Foundation. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED INTERNATIONALLY. Used by permission of Davidson Press, LLC.