Book of Common Prayer
Prayer to Be Kept Safe
20 May the Lord answer you in the day of trouble! May the name of the God of Jacob keep you safe. 2 May He send you help from the house of God, and give you strength from Zion. 3 May He remember all your gifts of grain given on the altar in worship. And may He be pleased with your burnt gifts.
4 May He give you the desire of your heart, and make all your plans go well. 5 We will sing for joy when you win. In the name of our God we will lift up our flags. May the Lord give you all the things you ask Him for.
6 Now I know that the Lord saves His chosen one. He will answer him from His holy heaven, with the saving power of His right hand. 7 Some trust in wagons and some in horses. But we will trust in the name of the Lord, our God. 8 They have fallen on their knees. But we rise up and stand straight. 9 O Lord, save! May the King answer us when we call.
Song of Praise for Being Kept Safe
21 O Lord, in Your strength the king is glad! How great is his joy in Your saving power! 2 You have given him the desire of his heart. You have not kept from him anything that he has asked for. 3 For You meet him with gifts of good things. You set a crown of pure gold on his head. 4 He asked You for life and You gave it to him, a long life forever and ever. 5 His honor is great because of Your help. You have given him greatness and power. 6 You have given him honor and respect forever. And You make him glad with the joy of being with You.
7 For the king trusts in the Lord. Because of the loving-kindness of the Most High, he will not be shaken. 8 Your hand will find all who fight against You. Your right hand will find those who hate You. 9 You will make them like a stove of fire in the time of Your anger. The Lord will eat them up in His anger. And the fire will destroy them. 10 You will destroy their children from the earth, and their sons from the children of men. 11 For they planned much trouble against You. They have made sinful plans that will come to nothing. 12 For You will make them turn their backs when You take up Your bow against them. 13 Be honored in Your strength, O Lord. We will sing and praise Your power.
The King Rules
110 The Lord says to my Lord, “Sit at My right side, for those who hate You will be a place to rest Your feet.” 2 The Lord will send out Your strength from Zion, saying, “Rule in front of those who hate You.” 3 Your people will be willing to help in the day of Your power. Your young men will be dressed in holy clothes. They will come to You like water on the grass in the early morning.
4 The Lord has sworn and will not change His mind: “You are a Religious Leader forever, in the same way as Melchizedek.” 5 The Lord is at Your right hand. He will crush kings in the day of His anger. 6 He will say who is guilty or not among the nations. He will fill them with dead bodies. He will crush the leaders of many lands. 7 He will drink from the river on the way. And so He will lift up His head.
Praises to God for Being Saved from Death
116 I love the Lord, because He hears my voice and my prayers. 2 I will call on Him as long as I live, because He has turned His ear to me. 3 The strings of death are all around me. And the fear of the grave came upon me. I suffered with trouble and sorrow. 4 Then I called on the name of the Lord: “O Lord, I beg You, save my life!”
5 The Lord is loving and right. Yes, our God is full of loving-kindness. 6 The Lord takes care of the child-like. I was brought down, and He saved me. 7 Return to your rest, O my soul. For the Lord has been good to you. 8 For You, O Lord, have saved my soul from death, my eyes from tears, and my feet from falling. 9 I will walk with the Lord in the land of the living. 10 I believed when I said, “I am very troubled.” 11 I said in my fear, “All men are liars.”
12 What should I give to the Lord for all the good things He has done for me? 13 I will show Him my thanks for saving me with a gift of wine and praise His name. 14 I will keep my promises to the Lord before all His people. 15 The death of His holy ones is of great worth in the eyes of the Lord. 16 For sure I am Your servant, O Lord. I am Your servant, the son of the woman who served You. You have set me free from my chains. 17 I will give a gift of thanks to You and call on the name of the Lord. 18 I will keep my promises to the Lord before all His people, 19 in the holy place of the Lord, and in the center of you, O Jerusalem. Praise the Lord!
A Psalm of Praise
117 Praise the Lord, all nations! Praise Him, all people! 2 For His loving-kindness toward us is great. And the truth of the Lord lasts forever. Praise the Lord!
Job Talks
9 Then Job answered,
Job Keeps On Talking
10 “I hate my life. I will be free in my complaining. I will show how bitter I am in my soul when I speak. 2 I will say to God, ‘Do not say that I am guilty and punish me. Let me know why You work against me. 3 Do You think it is right for You to make it hard for me, to turn away from the work of Your hands and favor the plans of the sinful? 4 Do You have eyes of flesh? Do You see as a man sees? 5 Are Your days as the days of man, or Your years as man’s years, 6 that You should look for my wrong-doing and my sin? 7 You know that I am not guilty, yet there is no one who can take me away from Your hand.
8 ‘Your hands put me together and made me, and now would You destroy me? 9 Remember that You have made me as clay. Would You turn me into dust again?
16 If I would lift up my head, You would hunt me like a lion. Again You would show Your power against me. 17 You would send new ones who would speak against me, and become more angry with me. You would send me more and more trouble.
18 ‘Why then did You let me be born? If only I had died and no one had seen me! 19 I should have been as if I had never lived, carried from my mother to the grave.’ 20 Are not my days few? Leave me alone, that I may find a little comfort 21 before I go to a place from which I will not return. I will go to the land of darkness and shadow. 22 It is the land of complete darkness and shadow and trouble, where the light is darkness.”
Peter Tells Why He Preached to the People Who Are Not Jews
11 The missionaries and followers who were in the country of Judea heard that the people who were not Jews also had received the Word of God. 2 When Peter went up to Jerusalem, the Jewish followers argued with him. 3 They said, “Why did you visit those people who are not Jews and eat with them?”
4 Then Peter began to tell all that had happened from the beginning to the end. He said, 5 “While I was praying in the city of Joppa, I saw in a dream something coming down from heaven. It was like a large linen cloth let down by the four corners until it came to me. 6 As I looked at it, I saw four-footed animals and snakes of the earth and birds of the sky. 7 I heard a voice saying to me, ‘Get up, Peter, kill something and eat it.’ 8 But I said, ‘No, Lord! Nothing that is unclean has ever gone into my mouth.’ 9 The voice from heaven said the second time, ‘What God has made clean you must not say is unclean.’ 10 This happened three times and then it was taken up again to heaven.
11 “Three men had already come to the house where I was staying. They had been sent to me from the city of Caesarea. 12 The Holy Spirit told me to go with them and not doubt about going. These six men also went with me to this man’s house. 13 He told us how he had seen an angel in his own home. The angel had stood in front of him and said, ‘Send men to Joppa to ask for Simon Peter. 14 He will tell you and all your family how you can be saved from the punishment of sin.’
15 “As I began to talk to them, the Holy Spirit came down on them just as He did on us at the beginning. 16 Then I remembered the Lord had said, ‘John baptized with water but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’ 17 If God gave to them the same gift He gave to us after we put our trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, how could I stand against God?”
18 When they heard these words, they said nothing more. They thanked God, saying, “Then God has given life also to the people who are not Jews. They have this new life by being sorry for their sins and turning from them.”
Jesus Teaches about the Light of the World
12 Jesus spoke to all the people, saying, “I am the Light of the world. Anyone who follows Me will not walk in darkness. He will have the Light of Life.”
13 The proud religious law-keepers said to Him, “You are talking about Yourself. What You say about Yourself is not true.”
14 Jesus said, “Even if I speak of Myself, what I am saying is true. I know where I came from and where I am going. You do not know where I came from or where I am going. 15 You say as a man would say if people are guilty or not guilty. I am not saying anyone is guilty. 16 But even if I did, it would be true. I am not alone. The Father Who sent Me is with Me. 17 It is written in your Law that when two men agree about something, it proves it is true. (A) 18 I speak for Myself and the Father Who sent Me speaks for Me.”
19 The proud religious law-keepers asked Him, “Where is Your Father?” Jesus said, “You do not know Me or My Father. If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also.”
20 Jesus spoke these words near the money box while He taught in the house of God. No one put his hands on Jesus because His time had not yet come.
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