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.
The Intervention of God[a]
The Lord’s First Speech
Chapter 38
Gird Up Your Loins.[b] 1 Then from the heart of the storm the Lord answered Job:
2 “Who is this who obscures my intentions
with words devoid of knowledge?
3 Gird up your loins now like a man.
I will ask you questions,
and you will give me the answers.
A1: The Mysteries of the Cosmos
Where Were You When I Laid the Earth’s Foundations?
4 “Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundations?
Tell me, if you have understanding.
5 Who determined its measurements? Do you know?
Who stretched out the measuring line over it?
6 What supports the pillars at its bases?
Who laid its cornerstone
7 while the morning stars sang in unison
and the sons of God shouted for joy?
8 “Who shut up the sea behind doors
when it burst forth from the womb,
9 when I made the clouds its garment
and wrapped it in thick darkness,
10 when I established bounds for it
and set its barred doors in place,
11 when I said, ‘This far may you come, but no farther;
here is where your proud waves must halt’?
Have You Ever Commanded the Morning?[c]
12 “During your entire life have you ever commanded the morning to appear
or caused the dawn to rise in the east
13 so that it might grasp the ends of the earth
and shake the wicked from its surface?
14 She turns it like clay under a seal
and dyes it as though it were a garment.
15 But light[d] is withheld from the wicked,
and their raised arm is broken.
Have You Ever Walked at the Bottom of the Abyss?
16 “Have you ever descended to the depths of the sea
and walked at the bottom of the abyss?
17 Have the gates of death been revealed to you
or have you seen the gates of the shadow of death?
22 The Letter of the Apostles. Then the apostles and the elders, with the approval of the whole Church, decided to choose representatives from their number and to send them with Paul and Barnabas to Antioch. They sent Judas, who was called Barsabbas,[a] and Silas, leaders in the community, 23 to deliver the following letter:
The apostles and the elders, your brethren,
To the brethren in Antioch, Syria, and Cilicia:
Greetings.
24 It has come to our attention that some of our number, without having received any instructions from us, have upset you with their teachings and disturbed your peace of mind. 25 Therefore, we have decided unanimously to choose representatives and send them to you together with our beloved Barnabas and Paul, 26 men who have dedicated their lives to the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. 27 And so we are sending Judas and Silas who will confirm these things by word of mouth.
28 It is the decision of the Holy Spirit and also our decision not to lay any further burden upon you beyond these essentials: 29 you are to abstain from food that has been sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of animals that have been strangled, and from unchastity. If you avoid these, you will be doing what is right.
Farewell.
30 Delegates at Antioch. So the men departed. When they reached Antioch, they summoned together the entire congregation and delivered the letter. 31 Upon reading it, the community rejoiced at its encouragement.
32 Judas and Silas, who were themselves prophets, spoke at length to strengthen and encourage the brethren. 33 After they had spent some time there, they were sent off in peace by the brethren to return to those who had sent them. 34 [But Silas decided to remain there.][b] 35 Meanwhile, Paul and Barnabas remained in Antioch, where, along with many others, they taught and proclaimed the word of God.
45 One Man Must Die for the People.[a] This caused many of the Jews who had come to visit Mary, and had seen what Jesus did, to believe in him. 46 However, some of them went to the Pharisees and reported to them what Jesus had done.
47 As a result, the chief priests and the Pharisees summoned a meeting of the Sanhedrin and said, “What are we going to do? This man is performing many signs. 48 If we let him go on like this, everyone will start to believe in him, and then the Romans will come and suppress both our temple and our nation.”
49 However, one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year,[b] said to them, “You know nothing at all. 50 You do not seem to realize that it is better for us that one man die for the people rather than the whole nation be destroyed.”
51 He did not say this on his own, but as the high priest that year he was prophesying that Jesus was to die for the nation, 52 and not for the nation alone, but to gather into one the dispersed children of God. 53 And so from that day on, they plotted to kill him.[c] 54 As a result, Jesus no longer walked about openly among the Jews. He withdrew to a town called Ephraim[d] in the region bordering the desert, and he remained there with the disciples.
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