Book of Common Prayer
To the Director: For flutes. A Davidic Psalm
A Prayer for God’s Help
5 Lord, listen to my words,
consider my groaning.
2 Pay attention to my cry for help,[a]
my king and my God,
for unto you will I pray.
3 Lord, in the morning you will hear my voice;
in the morning I will pray[b] to you,
and I will watch for your answer.[c]
4 Indeed, you aren’t a God who delights in wickedness;
evil will never dwell with you.
5 Boastful ones will not stand before you;
you hate all those who practice wickedness.
6 You will destroy those who speak lies.
The Lord abhors the person of bloodshed and deceit.
7 But I, because of the abundance of your gracious love,
may come into your house.
In awe of you, I will worship in your holy Temple.
8 Lord, lead me in your righteousness because of my enemies.
Make your path straight before me.
9 But as for the wicked,[d]
they do not speak truth at all.
Inside them there is only wickedness.
Their throat is an open grave,
on their tongue is deceitful flattery.
10 Declare them guilty, God!
Let them fall by their own schemes.
Drive them away because of their many transgressions,
for they have rebelled against you.
11 Let all those who take refuge in you rejoice!
Let them shout for joy forever,
and may you protect them.
Let those who love your name exult in you.
12 Indeed, you will bless the righteous one, Lord,
like a large shield, you will surround him with favor.
To the Director: With stringed instruments. On an eight-stringed harp.[e] A Davidic Psalm
A Prayer in Times of Trouble
6 Lord, in your anger, do not rebuke me;
in your wrath, do not discipline me.
2 Be gracious to me, Lord,
because I am fading away.
Heal me,
because my body[f] is distressed.
3 And my soul[g] is deeply distressed.
But you, Lord, how long do I wait?[h]
4 Return, Lord,
save my life!
Deliver me, because of your gracious love.
5 In death, there is no memory of you.
Who will give you thanks where the dead are?[i]
6 I am weary from my groaning.
Every night my couch is drenched with tears,
my bed is soaked through.
7 My eyesight has faded because of grief,
it has dimmed because of all my enemies.
8 Get away from me, all of you who practice evil,
for the Lord has heard the sound of my weeping.
9 The Lord has heard my plea;
the Lord receives my prayer.
10 As for all my enemies, they will be put to shame;
they will be greatly frightened
and suddenly turn away ashamed.
A Prayer for Judging the Wicked
10 [a]Why do you stand far away, Lord?
Why do you hide in times of distress?
2 The wicked one arrogantly pursues the afflicted,[b]
who are trapped in the schemes he devises.
3 For the wicked one boasts about his own desire;
he blesses the greedy
and despises the Lord.
4 With haughty arrogance, the wicked thinks,
“God will not seek justice.”[c]
He always presumes “There is no God.”
5 Their ways always seem prosperous.
Your judgments are on high,
far away from them.
They scoff at all their enemies.
6 They say to themselves,
“We will not be moved throughout all time,
and we will not experience adversity.”
7 Their mouth is full of curses, lies, and oppression,
their tongues[d] spread trouble and iniquity.
8 They wait[e] in ambush in the villages,
they kill the innocent in secret.
9 Their eyes secretly watch the helpless,
lying in wait like a lion in his den.
They lie in wait to catch the afflicted.
They catch the afflicted when they pull him into their net.
10 The victim[f] is crushed,
and he sinks down;
the helpless fall by their might.
11 The wicked say to themselves,
“God has forgotten,
he has hidden his face,
he will never see it.”
12 Rise up, Lord!
Raise your hand, God.
Don’t forget the afflicted!
13 Why do the wicked despise God
and say to themselves, “God[g] will not seek justice.”?[h]
14 But you do see!
You take note of trouble and grief
in order to take the matter into your own hand.
The helpless one commits himself[i] to you;
you have been the orphan’s helper.
15 Break the arm of the wicked and evil man;
so that when you seek out his wickedness
you will find it no more.
16 The Lord is king forever and ever;
nations will perish from his land.
17 Lord, you heard the desire of the afflicted;
you will strengthen them,[j]
you will listen carefully,
18 to do justice for the orphan[k] and the oppressed,
so that men of the earth may cause terror no more.
To the Director: A Davidic Song.[l]
Confident Trust in God
11 I take refuge in the Lord.
So how can you say to me,
“Flee like a bird to the mountains.”?
2 Look, the wicked have bent their bow
and placed their arrow[m] on the string,[n]
to shoot from the darkness[o] at the upright in heart.
3 When the foundations are destroyed,
what can the righteous do?
4 The Lord is in his holy Temple;
the Lord’s throne is in the heavens.
His eyes see,
his glance[p] examines humanity.[q]
5 The Lord examines the righteous,
but the wicked and those who love violence, he hates.
6 He rains on the wicked burning coals and sulfur;
a scorching wind is their destiny.[r]
7 Indeed, the Lord is righteous;
he loves righteousness;
the upright will see him face-to-face.
Jonah is Called to Go to Nineveh
1 Now this message from the Lord came to Amittai’s son Jonah:[a] 2 “Get up and go to Nineveh, that great city! Then cry out in protest[b] against it, because their evil has come to my attention.”[c]
Jonah Runs from God’s Call
3 But Jonah got up and fled from the Lord to Tarshish.[d] He went down to Joppa, secured passage on a ship bound for Tarshish, paid the fare, and boarded, intending to go with the mariners[e] to Tarshish to escape from the Lord. 4 Then the Lord sent[f] a great wind over the sea, and a severe storm broke out. It seemed as if the ship were[g] about to break up. 5 At this point the mariners became terrified, and each man cried out to his gods. They began to throw the cargo into the sea in order to lighten the vessel. But Jonah had gone down into the vessel’s hold, had lain down, and was fast asleep. 6 So the captain approached him, and told him, “What are you doing asleep? Get up! Call on your gods! Maybe your[h] god will think about us so we won’t die!”
7 Meanwhile, each crewman told another, “Come on! Let’s cast lots to find out whose fault it is that we’re in this trouble.” So they cast lots, and the lot indicated Jonah! 8 So they interrogated him: “Tell us, why has this trouble come upon us? What’s your occupation? Where’d you come from? What’s your home country? What’s your nationality?”
9 “I’m a Hebrew,” he replied, “and I’m afraid of the Lord God of heaven, who made the sea—along with the dry land!”
10 In mounting terror, the men asked him, “What have you done?” The men were aware that he was fleeing from the Lord, because he had admitted this to them.
Jonah is Thrown Overboard
11 Because the sea was growing more and more stormy, they asked him, “What do we have to do to you so the sea will calm down for us?”
12 Jonah[i] told them, “Pick me up and toss me into the sea. Then the sea will calm down for you, because I know that it’s my fault that this mighty storm has come[j] upon you.” 13 Even so, the crewmen rowed hard to bring the ship toward dry land, but they were unsuccessful, because the sea was growing more and more stormy.
14 At last they cried out to the Lord, “Please, Lord, do not let us perish because of this man’s life, and do not hold us responsible for innocent blood, because you, Lord, have done what pleased you.” 15 So they picked up Jonah and tossed him into the sea, and the sea stopped raging. 16 Then the men feared the Lord greatly, offered a sacrifice to the Lord, and made vows.
17 [k]Now the Lord had prepared a large sea creature[l] to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was inside the sea creature for three days and three nights.
24 As he continued his defense, Festus shouted, “You’re out of your mind, Paul! Too much education is driving you crazy!”
25 But Paul said, “I’m not out of my mind, Your Excellency Festus. I’m reporting what is absolutely true. 26 Indeed, the king knows about these things, and I can speak to him freely. For I’m certain that none of these things has escaped his notice, since this wasn’t done in a corner. 27 King Agrippa, do you believe the prophets? I know you believe them!”
28 Agrippa asked Paul, “Can you so quickly persuade me to become a Christian?”
29 Paul replied, “Whether quickly or not, I wish to God that not only you but everyone listening to me today would become what I am—except for these chains!”
30 Then the king, the governor, Bernice, and those who were sitting with him got up. 31 As they were leaving, they began to say to each other, “This man hasn’t been doing anything to deserve death or imprisonment.”
32 Agrippa told Festus, “This man could have been set free if he hadn’t appealed to the emperor.”
Paul Sails for Rome
27 When it was decided that we should sail to Italy, Paul and some other prisoners were transferred to a centurion named Julius, who belonged to the emperor’s division. 2 After boarding a ship from Adramyttium that was about to sail to the ports on the coast of Asia, we put out to sea. Aristarchus, a Macedonian from Thessalonica, went with us.
3 The next day, we arrived at Sidon, and Julius treated Paul kindly, allowing him to visit his friends there and to receive any care he needed. 4 After putting out from there, we sailed on the sheltered side of Cyprus because the winds were against us. 5 We sailed along the sea off Cilicia and Pamphylia and reached Myra in Lycia. 6 There the centurion found an Alexandrian ship bound for Italy and put us on it. 7 We sailed slowly for a number of days and with difficulty arrived off Cnidus. Then, because the wind was against us, we sailed on the sheltered side of Crete off Cape Salome. 8 Sailing past it with difficulty, we came to a place called Fair Havens, near the town of Lasea.
Jesus Heals a Woman and Resurrects a Girl(A)
40 When Jesus came back, the crowd welcomed him, because everyone was expecting him. 41 Just then a synagogue leader by the name of Jairus arrived. He fell at Jesus’ feet and kept begging him to come to his home, 42 because his only living[a] daughter, who was about twelve years old, was dying. While Jesus[b] was on his way, the crowds continued to press in on him.
43 A woman was there[c] who had been suffering from chronic bleeding for twelve years. Although she had spent all she had on doctors,[d] no one could heal her. 44 She came up behind Jesus[e] and touched the tassel of his garment, and her bleeding stopped at once.
45 Jesus asked, “Who touched me?”
While everyone was denying it, Peter and those who were with him[f] said, “Master, the crowds are surrounding you and pressing in on you.”
46 Still Jesus said, “Somebody touched me, because I know that power has gone out of me.”
47 When the woman saw that she couldn’t hide, she came forward trembling. Bowing down in front of him, she explained in the presence of all the people why she had touched Jesus[g] and how she had been instantly healed. 48 Then he told her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace.”
49 While he was still speaking, someone came from the synagogue leader’s home[h] and told him,[i] “Your daughter is dead. Stop bothering the teacher anymore.”
50 But when Jesus heard this, he told the synagogue leader,[j] “Stop being afraid! Just believe, and she will get well.”
51 When he arrived at the man’s[k] house, he allowed no one to go in with him except Peter, John, James, and the young girl’s father and mother. 52 Now everyone was crying and wailing for her. But Jesus[l] said, “Stop crying! She’s not dead. She’s sleeping.” 53 They laughed and laughed at him, because they knew she was dead. 54 But he took her hand and called out, “Young lady, get up!” 55 So her spirit returned, and she got up at once. Then Jesus[m] directed that she be given something to eat. 56 Her parents were amazed, but he ordered them not to tell anyone what had happened.
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