Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 18
Unfailing Kindness to David
And to His Descendant Forever
(2 Samuel 22)
Heading
For the choir director.
By David, the servant of the Lord, who spoke the words of this song to the Lord on the day when the Lord had delivered him from the grasp of all his enemies, even from the grasp of Saul.
Praise to the Rock of Salvation
1 Then he said:
I love you, O Lord, my strength.
2 The Lord is my rocky cliff, my stronghold, and my deliverer.
My God is my rock. I take refuge in him.
He is my shield and the horn of my salvation, my high fortress.
3 I call to the Lord, who is worthy of praise,
and I am saved from my enemies.
Deliverance From Death
4 The ropes of death entangled me.
Floodwaters of destruction[a] rolled over me.
5 The ropes of the grave wrapped around me.
The traps of death threatened me.
6 In my distress I called to the Lord.
To my God I cried out.
He heard my voice from his temple.
My cry came before him. It reached his ears.
The Greatness of the Deliverance
7 Then the earth shook and quaked,
and the foundations of the mountains[b] trembled.
They shook because the Lord was angry.
8 Smoke rose from his nostrils,
and fire from his mouth devoured.
Coals were set on fire by it.
9 Then he tore open the heavens and came down.
A dark cloud was under his feet.
10 He rode upon a cherub,[c] and he flew.
He soared on the wings of the wind.
11 He made the darkness around him his hiding place.
Dark rain clouds[d] surrounded him like a canopy.
12 Emerging from the brightness in front of him
his clouds passed by with hail and coals of fire.
13 Then the Lord thundered in the heavens.
The Most High raised his voice with hail and coals of fire.[e]
14 Then he shot his arrows and scattered the enemy.
He shot great lightning bolts and routed them.
15 Then the sources of water[f] were revealed,
and the foundations of the world were uncovered
by your rebuke, O Lord,
by the breath of wind from your nostrils.
16 He reached down from on high and took hold of me.
He drew me out of deep waters.
17 Because they were too strong for me,
he rescued me from my powerful enemy,
from those who hate me.
18 They confronted me on the day of my disaster,
but the Lord supported me.
19 Then he brought me out into a wide-open space.
He rescued me because he delighted in me.
David’s Uprightness as a Basis for God’s Judgment
20 The Lord has dealt with me according to my righteousness.
According to the cleanness of my hands he has repaid me,
21 for I have kept the ways of the Lord.
I have not done evil and departed from my God.
22 So all his just decrees remain before me,
and I have not turned his statutes away from me.
23 I have been blameless with him.
I have kept myself from guilt.
24 The Lord has repaid me according to my righteousness,
according to the cleanness of my hands in his sight.
God’s Uprightness as a Basis for His Judgment
25 To the merciful you reveal yourself as merciful.
To the blameless person you reveal yourself as blameless.
26 To the pure you reveal yourself as pure,
but to the crooked you reveal yourself as crafty.
27 For you save humble people,
but you bring low the eyes of the arrogant.
28 Yes, you light my lamp, O Lord.
My God turns my darkness to light.
29 For with you I can charge against a battalion,
and with my God I can jump over a wall.
God Equips David for Victory
30 This God—his way is blameless.
The speech of the Lord is pure.
He is a shield for all who take refuge in him.
31 For who is God besides the Lord?
And who is the Rock except our God?
32 This God wraps me with strength
and makes my way perfect.[g]
33 By making my feet like those of a deer
he enables me to stand on high places.
34 Because he trains my hands for battle,
my arms can draw a bronze bow.
35 Then you give me the shield of your salvation.
Your right hand sustains me,
and you stoop down to lift me up.
36 You widen the path under my feet,
so that my ankles do not give way.
David’s Victories
37 I pursued my enemies, and I overtook them.
So I did not turn back until they were wiped out.
38 I crushed them so that they could not rise again.
They fell beneath my feet.
39 You wrapped me with strength for battle.
You made those who rose up against me bow down to me.
40 You made my enemies turn their backs and flee.
I destroyed those who hate me.
41 They cried for help, but there was no one to save them.
They cried to the Lord, but he did not answer them.
42 So I grind them as fine as dust blown by the wind.
I dump them out like mud in the streets.
43 You delivered me from the accusations of the people.
You made me the head of nations.
A people I did not know serve me.
44 As soon as they hear me, they obey me.
Foreigners cower before me.
45 Foreigners fall exhausted.
They come trembling from their strongholds.
Closing Words of Faith
46 The Lord lives! Blessed be my Rock!
May the God who saves me be exalted!
47 The God who avenges me subdues peoples under me.
48 You delivered me from my enemies.
Yes, you exalted me above those who rose against me.
You rescued me from the violent man.
49 Therefore I will praise you among the nations, Lord.
To your name I will make music.
50 By providing great salvation for his King,
he shows mercy to his Anointed One,
to David and to his Descendant[h] forever.
Jonah Preaches in Nineveh
3 Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time: 2 “Get up. Go to Nineveh, the great city, and preach to it the message that I tell you.”
3 So Jonah set out and went to Nineveh just as the word of the Lord had commanded. Now Nineveh was a great city to God. It required a three-day walk.[a] 4 Jonah walked through the city for a day, and he called out, “Forty more days and Nineveh is going to be overthrown!”
Nineveh Repents
5 The men of Nineveh believed God. They proclaimed a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least. 6 When word reached the king of Nineveh, he got up from his throne, took off his royal robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. 7 Then he issued a proclamation in Nineveh.
By the decree of the king and his leading officials:
Do not let people or animals, herds or flocks, taste anything. Do not let them eat food or drink water. 8 Instead, let people and animals be covered with sackcloth. Let everyone call fervently to God. Let them turn from their evil way and from the violence that is in their hands. 9 Who knows? God may turn and relent. He may turn from his burning anger so that we will not perish.
10 When God saw their actions, that they had turned from their evil way, God relented from the disaster which he said he would bring on them, and he did not carry it out.
The Lord Teaches Jonah a Lesson About Grace
4 But to Jonah all this seemed very bad, and he became very angry. 2 He prayed to the Lord, “Lord, wasn’t this exactly what I said when I was still in my own country? That is why I previously fled to Tarshish, because I knew that you are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger and abounding in mercy, and you relent from sending disaster. 3 So now, Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.”
4 But the Lord replied, “Is it right for you to be angry?”
5 Jonah went out of the city and sat down east of the city. He made a shelter for himself there and sat in the shade under it, waiting to see what would happen in the city.
6 Then the Lord God provided a plant and made it grow up over Jonah to provide shade over his head, to relieve him from his discomfort. So Jonah was very happy about the plant. 7 But at dawn the next day God provided a worm, and it attacked the plant so that it withered. 8 When the sun rose, God provided a scorching east wind. The sun beat down on Jonah’s head so that he grew faint. He wanted to die, so he said, “It is better for me to die than to live.”
9 But God said to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry about the plant?”
Jonah said, “I do have a right to be angry—angry enough to die!”
10 So the Lord said, “You have been concerned about this plant. You did not work for it or make it grow. It grew up in one night and perished after one night. 11 So should I not be concerned for Nineveh, the great city, in which there are more than one hundred twenty thousand people who do not know the difference between their right hand and their left—and also many animals?”
The Shipwreck
27 When the fourteenth night came, while we were being driven back and forth in the Adriatic Sea,[a] about midnight the sailors suspected that they were approaching some land. 28 They took soundings and found it to be one hundred twenty feet deep.[b] After sailing a little farther, they took soundings again and found it was ninety feet deep.[c] 29 Fearing that we would run aground on the rocks, they dropped four anchors from the stern and prayed for daybreak.
30 The sailors tried to escape from the ship and had let down the skiff into the sea, pretending they were going to put out anchors from the bow. 31 Paul said to the centurion and the soldiers, “If these men do not stay in the ship, you cannot be saved.” 32 Then the soldiers cut the ropes holding the skiff and let it fall away.
33 Just before daybreak, Paul urged them all to eat some food. He said, “This is the fourteenth day you have waited in suspense and have gone without food. You have eaten nothing. 34 Therefore I urge you to take some food because this is important for your rescue. In fact, not a hair from any of your heads will be lost.” 35 After he said these things and had taken some bread, he gave thanks to God in front of them all. Then he broke it and began to eat. 36 They were all encouraged and took some food themselves. 37 In all there were 276 of us on the ship. 38 When they had eaten all they wanted, they lightened the ship by throwing the grain overboard into the sea.
39 At daybreak, they did not recognize the land, but they noticed a bay with a beach, where they planned to run the ship aground if they could. 40 They cut off the anchors, leaving them in the sea, and at the same time untied the ropes that held the rudders. Then, after hoisting the foresail to the wind, they headed for the beach. 41 But they struck a sandbar and ran the ship aground. The bow stuck fast and would not move, while the stern began to break up from the pounding of the waves.
42 The soldiers’ plan was to kill the prisoners so that no one would swim away and escape. 43 But the centurion wanted to save Paul and kept them from carrying out their plan. He ordered those who could swim to jump overboard first and make their way to land. 44 The rest were to follow, some on planks, and some on other pieces from the ship. In this way, all of them were brought safely onto land.
Jesus Is the Christ
18 One time when Jesus was praying alone and the disciples were with him, he asked them, “Who do the crowds say that I am?”
19 They answered, “‘John the Baptist,’ but others say, ‘Elijah,’ and others say, ‘one of the ancient prophets come back to life.’”
20 He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”
And Peter answered, “The Christ of God.”
21 He gave them a strict command not to tell this to anyone. 22 He said, “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests, and experts in the law. He must be killed and be raised on the third day.”
Take Up the Cross
23 Jesus said to all of them, “If anyone wants to come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow me. 24 For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. 25 After all, what will it benefit a man if he gains the whole world, but destroys himself or is lost? 26 In fact, whoever is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his glory, and the glory of the Father, and of the holy angels. 27 I am telling you the truth: There are some standing here who will certainly not taste death until they see the kingdom of God.”
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.