Book of Common Prayer
Song of Thanks for Being Kept Safe
18 I love You, O Lord, my strength. 2 The Lord is my rock, and my safe place, and the One Who takes me out of trouble. My God is my rock, in Whom I am safe. He is my safe-covering, my saving strength, and my strong tower. 3 I call to the Lord, Who has the right to be praised. And I am saved from those who hate me.
4 The ropes of death were all around me. The floods of death make me afraid. 5 The ropes of the grave were all around me. The traps of death were set for me. 6 I called to the Lord in my trouble. I cried to God for help. He heard my voice from His holy house. My cry for help came into His ears.
7 Then the earth shook. The mountains were shaking. They shook because He was angry. 8 Smoke went out from His nose and the fire that kept coming from His mouth burned everything around it. 9 He parted the heavens and came down. Dark clouds were under His feet. 10 He sat upon a cherub and flew. He traveled on the wings of the wind. 11 He made darkness His hiding place, the covering around Him, the dark rain clouds of the sky. 12 Through the light before Him passed His dark clouds, hail stones and fire. 13 The Lord made thunder in the heavens. The voice of the Most High spoke out, hail stones and fire. 14 He sent out His arrows and divided them. He threw down lightning and sent them running. 15 Then the deep part of the sea could be seen. And the deep part of the earth was opened up, because of Your sharp words, O Lord, because of the powerful breath from Your nose.
16 He sent from above, and took me. He lifted me out of many waters. 17 He took me away from the powerful one who fights against me, and from those who hated me. They were too strong for me. 18 They stood against me in the day of my trouble. But the Lord was my strength. 19 He brought me out into a big place. He gave me a safe place, because He was pleased with me.
20 The Lord has paid me because of my being right with Him. Because of my clean hands He has paid me. 21 For I have kept the ways of the Lord. And I have not sinned by turning from my God. 22 All His Laws are in front of me. I have not set His Laws aside. 23 Before Him I was without blame. And I have kept myself from sin. 24 So the Lord has paid me back for being right with Him, and for my hands being clean in His eyes.
25 To the faithful, You show Yourself faithful. To those without blame, You show Yourself without blame. 26 With the pure, You show Yourself pure. With the sinful You show Yourself to be against them. 27 You save those who are suffering, but You bring low those who have pride in their eyes. 28 You make my lamp bright. The Lord my God lights my darkness. 29 With Your help I can go against many soldiers. With my God I can jump over a wall.
30 As for God, His way is perfect. The Word of the Lord has stood the test. He is a covering for all who go to Him for a safe place. 31 For Who is God, but the Lord? And who is a rock except our God? 32 It is God Who covers me with strength and makes my way perfect. 33 He makes my feet like the feet of a deer. And He sets me on my high places. 34 He teaches me how to fight, so that I can use a bow of brass. 35 You have also given me the covering that saves me. Your right hand holds me up. And Your care has made me great. 36 You make the road wide for my steps, and my feet have not tripped.
37 I went after those who fight against me, and caught them. And I did not return until they were destroyed. 38 I hit them so they were not able to rise. They fell under my feet. 39 You have given me strength for war. You have put under me those who have fought against me. 40 You have made them turn their backs to me also. And I destroyed those who hated me. 41 They cried for help, but there was no one to save. They cried to the Lord, but He did not answer them. 42 Then I beat them as small as the dust in the wind. I emptied them out like mud in the streets.
43 You have taken me away from the fighting of the people. You have made me the leader of nations. People whom I have not known will serve me. 44 As soon as they hear, they obey me. Those from other lands obey me. 45 These people from other lands lose their strength of heart. And they come shaking from behind their walls. 46 The Lord lives! How great is my Rock! Praise be to the God Who saves me! 47 He is the God Who punishes those who have done wrong to me. He puts nations under my rule. 48 He saves me from those who hate me. Yes, You lift me above those who rise up against me. You save me from those who want to hurt me. 49 So I will give thanks to You among the nations, O Lord. And I will sing praises to Your name. 50 He gives His king great power over trouble. And He shows loving-kindness to His chosen one, to David, and to his children after him forever.
Jonah Obeys the Lord
3 The Word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time, saying, 2 “Get up and go to the large city of Nineveh, and tell the people there the news which I am going to tell you.” 3 So Jonah got up and went to Nineveh, as the Lord had told him. Now Nineveh was a very large city. It took three days to walk through it. 4 Jonah started into the city, for a day’s walk, and he cried out, “In forty days Nineveh will be destroyed!”
5 Then the people of Nineveh believed in God. They called for a time when no food was to be eaten. And all the people, from the greatest to the least, put on clothes made from hair. 6 When the news came to the king of Nineveh, he got up from his throne and laid aside his beautiful clothing. Then he covered himself with cloth made from hair, and sat in ashes. 7 And he sent word through all of Nineveh, saying, “By the law of the king and his leaders, do not let man or animal, cattle or flock, taste anything. Do not let them eat or drink water. 8 Both man and animal must be covered with cloth made from hair. Everyone must pray to God with all his heart, so each person may turn from his sinful way and from the bad things he has done. 9 Who knows? God may change His mind and stop being angry so that we will not die.”
10 When God saw what they did, and that they turned from their sinful way, He changed His mind about the trouble He said He would bring upon them, and He did not destroy Nineveh.
Jonah’s Anger and the Lord’s Loving-Pity
4 But Jonah was not pleased at all, and he became angry. 2 He prayed to the Lord and said, “O Lord, is this not what I said You would do while still in my own country? That is why I ran away to Tarshish. For I knew that You are a kind and loving God Who shows pity. I knew that You are slow to anger and are filled with loving-kindness, always ready to change Your mind and not punish. 3 So now, O Lord, take my life from me. For death is better to me than life.” 4 And the Lord said, “Have you any reason to be angry?”
5 Then Jonah left the city and sat to the east of the city. There he made a tent for himself, and sat in its shadow until he could see what would happen in the city. 6 Then the Lord God made a plant grow up over Jonah to cover him from the hot sun and to stop his suffering. Jonah was very happy about the plant. 7 But at the beginning of the next day, God sent a worm to destroy the plant and it dried up. 8 When the sun came up, God sent a hot east wind. And the sun’s heat came upon Jonah’s head so that he became weak and begged with all his heart to die. He said, “Death is better to me than life.”
9 Then God said to Jonah, “Do you have a good reason to be angry about the plant?” And Jonah said, “I have a good reason to be angry, angry enough to die.” 10 The Lord said, “You had loving-pity on the plant which you did not work for. You did not cause it to grow. It came up during the night and died during the night. 11 And should I not have loving-pity for Nineveh, the large city where more than 120,000 people live who do not know the difference between their right and left hand, as well as many animals?”
27 It was now the fourteenth night. We were going with the wind on the Adriatic Sea. At midnight the sailors thought land was near. 28 They let down the lead weight and found the water was not very deep. After they had gone a little farther, they found there was not as much water. 29 They were afraid we might be thrown against the rocks on the shore. So they put out four anchors from the back of the ship. Then they waited for morning to come.
30 The sailors were thinking of leaving the ship. They let down a boat as if they were going to put out anchors from the front of the ship. 31 But Paul said to the captain and the soldiers, “These men must stay on the ship or you cannot be safe!” 32 Then the soldiers cut the ropes and let the boat fall into the sea.
33 Just before the light of day came, Paul told all of them to eat. He said, “Today is the fourteenth day you have not eaten. 34 You must eat. It will give you strength. Not one of you will lose a hair from your head.”
35 After he said this, he took some bread. He gave thanks to God in front of them all. He broke it in pieces and started to eat. 36 They all were comforted. Each one ate some food. 37 All together there were 276 of us on the ship. 38 After they had eaten, they threw the wheat into the sea so the ship would not be as heavy.
39 In the morning they could not see what land they were near. Later they could see a river. Near its mouth there was a shore of sand. They planned to run the ship onto the sand if they could. 40 The anchors were cut loose and left in the sea. Then they took the ropes off that were holding the rudder. When they put up the sail, the wind took the ship toward shore. 41 But the ship hit a place where the water was low. It was made from where two seas meet. The front of the ship did not move but the back part broke in pieces by the high waves.
42 The soldiers planned to kill the men in chains. They were afraid they would swim to shore and get away, 43 but the captain wanted to save Paul. He kept them from their plan. Calling out to those who could swim, he told them to jump into the sea and swim to shore. 44 The others should use wood or anything from the ship. In this way, they all got to shore without getting hurt.
Peter Says Jesus Is the Christ (A)
18 While Jesus was praying alone, His followers were with Him. Jesus asked them, “Who do people say that I am?” 19 They said, “John the Baptist, but some say Elijah. Others say that one of the early preachers has been raised from the dead.” 20 Jesus said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter said, “You are the Christ of God.”
Jesus Tells of His Death for the First Time (B)
21 Then Jesus spoke to them and told them to tell no one. 22 He said, “The Son of Man must suffer many things. The leaders and the religious leaders and the teachers of the Law will have nothing to do with Him. He must be killed and be raised from the dead three days later.”
Giving Up Self and One’s Own Desires
23 Then Jesus said to them all, “If anyone wants to follow Me, he must give up himself and his own desires. He must take up his cross everyday and follow Me. 24 If anyone wants to keep his own life safe, he must lose it. If anyone gives up his life because of Me, he will save it. 25 For what does a man have if he gets all the world and loses or gives up his life? 26 Whoever is ashamed of Me and My Words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when He comes in His own shining-greatness and of the Father’s and of the holy angels. 27 I tell you the truth, some standing here will not die until they see the holy nation of God.”
Copyright © 1969, 2003 by Barbour Publishing, Inc.