Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 70(A)
For the Music Director. A Psalm of David. To bring remembrance.
1 Make haste, O God, to deliver me!
Make haste to help me, O Lord.
2 May those who seek my life
be ashamed and confused;
may those who desire my harm
be driven back and humiliated.
3 May they turn back as a consequence of their shame
who say “Aha! Aha!”
4 May all those who seek You
rejoice and be glad in You;
and may those who love Your salvation continually say,
“God be magnified!”
5 But I am poor and needy;
make haste to me, O God!
You are my help and my deliverer;
O Lord, do not delay!
Psalm 71(B)
1 In You, O Lord, I seek refuge;
may I never be put to shame.
2 Deliver me in Your righteousness and help me escape;
incline Your ear to me and save me.
3 Be my rock of refuge
to enter continually;
You have given commandment to save me;
for You are my rock and my stronghold.
4 Deliver me, O my God, out of the hand of the wicked,
out of the hand of the unjust and cruel man.
5 For You are my hope, O Lord God;
You are my confidence from my youth.
6 On You I have supported myself from the womb;
You took me out of my mother’s womb.
My praise will continually be about You.
7 I am like a wondrous sign to many;
You are my strong refuge.
8 My mouth will be filled with Your praise
and with Your glory all the day.
9 Do not cast me off in the time of old age;
do not forsake me when my strength fails.
10 For my enemies speak against me;
and those who watch for my life take counsel together,
11 saying, “God has forsaken him;
pursue and catch him,
for there is none to deliver him.”
12 O God, do not be far from me;
O my God, act quickly to help me.
13 May the adversaries of my life be ashamed and confused;
may those who seek my harm
be enveloped in scorn and dishonor.
14 But I will hope continually,
and will add to all Your praise.
15 My mouth will declare Your righteousness
and Your salvation all the day,
for I cannot know their numbers.
16 I will go in the strength of the Lord God;
I will make mention of Your righteousness, of Yours only.
17 O God, You have taught me from my youth;
and until now I have proclaimed Your wondrous works.
18 Now also when I am old and gray,
O God, do not forsake me,
until I have proclaimed Your strength to this generation,
and Your power to everyone who is to come.
19 Your righteousness, O God, reaches to the heights;
You have done great deeds;
O God, who is like You?
20 You who have shown me great distresses and troubles
will revive me again,
and will bring me up again
from the depths of the earth.
21 You will increase my greatness,
and You will encircle and comfort me.
22 I will give You thanks with the harp,
even Your truth, O my God;
to You I will sing with the lyre,
O Holy One of Israel.
23 My lips will rejoice
when I sing to You,
and my soul, which You have redeemed.
24 My tongue also will speak of Your righteousness
all the day long;
for those who seek my harm are ashamed,
for they have been put to shame.
Psalm 74
A Contemplative Maskil of Asaph.
1 O God, why have You cast us off forever?
Why does Your anger smoke against the sheep of Your pasture?
2 Remember Your congregation, which You have purchased of old,
the rod of Your inheritance, which You have redeemed,
this Mount Zion, where You have lived.
3 Move Your footsteps to the perpetual desolations,
to all the harm the enemy has done in the sanctuary.
4 Your enemies roar in the midst of Your meeting place;
they set up their miracles for signs.
5 They seem like men who lift up axes
on a thicket of trees.
6 But now they strike down its carved work altogether
with axes and hammers.
7 They have cast fire into Your sanctuary;
they have defiled the dwelling place of Your name to the ground.
8 They said in their hearts, “Let us destroy them together.”
They have burned up all the meeting places of God in the land.
9 We do not see our signs;
there is no longer any prophet,
nor is there among us any who knows how long.
10 O God, how long will the adversary scorn?
Will the enemy blaspheme Your name forever?
11 Why do You withdraw Your hand, Your right hand?
Draw it out of Your bosom and destroy them!
12 For God is my King of old,
working salvation in the midst of the earth.
13 You divided the sea by Your strength;
You broke the heads of the dragons on the waters.
14 You crushed the heads of Leviathan in pieces,
and gave him for food to the people inhabiting the wilderness.
15 You split the fountain and the flood;
You dried up ever-flowing rivers.
16 The day is Yours, the night also is Yours;
You have prepared the light and the sun.
17 You have established all the borders of the earth;
You have made summer and winter.
18 Remember this, that the enemy has scorned, O Lord,
and that the foolish people have blasphemed Your name.
19 Do not give the life of Your turtledove to a wild animal;
do not forget the life of Your poor forever.
20 Have regard for the covenant;
for the dark places of the earth are full of the habitations of violence.
21 May the oppressed not return ashamed;
may the poor and needy praise Your name.
22 Arise, O God, plead Your own cause;
remember how the fool insults You daily.
23 Do not forget the voice of Your enemies,
the tumult of those who rise up against You continually.
12 The sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great Euphrates River, and its water was dried up, to prepare the way for the kings from the East. 13 Then I saw three unclean spirits like frogs coming out of the mouth of the dragon, out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. 14 For they are spirits of demons, performing signs, who go out to the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty.
15 “Look, I am coming as a thief. Blessed is he who watches and keeps his garments on, lest he walk naked and his shame be exposed.”
16 They gathered them together to the place which in Hebrew is called Armageddon.
17 The seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air, and a loud voice came out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, “It is done!” 18 And there were noises and thundering and lightning and a great earthquake, such a mighty and great earthquake, as had never occurred since men were on the earth. 19 The great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell. Babylon the Great was remembered before God, to give to her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of His wrath. 20 Every island fled away, and the mountains were not found. 21 Great hail, about the weight of a hundred pounds,[a] fell from heaven upon man. Men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail, because that plague was so severe.
The Parables of the Mustard Seed and the Yeast(A)
18 Then He said, “What is the kingdom of God like? To what shall I compare it? 19 It is like a grain of mustard seed which a man took and planted in his garden. It grew and became a large tree, and the birds of the air nested in its branches.”
20 Again He said, “To what shall I compare the kingdom of God? 21 It is like yeast, which a woman took and hid in sixty pounds[a] of meal until all of it was leavened.”
The Narrow Gate(B)
22 Then He went through the cities and villages, teaching, and journeying toward Jerusalem. 23 Someone said to Him, “Lord, will those who are saved be few?”
He said to them, 24 “Strive to enter through the narrow gate. For many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able. 25 Once the Master of the house has risen up and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, Lord, open for us,’ He will answer you, ‘I do not know where you come from.’
26 “Then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in your presence, and you taught in our streets.’
27 “But He will say, ‘I tell you, I do not know you, or where you come from. Depart from Me, all you workers of iniquity.’
28 “There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth when you see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrust out. 29 They will come from the east and from the west and from the north and from the south and will sit down to dine in the kingdom of God. 30 Listen, there are the last who will be first, and the first who will be last.”
The Holy Bible, Modern English Version. Copyright © 2014 by Military Bible Association. Published and distributed by Charisma House.