Book of Common Prayer

Prayer for Help

70 O God, hurry to take me out of trouble. O Lord, hurry to help me! ² Let those who want to kill me be ashamed and brought low. Let those who want to hurt me be turned away in shame. ³ Let those who say, “O, O!” be turned back because of their shame.

⁴ Let all who look for You be full of joy and be glad in You. And let those who love Your saving power always say, “Let God be honored.” ⁵ But I am poor and in need. Hurry to me, O God! You are my help and the One Who takes me out of trouble. O Lord, do not wait.

A Prayer of an Old Man

71 I have a safe place in you, O Lord. Let me never be ashamed. ² Because You are right and good, take me out of trouble. Turn Your ear to me and save me. ³ Be a rock to me where I live, where I may always come and where I will be safe. For You are my rock and my safe place. ⁴ O my God, take me from the hand of the sinful, from the hand of the wrong-doer and the man without pity. ⁵ For You are my hope, O Lord God. You are my trust since I was young. ⁶ You have kept me safe from birth. It was You Who watched over me from the day I was born. My praise is always of You.

⁷ I have become a wonder and surprise to many. For You are my strong safe place. ⁸ My mouth is filled with Your praise and with Your honor all day long. ⁹ Do not let me fall by the way when I am old. Do not leave me alone when my strength is gone. ¹⁰ For those who hate me talk against me. Those who want to kill make plans together. ¹¹ They say, “God has turned away from him. Run and catch him, for there is no one to take him out of trouble.”

¹² O God, do not be far from me! O my God, hurry to help me! ¹³ Let those who are against me be ashamed and destroyed. Let those who want to hurt me be without honor and covered with shame. ¹⁴ But as for me, I will always have hope and I will praise You more and more. ¹⁵ My mouth will tell about how right and good You are and about Your saving acts all day long. For there are more than I can know. ¹⁶ I will come in the strength of the Lord God. I will tell about how right and good You are, and You alone.

¹⁷ O God, You have taught me from when I was young. And I still tell about Your great works. ¹⁸ Even when I am old and my hair is turning white, O God, do not leave me alone. Let me tell about Your strength to all the people living now, and about Your power to all who are to come. ¹⁹ O God, You are right and good, as the heavens are high. You have done great things, O God. Who is like You? ²⁰ You have shown me many troubles of all kinds. But You will make me strong again. And You will bring me up again from deep in the earth. ²¹ Add to my greatness, and turn to comfort me.

²² O my God, I will praise You with a harp. I will praise Your truth. I will sing praises to You with different kinds of harps, O Holy One of Israel. ²³ My lips will call out for joy when I sing praises to You. You have set my soul free. ²⁴ My tongue will tell about how right and good You are all day long. For those who want to hurt me are ashamed and troubled.

A Prayer for the Nation

74 O God, why have You turned away from us forever? Why does Your anger burn against the sheep in Your fields? ² Remember Your people that You bought a long time ago. You made them free to be the family of Your promise, and Mount Zion, where You have lived. ³ Turn Your steps toward this place that has been destroyed forever. Those who hate You have destroyed all that is in the holy place. ⁴ Those who hate You have called out in the center of Your meeting place. They have set up their flags to show that they have won. ⁵ They acted like men taking up axes against a group of trees. ⁶ All of its fine work has been broken with axes and sticks. ⁷ They have burned Your holy place to the dust. They have made dirty the house of Your name. ⁸ They said in their hearts, “Let us destroy all of these places!” They have burned all the meeting places where God was worshiped in the land. ⁹ We do not see any special things happening. There is no longer anyone who speaks for God. And none of us knows how long this will be. ¹⁰ O God, how long will those who hate You laugh at the truth? Will they speak against Your name forever? ¹¹ Why do You take Your hand away, even Your right hand? Put it out and destroy them!

¹² God is still my King from long ago. He does saving works upon the earth. ¹³ You divided the sea by Your power. You broke the heads of the large dragons in the waters. ¹⁴ You crushed the heads of the Leviathan. And You fed him to the animals of the desert. ¹⁵ It was You Who opened up the earth for water to flow out. And You dried up rivers that flow forever. ¹⁶ The day is Yours. And the night is Yours. You have set the light and the sun in their places. ¹⁷ You have divided all the lands and seas and nations of the earth. You have made summer and winter.

¹⁸ Remember how those who hate You have laughed at the truth, O Lord. Foolish people have spoken against Your name. ¹⁹ Do not give the life of Your dove over to the wild animal. Do not forget the lives of Your troubled people forever. ²⁰ Think about Your agreement. For the dark places of the land are full of fighting. ²¹ Do not let those who suffer under a bad power return without honor. Let those who suffer and those who are in need praise Your name.

²² Rise up, O God. Stand up for Your rights. Remember how the foolish man speaks against You all day long. ²³ Do not forget the voice of those who hate You, the noise that comes without stopping from those who rise against You.

The Sixth Jar—the Euphrates River Dries Up

¹² The sixth angel poured out his jar of God’s anger onto the great Euphrates River. The water dried up. In this way, the kings of the countries of the east could cross over. ¹³ Then I saw three demons that looked like frogs. They came out of the mouths of the dragon and the second wild animal and the false preacher. ¹⁴ These are demons that do powerful works. These demons go to all the kings of all the earth. They bring them together for the war of the great day of the All-powerful God.

¹⁵ (See! I will come like a robber. The man is happy who stays awake and keeps his clothes ready. He will not be walking around without clothes and be ashamed.) ¹⁶ Then the demons brought the kings together in the place called Armageddon in the Hebrew language.

The Seventh Jar—the Earth Shakes and Hail Falls

¹⁷ The seventh angel poured out his jar of God’s anger into the air. A loud voice came from the throne in the house of God, saying, “It is all done!” ¹⁸ Then there were voices and lightning and thunder and the earth shook. The earth shook much more than it had ever shaken before. ¹⁹ The big and strong city of Babylon was split in three parts. The cities of other nations fell to the ground. Then God remembered the strong city of Babylon. He made her drink the wine from His cup of much anger. ²⁰ Every island went down into the sea. No mountain could be found. ²¹ Large pieces of hail fell from heaven on men. These pieces were about as heavy as an older child. But men called God bad names because of so much trouble from the hail.

The Picture-Stories of the Mustard Seed and the Yeast ^(A)

¹⁸ Then Jesus asked, “What is the holy nation of God like? What can I use to show you? ¹⁹ It is like a mustard seed which a man took and planted in his field. It grew and became a tree. The birds of the sky stayed in its branches.” ²⁰ Again Jesus said, “What can I use to show you what the holy nation of God is like? ²¹ It is like yeast that a woman put into three pails of flour until it was all full of yeast.”

Jesus Teaches on the Way to Jerusalem

²² Jesus taught the people as He went through the cities and towns on His way to Jerusalem. ²³ Someone asked Jesus, “Lord, will only a few people be saved from the punishment of sin?” Jesus said to them, ²⁴ “Work hard to go in through the narrow door. I tell you, many will try to go in but will not be able to go in. ²⁵ The owner of the house will get up and shut the door. You who are on the outside will knock on the door and say, ‘Lord, let us in.’ Then He will say, ‘I do not know you.’ ²⁶ Then you will say, ‘We ate and drank with You when You taught in our streets.’ ²⁷ But He will say, ‘I tell you, I do not know you. Go away from Me. You are sinful.’

²⁸ “There will be loud crying and grinding of teeth when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the early preachers in the holy nation of God, but you will be put out. ²⁹ Those who sit at the table in the holy nation of God will come from the east and west and from the north and south. ³⁰ Listen! Some are last who will be first. Some are first who will be last.”