Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 55
My Friend Betrays Me
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For the choir director. With stringed instruments. A maskil by David.
Opening Plea
1 Turn your ear to my prayer, O God.
Do not hide from my plea for mercy.
2 Pay attention to me and answer me.
The Problem
I am troubled in my thoughts and I groan
3 because of talk from the enemy,
because of oppression from the wicked,
because they dump evil on me,
and in anger they hold a grudge against me.
4 My heart is in anguish within me.
The terrors of death fall on me.
5 Fear and trembling come over me.
Horror covers me.
6 So I say, “I wish I had wings like a dove!
I would fly away and find a place to rest.
7 Yes, I would flee far away. Interlude
I would stay in the wilderness.
8 I would hurry to find shelter,
far from the violent wind, far from the storm.”
9 Swallow them up, O Lord.
Confuse their speech,
for I see violence and contention in the city.
10 Day and night they sneak around on its walls.
Evil and trouble are in the city.
11 Destruction lurks within it.
Treachery and deceit never leave its streets.
12 For it is not an enemy who insults me—
I could bear that.
It is not someone who hated me who rises up against me—
I could hide from him.
13 But it is you, a man who served with me,
my colleague and my associate,
14 with whom I shared pleasant discussions
as we walked with the excited crowd at God’s house.
Plea for Judgment
15 Let deadly destruction come on them.
Let them go down to the grave alive,
because evil is at home in their hearts.
Confidence in Judgment
16 As for me, I call to God,
and the Lord saves me.
17 Evening, morning, and noon I cry out and I sigh,
and he hears my voice.
18 In peace he redeems my life from the assault against me,
even when many are against me.
19 God will hear, and he will punish them— Interlude
yes, he is seated on his throne from eternity!
—because they never change, and they do not fear God.
The Traitor’s Treachery
20 The traitor reaches out his hand against those at peace with him.
He breaks his agreement.[a]
21 His flattery is as smooth as butter,
yet war is in his heart.
His words are more soothing than oil,
yet they are drawn daggers.
God’s Solution
22 Place your burden on the Lord,
and he will support you.
He will never allow the righteous to fall.
23 But you, O God, will bring them down into the pit of destruction.
Bloody and deceitful men will not live half their days.
But as for me, I will trust in you.
Psalm 138
May the Kings Praise You
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By David.
Thanks From a Grateful Heart
1 I will thank you with all my heart.
Before the gods[a] I will make music for you.
2 I will bow down toward your holy temple.
I will give thanks to your name
because of your mercy and because of your truth.
Yes, you made your word even greater than your name.[b]
3 By day I called, and you answered me.
You have made my soul strong.
4 All the kings of the earth will thank you, Lord,
when they have heard the message from your mouth.
5 Then they will sing about the ways of the Lord,
because the glory of the Lord is great.
6 Indeed the Lord is exalted, but he sees the lowly,
and he recognizes the proud from a distance.
7 If I walk surrounded by danger, you keep me alive
in spite of the anger of my enemies.
You stretch out your hand.
You save me with your right hand.
8 The Lord will fulfill his purpose[c] for me.
Lord, your mercy endures forever.
Do not let go of the works[d] of your hands.
Psalm 139
God’s Attributes—Too Wonderful for Me!
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For the choir director. By David. A psalm.
God Is All-Knowing
1 Lord, you have investigated me,
and you know.
2 You know when I sit down and when I get up.
You understand my thoughts from far off.
3 You keep track of when I travel and when I stay,[e]
and you are familiar with all my ways.
4 Before there is a word on my tongue,
you, Lord, already know it completely.
5 You put a fence behind me and in front of me,
and you have placed your hand on me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me.
It is too high—I cannot grasp it.
God Is Present Everywhere
7 Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your Presence?[f]
8 If I go up to heaven, you are there.
If I make my bed in hell—there you are!
9 I rise on the wings of dawn.
I settle on the far side of the sea.
10 Even there your hand guides me,
and your right hand holds on to me.
11 And if I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me
and the light will become night around me,”
12 then even the darkness will not be too dark for you.
The night will be as light as the day.
Darkness and light are the same to you.
God Is Powerful and Good
13 For you created my inner organs.[g]
You wove me together in my mother’s womb.
14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Your works are wonderful,
and my soul knows that very well.
15 My bones were not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place,
when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
16 Your eyes saw my unfinished body.
In your book all of them were written.
Days were determined, before any of them existed.
17 Your thoughts to me are so precious, O God!
How great is the sum of them!
18 If I would count them,
they would outnumber the grains of sand.
I awake, and I am still with you.
God Is Holy
19 If only you would slay the wicked, O God,
so that bloody men would depart from me,
20 men who speak against you maliciously.
Your adversaries misuse your name.
21 Do I not hate those who hate you, O Lord,
and detest those who rise up against you?
22 I absolutely hate them. To me they are enemies.
23 Investigate me, God, and know my heart.
Test me and know my troubled thoughts.
A Remnant of Israel Will Return
20 It will come about in that day that those who remain from Israel and those from the house of Jacob who have survived will never again lean on the one who struck them, but they will truly lean on the Lord, the Holy One of Israel. 21 A remnant will return to the mighty God, namely, the remnant of Jacob.
22 Although your people, Israel, are like the sand of the sea, only a remnant will return. Complete destruction has been decreed—overwhelming, but righteous. 23 For the Lord, the Lord of Armies, will bring about the destruction decreed for the whole earth.
24 Therefore the Lord, the Lord of Armies, says, “You my people who dwell in Zion, do not be afraid of the Assyrian, though he strikes you with the rod and lifts up his club against you as Egypt did. 25 For in a very little while, my rage against you will be finished, and my anger will be directed to his destruction.”
26 The Lord of Armies will raise up a whip against him, as he did in the slaughter of Midian at the rock of Oreb. His rod will stretch over the sea, and he will lift it up as he did against Egypt. 27 In that day he will remove the burden that he placed on your shoulder and the yoke he placed on your neck. The yoke will be destroyed because your neck has grown so fat.[a]
Keep Yourselves in God’s Love
17 But you, dear friends, remember the words that were spoken earlier by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. 18 They said to you, “In the last time there will be scoffers who follow their own ungodly lusts.”[a] 19 These are the people who cause divisions. They are worldly because they do not have the Spirit.
20 But you, dear friends, continue to build yourselves up in your most holy faith as you keep praying in the Holy Spirit. 21 Keep yourselves in God’s love as you continue to wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ, which results in eternal life. 22 Show mercy to those who are wavering.[b] 23 Save others by snatching them out of the fire. Show mercy to still others with fear,[c] hating even the clothing that is stained by the flesh.
24 Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you faultless in the presence of his glory with great joy, 25 to the only[d] God, our Savior, be glory, majesty, power, and authority through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all time, now, and to all eternity. Amen.
John the Baptist Prepares the Way
3 In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar—while Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, Herod was tetrarch of Galilee, his brother Philip was tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias was tetrarch of Abilene— 2 during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John, the son of Zechariah, in the wilderness. 3 He went into the whole region around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 4 Just as it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet:
A voice of one calling in the wilderness,
“Prepare the way of the Lord! Make his paths straight.
5 Every valley will be filled, and every mountain and hill will be
made low.
The crooked will become straight, and the rough ways smooth.
6 And everyone[a] will see the salvation of God.”[b]
7 So John kept saying to the crowds who came out to be baptized by him, “You offspring of vipers, who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? 8 Therefore produce fruits in keeping with repentance! Do not even think of saying to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father,’ because I tell you that God is able to raise up children for Abraham from these stones. 9 Even now the ax is ready to strike[c] the root of the trees. So every tree that does not produce good fruit is going to be cut down and thrown into the fire.”
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.