Book of Common Prayer

Prayer of a Man Hurt by a Friend

55 Listen to my prayer, O God. Do not hide Yourself from what I ask. ² Hear me and answer me. My thoughts trouble me and I have no peace, ³ because of the voice of those who hate me and the power of the sinful. For they bring trouble upon me, and in anger they keep on having bad thoughts against me.

⁴ My heart is in pain within me. The fears of death have come upon me. ⁵ I have begun shaking with fear. Fear has power over me. ⁶ And I say, “If only I had wings like a dove, I would fly away and be at rest. ⁷ Yes, I would go far away. I would live in the desert. ⁸ I would hurry to my safe place, away from the wild wind and storm.”

⁹ Mix them up, O Lord. Divide their tongues. For I have seen fighting and trouble in the city. ¹⁰ They go around on its walls day and night. Sin and wrong-doing are within it. ¹¹ Destroying powers are in the city. Trouble and lies never leave its streets.

¹² I would be able to take it if one who hates me were putting me to shame. I could hide from him. It is not one who hates me who has put himself up against me. ¹³ But it is you, a man like myself, one who has gone with me, my close friend. ¹⁴ We shared together. And we walked with the people in the house of God. ¹⁵ Let death take them by surprise. Let them go down alive to the grave. For sin is with them where they live. ¹⁶ As for me, I will call on God and the Lord will save me. ¹⁷ I will cry out and complain in the evening and morning and noon, and He will hear my voice. ¹⁸ He will save my soul in peace from those who make war against me. For there are many who fight me. ¹⁹ God sits on His throne forever. And He will hear them and bring trouble upon them, because there has been no change in them. They do not fear God. ²⁰ He goes against those who were at peace with him. He has broken his agreement. ²¹ What he says is smoother than butter, but war is in his heart. His words are softer than oil, yet they are raised swords.

²² Give all your cares to the Lord and He will give you strength. He will never let those who are right with Him be shaken. ²³ But You, O God, will bring the sinful down into the hole that destroys. Men who kill and lie will not live out half their days. But I will trust in You.

A Song of Praise

138 I will give You thanks with all my heart. I will sing praises to You in front of the gods. ² I will bow down toward Your holy house. And I will give thanks to Your name for Your loving-kindness and Your truth. For You have honored Your Word because of what Your name is. ³ You answered me on the day I called. You gave me strength in my soul.

⁴ O Lord, all the kings of the earth will give thanks to You when they have heard the words of Your mouth. ⁵ And they will sing of the ways of the Lord. For the shining beauty of the Lord is great. ⁶ For even if the Lord is honored, He thinks about those who have no pride. But He knows the proud from far away. ⁷ Even if I walk into trouble, You will keep my life safe. You will put out Your hand against the anger of those who hate me. And Your right hand will save me. ⁸ The Lord will finish the work He started for me. O Lord, Your loving-kindness lasts forever. Do not turn away from the works of Your hands.

God Cares for His People

139 O Lord, You have looked through me and have known me. ² You know when I sit down and when I get up. You understand my thoughts from far away. ³ You look over my path and my lying down. You know all my ways very well. ⁴ Even before I speak a word, O Lord, You know it all. ⁵ You have closed me in from behind and in front. And You have laid Your hand upon me. ⁶ All You know is too great for me. It is too much for me to understand.

⁷ Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I run away from where You are? ⁸ If I go up to heaven, You are there! If I make my bed in the place of the dead, You are there! ⁹ If I take the wings of the morning or live in the farthest part of the sea, ¹⁰ even there Your hand will lead me and Your right hand will hold me. ¹¹ If I say, “For sure the darkness will cover me and the light around me will be night,” ¹² even the darkness is not dark to You. And the night is as bright as the day. Darkness and light are the same to You.

¹³ For You made the parts inside me. You put me together inside my mother. ¹⁴ I will give thanks to You, for the greatness of the way I was made brings fear. Your works are great and my soul knows it very well. ¹⁵ My bones were not hidden from You when I was made in secret and put together with care in the deep part of the earth. ¹⁶ Your eyes saw me before I was put together. And all the days of my life were written in Your book before any of them came to be.

¹⁷ Your thoughts are of great worth to me, O God. How many there are! ¹⁸ If I could number them, there would be more than the sand. When I awake, I am still with You.

¹⁹ If only You would kill the sinful, O God, and the men of blood would go away from me! ²⁰ For they speak against You in sin. Those who hate You use Your name in a wrong way. ²¹ Do I not hate those who hate You, O Lord? And do I not hate those who rise up against You? ²² I hate them with the strongest hate. They have become men who hate me.

²³ Look through me, O God, and know my heart. Try me and know my thoughts.

A Few of Israel Will Return

²⁰ In that day those of Israel and of the family of Jacob who are still alive will never again trust in the one who destroyed them. But they will trust in the Lord, the Holy One of Israel. ²¹ Some people, those who are left of Jacob, will return to the powerful God. ²² Even if there are as many Jews as the sand by the sea, only a few of them will return. The plan is to destroy them and it will be right and complete. ²³ For the Lord of All will destroy everything in the whole land and do what He planned.

Assyria Will Be Punished

²⁴ So the Lord, the Lord of All, says, “O My people who live in Zion, do not be afraid of the Assyrians when they come to fight against you as the Egyptians did. ²⁵ For in a very little while My anger against you will come to an end and it will be turned to destroy them.” ²⁶ The Lord of All will punish them like He punished Midian at the rock of Oreb. His special stick will be over the sea and He will lift it up the way He did in Egypt. ²⁷ In that day the Assyrian’s load will be taken from your shoulders and neck, and it will be broken because you are so fat.

¹⁷ Dear friends, you must remember the words spoken by the missionaries of our Lord Jesus Christ. ¹⁸ They said, “In the last days there will be men who will laugh at the truth and will be led by their own sinful desires.” ¹⁹ They are men who will make trouble by dividing people into groups against each other. Their minds are on the things of the world because they do not have the Holy Spirit.

²⁰ Dear friends, you must become strong in your most holy faith. Let the Holy Spirit lead you as you pray. ²¹ Keep yourselves in the love of God. Wait for life that lasts forever through the loving-kindness of our Lord Jesus Christ. ²² Have loving-kindness for those who doubt. ²³ Save some by pulling them out of the fire. Have loving-kindness for others but also fear them. Be afraid of being led into doing their sins. Hate even the clothes that have touched sinful bodies.

²⁴ There is One Who can keep you from falling and can bring you before Himself free from all sin. He can give you great joy as you stand before Him in His shining-greatness. ²⁵ He is the only God. He is the One Who saves from the punishment of sin through Jesus Christ our Lord. May He have shining-greatness and honor and power and the right to do all things. He had this before the world began, He has it now, and He will have this forever. Let it be so.

John the Baptist Makes the Way Ready for Jesus ^(A)

3 Tiberius Caesar had been ruler for fifteen years. Pontius Pilate was ruler of the country of Judea. Herod was the ruler of the country of Galilee. His brother Philip was the ruler of the countries of Ituraea and Trachonitis. Lysanias was the ruler of the country of Abilene. ² Annas and Caiaphas were the head religious leaders.

The Word of God came to John the Baptist, the son of Zacharias. John was in the desert. ³ He went into all the country around the Jordan River. He preached that people should be baptized because they were sorry for their sins and had turned from them, and they would be forgiven. ⁴ The early preacher Isaiah wrote these words: “His voice calls out in the desert. ‘Make the way ready for the Lord. Make the road straight for Him! ⁵ Every valley will be filled and every mountain and hill will be brought down. The turns in the road will be made straight and the rough places will be made smooth. ⁶ And all men will see God saving people from the punishment of their sins.’” ^(B)

⁷ John said to the people who came to be baptized by him, “You family of snakes! Who told you how to keep from the anger of God that is coming? ⁸ Do something to let me see that you have turned from your sins. Do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ I tell you, God can make children for Abraham out of these stones. ⁹ Even now the ax is on the root of the trees. Every tree that does not give good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.”