Book of Common Prayer
A Cry for Help
For the director of music. To the tune of “Lilies.” A song of David.
69 God, save me.
The water has risen to my neck.
2 I’m sinking down into the mud.
There is nothing to stand on.
I am in deep water.
The flood covers me.
3 I am tired from calling for help.
My throat is sore.
My eyes are tired from waiting
for God to help me.
4 There are more people who hate me for no reason
than hairs on my head.
Those who want to destroy me are powerful.
My enemies are liars.
They make me pay back
what I did not steal.
5 God, you know what I have done wrong.
I cannot hide my guilt from you.
6 Master, the Lord of heaven’s armies,
do not let those who hope in you be ashamed because of me.
God of Israel,
do not let your worshipers
be disgraced because of me.
7 For you, I carry this shame.
My face is covered with disgrace.
8 I am like a stranger to my brothers.
I am like a foreigner to my mother’s sons.
9 My strong love for your Temple completely controls me.
When people insult you, it hurts me.
10 When I cry and go without food,
they make fun of me.
11 When I wear rough cloth to show my sadness,
they joke about me.
12 They make fun of me in public places.
The drunkards make up songs about me.
13 But I pray to you, Lord.
I pray that you will accept me.
God, because of your great love, answer me.
You are truly able to save.
14 Pull me from the mud.
Do not let me sink.
Save me from those who hate me
and from the deep water.
15 Do not let the flood drown me.
Do not let the deep water swallow me.
Do not let the grave close its mouth over me.
16 Lord, answer me because your love is so good.
Because of your great kindness, turn to me.
17 Do not hide from me, your servant.
I am in trouble. Hurry to help me!
18 Come near and save me.
Rescue me from my enemies.
19 You see my shame and disgrace.
You know all my enemies and what they have said.
20 Insults have broken my heart.
I am weak.
I looked for sympathy, but there was none.
I found no one to comfort me.
21 They put poison in my food.
They gave me vinegar to drink.
22 Let their own feasts cause their ruin.
Let their feasts trap them and pay them back.
23 Let their eyes be closed so they cannot see.
Let their backs be forever weak from troubles.
24 Pour your anger out on them.
Show them how angry you are.
25 May their place be empty.
Leave no one to live in their tents.
26 They chase after those you have hurt.
They talk about the pain of those you have wounded.
27 Charge them with crime after crime.
Do not let them have anything good.
28 Wipe their names from the book of life.
Do not list them with those who do what is right.
29 I am sad and hurting.
God, save me and protect me.
30 I will praise God in a song.
I will honor him by giving thanks.
31 That will please the Lord more than offering him cattle.
It will please him more than the sacrifice of a bull with horns and hooves.
32 People who are not proud will see this and be glad.
Be encouraged, you who worship God.
33 The Lord listens to those in need.
He does not look down on captives.
34 Heaven and earth should praise him.
The seas and everything in them should also.
35 God will save Jerusalem.
He will rebuild the cities of Judah.
Then people will live there and own the land.
36 The descendants of his servants will inherit that land.
Those who love him will live there.
Book 3
Psalms 73—89
Should the Wicked Be Rich?
A song of Asaph.
73 God is truly good to Israel,
to those who have pure hearts.
2 But I had almost stopped believing this truth.
I had almost lost my faith
3 because I was jealous of proud people.
I saw wicked people doing well.
4 They are not suffering.
They are healthy and strong.
5 They don’t have troubles like the rest of us.
They don’t have problems like other people.
6 So they wear pride like a necklace.
They put on violence as their clothing.
7 They are looking for profits.
They do not control their selfish desires.
8 They make fun of others and speak evil.
Proudly they speak of hurting others.
9 They brag to the sky.
Their mouths gossip on the earth.
10 So their people turn to them
and give them whatever they want.
11 They say, “How can God know?
What does God Most High know?”
12 These people are wicked,
always at ease and getting richer.
13 So why have I kept my heart pure?
Why have I kept my hands from doing wrong?
14 I have suffered all day long.
I have been punished every morning.
15 God, if I had decided to talk about this,
I would have let your people down.
16 I tried to understand all this.
But it was too hard for me to see
17 until I went to the Temple of God.
Then I understood what will happen to them.
18 You have put them in danger.
You cause them to be destroyed.
19 They are destroyed in a moment.
They are swept away by terrors.
20 It will be like waking from a dream.
Lord, when you come, they will disappear.
21 When my heart was sad and
I was angry,
22 I was senseless and stupid.
I acted like an animal toward you.
23 But I am always with you.
You have held my hand.
24 You guide me with your advice.
And later you will receive me in honor.
25 I have no one in heaven but you.
I want nothing on earth besides you.
26 My mind and my body may become weak.
But God is my strength.
He is mine forever.
27 Those who are far from God will die.
You destroy those who are unfaithful.
28 But I am close to God, and that is good.
The Lord God is my protection.
I will tell all that you have done.
Judgment Against Jehoiakim
13 “How terrible it will be for him who builds his palace by doing evil.
He cheats people so he can build its upper rooms.
He is making his own people work for nothing.
He is not paying them for their work.
14 He says, ‘I will build a great palace for myself.
I will have large upper rooms.’
So he builds the palace with large windows.
He uses cedar wood for the walls.
And he paints it red.
15 “Does having a lot of cedar in your house
make you a great king?
Your father was satisfied to have food and drink.
He did what was right and fair.
So everything went well for him.
16 He helped those who were poor and needy.
So everything went well for him.
That’s what it means to know God,” says the Lord.
17 “But your eyes only look for what you can get dishonestly.
You are always thinking about getting more for yourself.
You are even willing to kill innocent people to get it.
You are making it hard for people.
You even steal things from them.”
18 So this is what the Lord says to Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah:
“The people of Judah will not cry loudly when Jehoiakim dies.
They will not say, ‘Oh, my brother, I am so sad!
Oh, my sister, I am so sad!’
The people of Judah will not cry for him, saying:
‘Oh, master, oh, my king.’
19 The people of Jerusalem will bury him like a donkey.
They will just drag his body away.
Then they will throw it outside the gates of Jerusalem.
20 “Judah, go up to Lebanon and cry out.
Let your voice be heard in Bashan.
Cry out from Abarim.
All your friends are destroyed!
21 Judah, when you were successful, I warned you.
But you refused to listen.
You have acted like this since you were young.
You have not obeyed me.
22 My punishment will come like a storm.
And it will blow all your shepherds away.
Your friends will be taken away as captives.
Then you will really be ashamed.
You will be disgraced because of all the wicked things you did.
23 King, you live in your palace.
You are cozy in your rooms of cedar.
But you will groan when your punishment comes.
You will hurt like a woman giving birth to a baby!
12 So, my brothers, we must not be ruled by our sinful selves. We must not live the way our sinful selves want. 13 If you use your lives to do the wrong things your sinful selves want, then you will die spiritually. But if you use the Spirit’s help to stop doing the wrong things you do with your body, then you will have true life.
14 The true children of God are those who let God’s Spirit lead them. 15 The Spirit that we received is not a spirit that makes us slaves again to fear. The Spirit that we have makes us children of God. And with that Spirit we say, “Father, dear Father.”[a] 16 And the Spirit himself joins with our spirits to say that we are God’s children. 17 If we are God’s children, then we will receive the blessings God has for us. We will receive these things from God together with Christ. But we must suffer as Christ suffered, and then we will have glory as Christ has glory.
Our Future Glory
18 We have sufferings now. But the sufferings we have now are nothing compared to the great glory that will be given to us. 19 Everything that God made is waiting with excitement for the time when God will show the world who his children are. The whole world wants very much for that to happen. 20 Everything that God made was changed to become useless. This was not by its own wish. It happened because God wanted it. But there was this hope: 21 that everything God made would be set free from ruin. There was hope that everything God made would have the freedom and glory that belong to God’s children.
22 We know that everything God made has been waiting until now in pain, like a woman ready to give birth. 23 Not only the world, but we also have been waiting with pain inside us. We have the Spirit as the first part of God’s promise. So we are waiting for God to finish making us his own children. I mean we are waiting for our bodies to be made free. 24 We were saved, and we have this hope. If we see what we are waiting for, then that is not really hope. People do not hope for something they already have. 25 But we are hoping for something that we do not have yet. We are waiting for it patiently.
26 Also, the Spirit helps us. We are very weak, but the Spirit helps us with our weakness. We do not know how to pray as we should. But the Spirit himself speaks to God for us, even begs God for us. The Spirit speaks to God with deep feelings that words cannot explain. 27 God can see what is in people’s hearts. And he knows what is in the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit speaks to God for his people in the way that God wants.
41 The Jews began to complain about Jesus. They complained because he said, “I am the bread that comes down from heaven.” 42 The Jews said, “This is Jesus. We know his father and mother. He is only Joseph’s son. How can he say, ‘I came down from heaven’?”
43 But Jesus answered, “Stop complaining to each other. 44 The Father is the One who sent me. No one can come to me unless the Father draws him to me. And I will raise him up on the last day. 45 It is written in the prophets, ‘God will teach all the people.’[a] Everyone who listens to the Father and learns from him comes to me. 46 No one has seen the Father except the One who is from God. Only he has seen the Father. 47 I tell you the truth. He who believes has eternal life. 48 I am the bread that gives life. 49 Your ancestors ate the manna in the desert. But still they died. 50 Here is the bread that comes down from heaven. If anyone eats this bread, he will never die. 51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats this bread, he will live forever. This bread is my flesh. I will give my flesh so that the people in the world may have life.”
The Holy Bible, International Children’s Bible® Copyright© 1986, 1988, 1999, 2015 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission.