Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 51
For the Music Director. A Psalm of David, when Nathan the Prophet came to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba.
1 Have mercy on me, O God,
according to Your lovingkindness;
according to the abundance of Your compassion,
blot out my transgressions.
2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
and cleanse me from my sin.
3 For I acknowledge my transgressions,
and my sin is ever before me.
4 Against You, You only, have I sinned,
and done this evil in Your sight,
so that You are justified when You speak,
and You are blameless when You judge.
5 I was brought forth in iniquity,
and in sin my mother conceived me.
6 You desire truth in the inward parts,
and in the hidden part You make me to know wisdom.
7 Purify me with hyssop, and I will be clean;
wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.
8 Make me to hear joy and gladness,
that the bones that You have broken may rejoice.
9 Hide Your face from my sins,
and blot out all my iniquities.
10 Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and renew a right spirit within me.
11 Do not cast me away from Your presence,
and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.
12 Restore to me the joy of Your salvation,
and uphold me with Your willing spirit.
13 Then I will teach transgressors Your ways,
and sinners will return to You.
14 Deliver me from blood guiltiness, O God,
God of my salvation,
and my tongue will sing aloud of Your righteousness.
15 O Lord, open my lips,
and my mouth will declare Your praise.
16 For You do not desire sacrifice, or I would give it;
You do not delight in burnt offering.
17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;
a broken and a contrite heart,
O God, You will not despise.
18 Do good to Zion in Your good pleasure;
build the walls of Jerusalem.
19 Then You will be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness,
with burnt offering and whole burnt offering;
then they will offer young bulls on Your altar.
Psalm 69
For the Music Director. To the melody of “Lilies.” A Psalm of David.
1 Save me, O God!
For the waters have come up to my throat.
2 I sink in deep mire;
there is no standing place;
I have come into the watery depths,
and a stream overflows me.
3 I am weary of my crying;
my throat is parched;
my eyes fail
while I wait for my God.
4 Those who hate me without cause
are more than the hairs of my head;
they are mighty
who would destroy me, being my wrongful enemies,
so that I must pay back
what I did not steal.
5 O God, You know my folly,
and my sins are not hidden from You.
6 May those who wait on You,
O Lord God of Hosts,
not be ashamed because of me;
may those who seek You
not be humiliated because of me,
O God of Israel.
7 Because for Your sake I have endured insult;
humiliation has covered my face.
8 I have become estranged to my relatives,
and a foreigner to my mother’s children;
9 for the zeal of Your house has consumed me,
and the insults of those who insulted You fell on me.
10 When I wept with fasting for my soul,
it became an insult to me.
11 I also made sackcloth my garment,
and I became a byword to them.
12 Those who sit in the gate speak against me,
and I am the song of the drunkards.
13 But as for me, my prayer is to You, O Lord;
in an acceptable time, O God,
in the abundance of Your mercy,
answer me in the truth of Your salvation.
14 Deliver me out of the mire
that I may not sink;
may I be delivered from those who hate me,
and out of the watery depths.
15 May the stream not overflow me;
neither may the deep swallow me up,
nor the pit close its mouth on me.
16 Answer me, O Lord, for Your lovingkindness is good;
turn Your face to me according to the abundance of Your tender mercies.
17 Do not hide Your face from Your servant,
for I am in trouble; answer me quickly.
18 Draw near to my soul, and redeem it;
deliver me because of my enemies.
19 You have known how I am insulted, and my shame and my dishonor;
my adversaries are all before You.
20 Insults have broken my heart,
and I am sick;
and I looked for some to take pity, but there was none;
and for comforters, but I found none.
21 They also gave me poison for my food,
and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.
22 May their table become a snare before them,
and may security become a trap.
23 May their eyes be darkened so they do not see,
and make their sides shake continually.
Jeremiah’s Plea
12 Righteous are You, O Lord,
that I plead with You.
Indeed, let me talk with You about matters of justice.
Why does the way of the wicked prosper?
Why are all those happy who deal very treacherously?
2 You have planted them; indeed, they have taken root;
they grow; indeed, they bring forth fruit.
You are near in their mouth,
but far from their mind.
3 But You, O Lord, know me;
You have seen me and tested my heart toward You.
Pull them out like sheep for the slaughter,
and prepare them for the day of slaughter.
4 How long shall the land mourn
and the herbs of every field wither?
For the wickedness of those who dwell in it,
the beasts and the birds have been snatched away,
because they said,
“He will not see our latter end.”
God Answers Jeremiah
5 If you have run with the footmen,
and they have wearied you,
then how can you contend with horses?
And if in the land of peace in which you trusted, they wearied you,
then how will you do in the thicket of the Jordan?
6 For even your brothers and the household of your father,
even they have dealt treacherously with you.
Indeed, they have cried aloud after you.
Do not believe them
though they speak fair words to you.
7 I have forsaken My house,
I have abandoned My heritage;
I have given the dearly beloved of My soul
into the hand of her enemies.
8 My heritage is to Me
as a lion in the forest.
She cries out against Me;
therefore I have hated her.
9 My heritage is to Me
as a speckled vulture;
the vultures all around are against her.
Come, assemble all the beasts of the field,
bring them to devour.
10 Many shepherds have destroyed My vineyard;
they have trodden My portion under foot;
they have made My pleasant portion
a desolate wilderness.
11 They have made it desolate,
and being desolate, it mourns to Me.
The whole land has been made desolate,
because no man lays it to heart.
12 The destroyers have come
upon all high places through the wilderness,
for the sword of the Lord shall devour
from the one end of the land even to the other end of the land.
No one shall have peace.
13 They have sown wheat, but reap thorns;
they have strained themselves, but shall not profit.
And they shall be ashamed of your harvest
because of the fierce anger of the Lord.
14 Thus says the Lord: Against all My evil neighbors who touch the inheritance which I have caused My people Israel to inherit, I will pluck them out of their land and pluck out the house of Judah from among them. 15 It shall come to pass that after I have plucked them out, I will again have compassion on them, and will bring them back, every man to his heritage, and every man to his land. 16 It shall come to pass if they will diligently learn the ways of My people, to swear by My name, “As the Lord lives,” as they taught My people to swear by Baal, then they will be built up in the midst of My people.
The True Righteousness
3 Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you is no trouble to me, and it is reassuring for you. 2 Watch out for dogs, watch out for evil workers, watch out for those who practice mutilation. 3 For we are the circumcision who worship God in the Spirit, and boast in Christ Jesus, and place no trust in the flesh, 4 though I also have confidence in the flesh.
If any other man thinks that he has reason to trust in the flesh, I have more: 5 I was circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, and a Hebrew of Hebrews; as concerning the law, a Pharisee; 6 concerning zeal, persecuting the church; and concerning the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.
7 But what things were gain to me, I have counted these things to be loss for the sake of Christ. 8 Yes, certainly, I count everything as loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have forfeited the loss of all things and count them as rubbish that I may gain Christ, 9 and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ,[a] the righteousness which is of God on the basis of faith, 10 to know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, 11 if somehow I might make it to the resurrection of the dead.
Pressing Toward the Mark
12 Not that I have already attained or have already been perfected, but I follow after it so that I may lay hold of that for which I was seized by Christ Jesus. 13 Brothers, I do not count myself to have attained, but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, 14 I press toward the goal to the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
The Plot Against Lazarus
9 When many of the Jews learned that He was there, they came, not for Jesus’ sake only, but that they might also see Lazarus, whom He had raised from the dead. 10 So the chief priests planned to put Lazarus to death also, 11 because on account of him many of the Jews went away and believed in Jesus.
The Triumphant Entry into Jerusalem(A)
12 On the next day a great crowd that had come to the feast heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. 13 They took branches of palm trees, and went out to meet Him, and cried out:
“Hosanna!
‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’[a]
The King of Israel!”
14 Then Jesus, having found a young donkey, sat on it. As it is written:
15 “Fear not, daughter of Zion;
see, your King is coming,
sitting on a donkey’s colt.”[b]
16 His disciples did not understand these things at first. But when Jesus was glorified, they remembered that these things were written about Him and that they had done these things to Him.
17 Now the crowd that was with Him when He called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised him from the dead bore witness. 18 The crowd went and met Him for this reason: They heard that He had performed this sign. 19 So the Pharisees said among themselves, “See, you are gaining nothing! Look, the world has followed Him!”
The Holy Bible, Modern English Version. Copyright © 2014 by Military Bible Association. Published and distributed by Charisma House.