Book of Common Prayer
A special Davidic Psalm.[a]
Trust in the Face of Death
16 Keep me safe, God,
for I take refuge in you.
2 I told the Lord,
“You are my master,[b]
I have nothing good apart from you.”
3 As for the saints that are in the land,
they are noble, and all my delight is in them.
4 Those who hurry after another god[c] will have many sorrows;
I will not present[d] their drink offerings of blood,
nor will my lips speak[e] their names.
5 The Lord is my inheritance and my cup;
you support my lot.
6 The boundary lines have fallen in pleasant places for me;
truly, I have a beautiful heritage.
7 I will bless the Lord who has counseled me;
indeed, my conscience instructs[f] me during the night.
8 I have set the Lord before me continuously;
because he stands at my right hand, I will stand firm.[g]
9 Therefore, my heart is glad,
my whole being[h] rejoices,
and my body will dwell securely.
10 For you will not leave my soul in Sheol,[i]
you will not allow your holy one to experience corruption.[j]
11 You cause me to know the path of life;
in your presence is joyful abundance,
at your right hand there are pleasures forever.
A Davidic Prayer.
A Cry for Justice
17 Lord, hear my just plea!
Pay attention to my cry!
Listen to my prayer,
since it does not come from lying lips.
2 Justice for me will come from your presence;
your eyes see what is right.
3 When you probe my heart,
and examine me at night;
when you refine me,
you will find nothing wrong,[k]
for I have determined that I will not transgress with my mouth.
4 As for the ways of mankind,
I have, according to the words of your lips,
avoided the ways of the violent.
5 Because my steps have held fast to your paths,
my footsteps have not faltered.
6 I call upon you, for you will answer me, God.
Listen closely to me
and hear my prayer.
7 Show forth your gracious love,
save those who take refuge in you
from those who rebel against your sovereign power.[l]
8 Protect me as the most precious part of the eye;[m]
hide me under the shadow of your wings
9 from the wicked[n] who have afflicted me,
from my enemies who have surrounded me.
10 They are imprisoned by their own prosperity,[o]
they have boasted proudly with their mouth.
11 Now they have encircled our paths[p]
and are determined[q] to cast us down to the ground.
12 Like a lion they desire to rip us to pieces,
like a young lion waiting in ambush.
13 Arise, Lord,
confront them,
bring them to their knees!
Deliver me from the wicked by your sword—
14 from men, Lord, by your hand—
from men who belong to this world,
whose reward is only[r] in this[s] life.
But as for your treasured ones,
may their stomachs be full,
may their children have an abundance,
and may they leave wealth to their offspring.
15 But as for me, justified, I will behold your face;
when I awake, your presence[t] will satisfy me.
To the Director: To the tune of[a] “Doe of the Dawn”.
A Davidic Psalm.
God Delivers His Suffering Servant
22 My God! My God!
Why have you abandoned me?
Why are you so far from delivering me—
from my groaning words?
2 My God, I cry out to you throughout the day,
but you do not answer;
and throughout the night,
but I have no rest.[b]
3 You are holy,
enthroned on the praises of Israel.
4 Our ancestors trusted in you;
they trusted and you delivered them.
5 They cried out to you and escaped;
they trusted in you and were not put to shame.
6 But as for me,
I am only a worm and not a man,
scorned by mankind and despised by people.
7 Everyone who sees me mocks me;
they gape at me with open mouths
and shake their heads at me.
8 They say,[c] “Commit yourself to the Lord;
perhaps the Lord[d] will deliver him,
perhaps he will cause him to escape,
since he delights in him.”
9 Yet, you are the one who took me from the womb,
and kept me safe on my mother’s breasts.
10 I was dependent on you from birth;
from my mother’s womb you have been my God.
11 Do not be so distant from me,
for trouble is at hand;
indeed, there is no deliverer.
12 Many bulls have surrounded me;
the vicious bulls of Bashan have encircled me.
13 Their mouths are opened wide toward me,
like roaring and attacking lions.
14 I am poured out like water;
all my bones are out of joint.
My heart is like wax, melting within me.
15 My strength is dried up like broken pottery;
my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth,[e]
and you have brought me down to the dust of death.
16 For dogs have surrounded me;
a gang of those who practice evil has encircled me.
They gouged[f] my hands and my[g] feet.
17 I can count all my bones.
They look at me;
they stare at me.
18 They divide my clothing among themselves;
they cast lots for my clothing!
19 But as for you, Lord, do not be far away from me;
My Strength, come quickly to help me.
20 Deliver me from the sword;
my precious life from the power of the dog.
21 Deliver me from the mouth of the lion,
from the horns of the wild oxen.
You have answered me.
22 I will declare your name to my brothers;
in the midst of the congregation, I will praise you, saying,[h]
23 “All who fear the Lord, praise him!
All the seed of Jacob, glorify him!
All the seed of Israel, fear him!
24 For he does not despise nor detest the afflicted person;
he does not hide his face from him,
but he hears him when he cries out to him.”
25 My praise in the great congregation is because of you;
I will pay my vows before those who fear you.[i]
26 The afflicted will eat and be satisfied;
those who seek the Lord will praise him,
“May you[j] live forever!”
27 All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the Lord;
all the families of the nations will bow in submission to the Lord.
28 Indeed, the kingdom belongs to the Lord;
he rules over the nations.
29 All the prosperous people will eat and bow down in submission.
All those who are about to go down to the grave[k]
will bow down in submission,
along with the one who can no longer keep himself alive.
30 Our[l] descendants will serve him,
and that generation will be told about the Lord.
31 They will come and declare his righteousness
to a people yet to be born;
indeed, he has accomplished it!
Preparations to Build the Temple(A)
5 [a]King Hiram of Tyre sent his servants to Solomon when he learned that Solomon[b] had been anointed king to replace his father, because Hiram had been David’s lifelong friend.[c] 2 Solomon sent this message to Hiram:
3 “You know that my father David was unable to build a temple dedicated to[d] the Lord his God because he was busy fighting wars all around him until the Lord defeated his enemies. 4 But now the Lord has given me rest all around, since I have neither foreign adversaries nor domestic crises. 5 So now I’m planning to build a temple dedicated to[e] the Lord my God, just as the Lord told my father when he said, ‘Your son, whom I will set on your throne to replace you, will build the Temple dedicated to me.’[f] 6 Now therefore please order that cedars of Lebanon be cut for me. My servants will work with your servants, and I will pay your servants whatever wages you set, because you know there is no one among us who knows how to cut timber like the Sidonians do.”
7 As soon as Hiram received the message from Solomon, he became so ecstatic that he exclaimed, “Blessed be the Lord today, who has given David a wise son to rule this great people!” Then he sent this message to Solomon:
8 “I have read the letter that you sent me. I’ll do what you’ve asked about the cedar and cypress timber. 9 My servants will transport them from Lebanon to the sea, where we’ll make them into rafts and float them by sea to the port that you tell me to send them. We’ll have them prepared for transport there and then you can carry them from there. You can meet my needs by providing provisions for my household.”
10 That’s how Hiram came to provide Solomon as much cedar and cypress timber as he needed. 11 In return, Solomon paid Hiram 20,000 kors of wheat as food for his household, and 20 kors of beaten oil. Solomon provided this amount every year during the construction.[g]
12 The Lord continued giving Solomon wisdom, just as he had promised, and Hiram and Solomon entered into a peace treaty between themselves.
Conscripted Labor for the Building Program
13 King Solomon conscripted laborers from throughout Israel. The work force numbered 30,000 men. 14 He sent 10,000 men to Lebanon in shifts lasting one month. They worked one month in Lebanon for every two months they worked at home. Adoniram was placed in charge of the conscripted labor. 15 Solomon also employed 70,000 heavy-lift workers and 80,000 stonecutters in the hill country. 16 Solomon also employed 3,300 officials to supervise the work and to manage the people employed in the construction. 17 The king specified that large, expensive stones be quarried so the foundation of the Temple could be laid with cut stones. 18 As a result, Solomon’s builders worked with Hiram’s builders, accompanied by the Gebalites, to quarry the stone and to prepare the timber and other[h] stone for the Temple’s construction.
Temple Construction Begins(B)
6 During the month of Ziv, which was the second month of the fourth year of Solomon’s reign over Israel, 480 years after the Israelis left the land of Egypt, Solomon began to build the Lord’s Temple.
7 The Temple was constructed of stone precut at the quarry so that no hammer, axe, or any other iron implement would be heard in the Temple while it was being built.
Paul on the Island of Malta
28 When we were safely on shore, we learned that the island was called Malta. 2 The people who lived there were unusually kind to us. It had started to rain and was cold, so they started a bonfire and invited us to join them[a] around it. 3 Paul gathered a bundle of sticks and put it on the fire. A poisonous snake was forced out by the heat and attached itself to Paul’s[b] hand. 4 When the people who lived there saw the snake hanging from his hand, they told one another, “This man must be a murderer! He may have escaped from the sea, but Justice[c] won’t let him live.” 5 But he shook the snake into the fire and wasn’t harmed. 6 They were expecting him to swell up or suddenly drop dead, but after waiting a long time and seeing nothing unusual happen to him, they changed their minds and said he was a god.
7 The governor of the island, whose name was Publius, owned estates in that part of the island. He welcomed us and entertained us with great hospitality for three days. 8 The father of Publius happened to be sick in bed with fever and dysentery. Paul went to him, prayed, and healed him by placing his hands on him. 9 After that had happened, the rest of the sick people on the island went to him and were healed. 10 The islanders[d] honored us in many ways, and when we were about to sail again,[e] they supplied us with everything we needed.
Paul Sails from Malta to Rome
11 Three months later, we continued our sailing onboard an Alexandrian ship that had spent the winter at the island. It had the Twin Brothers[f] as its figurehead. 12 We stopped at Syracuse and stayed there for three days. 13 Then we weighed anchor and came to Rhegium. A day later, a south wind began to blow, and on the second day we came to Puteoli. 14 There we found some brothers and were invited to stay with them for seven days. After this, we arrived in Rome. 15 The brothers there heard about us and came as far as the Forum of Appius and the Three Taverns to meet us. When Paul saw them, he thanked God and felt encouraged. 16 When we came into Rome, Paul was allowed to live by himself with the soldier who was guarding him.
Jesus Predicts Peter’s Denial(A)
27 Then Jesus told them, “All of you will turn against me, because it is written,
‘I will strike the shepherd,
and the sheep will be scattered.’[a]
28 However, after I’ve been raised, I’ll go to Galilee ahead of you.”
29 But Peter told him, “Even if everyone else turns against you, I certainly won’t.”
30 Jesus told him, “I tell you[b] with certainty, today, this very night, before a rooster crows twice, you’ll deny me three times.”
31 But Peter[c] kept saying emphatically, “Even if I have to die with you, I’ll never deny you!” And all the others kept saying the same thing.
Jesus Prays in the Garden of Gethsemane(B)
32 Then they came to a place called Gethsemane, and he told his disciples, “Sit down here while I pray.” 33 He took Peter, James, and John along with him, and he began to feel distressed and troubled. 34 So he told them, “I’m deeply grieved, even to the point of death. Wait here and stay awake.”
35 Going on a little farther, he fell to the ground and kept praying that if it were possible the hour might pass from him. 36 He kept repeating, “Abba![d] Father! All things are possible for you. Take this cup away from me. Yet not what I want but what you want.”
37 When he went back, he found his disciples[e] asleep. “Simon, are you asleep?” he asked Peter. “You couldn’t stay awake for one hour, could you? 38 All of you must stay awake and pray that you won’t be tempted. The spirit is indeed willing, but the body[f] is weak.”
39 He went away again and prayed the same prayer as before.[g] 40 Again he came back and found them asleep, because they could not keep their eyes open. They didn’t even know what they should say to him.
41 He came back a third time. “Are you still sleeping and resting?”[h] he asked. “Enough of that! The time has come. Look! The Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of sinners. 42 Get up! Let’s go! See, the one who is betraying me is near!”
Copyright © 1995-2014 by ISV Foundation. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED INTERNATIONALLY. Used by permission of Davidson Press, LLC.