Book of Common Prayer
A Prayer in Time of Sickness
For the director of music. A psalm of David.
41 Happy are those who think about the poor.
When trouble comes, the Lord will save them.
2 The Lord will protect them and spare their life
and will bless them in the land.
He will not let their enemies take them.
3 The Lord will give them strength when they are sick,
and he will make them well again.
4 I said, “Lord, have mercy on me.
Heal me, because I have sinned against you.”
5 My enemies are saying evil things about me.
They say, “When will he die and be forgotten?”
6 Some people come to see me,
but they lie.
They just come to get bad news.
Then they go and gossip.
7 All my enemies whisper about me
and think the worst about me.
8 They say, “He has a terrible disease.
He will never get out of bed again.”
9 My best and truest friend, who ate at my table,
has even turned against me.
10 Lord, have mercy on me.
Give me strength so I can pay them back.
11 Because my enemies do not defeat me,
I know you are pleased with me.
12 Because I am innocent, you support me
and will let me be with you forever.
13 Praise the Lord, the God of Israel.
He has always been,
and he will always be.
Amen and amen.
God Will Punish the Proud
For the director of music. A maskil of David. When Doeg the Edomite came to Saul and said to him, “David is in Ahimelech’s house.”
52 Mighty warrior, why do you brag about the evil you do?
God’s love will continue forever.
2 You think up evil plans.
Your tongue is like a sharp razor,
making up lies.
3 You love wrong more than right
and lies more than truth. Selah
4 You love words that bite
and tongues that lie.
5 But God will ruin you forever.
He will grab you and throw you out of your tent;
he will tear you away from the land of the living. Selah
6 Those who do right will see this and fear God.
They will laugh at you and say,
7 “Look what happened to the man
who did not depend on God
but depended on his money.
He grew strong by his evil plans.”
8 But I am like an olive tree
growing in God’s Temple.
I trust God’s love
forever and ever.
9 God, I will thank you forever for what you have done.
With those who worship you, I will trust you because you are good.
A Prayer for Help
For the director of music. A maskil of the sons of Korah.
44 God, we have heard about you.
Our ancestors told us
what you did in their days,
in days long ago.
2 With your power you forced the nations out of the land
and placed our ancestors here.
You destroyed those other nations,
but you made our ancestors grow strong.
3 It wasn’t their swords that took the land.
It wasn’t their power that gave them victory.
But it was your great power and strength.
You were with them because you loved them.
4 My God, you are my King.
Your commands led Jacob’s people to victory.
5 With your help we pushed back our enemies.
In your name we trampled those who came against us.
6 I don’t trust my bow to help me,
and my sword can’t save me.
7 You saved us from our foes,
and you made our enemies ashamed.
8 We will praise God every day;
we will praise your name forever. Selah
9 But you have rejected us and shamed us.
You don’t march with our armies anymore.
10 You let our enemies push us back,
and those who hate us have taken our wealth.
11 You gave us away like sheep to be eaten
and have scattered us among the nations.
12 You sold your people for nothing
and made no profit on the sale.
13 You made us a joke to our neighbors;
those around us laugh and make fun of us.
14 You made us a joke to the other nations;
people shake their heads.
15 I am always in disgrace,
and I am covered with shame.
16 My enemy is getting even
with insults and curses.
17 All these things have happened to us,
but we have not forgotten you
or failed to keep our agreement with you.
18 Our hearts haven’t turned away from you,
and we haven’t stopped following you.
19 But you crushed us in this place where wild dogs live,
and you covered us with deep darkness.
20 If we had forgotten our God
or lifted our hands in prayer to foreign gods,
21 God would have known,
because he knows what is in our hearts.
22 But for you we are in danger of death all the time.
People think we are worth no more than sheep to be killed.
23 Wake up, Lord! Why are you sleeping?
Get up! Don’t reject us forever.
24 Why do you hide from us?
Have you forgotten our pain and troubles?
25 We have been pushed down into the dirt;
we are flat on the ground.
26 Get up and help us.
Because of your love, save us.
The Man of God Speaks Against Bethel
13 The Lord commanded a man of God from Judah to go to Bethel. When he arrived, Jeroboam was standing by the altar to offer a sacrifice. 2 The Lord had commanded the man of God to speak against the altar. The man said, “Altar, altar, the Lord says to you: ‘David’s family will have a son named Josiah. The priests for the places of worship now make their sacrifices on you, but Josiah will sacrifice those priests on you. Human bones will be burned on you.’” 3 That same day the man of God gave proof that these things would happen. “This is the Lord’s sign that this will happen,” he said. “This altar will break apart, and the ashes on it will fall to the ground.”
4 When King Jeroboam heard what the man of God said about the altar in Bethel, the king raised his hand from the altar and pointed at the man. “Take him!” he said. But when the king said this, his arm was paralyzed, and he could not move it. 5 The altar also broke into pieces, and its ashes fell to the ground. This was the sign the Lord had told the man of God to give.
6 Then the king said to the man of God, “Please pray to the Lord your God for me, and ask him to heal my arm.”
So the man of God prayed to the Lord, and the king’s arm was healed, becoming as it was before.
7 Then the king said to the man of God, “Please come home and eat with me, and I will give you a gift.”
8 But the man of God answered the king, “Even if you gave me half of your kingdom, I would not go with you. I will not eat or drink anything in this place. 9 The Lord commanded me not to eat or drink anything nor to return on the same road by which I came.” 10 So he took a different road and did not return on the same road by which he had come to Bethel.
1 From Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus.
To all of God’s holy people in Christ Jesus who live in Philippi, including your overseers and deacons:
2 Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Paul’s Prayer
3 I thank my God every time I remember you, 4 always praying with joy for all of you. 5 I thank God for the help you gave me while I preached the Good News—help you gave from the first day you believed until now. 6 God began doing a good work in you, and I am sure he will continue it until it is finished when Jesus Christ comes again.
7 And I know that I am right to think like this about all of you, because I have you in my heart. All of you share in God’s grace with me while I am in prison and while I am defending and proving the truth of the Good News. 8 God knows that I want to see you very much, because I love all of you with the love of Christ Jesus.
9 This is my prayer for you: that your love will grow more and more; that you will have knowledge and understanding with your love; 10 that you will see the difference between good and bad and will choose the good; that you will be pure and without wrong for the coming of Christ; 11 that you will be filled with the good things produced in your life by Christ to bring glory and praise to God.
40 Some women were standing at a distance from the cross, watching; among them were Mary Magdalene, Salome, and Mary the mother of James and Joseph. (James was her youngest son.) 41 These women had followed Jesus in Galilee and helped him. Many other women were also there who had come with Jesus to Jerusalem.
Jesus Is Buried
42 This was Preparation Day. (That means the day before the Sabbath day.) That evening, 43 Joseph from Arimathea was brave enough to go to Pilate and ask for Jesus’ body. Joseph, an important member of the Jewish council, was one of the people who was waiting for the kingdom of God to come. 44 Pilate was amazed that Jesus would have already died, so he called the army officer who had guarded Jesus and asked him if Jesus had already died. 45 The officer told Pilate that he was dead, so Pilate told Joseph he could have the body. 46 Joseph bought some linen cloth, took the body down from the cross, and wrapped it in the linen. He put the body in a tomb that was cut out of a wall of rock. Then he rolled a very large stone to block the entrance of the tomb. 47 And Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joseph saw the place where Jesus was laid.
The Holy Bible, New Century Version®. Copyright © 2005 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.