Book of Common Prayer
A Prayer of Confidence[a]
16 Protect me, O God; I trust in you for safety.
2 I say to the Lord, “You are my Lord;
all the good things I have come from you.”
3 How excellent are the Lord's faithful people!
My greatest pleasure is to be with them.
4 Those who rush to other gods
bring many troubles on themselves.[b]
I will not take part in their sacrifices;
I will not worship their gods.
5 You, Lord, are all I have,
and you give me all I need;
my future is in your hands.
6 How wonderful are your gifts to me;
how good they are!
7 I praise the Lord, because he guides me,
and in the night my conscience warns me.
8 I am always aware of the Lord's presence;
he is near, and nothing can shake me.
9 And so I am thankful and glad,
and I feel completely secure,
10 (A)because you protect me from the power of death.
I have served you faithfully,
and you will not abandon me to the world of the dead.
11 (B)You will show me the path that leads to life;
your presence fills me with joy
and brings me pleasure forever.
The Prayer of an Innocent Person[c]
17 Listen, O Lord, to my plea for justice;
pay attention to my cry for help!
Listen to my honest prayer.
2 You will judge in my favor,
because you know what is right.
3 You know my heart.
You have come to me at night;
you have examined me completely
and found no evil desire in me.
I speak no evil,
4 as others do;
I have obeyed your command
and have not followed paths of violence.
5 I have always walked in your way
and have never strayed from it.
6 I pray to you, O God, because you answer me;
so turn to me and listen to my words.
7 Reveal your wonderful love and save me;
at your side I am safe from my enemies.
8 Protect me as you would your very eyes;
hide me in the shadow of your wings
9 from the attacks of the wicked.
Deadly enemies surround me;
10 they have no pity and speak proudly.
11 They are around me now, wherever I turn,
watching for a chance to pull me down.
12 They are like lions, waiting for me,
wanting to tear me to pieces.
13 Come, Lord! Oppose my enemies and defeat them!
Save me from the wicked by your sword;
14 save me from those who in this life have all they want.
Punish them with the sufferings you have stored up for them;
may there be enough for their children
and some left over for their children's children!
15 But I will see you, because I have done no wrong;
and when I awake, your presence will fill me with joy.
A Cry of Anguish and a Song of Praise[a]
22 (A)My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?
I have cried desperately for help,
but still it does not come.
2 During the day I call to you, my God,
but you do not answer;
I call at night,
but get no rest.
3 But you are enthroned as the Holy One,
the one whom Israel praises.
4 Our ancestors put their trust in you;
they trusted you, and you saved them.
5 They called to you and escaped from danger;
they trusted you and were not disappointed.
6 But I am no longer a human being; I am a worm,
despised and scorned by everyone!
7 (B)All who see me make fun of me;
they stick out their tongues and shake their heads.
8 (C)“You relied on the Lord,” they say.
“Why doesn't he save you?
If the Lord likes you,
why doesn't he help you?”
9 It was you who brought me safely through birth,
and when I was a baby, you kept me safe.
10 I have relied on you since the day I was born,
and you have always been my God.
11 Do not stay away from me!
Trouble is near,
and there is no one to help.
12 Many enemies surround me like bulls;
they are all around me,
like fierce bulls from the land of Bashan.
13 They open their mouths like lions,
roaring and tearing at me.
14 My strength is gone,
gone like water spilled on the ground.
All my bones are out of joint;
my heart is like melted wax.
15 My throat[b] is as dry as dust,
and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth.
You have left me for dead in the dust.
16 An evil gang is around me;
like a pack of dogs they close in on me;
they tear at[c] my hands and feet.
17 All my bones can be seen.
My enemies look at me and stare.
18 (D)They gamble for my clothes
and divide them among themselves.
19 O Lord, don't stay away from me!
Come quickly to my rescue!
20 Save me from the sword;
save my life from these dogs.
21 Rescue me from these lions;
I am helpless[d] before these wild bulls.
22 (E)I will tell my people what you have done;
I will praise you in their assembly:
23 “Praise him, you servants of the Lord!
Honor him, you descendants of Jacob!
Worship him, you people of Israel!
24 He does not neglect the poor or ignore their suffering;
he does not turn away from them,
but answers when they call for help.”
25 In the full assembly I will praise you for what you have done;
in the presence of those who worship you
I will offer the sacrifices I promised.
26 The poor will eat as much as they want;
those who come to the Lord will praise him.
May they prosper forever!
27 All nations will remember the Lord.
From every part of the world they will turn to him;
all races will worship him.
28 The Lord is king,
and he rules the nations.
29 All proud people will bow down to him;[e]
all mortals will bow down before him.
30 Future generations will serve him;
they will speak of the Lord to the coming generation.
31 People not yet born will be told:
“The Lord saved his people.”
Zedekiah Asks Jeremiah's Advice
14 On another occasion King Zedekiah had me brought to him at the third entrance to the Temple, and he said, “I am going to ask you a question, and I want you to tell me the whole truth.”
15 I answered, “If I tell you the truth, you will put me to death, and if I give you advice, you won't pay any attention.”
16 So King Zedekiah promised me in secret, “I swear by the living God, the God who gave us life, that I will not put you to death or hand you over to the men who want to kill you.”
17 Then I told Zedekiah that the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, had said, “If you surrender to the king of Babylonia's officers, your life will be spared, and this city will not be burned down. Both you and your family will be spared. 18 But if you do not surrender, then this city will be handed over to the Babylonians, who will burn it down, and you will not escape from them.”
19 But the king answered, “I am afraid of our own people who have deserted to the Babylonians. I may be handed over to them and tortured.”
20 I said, “You will not be handed over to them. I beg you to obey the Lord's message; then all will go well with you, and your life will be spared. 21 But the Lord has shown me in a vision what will happen if you refuse to surrender. 22 In it I saw all the women left in Judah's royal palace being led out to the king of Babylonia's officers. Listen to what they were saying as they went:
‘The king's best friends misled him,
they overruled him.
And now that his feet have sunk in the mud,
his friends have left him.’”
23 Then I added, “All your women and children will be taken out to the Babylonians, and you yourself will not escape from them. You will be taken prisoner by the king of Babylonia, and this city will be burned to the ground.”
24 Zedekiah replied, “Don't let anyone know about this conversation, and your life will not be in danger. 25 If the officials hear that I have talked with you, they will come and ask you what we said. They will promise not to put you to death if you tell them everything. 26 Just tell them you were begging me not to send you back to prison to die there.” 27 Then all the officials came and questioned me, and I told them exactly what the king had told me to say. There was nothing else they could do, because no one had overheard the conversation. 28 (A)And I was kept in the palace courtyard until the day Jerusalem was captured.
The Resurrection of Christ
15 And now I want to remind you, my friends, of the Good News which I preached to you, which you received, and on which your faith stands firm. 2 That is the gospel, the message that I preached to you. You are saved by the gospel if you hold firmly to it—unless it was for nothing that you believed.
3 (A)I passed on to you what I received, which is of the greatest importance: that Christ died for our sins, as written in the Scriptures; 4 (B)that he was buried and that he was raised to life three days later, as written in the Scriptures; 5 (C)that he appeared to Peter and then to all twelve apostles. 6 Then he appeared to more than five hundred of his followers at once, most of whom are still alive, although some have died. 7 Then he appeared to James, and afterward to all the apostles.
8 (D)Last of all he appeared also to me—even though I am like someone whose birth was abnormal.[a] 9 (E)For I am the least of all the apostles—I do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted God's church. 10 But by God's grace I am what I am, and the grace that he gave me was not without effect. On the contrary, I have worked harder than any of the other apostles, although it was not really my own doing, but God's grace working with me. 11 So then, whether it came from me or from them, this is what we all preach, and this is what you believe.
The Messengers from John the Baptist(A)
11 When Jesus finished giving these instructions to his twelve disciples, he left that place and went off to teach and preach in the towns near there.
2 When John the Baptist heard in prison about the things that Christ was doing, he sent some of his disciples to him. 3 “Tell us,” they asked Jesus, “are you the one John said was going to come, or should we expect someone else?”
4 Jesus answered, “Go back and tell John what you are hearing and seeing: 5 (B)the blind can see, the lame can walk, those who suffer from dreaded skin diseases are made clean,[a] the deaf hear, the dead are brought back to life, and the Good News is preached to the poor. 6 How happy are those who have no doubts about me!”
Good News Translation® (Today’s English Version, Second Edition) © 1992 American Bible Society. All rights reserved. For more information about GNT, visit www.bibles.com and www.gnt.bible.