Book of Common Prayer
Davidic
A Man of Integrity Pleads for Justice
26 Vindicate me, Lord,
because I have walked in integrity;
I have trusted in the Lord without wavering.
2 Examine me, Lord, and inspect me!
Test my heart and mind.[a]
3 For your gracious love precedes me,
and I continuously walk according to your truth.
4 I do not sit with those committed to what is false,
nor do I travel with hypocrites.
5 I hate the company of those who practice evil,
nor do I sit with the wicked.
6 I wash my hands innocently.
I go around your altar, Lord,
7 so I may praise you loudly with thanksgiving
and declare all your wondrous acts.
8 Lord, I love the dwelling place that is your house,
the place where your glory resides.
9 Do not group me[b] with sinners,
nor include me[c] with men who shed blood.
10 Their hands are filled with wicked schemes,
and their right hands with bribes.
11 But as for me,
I walk in my integrity.
Redeem me and be gracious to me!
12 My feet stand on level ground;
among the worshiping congregations
I will bless the Lord.
Davidic
A Prayer for Help
28 To you, Lord, I cry out!
My Rock, do not refuse to answer me.[a]
If you remain silent,
I will become like those who descend into the Pit.[b]
2 Hear the sound of my supplications when I cry to you for help,
as I lift up my hands toward your most holy sanctuary.
3 Do not drag me away with the wicked,
with those who practice iniquity,
who speak peace to their neighbors
while harboring evil in their hearts.
4 Reward them according to their deeds;
according to the evil of their actions.
Reward them based on what they do;[c]
give them what they deserve.
5 Because they do not understand the deeds of the Lord
or the work of his hands,
He will tear them down and never build them up.
6 Blessed be the Lord!
For he has heard the sound of my supplications.
7 The Lord is my strength and my shield;
my heart trusts in him,
and I received help.
My heart rejoices,
and I give thanks to him with my song.
8 The Lord is the strength of his people;[d]
he is a refuge of deliverance for his anointed.
9 Deliver your people
and bless your inheritance!
Shepherd them
and lift them up forever!
To the Director: By the servant of the Lord, David.
An Oracle from the Lord
36 An oracle that came to me[a] about the transgressions of the wicked:
There is no fear of God before his eyes.
2 He flatters himself[b] too much[c] to discover his transgression and hate it.
3 The words from his mouth are vain and deceptive.
He has abandoned behaving wisely and doing good.
4 He devises iniquity on his bed
and is determined to follow a path that is not good.
He does not resist evil.
Praise to the Lord
5 Your gracious love, Lord, reaches to the heavens;
your truth[d] extends to the skies.[e]
6 Your righteousness is like the mountains of God;
your justice is like the great depths of the sea.[f]
You deliver both[g] people and animals, Lord.
7 How precious is your gracious love, God!
The children of men take refuge in the shadow of your wings.
8 They are refreshed from the abundance of your house;
You cause them to drink from the river of your pleasures.
9 For with you is a fountain of life,
and in your light we will see light.
10 Send forth your gracious love to those who know you,
and your righteousness to those who are upright in heart.
11 Do not let the foot of the proud crush me;
and do not let the hand of the wicked dissuade me.
12 There, those who do evil have fallen;
They have been thrown down,
and they cannot get up.
To the Director: To Jeduthun. A Davidic Psalm.
A Prayer about Life’s Priorities
39 I told myself, “I will keep watch over my tongue to keep from sinning.
I will muzzle my mouth when the wicked are around.”
2 I was as silent as a mute person;
I said nothing, not even something good,
and my distress deepened.
3 My heart within me became incensed;[a]
as I thought about it, the fire burned.
Then I[b] spoke out:
4 “Lord, let me know how my life ends,[c]
and the standard by which you will measure[d] my days, whatever it is!
Then I will know how transient my life is.
5 Look, you have made my life span fit in your hand;
It is nothing compared to yours.
Surely every person at their best is a puff of wind.
6 In fact, people walk around as shadows.
Surely, they busy themselves for nothing,
heaping up possessions but not knowing who will get them.
7 How long, Lord, will I wait expectantly?
I have placed my hope in you.
8 Deliver me from all my transgressions,
and do not let fools scorn me.”
9 I remain silent;
I do not open my mouth,
for you are the one who acted.
10 Stop scourging me,
since I have been crushed by your heavy hand.
11 You rebuke by chastening a man with the consequence of iniquities;
you destroy what is attractive to him, as one would treat a moth.
Indeed, every person is a puff of wind.
12 Hear my prayer, Lord,
pay attention to my cry,
and do not ignore my tears.
I am an alien in your presence,
a stranger just like my ancestors were.
13 Stop looking at me with chastisement,[e] so I can smile again,
before I depart and am no more.
The Sorrowful City[a]
1 How lonely she lies,
the city that thronged with people!
Like a widow she has become,
this great one among nations!
The princess among provinces
has become a vassal.
2 Bitterly she cries in the night,
as tears stream down[b] her cheeks.
No one consoles her
of all her friends.
All her neighbors have betrayed her;
they have become her enemies.
3 Judah has gone into exile
to escape affliction and servitude.
She that sat among the nations,
has found no rest.
All her pursuers overtook her
amid narrow passes.
4 The roads that lead to Zion are in mourning,
because no one travels to the festivals.
All her gates are desolate;
her priests are moaning.
Her young women[c] are grieving,[d]
and she is bitter.
5 Her adversaries dominate her,
her enemies prosper.
For the Lord has made her suffer
because of her many transgressions.
Her children have gone away,
taken into captivity in the presence of the enemy.
6 Fled from cherished[e] Zion
are all that were her splendor.
Her princes have become like deer
that cannot find their feeding grounds.
They flee with strength exhausted
from their pursuers.
7 Jerusalem remembers[f]
her time of affliction and misery;
all her valued belongings[g]
of days gone by,
when her people fell into enemy hands,
with no one to help her,
and her enemies stared at her,
mocking her downfall.
8 Jerusalem sinned greatly,
and she became unclean.[h]
All who honored her now despise her,
because they saw her naked.
She herself groans
and turns her face away.
9 Uncleanness has soiled her skirts,
and she gave no thought to what would follow.
She fell in such a startling way,
with no one to comfort her.
Look, Lord, upon my affliction,
because my enemy is boasting.
10 The adversary seized in his hands
everything she valued.
She watched the nations[i]
enter her sanctuary;
those you forbade to enter
your place of meeting.
11 All her people groaned
as they searched for food.
They traded their valuables in order to eat,
to keep themselves alive.[j]
Look, Lord, and see
how I have become dishonored.
12 May it not befall you,[k]
all who pass along the road!
Look and see:
Is there any grief
like my grief
dealt out to me,
by which the Lord afflicted me
in the time of his fierce wrath?
41 One kind of splendor belongs to the sun, another[a] to the moon, and still another[b] to the stars. In fact, one star differs from another star in splendor.
42 This is how it will be at the resurrection of the dead. What is planted is decaying, what is raised cannot decay. 43 The body[c] is planted in a state of dishonor but is raised in a state of splendor. It is planted in weakness but is raised in power. 44 It is planted a physical body but is raised a spiritual body. If there is a physical body, there is also a spiritual body.[d]
45 This, indeed, is what is written: “The first man, Adam, became a living being.”[e] The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. 46 The spiritual does not come first, but the physical does, and then comes the spiritual. 47 The first man came from the dust of the earth; the second man came from heaven. 48 Those who are made of the dust are like the man from the dust; those who are heavenly are like the man who is from heaven. 49 Just as we have borne the likeness of the man who was made from dust, we will[f] also bear the likeness of the man from heaven.
50 Brothers, this is what I mean: Mortal bodies[g] cannot inherit the kingdom of God, and what decays cannot inherit what does not decay.
Jesus Praises the Father and Invites the Disciples to Come to Him(A)
25 At that time Jesus said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from wise and intelligent people and have revealed them to infants. 26 Yes, Father, because this is what was pleasing to you. 27 All things have been entrusted to me by my Father. No one fully knows the Son except the Father, and no one fully knows the Father except the Son and the person to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.
28 “Come to me, all of you who are weary and loaded down with burdens, and I will give you rest. 29 Place my yoke on you and learn from me, because I am gentle and humble,[a] and you will find rest for your souls,[b] 30 because my yoke is pleasant,[c] and my burden is light.”
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