Book of Common Prayer
An Oracle Concerning Sacrifices
A psalm of Asaph.[a]
50 The Supreme God, God, Yahweh, has spoken
and summoned the earth,
from the rising of the sun
to its setting.
2 From Zion, the perfection of beauty,
God shines forth.
3 Our God comes and he is not silent.
Before him fire devours,
and around him it is very tempestuous.
4 He summons the heavens above
and the earth that he might judge his people:
5 “Gather to me my loyal ones,
those who have made a covenant with me by sacrifice.”
6 And the heavens declare his righteousness,
because God himself is judge. Selah
7 “Hear, O my people, and I will speak,
O Israel, and I will testify against you.
I am God, your God.
8 It is not concerning a lack of your sacrifices that I rebuke you,
and your burnt offerings are before me continually.
9 I will not take from your house a bull
or from your stalls a he-goat,
10 because every animal of the forest is mine,
the cattle on a thousand hills.
11 I know every bird of the mountains,
and every moving creature in the field is mine.
12 If I were hungry I would not tell you,
because the world and its fullness are mine.
13 Do I eat the flesh of bulls
or drink the blood of goats?
14 Offer to God a thank offering
and pay your vows to the Most High.
15 And call me in the day of trouble;
I will deliver you, and you will glorify me.”
16 But to the wicked God says,
“What right have you to recite my statutes
and mention my covenant with your mouth,[b]
17 while you yourself hate discipline,
and cast my words behind you?
18 When you see a thief, then you are pleased with him,
and your association is with adulterers.
19 You give your mouth free rein for evil,
and you harness your tongue to deceit.
20 You sit and speak against your brother;
you slander your mother’s son.
21 These things you have done, and I have been silent;
You imagined that I was just like you.
I will rebuke you and present an argument before your eyes.
22 Now consider this, you who forget God,
lest I tear you apart, and there will be none to deliver.
23 He who sacrifices a thank offering honors me,
and he who orders his way;
I will show him the salvation of God.”
A Prayer for Protection
For the music director, according to Do Not Destroy.
Of David. A miktam.
When Saul dispatched men and they watched the house to kill him.[a]
59 Deliver me from my enemies, O my God.
Protect[b] me from those who rise up against me.
2 Deliver me from workers of iniquity,
and from men of bloodshed save me.
3 For look, they lie in wait for my life.[c]
The mighty attack[d] against me,
not because of my transgression or my sin, O Yahweh.
4 Without guilt on my part they run and ready themselves.
Awake to meet me and see.
5 And you, Yahweh, God of hosts, are the God of Israel.
Rouse yourself to punish all the nations.
Do not be gracious to any who treacherously plot evil. Selah
6 They return at evening; they howl like dogs[e]
while they prowl the city.
7 Look, they pour out talk with their mouth.
Swords are on their lips,
for they say, “Who hears?”
8 But you, O Yahweh, will laugh at them;
you will mock all the nations.
9 O my strength,[f] I will watch for you,
because you, O God, are my (high) stronghold.
10 My[g] God of loyal love will meet me;
God will cause me to look in triumph on my enemies.
11 Do not kill them, lest my people forget.
Make them to wander by your power,
and bring them down, O Lord, our shield.
12 By the sin of their mouth and the words of their lips,
even in their pride, let them be trapped,
and for the curses[h] and lies[i] they proclaim.
13 Destroy in anger; destroy so they are no more,
so that they may know that God is ruling in Jacob
to the ends of the earth. Selah
14 They return at evening; they howl like dogs[j]
while they prowl the city.
15 As for them, they wander for food.
If they are not satisfied, then they continue all night.[k]
16 But as for me, I will sing of your strength,
and I will hail your loyal love in the morning,
because you have been my high stronghold
and a refuge in my time[l] of trouble.
17 O my strength, to you I will give praise,
because God is my high stronghold,
my God of loyal love.
A Lament After a Defeat and a Prayer for Restoration
For the music director, according to Shushan Eduth.[m]
A miktam of David. To teach.
When he fought Mesopotamia and Aram Zobah, and Joab returned and struck Edom in the Valley of Salt, twelve thousand persons.[n]
60 O God, you have rejected us. You have broken us.
You have been angry. Restore us!
2 You have made the land quake. You have split it open.
Heal its fissures, because it totters.
3 You have shown your people hard things;
You have given us wine that staggers.
4 You have rallied those who fear you round a banner
out of bowshot,[o] Selah
5 so that your beloved ones may be rescued.
Save by your right hand and answer us.
6 God has spoken in his holiness,
“I will rejoice;
I will divide up Shechem,
and portion out the valley of Succoth.
7 Gilead is mine, and Manasseh is mine,
and Ephraim is the helmet for[p] my head;
Judah is my scepter.[q]
8 Moab is my washing pot;
over Edom, I will cast my sandal.
On account of me, O Philistia, raise a shout.”
9 Who will bring me to the fortified city?
Who will lead me to Edom?
10 Have not you yourself rejected us, O God,
and not gone out with our armies, O God?
11 Give us help against the adversary,
for the help of humankind is futile.
12 Through God we will do valiantly,[r]
and it is he who will tread down our enemies.
Praise to Yahweh for His Character and Creation
33 Exult in Yahweh, O you righteous,
for praise is fitting for the upright.
2 Give thanks to Yahweh with the lyre;
with a harp of ten strings play to him.
3 Sing to him a new song;
play skillfully with jubilant shout.
4 For the word of Yahweh is upright,
and all his work is done in faithfulness.
5 He loves righteousness and justice.
The earth is full of the loyal love of Yahweh.
6 By the word of Yahweh the heavens were made,
and by the breath of his mouth all their host.
7 He gathered the waters of the sea like a heap.
He put the deeps in storehouses.
8 Let all the earth fear Yahweh.
Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him.
9 For he himself spoke[a] and it came to pass.
He himself commanded[b] and it stood firm.
10 Yahweh brings to nothing[c] the plan of nations;
he frustrates[d] the intents of peoples.
11 The plan of Yahweh stands firm forever,
the intents of his heart from one generation to the next.[e]
12 Blessed is the nation whose God is Yahweh,
the people he has chosen for his inheritance.
13 From heaven Yahweh looks;
he sees all the children of humankind.
14 From his dwelling place[f] he gazes
on all the inhabitants of the earth,
15 he who fashions altogether their heart,
he who understands all their works.
16 The king is not saved by the greatness of an army.
The warrior is not delivered by the greatness of strength.
17 The horse is a false hope for victory,
nor can it save by the greatness of its power.
18 Behold, the eye of Yahweh is on those who fear him,
on those who hope[g] for his loyal love
19 to deliver their soul from death
and to keep them alive in famine.
20 Our soul waits for Yahweh;
he is our help and our shield.
21 For in him our heart rejoices
because in his holy name we trust.
22 Let your loyal love, O Yahweh, be upon us,
even as[h] we hope in you.
Nehemiah’s Prayer for the People
1 The words of Nehemiah son of Hacaliah.
It happened in the month of Kislev, in the twentieth year, that I myself was in the citadel in Susa, 2 and one of my brothers, Hanani, came with some men from Judah. I asked them about the Jews who had escaped the captivity and about Jerusalem. 3 They replied to me, “The survivors in the province who have survived the captivity are in great trouble and disgrace. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates have been burned in the fire.”
4 When I heard these words, I sat and wept and mourned for days, and I was fasting and praying before the God of the heavens. 5 I said, “O Yahweh God of the heavens, the great and awesome one who keeps the covenant and loyal love for the ones who love him and for those who keep his commands. 6 Please, let your ear be attentive and your eyes open to hear the prayer of your servant that I am praying before you by day and by night for your servants, the Israelites,[a] and confessing the sins of the Israelites[b] that we have sinned against you. I and my father’s house have sinned. 7 We have certainly offended you and have not kept the commands, regulations, and judgments that you have commanded your servant Moses. 8 Please, remember the word that you have commanded to your servant Moses, saying, ‘If you act unfaithfully I will scatter you all among the nations. 9 But if you return to me and keep my commandments and do them, even though all of your outcasts are at the furthest parts of heaven, I will gather them and bring them to the place which I have chosen to make my name dwell.’ 10 They are your servants and your people whom you have redeemed by your great power and by your strong hand. 11 O Lord, please let your ear be attentive to the prayer of your servant and to the prayer of your servants who delight to revere in your name. Please, let your servant be successful this day and give him compassion before this man.”
I was cupbearer for the king.
11 And I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne and of the living creatures and of the elders, and their number was ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands times thousands, 12 saying with a loud voice,
“Worthy is the Lamb who was slaughtered
to receive power and riches
and wisdom and strength
and honor and glory and praise!”
13 And I heard every creature that is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and in the sea and everything in them saying,
“To the one who is seated on the throne and to the Lamb
be praise and honor and glory and power[a]
forever and ever[b].”
14 And the four living creatures were saying, “Amen!” and the elders fell down and worshiped.
The Opening of the First Six Seals
6 And I watched when the Lamb opened one of the seven seals, and I heard one of the four living creatures saying like the sound of thunder, “Come!” 2 And I looked, and behold, a white horse, and the one seated on it had a bow, and a crown was given to him, and he went out conquering and in order that he might conquer.
3 And when he opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature saying, “Come!” 4 And another horse came out, fiery red, and it was granted to the one seated on it to take peace from the earth, and that they would slaughter one another, and a large sword was given to him.
5 And when he opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature saying, “Come!” And I looked, and behold, a black horse, and the one seated on it had a balance scale in his hand. 6 And I heard something like a voice in the midst of the four living creatures saying, “A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius, and do not damage the olive oil and the wine!”
7 And when he opened the fourth seal, I heard a voice from the fourth living creature saying, “Come!” 8 And I looked, and behold, a pale green horse, and the one seated on it was named[c] Death, and Hades followed after him. And authority was granted to them over a fourth of the earth, to kill by the sword and by famine and by pestilence and by the wild beasts of the earth.
9 And when he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slaughtered because of the word of God and because of the testimony which they had, 10 and they cried out with a loud voice, saying, “How long[d], holy and true Lord, will you not judge and avenge our blood from those who live on the earth?” 11 And to each one of them a white robe was given, and it was said to them that they should rest yet a short time, until the number of their fellow slaves and their brothers who were about to be killed as they had been were completed also.
The Parable of the Sower Interpreted
18 “You, therefore, listen to the parable of the sower: 19 When[a] anyone hears the word about the kingdom and does not understand it,[b] the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is what was sown on the side of the path. 20 And what was sown on the rocky ground—this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy. 21 But he does not have a root in himself, but lasts only a little while,[c] and when[d] affliction or persecution happens because of the word, immediately he falls away. 22 And what was sown into the thorn plants—this is the one who hears the word, and the anxiety of this world[e] and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word and it becomes unproductive. 23 But what was sown on the good soil—this is the one who hears the word and understands it,[f] who indeed bears fruit and produces, this one a hundred times as much, and this one sixty, and this one thirty.”
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