Book of Common Prayer

50 The mighty God, the Lord, has summoned all mankind from east to west!

² God’s glory-light shines from the beautiful Temple^[a] on Mount Zion. ³ He comes with the noise of thunder,^[b] surrounded by devastating fire; a great storm rages round about him. ⁴ He has come to judge his people. To heaven and earth he shouts, ⁵ “Gather together my own people who by their sacrifice upon my altar have promised to obey me.”^{[c] 6} God will judge them with complete fairness, for all heaven declares that he is just.

⁷ O my people, listen! For I am your God. Listen! Here are my charges against you: ⁸ I have no complaint about the sacrifices you bring to my altar, for you bring them regularly. ⁹ But it isn’t sacrificial bullocks and goats that I really want from you. ^10-11 For all the animals of field and forest are mine! The cattle on a thousand hills! And all the birds upon the mountains! ¹² If I were hungry, I would not mention it to you—for all the world is mine and everything in it. ¹³ No, I don’t need your sacrifices of flesh and blood. ^14-15 What I want from you is your true thanks; I want your promises fulfilled. I want you to trust me in your times of trouble, so I can rescue you and you can give me glory.

¹⁶ But God says to evil men: Recite my laws no longer and stop claiming my promises, ¹⁷ for you have refused my discipline, disregarding my laws. ¹⁸ You see a thief and help him, and spend your time with evil and immoral men. ¹⁹ You curse and lie, and vile language streams from your mouths. ²⁰ You slander your own brother. ²¹ I remained silent—you thought I didn’t care—but now your time of punishment has come, and I list all the above charges against you. ²² This is the last chance for all of you who have forgotten God, before I tear you apart—and no one can help you then.

²³ But true praise is a worthy sacrifice; this really honors me. Those who walk my paths will receive salvation from the Lord.

59 Written by David at the time King Saul set guards at his home to capture and kill him. (1 Samuel 19:11)

O my God, save me from my enemies. Protect me from these who have come to destroy me. ² Preserve me from these criminals, these murderers. ³ They lurk in ambush for my life. Strong men are out there waiting. And not, O Lord, because I’ve done them wrong. ⁴ Yet they prepare to kill me. Lord, waken! See what is happening! Help me! ⁵ (And O Jehovah, God of heaven’s armies, God of Israel, arise and punish the heathen nations surrounding us.) Do not spare these evil, treacherous men. ⁶ At evening they come to spy, slinking around like dogs that prowl the city. ⁷ I hear them shouting insults and cursing God, for “No one will hear us,” they think. ⁸ Lord, laugh at them! (And scoff at these surrounding nations too.)

⁹ O God my Strength! I will sing your praises, for you are my place of safety. ¹⁰ My God is changeless in his love for me, and he will come and help me. He will let me see my wish come true upon my enemies. ¹¹ Don’t kill them—for my people soon forget such lessons—but stagger them with your power and bring them to their knees. Bring them to the dust, O Lord our shield. ^12-13 They are proud, cursing liars. Angrily destroy them. Wipe them out. (And let the nations find out, too, that God rules in Israel and will reign throughout the world.) ^14-15 Let these evil men slink back at evening and prowl the city all night before they are satisfied, howling like dogs and searching for food.

¹⁶ But as for me, I will sing each morning about your power and mercy. For you have been my high tower of refuge, a place of safety in the day of my distress. ¹⁷ O my Strength, to you I sing my praises; for you are my high tower of safety, my God of mercy.

60 Written by David at the time he was at war with Syria, with the outcome still uncertain; this was when Joab, captain of his forces, slaughtered twelve thousand men of Edom in Salt Valley.

O God, you have rejected us and broken our defenses; you have become angry and deserted us. Lord, restore us again to your favor. ² You have caused this nation to tremble in fear; you have torn it apart. Lord, heal it now, for it is shaken to its depths. ³ You have been very hard on us and made us reel beneath your blows.

^4-5 But you have given us a banner to rally to; all who love truth will rally to it;^[a] then you can deliver your beloved people. Use your strong right arm to rescue us. ^6-7 God has promised to help us. He has vowed it by his holiness! No wonder I exult! “Shechem, Succoth, Gilead, Manasseh—still are mine!” he says. “Judah shall continue to produce kings, and Ephraim great warriors. ⁸ Moab shall become my lowly servant, and Edom my slave. And I will shout in triumph over the Philistines.”

^9-10 Who will bring me in triumph into Edom’s strong cities? God will! He who cast us off! He who abandoned us to our foes! ¹¹ Yes, Lord, help us against our enemies, for man’s help is useless.

¹² With God’s help we shall do mighty things, for he will trample down our foes.

33 Let all the joys of the godly well up in praise to the Lord, for it is right to praise him. ² Play joyous melodies of praise upon the lyre and on the harp. ³ Compose new songs of praise to him, accompanied skillfully on the harp; sing joyfully.

⁴ For all God’s words are right, and everything he does is worthy of our trust. ⁵ He loves whatever is just and good; the earth is filled with his tender love. ⁶ He merely spoke, and the heavens were formed and all the galaxies of stars. ⁷ He made the oceans, pouring them into his vast reservoirs.

⁸ Let everyone in all the world—men, women, and children—fear the Lord and stand in awe of him. ⁹ For when he but spoke, the world began! It appeared at his command! ¹⁰ And with a breath he can scatter the plans of all the nations who oppose him, ¹¹ but his own plan stands forever. His intentions are the same for every generation.

¹² Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, whose people he has chosen as his own. ^13-15 The Lord gazes down upon mankind from heaven where he lives. He has made their hearts and closely watches everything they do.

^16-17 The best-equipped army cannot save a king—for great strength is not enough to save anyone. A war horse is a poor risk for winning victories—it is strong, but it cannot save.

^18-19 But the eyes of the Lord are watching over those who fear him, who rely upon his steady love. He will keep them from death even in times of famine! ²⁰ We depend upon the Lord alone to save us. Only he can help us; he protects us like a shield. ²¹ No wonder we are happy in the Lord! For we are trusting him. We trust his holy name. ²² Yes, Lord, let your constant love surround us, for our hopes are in you alone.

1 The autobiography of Nehemiah, the son of Hecaliah:

In December of the twentieth year of the reign of King Artaxerxes of Persia,^[a] when I was at the palace at Shushan, ² one of my fellow Jews named Hanani came to visit me with some men who had arrived from Judah. I took the opportunity to inquire about how things were going in Jerusalem.

“How are they getting along—,” I asked, “the Jews who returned to Jerusalem from their exile here?”

³ “Well,” they replied, “things are not good; the wall of Jerusalem is still torn down, and the gates are burned.”

⁴ When I heard this, I sat down and cried. In fact, I refused to eat for several days, for I spent the time in prayer to the God of heaven.

⁵ “O Lord God,” I cried out; “O great and awesome God who keeps his promises and is so loving and kind to those who love and obey him! Hear my prayer! ^6-7 Listen carefully to what I say! Look down and see me praying night and day for your people Israel. I confess that we have sinned against you; yes, I and my people have committed the horrible sin of not obeying the commandments you gave us through your servant Moses. ⁸ Oh, please remember what you told Moses! You said,

“‘If you sin, I will scatter you among the nations; ⁹ but if you return to me and obey my laws, even though you are exiled to the farthest corners of the universe, I will bring you back to Jerusalem. For Jerusalem is the place in which I have chosen to live.’

¹⁰ “We are your servants, the people you rescued by your great power. ¹¹ O Lord, please hear my prayer! Heed the prayers of those of us who delight to honor you. Please help me now as I go in and ask the king for a great favor—put it into his heart to be kind to me.” (I was the king’s cupbearer.)

¹¹ Then in my vision I heard the singing of millions of angels surrounding the throne and the Living Beings and the Elders: ¹² “The Lamb is worthy (loudly they sang it!), the Lamb who was slain. He is worthy to receive the power, and the riches, and the wisdom, and the strength, and the honor, and the glory, and the blessing.”

¹³ And then I heard everyone in heaven and earth, and from the dead beneath the earth and in the sea, exclaiming, “The blessing and the honor and the glory and the power belong to the one sitting on the throne, and to the Lamb forever and ever.” ¹⁴ And the four Living Beings kept saying, “Amen!” And the twenty-four Elders fell down and worshiped him.

6 As I watched, the Lamb broke the first seal and began to unroll the scroll. Then one of the four Living Beings, with a voice that sounded like thunder, said, “Come!”

² I looked, and there in front of me was a white horse. Its rider carried a bow, and a crown was placed upon his head; he rode out to conquer in many battles and win the war.

³ Then he unrolled the scroll to the second seal and broke it open, too. And I heard the second Living Being say, “Come!”

⁴ This time a red horse rode out. Its rider was given a long sword and the authority to banish peace and bring anarchy to the earth; war and killing broke out everywhere.

⁵ When he had broken the third seal, I heard the third Living Being say, “Come!” And I saw a black horse, with its rider holding a pair of balances in his hand. ⁶ And a voice from among the four Living Beings said, “A loaf of bread for $20, or three pounds of barley flour,A loaf of bread for $20, or three pounds of barley flour, literally, “A choenix of wheat for a denarius, and three choenix of barley for a denarius” there is no olive oil or wine, literally, “do not damage the oil and wine.” but there is no olive oil or wine.”

⁷ And when the fourth seal was broken, I heard the fourth Living Being say, “Come!” ⁸ And now I saw a pale horse, and its rider’s name was Death. And there followed after him another horse whose rider’s name was Hell. They were given control of one-fourth of the earth, to kill with war and famine and disease and wild animals.

⁹ And when he broke open the fifth seal, I saw an altar, and underneath it all the souls of those who had been martyred for preaching the Word of God and for being faithful in their witnessing. ¹⁰ They called loudly to the Lord and said, “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long will it be before you judge the people of the earth for what they’ve done to us? When will you avenge our blood against those living on the earth?” ¹¹ White robes were given to each of them, and they were told to rest a little longer until their other brothers, fellow servants of Jesus, had been martyred on the earth and joined them.

¹⁸ “Now here is the explanation of the story I told about the farmer planting grain: ¹⁹ The hard path where some of the seeds fell represents the heart of a person who hears the Good News about the Kingdom and doesn’t understand it; then Satan^[a] comes and snatches away the seeds from his heart. ²⁰ The shallow, rocky soil represents the heart of a man who hears the message and receives it with real joy, ²¹ but he doesn’t have much depth in his life, and the seeds don’t root very deeply, and after a while when trouble comes, or persecution begins because of his beliefs, his enthusiasm fades, and he drops out. ²² The ground covered with thistles represents a man who hears the message, but the cares of this life and his longing for money choke out God’s Word, and he does less and less for God. ²³ The good ground represents the heart of a man who listens to the message and understands it and goes out and brings thirty, sixty, or even a hundred others into the Kingdom.”^[b]