Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 18
Praise for Deliverance
For the choir director. Of the servant of the Lord, David, who spoke the words of this song to the Lord on the day the Lord rescued him from the grasp of all his enemies and from the power of Saul.(A) He said:
1 I love you, Lord, my strength.
2 The Lord is my rock,
my fortress, and my deliverer,(B)
my God, my rock where I seek refuge,
my shield(C) and the horn of my salvation,(D)
my stronghold.
3 I called to the Lord, who is worthy of praise,(E)
and I was saved from my enemies.(F)
4 The ropes of death were wrapped around me;
the torrents of destruction terrified me.(G)
5 The ropes of Sheol entangled me;
the snares of death confronted me.(H)
6 I called to the Lord in my distress,
and I cried to my God for help.
From his temple he heard my voice,(I)
and my cry to him reached his ears.(J)
7 Then the earth shook and quaked;
the foundations of the mountains trembled;(K)
they shook because he burned with anger.
8 Smoke rose from his nostrils,
and consuming fire came from his mouth;
coals were set ablaze by it.[a](L)
9 He bent the heavens and came down,(M)
total darkness beneath his feet.
10 He rode on a cherub and flew,
soaring on the wings of the wind.(N)
11 He made darkness his hiding place,
dark storm clouds his canopy around him.(O)
12 From the radiance of his presence,(P)
his clouds swept onward with hail and blazing coals.
13 The Lord thundered from[b] heaven;
the Most High made his voice heard.[c](Q)
14 He shot his arrows and scattered them;
he hurled[d] lightning bolts and routed them.(R)
15 The depths of the sea became visible,
the foundations of the world were exposed,
at your rebuke, Lord,
at the blast of the breath of your nostrils.(S)
16 He reached down from on high
and took hold of me;
he pulled me out of deep water.(T)
17 He rescued me from my powerful enemy
and from those who hated me,
for they were too strong for me.(U)
18 They confronted me in the day of my calamity,
but the Lord was my support.(V)
19 He brought me out to a spacious place;(W)
he rescued me because he delighted in me.(X)
20 The Lord rewarded me
according to my righteousness;(Y)
he repaid me
according to the cleanness of my hands.(Z)
21 For I have kept the ways of the Lord
and have not turned from my God to wickedness.(AA)
22 Indeed, I let all his ordinances guide me[e]
and have not disregarded his statutes.(AB)
23 I was blameless toward him(AC)
and kept myself from my iniquity.
24 So the Lord repaid me
according to my righteousness,(AD)
according to the cleanness of my hands in his sight.(AE)
25 With the faithful
you prove yourself faithful,
with the blameless
you prove yourself blameless,
26 with the pure
you prove yourself pure,
but with the crooked
you prove yourself shrewd.(AF)
27 For you rescue an oppressed people,(AG)
but you humble those with haughty eyes.(AH)
28 Lord, you light my lamp;
my God illuminates my darkness.(AI)
29 With you I can attack a barricade,[f]
and with my God I can leap over a wall.(AJ)
30 God—his way is perfect;(AK)
the word of the Lord is pure.(AL)
He is a shield to all who take refuge in him.(AM)
31 For who is God besides the Lord?(AN)
And who is a rock? Only our God.(AO)
32 God—he clothes me with strength(AP)
and makes my way perfect.
33 He makes my feet like the feet of a deer(AQ)
and sets me securely on the heights.[g](AR)
34 He trains my hands for war;(AS)
my arms can bend a bow of bronze.(AT)
35 You have given me the shield of your salvation;
your right hand upholds me,(AU)
and your humility exalts me.
36 You make a spacious place beneath me for my steps,(AV)
and my ankles do not give way.(AW)
37 I pursue my enemies and overtake them;
I do not turn back until they are wiped out.(AX)
38 I crush them, and they cannot get up;
they fall beneath my feet.(AY)
39 You have clothed me with strength for battle;(AZ)
you subdue my adversaries beneath me.(BA)
40 You have made my enemies retreat before me;[h](BB)
I annihilate those who hate me.(BC)
41 They cry for help, but there is no one to save them(BD)—
they cry to the Lord, but he does not answer them.(BE)
42 I pulverize them like dust before the wind;(BF)
I trample them[i] like mud in the streets.(BG)
43 You have freed me from the feuds among the people;
you have appointed me the head of nations;(BH)
a people I had not known serve me.(BI)
44 Foreigners submit to me cringing;
as soon as they hear they obey me.(BJ)
45 Foreigners lose heart
and come trembling from their fortifications.(BK)
46 The Lord lives—blessed be my rock!
The God of my salvation is exalted.(BL)
47 God—he grants me vengeance(BM)
and subdues peoples under me.(BN)
48 He frees me from my enemies.
You exalt me above my adversaries;
you rescue me from violent men.(BO)
49 Therefore I will give thanks to you among the nations, Lord;
I will sing praises about your name.(BP)
50 He gives great victories to his king;(BQ)
he shows loyalty to his anointed,
to David and his descendants forever.(BR)
God’s Discipline and Israel’s Apostasy
6 I gave you absolutely nothing to eat[a](A) in all your cities,
a shortage of food in all your communities,
yet you did not return to me.(B)
This is the Lord’s declaration.
7 I also withheld the rain from you(C)
while there were still three months until harvest.
I sent rain on one city
but no rain on another.(D)
One field received rain
while a field with no rain withered.(E)
8 Two or three cities staggered
to another city to drink water(F)
but were not satisfied,(G)
yet you did not return(H) to me.
This is the Lord’s declaration.
9 I struck you with blight and mildew;(I)
the locust devoured(J)
your many gardens and vineyards,
your fig trees and olive trees,(K)
yet you did not return to me.(L)
This is the Lord’s declaration.
10 I sent plagues like those of Egypt;(M)
I killed your young men with the sword,(N)
along with your captured horses.(O)
I caused the stench of your camp
to fill your nostrils,(P)
yet you did not return to me.(Q)
This is the Lord’s declaration.
11 I overthrew some of you
as I[b] overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah,(R)
and you were like a burning stick
snatched from a fire,(S)
yet you did not return to me(T)—
This is the Lord’s declaration.
12 Therefore, Israel, that is what I will do to you,
and since I will do that to you,
Israel, prepare to meet your God!(U)
13 He is here:
the one who forms the mountains,(V)
creates the wind,(W)
and reveals his thoughts to man,(X)
the one who makes the dawn out of darkness
and strides on the heights of the earth.(Y)
The Lord, the God of Armies, is his name.(Z)
11 Since all these things are to be dissolved in this way, it is clear what sort of people you should be in holy conduct and godliness 12 as you wait for the day of God and hasten its coming.[a](A) Because of that day, the heavens will be dissolved with fire and the elements will melt with heat. 13 But based on his promise, we wait for new heavens and a new earth,(B) where righteousness dwells.(C)
Conclusion
14 Therefore, dear friends, while you wait for these things, make every effort to be found without spot or blemish in his sight, at peace.(D) 15 Also, regard the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our dear brother Paul has written to you according to the wisdom given to him.(E) 16 He speaks about these things in all his letters. There are some things hard to understand in them. The untaught and unstable will twist them to their own destruction,(F) as they also do with the rest of the Scriptures.
17 Therefore, dear friends, since you know this in advance, be on your guard,(G) so that you are not led away by the error of lawless people and fall from your own stable position. 18 But grow in the grace and knowledge(H) of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity.[b](I)
The Parable of the Vineyard Owner
33 “Listen(A) to another parable:(B) There was a landowner, who planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a winepress in it, and built a watchtower.(C) He leased it to tenant farmers and went away.(D) 34 When the time came to harvest fruit, he sent his servants to the farmers to collect his fruit. 35 The farmers took his servants, beat one, killed another, and stoned a third.(E) 36 Again, he sent other servants, more than the first group, and they did the same to them. 37 Finally, he sent his son to them. ‘They will respect my son,’ he said.
38 “But when the tenant farmers saw the son, they said to each other, ‘This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him and take his inheritance.’(F) 39 So they seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him. 40 Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those farmers?”
41 “He will completely destroy those terrible men,” they told him, “and lease his vineyard to other farmers who will give him his fruit at the harvest.”(G)
42 Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures:
The stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone.[a]
This is what the Lord has done
and it is wonderful in our eyes?[b](H)
43 Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruit. 44 Whoever falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; (I) but on whomever it falls, it will shatter him.”[c]
45 When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables,(J) they knew he was speaking about them. 46 Although they were looking for a way to arrest him, they feared the crowds, because the people regarded him as a prophet.(K)
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