Book of Common Prayer
Davidic[a]
A Prayer for Help and Forgiveness
25 I will lift up my soul to you, Lord.
2 I trust in you, my God,
do not let me be ashamed;
do not let my enemies triumph over me.
3 Indeed, no one who waits on you will be ashamed,
but those who offend for no reason will be put to shame.
4 Cause me to understand your ways, Lord;
teach me your paths.
5 Guide me in your truth and teach me;
for you are the God who delivers me.
All day long I have waited for you.
6 Remember, Lord, your tender mercies and your gracious love;
indeed, they are eternal!
7 Do not remember my youthful sins and transgressions;
but remember me in light of your gracious love,
in light of your goodness, Lord.
8 The Lord is good and just;
therefore he will teach sinners concerning the way.
9 He will guide the humble[b] to justice;
he will teach the humble[c] his way.
10 All the paths of the Lord lead to gracious love and truth
for those who keep his covenant and his decrees.[d]
11 For the sake of your name,[e] Lord,
forgive my sin, for it is great.
12 Who is the man who fears the Lord?
God[f] will teach him the path he should choose.
13 He[g] will experience good things;
his descendants will inherit the earth.
14 The intimate counsel of the Lord is for those who fear him
so they may know his covenant.
15 My eyes look to the Lord continuously,
because he’s the one who releases my feet from the trap.[h]
16 Turn toward me and have mercy on me,
for I am lonely and oppressed.
17 The troubles of my heart have increased;
bring me out of my distress!
18 Look upon my distress and affliction;
forgive all my sins.
19 Look how many enemies I have gained!
They hate me with a vicious hatred.
20 Preserve my life and deliver me;
do not let me be ashamed,
because I take refuge in you.
21 Integrity and justice will preserve me,
because I wait on you.
22 Redeem Israel, God, from all its troubles.
To the Director: Accompanied by female voices.[a] A Davidic Psalm.
A Cry for God’s Justice
9 [b]I will give thanks to the Lord with all my heart,
I will declare all your wonderful deeds.
2 I will be glad and exult in you;
I will sing praises to your name, Most High!
3 When my enemies turn back,
they will stumble and perish before you.
4 For you have brought about justice for me and my cause;
you sit on the throne judging righteously.
5 You rebuked the nations,
you destroyed the wicked,
you wiped out their name forever and ever.
6 The enemy has perished,
reduced to ruins forever.
You uprooted their cities,
the very memory of them vanished.
7 But the Lord sits on his throne[c] forever;
his throne is established for judgment.
8 He will judge the world righteously
and make just decisions for the people.
9 The Lord is a refuge for the oppressed,
a refuge in times of distress.
10 Those who know your name will trust you,
for you have not forsaken those who seek you, Lord.
11 Sing praises to the Lord who dwells in Zion;
declare his mighty deeds among the peoples.
12 As an avenger of blood, he remembers them;
he has not forgotten the cry of the afflicted.
13 Be gracious to me, Lord,
take note of my affliction,
because of those who hate me.
You snatch me away from the gates of death,
14 so I may declare everything for which you should be praised[d]
in the gates of the daughter of Zion,[e]
so I will rejoice in your deliverance.
15 The nations have sunk down into the pit they made,
their feet are ensnared in the trap[f] they set.
16 The Lord has made himself known,
executing judgment.
The wicked are ensnared
by what their hands have made.
17 The wicked will turn back to where the dead are[h]—
all the nations that have forgotten God.
18 For he will not always overlook the plight of the poor,
nor will the hope of the afflicted perish forever.
19 Rise up, Lord,
do not let man prevail!
The nations will be judged in your presence.
20 Make them afraid, Lord,
Let the nations know that they are only human.[i]
A Davidic Psalm.
Welcomed into God’s Presence
15 Lord, who may stay in your tent?
Who may dwell on your holy mountain?
2 The one who lives with integrity,
who does righteous deeds,
and who speaks truth to himself.
3 The one who does not slander with his tongue,
who does no evil to his neighbor,
and who does not destroy his friend’s reputation.
4 The one who despises those who are utterly wicked,
but who honors the one who fears the Lord,
who keeps his word even when it hurts and does not change,
5 who does not loan his money with interest,
and who does not take a bribe against those who are innocent.
The one who does these things will stand firm[a] forever.
The Vision of Locusts
7 This is what the Lord God showed me: Look! He was forming locust swarms as the latter plantings were just beginning to sprout. Indeed, the king had just taken his first fruit tax.[a] 2 And so it came about that when the swarm[b] had finished eating the grass of the land, I was saying,
“Lord God, forgive—please!
How will Jacob stand, since he is small?”
3 So the Lord relented from this. “This will not happen,” said the Lord.
The Vision of Fire
4 This is what the Lord God showed me: Look! The Lord God was calling for judgment by fire, and it was drying up the great depths of the ocean[c] and consuming the land. 5 So I kept on saying,
“Lord God, forgive—please!
How will Jacob stand, since he is so small?”
6 So the Lord relented from this. “This will not happen, either,” said the Lord God.
The Vision of the Plumb Line
7 This is what he showed me: Look! The Lord was standing upon a wall that stood straight and true, with a plumb line in his hand.[d] 8 And the Lord was asking me, “What do you see, Amos?”
I replied, “A plumb line.”
So the Lord said,
“Look, I have set a plumb line
in the midst of my people Israel.
I will no longer spare them.
9 Isaac’s high places will be destroyed,
and the sanctuaries of Israel will be ruined.
I will rise in opposition to the house of Jeroboam with my[e] sword.”
The Revelation of Jesus the Messiah to the Seven Churches
1 This is[a] the revelation of Jesus the Messiah,[b] which God gave him to show his servants the things that must happen soon. He made it known by sending his messenger[c] to his servant John, 2 who testified about this message from God and the testimony about Jesus the Messiah.[d] 3 How blessed is the one who reads aloud and those who hear the words of this prophecy and obey what is written in it, for the time is near!
4 From[e] John to the seven churches in Asia. May grace and peace be yours from the one who is, who was, and who is coming, from the seven spirits who are in front of his throne, 5 and from Jesus the Messiah,[f] the witness, the faithful one,[g] the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler over the kings of the earth. To the one who loves us and has freed[h] us from our sins by his blood 6 and has made us a kingdom, priests for his God and Father, be glory and power forever and ever! Amen.
7 Look! He is coming in the clouds.
Every eye will see him,
even those who pierced him,
and all the tribes of the earth will mourn
because of him.
So be it! Amen.
8 “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” declares the Lord God, “the one who is, who was, and who is coming, the Almighty.”
A Question about the Resurrection(A)
23 That same day some Sadducees, who claim there is no resurrection, came to Jesus[a] and asked him, 24 “Teacher, Moses said, ‘If a man dies having no children, his brother must marry the widow and have children for his brother.’[b] 25 Now there were seven brothers among us. The first one married and died, and since he had no children, he left his widow to his brother. 26 The same thing happened with the second brother, and then the third, and finally with the rest of the brothers.[c] 27 Finally, the woman died, too. 28 Now in the resurrection, whose wife of the seven will she be, since all of them had married[d] her?”
29 Jesus answered them, “You are mistaken because you don’t know the Scriptures or God’s power, 30 because in the resurrection, people[e] neither marry nor are given in marriage but are like the angels[f] in heaven. 31 As for the resurrection from the dead, haven’t you read what was spoken to you by God when he said, 32 ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’?[g] He[h] is not the God of the dead, but of the living.”
33 When the crowds heard this, they were amazed at his teaching.
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