Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 5
For the music leader. For the flutes. A psalm of David.
5 Hear my words, Lord!
Consider my groans!
2 Pay attention to the sound of my cries, my king and my God,
because I am praying to you!
3 Lord, in the morning you hear my voice.
In the morning I lay it all out before you.
Then I wait expectantly.
4 Because you aren’t a God
who enjoys wickedness;
evil doesn’t live with you.
5 Arrogant people won’t last long
in your sight;
you hate all evildoers;
6 you destroy liars.
The Lord despises people who are violent and dishonest.
7 But me? I will enter your house
because of your abundant, faithful love;
I will bow down at your holy temple,
honoring you.
8 Lord, because of many enemies,
please lead me in your righteousness.
Make your way clear,
right in front of me.
9 Because there’s no truth in my enemies’ mouths,
all they have inside them is destruction.
Their throats are open graves;
their tongues slick with talk.
10 Condemn them, God!
Let them fail by their own plans.
Throw them out for their many sins
because they’ve rebelled against you.
11 But let all who take refuge in you celebrate.
Let them sing out loud forever!
Protect them
so that all who love your name
can rejoice in you.
12 Because you, Lord, bless the righteous.
You cover them with favor like a shield.
Psalm 6
For the music leader. On stringed instruments. According to the eighth.[a] A psalm of David.
6 Please, Lord,
don’t punish me when you are angry;
don’t discipline me when you are furious.
2 Have mercy on me, Lord,
because I’m frail.
Heal me, Lord,
because my bones are shaking in terror!
3 My whole body[b] is completely terrified!
But you, Lord! How long will this last?
4 Come back to me, Lord! Deliver me!
Save me for the sake of your faithful love!
5 No one is going to praise you
when they are dead.
Who gives you thanks
from the grave?[c]
6 I’m worn out from groaning.
Every night, I drench my bed with tears;
I soak my couch all the way through.
7 My vision fails because of my grief;
it’s weak because of all my distress.
8 Get away from me, all you evildoers,
because the Lord has heard me crying!
9 The Lord has listened to my request.
The Lord accepts my prayer.
10 All my enemies will be ashamed
and completely terrified;
they will be defeated
and ashamed instantly.
Psalm 10[a]
10 Why do you stand so far away, Lord,
hiding yourself in troubling times?
2 Meanwhile, the wicked are proudly
in hot pursuit of those who suffer.
Let them get caught
in the very same schemes they’ve thought up!
3 The wicked brag about their body’s[b] cravings;
the greedy reject the Lord, cursing.
4 At the peak of their wrath,
the wicked don’t seek God:
There’s no God—
that’s what they are always thinking.
5 Their ways are always twisted.
Your rules are too lofty for them.
They snort at all their foes.
6 They think to themselves,
We’ll never stumble.
We’ll never encounter any resistance.
7 Their mouths are filled
with curses, dishonesty, violence.
Under their tongues lie
troublemaking and wrongdoing.
8 They wait in a place perfect for ambush;[c]
from their hiding places
they kill innocent people;
their eyes spot those who are helpless.
9 They lie in ambush
in secret places,
like a lion in its lair.
They lie in ambush
so they can seize those who suffer!
They seize the poor, all right,
dragging them off in their nets.
10 Their helpless victims are crushed;
they collapse, falling prey to the strength of the wicked.
11 The wicked think to themselves:
God has forgotten.
God has hidden his face.
God never sees anything!
12 Get up, Lord!
Get your fist ready, God!
Don’t forget the ones who suffer!
13 Why do the wicked reject God?
Why do they think to themselves
that you won’t find out?
14 But you do see!
You do see troublemaking and grief,
and you do something about it!
The helpless leave it all to you.
You are the orphan’s helper.
15 Break the arms of those
who are wicked and evil.
Seek out their wickedness
until there’s no more to find.
16 The Lord rules forever and always!
The nations will vanish from his land.
17 Lord, you listen to the desires of those who suffer.
You steady their hearts;
you listen closely to them,
18 to establish justice
for the orphan and the oppressed,
so that people of the land
will never again be terrified.
Psalm 11
For the music leader. Of David.
11 I have taken refuge in the Lord.
So how can you say to me,[d]
“Flee to the hills like a bird
2 because the wicked
have already bent their bows;
they’ve already strung their arrows;
they are ready to secretly shoot
those whose heart is right”?
3 When the very bottom of things falls out,
what can a righteous person possibly accomplish?
4 But the Lord is in his holy temple.
The Lord! His throne is in heaven.
His eyes see—
his vision examines all of humanity.
5 The Lord examines
both the righteous and the wicked;
his very being[e] hates anyone who loves violence.
6 God will rain fiery coals and sulfur on the wicked;
their cups will be filled
with nothing but a scorching hot wind
7 because the Lord is righteous!
He loves righteous deeds.
Those whose heart is right will see God’s face.[f]
Knowledge, not eternal life
3 The snake was the most intelligent[a] of all the wild animals that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say that you shouldn’t eat from any tree in the garden?”
2 The woman said to the snake, “We may eat the fruit of the garden’s trees 3 but not the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden. God said, ‘Don’t eat from it, and don’t touch it, or you will die.’”
4 The snake said to the woman, “You won’t die! 5 God knows that on the day you eat from it, you will see clearly and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 6 The woman saw that the tree was beautiful with delicious food and that the tree would provide wisdom, so she took some of its fruit and ate it, and also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. 7 Then they both saw clearly and knew that they were naked. So they sewed fig leaves together and made garments for themselves.
8 During that day’s cool evening breeze, they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden; and the man and his wife hid themselves from the Lord God in the middle of the garden’s trees. 9 The Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?”
10 The man[b] replied, “I heard your sound in the garden; I was afraid because I was naked, and I hid myself.”
11 He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Did you eat from the tree, which I commanded you not to eat?”
12 The man said, “The woman you gave me, she gave me some fruit[c] from the tree, and I ate.”
13 The Lord God said to the woman, “What have you done?!”
And the woman said, “The snake tricked me, and I ate.”
14 The Lord God said to the snake,
“Because you did this,
you are the one cursed
out of all the farm animals,
out of all the wild animals.
On your belly you will crawl,
and dust you will eat
every day of your life.
15 I will put contempt
between you and the woman,
between your offspring and hers.
They will strike your head,
but you will strike at their heels.”
16 To the woman he said,
“I will make your pregnancy very painful;
in pain you will bear children.
You will desire your husband,
but he will rule over you.”
17 To the man he said, “Because you listened to your wife’s voice and you ate from the tree that I commanded, ‘Don’t eat from it,’
cursed is the fertile land because of you;
in pain you will eat from it
every day of your life.
18 Weeds and thistles will grow for you,
even as you eat the field’s plants;
19 by the sweat of your face you will eat bread—
until you return to the fertile land,
since from it you were taken;
you are soil,
to the soil you will return.”
20 The man named his wife Eve[d] because she is the mother of everyone who lives. 21 The Lord God made the man and his wife leather clothes and dressed them. 22 The Lord God said, “The human being[e] has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil.” Now, so he doesn’t stretch out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat and live forever, 23 the Lord God sent him out of the garden of Eden to farm the fertile land from which he was taken. 24 He drove out the human. To the east of the garden of Eden, he stationed winged creatures wielding flaming swords to guard the way to the tree of life.
Listen to the Son’s message
2 This is why it’s necessary for us to pay more attention to what we have heard, or else we may drift away from it. 2 If the message that was spoken by angels was reliable, and every offense and act of disobedience received an appropriate consequence, 3 how will we escape if we ignore such a great salvation? It was first announced through the Lord, and then it was confirmed by those who heard him. 4 God also vouched for their message with signs, amazing things, various miracles, and gifts from the Holy Spirit, which were handed out the way he wanted.
Jesus is the enthroned human being
5 God didn’t put the world that is coming (the world we are talking about) under the angels’ control. 6 Instead, someone declared somewhere,
What is humanity that you think about them?
Or what are the human beings that you care about them?
7 For a while you made them lower than angels.
You crowned the human beings with glory and honor.
8 You put everything under their control.[a]
When he puts everything under their control, he doesn’t leave anything out of control. But right now, we don’t see everything under their control yet. 9 However, we do see the one who was made lower in order than the angels for a little while—it’s Jesus! He’s the one who is now crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of his death. He suffered death so that he could taste death for everyone through God’s grace.
Qualified to be a high priest
10 It was appropriate for God, for whom and through whom everything exists, to use experiences of suffering to make perfect the pioneer of salvation. This salvation belongs to many sons and daughters whom he’s leading to glory.
John’s witness
19 This is John’s testimony when the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem sent priests and Levites to ask him, “Who are you?”
20 John confessed (he didn’t deny but confessed), “I’m not the Christ.”
21 They asked him, “Then who are you? Are you Elijah?”
John said, “I’m not.”
“Are you the prophet?”
John answered, “No.”
22 They asked, “Who are you? We need to give an answer to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?”
23 John replied,
“I am a voice crying out in the wilderness,
Make the Lord’s path straight,[a]
just as the prophet Isaiah said.”
24 Those sent by the Pharisees 25 asked, “Why do you baptize if you aren’t the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the prophet?”
26 John answered, “I baptize with water. Someone greater stands among you, whom you don’t recognize. 27 He comes after me, but I’m not worthy to untie his sandal straps.” 28 This encounter took place across the Jordan in Bethany where John was baptizing.
Copyright © 2011 by Common English Bible