Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 70[a]
Insistent Prayer for Divine Assistance
1 For the director.[b] Of David. For remembrance.
2 [c]Make haste, O God, to rescue me;
O Lord, come quickly to my aid.
3 [d]May all those who seek to take my life
endure shame and confusion.
May all those who desire my ruin
be turned back and humiliated.
4 May those who cry out to me, “Aha! Aha!”[e]
be forced to retreat in shame.
5 But may all who seek you
rejoice in you and be jubilant.
May those who love your salvation
cry out forever, “May God be magnified.”[f]
6 As for me, I am poor and needy;[g]
hasten to my aid, O God.
You are my help and my deliverer;
O Lord, do not delay.
Psalm 71[h]
Prayer of the Righteous in Old Age
1 In you, O Lord, I have taken refuge;
let me never be put to shame.
2 In your righteousness rescue me and deliver me;
hear my plea and save me.
3 Be to me a rock of refuge
to which I can always go;
proclaim the order to save me,
for you are my rock and my fortress.
4 O my God, rescue me from the hands of the impious,
from the grasp of cruel and ruthless foes.
5 You, O Lord, are my hope,
my confidence, O God, from my youth.
6 I have relied upon you since birth,
and you have been my strength from my mother’s womb;
my praise rises unceasingly to you.[i]
7 I have become a portent to many,[j]
but you are my sure refuge.
8 My mouth is filled with your praises
as I relate your glory all day long.
9 Do not cast me off in my old age;
do not forsake me when my strength is completely spent.
10 For my enemies speak against me,
and those who seek my life plot together.
11 They say: “God has abandoned him;
go after him and seize him,
for no one will come to his rescue.”
12 O God, do not remain aloof from me;
come quickly to help me, O my God.
13 Let those who accuse me
be put to shame and perish;
let those who are determined to harm me
incur contempt and disgrace.[k]
14 But I will hope in you continually
and will render even more praise to you.
15 [l]My lips will proclaim your righteous deeds
and your salvation all day long,
though I do not know their extent.[m]
16 I will speak of your mighty deeds, O Lord God,
and declare your righteousness,[n] yours alone.
17 O God, you have taught me from my youth,
and to this day I proclaim your marvelous works.
18 Now that I am old and my hair is gray,[o]
do not abandon me, O God,
until I have extolled your might
to all the generations yet to come,
your strength 19 and your righteousness, O God,
to the highest heavens.
You have done great things;
O God, who is there who is like you?
20 You have shown me many afflictions and hardships,
but you will once again revive me.
From the depths of the earth[p]
you will once again raise me up.
21 You will restore my honor
and console me once again.
22 Then I will also praise[q] you with the harp
for your faithfulness, O my God.
I will sing praises to you with the lyre,
O Holy One of Israel.
23 When I sing to you, my lips will rejoice,
and so will my soul, which you have redeemed.
24 All day long my tongue
will relate your righteousness.
For those who intended to do me harm
will suffer shame and disgrace.
Psalm 74[a]
Prayer in Time of Calamity
1 A maskil[b] of Asaph.
Why, O God, have you cast us off forever?
Why[c] does your anger blaze forth
against the sheep of your pasture?
2 Remember the people that you purchased long ago,
the tribe that you redeemed as your own possession,[d]
and Mount Zion that you chose as your dwelling.
3 Direct now your steps[e] to the endless ruins,
toward the sanctuary destroyed by the enemy.
4 Your foes exulted triumphantly in the place of your assembly
and set up their memorial emblems.
5 They set upon it with their axes
as if it were a thicket of trees.
6 And then, with hatchets and hammers,
they bludgeoned all the carved work.
7 They set your sanctuary ablaze;
they razed and defiled the dwelling place of your name.[f]
8 They said to themselves, “We will utterly crush them,”
and they burned every shrine of God in the land.[g]
9 Now we see no signs,
there are no longer any prophets,
and none of us knows how long this will last.[h]
10 How long, O God, will the foe mock you?
Will the enemy blaspheme your name forever?[i]
11 Why do you hold back your right hand?
Take it out from your robe and destroy them.[j]
12 Yet you, O God, are my King from of old,
working deeds of salvation throughout the earth.
13 [k]By your power you split the sea in two
and shattered the heads of the dragons in the waters.
14 You crushed the heads of Leviathan
and gave him as food for the wild beasts.
15 You opened up springs and torrents
and turned flowing rivers into dry land.[l]
16 [m]Yours is the day, and yours also is the night,
for you set in place both sun and moon.
17 You fixed all the boundaries of the earth
and created both summer and winter.
18 [n]Remember, O Lord, how the enemy has mocked you,
how a foolish people has blasphemed your name.
19 Do not surrender the soul of your dove[o] to wild beasts;
do not forget forever the life of your poor.
20 Have regard for your covenant!
For the land is filled with darkness,
and the pastures are haunts of violence.
21 Do not let the oppressed turn back in shame;
let the poor and needy[p] bless your name.
22 Rise up, O God, and defend your cause;
remember how fools mock you all day long.
23 Do not ignore the outbursts of your enemies,
the unceasing tumult of your foes.
29 When they reached their father Jacob in the land of Canaan, they told him everything that had happened to them. 30 “That man who is the lord of the land spoke harshly to us and placed us in prison as spies of the land. 31 We told him, ‘We are honest men, not spies! 32 We are twelve brothers, sons of one father. One is no more, and the youngest is at home with our father in the land of Canaan.’
33 “But the man who is lord of the land answered us, ‘This is how I shall know if you are honest: leave one of your brothers here with me, take the grain you need for your household, and go. 34 Then bring your youngest brother back to me. In that way I shall know that you are not spies, but that you are honest. I will return your brother and you will have the freedom of the land.’ ”
35 As they emptied their sacks, each one found his money bag in his sack. When they and their father saw their money bags, they were filled with fear. 36 And their father Jacob said, “You have taken away my sons. Joseph is no more, and Simeon is no more, and now you would like to take away Benjamin. Everything is against me!”
37 Reuben said to his father, “You can kill my two sons if we do not bring him back to you. Entrust him to me, and I will bring him back.”
38 But he answered, “My son shall not go down there with you because his brother is dead and he alone remains. If something bad were to happen to him during the journey that you were making, you would make these gray hairs go down into the netherworld.”
12 All Things Are Lawful for Me![a]“All things are lawful for me,” but not all things are beneficial. “All things are lawful for me,” but I will not allow myself to be dominated by anything. 13 “Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach is meant for food,” but God will destroy them both. However, the body is not meant for immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. 14 God raised up the Lord, and he will raise us up also by his power.
15 Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Should I then take Christ’s members and make them members of a prostitute? Never! 16 Do you not know that anyone who joins himself to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For it is said, “The two shall become one flesh.” 17 But anyone who joins himself to the Lord becomes one spirit with him.[b]
18 Flee from sexual immorality! Every other sin that a person commits is outside the body, but the fornicator sins against his own body. 19 Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have received from God, and that you are not your own? 20 You have been purchased at a price. Therefore, glorify God in your body.
21 The Parable of the Lamp.[a] He said to them, “Is a lamp brought in to be put under a basket or under a bed? To the contrary, it is placed on a lampstand. 22 For nothing is hidden that will not be disclosed, and nothing is secret that will not be brought to light. 23 If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear!”
24 The Parable of the Measure.[b] He also told them, “Pay careful attention to what you hear. The measure you give will be the measure you will receive, and you will receive more in addition. 25 To the one who has, more will be given; from the one who does not have, even what little he has will be taken away.”[c]
26 The Parable of the Secretly Growing Seed.[d] He went on to say, “The kingdom of God is like this. A man scatters seed on the ground. 27 Night and day, while he sleeps and while he is awake, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not understand how. 28 The ground produces fruit of its own accord—first the shoot, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. 29 And when the crop is ripe, he immediately stretches out the sickle, because the time for harvest has come.”
30 The Parable of the Mustard Seed.[e] He then said, “With what shall we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable can we use to explain it? 31 It is like a mustard seed that, when it is sown in the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on the earth. 32 But once it is sown, it springs up and becomes the greatest of all plants, and it puts forth large branches so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.”
33 The Usefulness of Parables.[f] With many such parables as these he spoke the word to them so far as they were able to comprehend it. 34 He never spoke to them except in parables, but he explained everything to his disciples when they were by themselves.
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