Book of Common Prayer
For the choir director; by David, the servant of the Lord. He sang this song to the Lord when the Lord rescued him from all his enemies, especially from Saul. He said,
18 I love you, O Lord, my strength.
2 The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my Savior,
my God, my rock in whom I take refuge,
my shield, and the strength of my salvation,
my stronghold.
3 The Lord should be praised.
I called on him, and I was saved from my enemies.
4 The ropes of death had become tangled around me.
The torrents of destruction had overwhelmed me.
5 The ropes of the grave had surrounded me.
The clutches of death had confronted me.
6 I called on the Lord in my distress.
I cried to my God for help.
He heard my voice from his temple,
and my cry for help reached his ears.
7 Then the earth shook and quaked.
Even the foundations of the mountains trembled.
They shook violently because he was angry.
8 Smoke went up from his nostrils,
and a raging fire came out of his mouth.
Glowing coals flared up from it.
9 He spread apart the heavens
and came down with a dark cloud under his feet.
10 He rode on one of the angels [a] as he flew,
and he soared on the wings of the wind.
11 He made the darkness his hiding place,
the dark rain clouds his covering.
12 Out of the brightness in front of him,
those rain clouds passed by with hailstones and lightning.
13 The Lord thundered in the heavens.
The Most High made his voice heard with hailstones and lightning.
14 He shot his arrows and scattered them.
He flashed streaks of lightning and threw them into confusion.
15 Then the ocean floor could be seen.
The foundations of the earth were laid bare
at your stern warning, O Lord,
at the blast of the breath from your nostrils.
16 He reached down from high above and took hold of me.
He pulled me out of the raging water.
17 He rescued me from my strong enemy
and from those who hated me,
because they were too strong for me.
18 On the day when I faced disaster, they confronted me,
but the Lord came to my defense.
19 He brought me out to a wide-open place.
He rescued me because he was pleased with me.
20 The Lord rewarded me
because of my righteousness,
because my hands are clean.
He paid me back
21 because I have kept the ways of the Lord
and I have not wickedly turned away from my God,
22 because all his judgments are in front of me
and I have not turned away from his laws.
23 I was innocent as far as he was concerned.
I have kept myself from guilt.
24 The Lord paid me back
because of my righteousness,
because he can see that my hands are clean.
25 ⌞In dealing⌟ with faithful people you are faithful,
with innocent people you are innocent,
26 with pure people you are pure.
⌞In dealing⌟ with devious people you are clever.
27 You save humble people,
but you bring down a conceited look.
28 O Lord, you light my lamp.
My God turns my darkness into light.
29 With you I can attack a line of soldiers.
With my God I can break through barricades.
30 God’s way is perfect!
The promise of the Lord has proven to be true.
He is a shield to all those who take refuge in him.
31 Who is God but the Lord?
Who is a rock except our God?
32 God arms me with strength
and makes my way perfect.
33 He makes my feet like those of a deer
and gives me sure footing on high places.
34 He trains my hands for battle
so that my arms can bend an ⌞archer’s⌟ bow of bronze.
35 You have given me the shield of your salvation.
Your right hand supports me.
Your gentleness makes me great.
36 You make a wide path for me to walk on
so that my feet do not slip.
37 I chased my enemies and caught up with them.
I did not return until I had ended their lives.
38 I wounded them so badly that they were unable to get up.
They fell under my feet.
39 You armed me with strength for battle.
You made my opponents bow at my feet.
40 You made my enemies turn their backs to me,
and I destroyed those who hated me.
41 They cried out for help, but there was no one to save them.
They cried out to the Lord, but he did not answer them.
42 I beat them into a powder as fine as the dust blown by the wind.
I threw them out as though they were dirt on the streets.
43 You rescued me from my conflicts with the people.
You made me the leader of nations.
A people I did not know will serve me:
44 As soon as they hear of me, they will obey me.
Foreigners will cringe in front of me.
45 Foreigners will lose heart,
and they will tremble when they come out of their fortifications.
46 The Lord lives!
Thanks be to my rock!
May God my Savior be honored.
47 God gives me vengeance!
He brings people under my authority.
48 He saves me from my enemies.
You lift me up above my opponents.
You rescue me from violent people.
49 That is why I will give thanks to you, O Lord, among the nations
and make music to praise your name.
50 He gives great victories to his king.
He shows mercy to his anointed,
to David, and to his descendant [b] forever.
7 My son,
pay attention to my words.
Treasure my commands that are within you.
2 Obey my commands so that you may live.
Follow my teachings just as you protect the pupil of your eye.
3 Tie them on your fingers.
Write them on the tablet of your heart.
4 Say to wisdom, “You are my sister.”
Give the name “my relative” to understanding
5 in order to guard yourself from an adulterous woman,
from a loose woman with her smooth talk.
6 From a window in my house I looked through my screen.
7 I was looking at gullible people
when I saw a young man without much sense among youths
8 He was crossing a street near her corner
and walking toward her house
9 in the twilight,
in the evening,
in the dark hours of the night.
10 A woman with an ulterior motive meets him.
She is dressed as a prostitute.
11 She is loud and rebellious.
Her feet will not stay at home.
12 One moment she is out on the street,
the next she is at the curb,
on the prowl at every corner.
13 She grabs him and kisses him and brazenly says to him,
14 “I have some sacrificial meat.
Today I kept my vows.
15 That’s why I came to meet you.
Eagerly, I looked for you,
and I’ve found you.
16 I’ve made my bed,
with colored sheets of Egyptian linen.
17 I’ve sprinkled my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon.
18 Come, let’s drink our fill of love until morning.
Let’s enjoy making love,
19 because my husband’s not home.
He has gone on a long trip.
20 He took lots of money with him.
He won’t be home for a couple of weeks.”
21 With all her seductive charms, she persuades him.
With her smooth lips, she makes him give in.
22 He immediately follows her
like a steer on its way to be slaughtered,
like a ram hobbling into captivity
23 until an arrow pierces his heart,
like a bird darting into a trap.
He does not realize that it will cost him his life.
24 Now, sons,
listen to me.
Pay attention to the words from my mouth.
25 Do not let your heart be turned to her ways.
Do not wander onto her paths,
26 because she has brought down many victims,
and she has killed all too many.
27 Her home is the way to hell
and leads to the darkest vaults of death.
Conclusion
13 I’ve written this to those who believe in the Son of God so that they will know that they have eternal life.
14 We are confident that God listens to us if we ask for anything that has his approval. 15 We know that he listens to our requests. So we know that we already have what we ask him for.
16 If you see another believer committing a sin that doesn’t lead to death, you should pray that God would give that person life. This is true for those who commit sins that don’t lead to death. There is a sin that leads to death. I’m not telling you to pray about that. 17 Every kind of wrongdoing is sin, yet there are sins that don’t lead to death.
18 We know that those who have been born from God don’t go on sinning. Rather, the Son of God protects them, and the evil one can’t harm them.
19 We know that we are from God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one.
20 We know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding so that we know the real God. We are in the one who is real, his Son Jesus Christ. This Jesus Christ is the real God and eternal life.
21 Dear children, guard yourselves from false gods.
Jesus Praises the Father and Invites Disciples to Come to Him
25 At that time Jesus said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for hiding these things from wise and intelligent people and revealing them to little children. 26 Yes, Father, this is what pleased you.
27 “My Father has turned everything over to me. Only the Father knows the Son. And no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son is willing to reveal him.
28 “Come to me, all who are tired from carrying heavy loads, and I will give you rest. 29 Place my yoke [a] over your shoulders, and learn from me, because I am gentle and humble. Then you will find rest for yourselves 30 because my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
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