Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 88
A Cry of Desperation
A song. A psalm of the sons of Korah. For the choir director: according to Mahalath Leannoth. A Maskil of Heman the Ezrahite.(A)
1 Lord, God of my salvation,
I cry out before You day and night.(B)
2 May my prayer reach Your presence;
listen to my cry.(C)
3 For I have had enough troubles,
and my life is near Sheol.(D)
4 I am counted among those going down to the Pit.(E)
I am like a man without strength,(F)
5 abandoned[a] among the dead.
I am like the slain lying in the grave,(G)
whom You no longer remember,
and who are cut off from Your care.[b](H)
6 You have put me in the lowest part of the Pit,
in the darkest places, in the depths.(I)
7 Your wrath weighs heavily on me;(J)
You have overwhelmed me with all Your waves.(K)
8 You have distanced my friends from me;
You have made me repulsive to them.(L)
I am shut in and cannot go out.
9 My eyes are worn out from crying.(M)
Lord, I cry out to You all day long;(N)
I spread out my hands to You.(O)
10 Do You work wonders for the dead?
Do departed spirits rise up to praise You?(P)
11 Will Your faithful love be declared in the grave,
Your faithfulness in Abaddon?(Q)
12 Will Your wonders be known in the darkness
or Your righteousness in the land of oblivion?(R)
13 But I call to You for help, Lord;
in the morning my prayer meets You.(S)
14 Lord, why do You reject me?(T)
Why do You hide Your face from me?(U)
15 From my youth,
I have been afflicted and near death.
I suffer Your horrors; I am desperate.(V)
16 Your wrath sweeps over me;
Your terrors destroy me.(W)
17 They surround me like water all day long;
they close in on me from every side.(X)
18 You have distanced loved one and neighbor from me;
darkness is my only friend.[c](Y)
Psalm 91
The Protection of the Most High
1 The one who lives under the protection of the Most High
dwells in the shadow of the Almighty.(A)
3 He Himself will deliver you from the hunter’s net,(C)
from the destructive plague.
4 He will cover you with His feathers;
you will take refuge under His wings.(D)
His faithfulness will be a protective shield.(E)
5 You will not fear the terror of the night,
the arrow that flies by day,(F)
6 the plague that stalks in darkness,
or the pestilence that ravages at noon.(G)
7 Though a thousand fall at your side
and ten thousand at your right hand,
the pestilence will not reach you.(H)
8 You will only see it with your eyes
and witness the punishment of the wicked.(I)
9 Because you have made the Lord—my refuge,(J)
the Most High—your dwelling place,(K)
10 no harm will come to you;
no plague will come near your tent.(L)
11 For He will give His angels orders concerning you,
to protect you in all your ways.(M)
12 They will support you with their hands
so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.(N)
13 You will tread on the lion and the cobra;
you will trample the young lion and the serpent.(O)
14 Because he is lovingly devoted to Me,
I will deliver him;
I will protect him because he knows My name.(P)
15 When he calls out to Me, I will answer him;
I will be with him in trouble.
I will rescue him and give him honor.(Q)
16 I will satisfy him with a long life(R)
and show him My salvation.(S)
Psalm 92
God’s Love and Faithfulness
A psalm. A song for the Sabbath day.
1 It is good to praise Yahweh,
to sing praise to Your name, Most High,(T)
2 to declare Your faithful love in the morning
and Your faithfulness at night,(U)
3 with a ten-stringed harp
and the music of a lyre.(V)
4 For You have made me rejoice, Lord,
by what You have done;
I will shout for joy
because of the works of Your hands.(W)
5 How magnificent are Your works, Lord,
how profound Your thoughts!(X)
6 A stupid person does not know,
a fool does not understand this:(Y)
7 though the wicked sprout like grass
and all evildoers flourish,
they will be eternally destroyed.(Z)
8 But You, Lord, are exalted forever.(AA)
9 For indeed, Lord, Your enemies—
indeed, Your enemies will perish;
all evildoers will be scattered.(AB)
10 You have lifted up my horn(AC)
like that of a wild ox;
I have been anointed[b] with oil.(AD)
11 My eyes look down on my enemies;
my ears hear evildoers when they attack me.(AE)
12 The righteous thrive like a palm tree
and grow like a cedar tree in Lebanon.(AF)
13 Planted in the house of the Lord,
they thrive in the courts of our God.(AG)
14 They will still bear fruit in old age,
healthy and green,(AH)
15 to declare: “The Lord is just;
He is my rock,
and there is no unrighteousness in Him.”(AI)
Scouting Out Canaan
13 The Lord spoke to Moses: 2 “Send men to scout out the land of Canaan(A) I am giving to the Israelites. Send one man who is a leader among them from each of their ancestral tribes.” 3 Moses sent them from the Wilderness of Paran at the Lord’s command. All the men were leaders in Israel.(B)
21 So they went up and scouted out the land from the Wilderness of Zin[a] as far as Rehob[b] near the entrance to Hamath.[c] 22 They went up through the Negev and came to Hebron, where Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, the descendants of Anak,(A) were living. Hebron was built seven years before Zoan(B) in Egypt. 23 When they came to the Valley of Eshcol,(C) they cut down a branch with a single cluster of grapes, which was carried on a pole by two men. They also took some pomegranates and figs.(D) 24 That place was called the Valley of Eshcol[d] because of the cluster of grapes the Israelites cut there. 25 At the end of 40 days(E) they returned from scouting out the land.
Report about Canaan
26 The men went back to Moses, Aaron, and the entire Israelite community in the Wilderness of Paran at Kadesh. They brought back a report for them and the whole community, and they showed them the fruit of the land.(F) 27 They reported to Moses: “We went into the land where you sent us. Indeed it is flowing with milk and honey,(G) and here is some of its fruit. 28 However, the people living in the land are strong, and the cities are large and fortified.(H) We also saw the descendants of Anak(I) there. 29 The Amalekites(J) are living in the land of the Negev; the Hittites, Jebusites, and Amorites live in the hill country; and the Canaanites live by the sea and along the Jordan.”
30 Then Caleb(K) quieted the people in the presence of Moses and said, “We must go up and take possession of the land because we can certainly conquer it!”
Circumcision of the Heart
25 For circumcision benefits you if you observe the law, but if you are a lawbreaker, your circumcision has become uncircumcision.(A) 26 Therefore if an uncircumcised(B) man keeps the law’s requirements,(C) will his uncircumcision not be counted as circumcision? 27 A man who is physically uncircumcised, but who fulfills the law, will judge you(D) who are a lawbreaker in spite of having the letter of the law and circumcision. 28 For a person is not a Jew who is one outwardly,(E) and true circumcision is not something visible in the flesh. 29 On the contrary, a person is a Jew who is one inwardly,(F) and circumcision is of the heart—by the Spirit, not the letter.[a](G) That man’s praise[b] is not from men but from God.(H)
Paul Answers an Objection
3 So what advantage does the Jew have? Or what is the benefit of circumcision? 2 Considerable in every way. First, they were entrusted(I) with the spoken words of God.(J) 3 What then? If some did not believe,(K) will their unbelief cancel God’s faithfulness? 4 Absolutely not!(L) God must be true, even if everyone is a liar,(M) as it is written:
5 But if our unrighteousness highlights[d] God’s righteousness,(O) what are we to say?(P) I use a human argument:[e](Q) Is God unrighteous to inflict wrath? 6 Absolutely not! Otherwise, how will God judge the world?(R) 7 But if by my lie God’s truth is amplified to His glory, why am I also still judged as a sinner?(S) 8 And why not say, just as some people slanderously claim we say, “Let us do what is evil so that good may come”?(T) Their condemnation is deserved!
The Parable of the Unforgiving Slave
21 Then Peter came to Him and said, “Lord, how many times could my brother sin against me and I forgive him? As many as seven times?”(A)
22 “I tell you, not as many as seven,” Jesus said to him, “but 70 times seven.[a] 23 For this reason, the kingdom of heaven can be compared to a king who wanted to settle accounts with his slaves. 24 When he began to settle accounts, one who owed 10,000 talents[b] was brought before him. 25 Since he had no way to pay it back, his master commanded that he, his wife, his children, and everything he had be sold to pay the debt.(B)
26 “At this, the slave fell facedown before him and said, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay you everything!’ 27 Then the master of that slave had compassion, released him, and forgave him the loan.
28 “But that slave went out and found one of his fellow slaves who owed him 100 denarii.[c](C) He grabbed him, started choking him, and said, ‘Pay what you owe!’
29 “At this, his fellow slave fell down[d] and began begging him, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay you back.’ 30 But he wasn’t willing. On the contrary, he went and threw him into prison until he could pay what was owed. 31 When the other slaves saw what had taken place, they were deeply distressed and went and reported to their master everything that had happened.
32 “Then, after he had summoned him, his master said to him, ‘You wicked slave! I forgave you all that debt because you begged me. 33 Shouldn’t you also have had mercy on your fellow slave, as I had mercy on you?’(D) 34 And his master got angry and handed him over to the jailers to be tortured until he could pay everything that was owed. 35 So My heavenly Father will also do to you if each of you does not forgive his brother[e] from his[f] heart.”(E)
Copyright © 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2009 by Holman Bible Publishers, Nashville Tennessee. All rights reserved.