Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 80
A Prayer for Restoration
For the choir director: according to “The Lilies.”[a] A testimony of Asaph.(A) A psalm.
1 Listen, Shepherd of Israel,
who leads Joseph like a flock;(B)
You who sit enthroned on the cherubim,(C)
rise up(D)
2 before Ephraim,
Benjamin, and Manasseh.[b](E)
Rally Your power and come to save us.(F)
3 Restore us, God;
look on us with favor,
and we will be saved.(G)
4 Lord God of Hosts,
how long will You be angry
with Your people’s prayers?(H)
5 You fed them the bread of tears
and gave them a full measure[c]
of tears to drink.(I)
6 You make us quarrel with our neighbors;
our enemies make fun of us.(J)
7 Restore us, God of Hosts;
look on us with favor, and we will be saved.(K)
8 You uprooted a vine from Egypt;
You drove out the nations and planted it.(L)
9 You cleared a place for it;
it took root and filled the land.(M)
10 The mountains were covered by its shade,
and the mighty cedars[d] with its branches.(N)
11 It sent out sprouts toward the Sea[e]
and shoots toward the River.[f](O)
12 Why have You broken down its walls
so that all who pass by pick its fruit?(P)
13 The boar from the forest tears it
and creatures of the field feed on it.(Q)
14 Return, God of Hosts.(R)
Look down from heaven and see;
take care of this vine,
15 the root[g] Your right hand has planted,
the shoot[h] that You made strong for Yourself.(S)
16 It was cut down and burned up;[i]
they[j] perish at the rebuke of Your countenance.(T)
17 Let Your hand be with the man at Your right hand,
with the son of man
You have made strong for Yourself.(U)
18 Then we will not turn away from You;
revive us, and we will call on Your name.(V)
19 Restore us, Yahweh, the God of Hosts;(W)
look on us with favor, and we will be saved.(X)
Psalm 77
Confidence in a Time of Crisis
For the choir director: according to Jeduthun. Of Asaph.(A) A psalm.
1 I cry aloud to God,
aloud to God, and He will hear me.(B)
2 I sought the Lord in my day of trouble.
My hands were continually lifted up
all night long;
I refused to be comforted.(C)
3 I think of God; I groan;
I meditate; my spirit becomes weak.(D)
4 You have kept me from closing my eyes;
I am troubled and cannot speak.(E)
5 I consider days of old,
years long past.(F)
6 At night I remember my music;
I meditate in my heart, and my spirit ponders.(G)
7 “Will the Lord reject forever
and never again show favor?(H)
8 Has His faithful love ceased forever?
Is His promise at an end for all generations?(I)
9 Has God forgotten to be gracious?
Has He in anger withheld His compassion?”(J)
10 So I say, “I am grieved[a]
that the right hand of the Most High has changed.”(K)
11 I will remember the Lord’s works;
yes, I will remember Your ancient wonders.(L)
12 I will reflect on all You have done
and meditate on Your actions.(M)
13 God, Your way is holy.
What god is great like God?(N)
14 You are the God who works wonders;
You revealed Your strength among the peoples.(O)
15 With power You redeemed Your people,
the descendants of Jacob and Joseph.(P)
16 The waters saw You, God.
The waters saw You; they trembled.
Even the depths shook.(Q)
17 The clouds poured down water.
The storm clouds thundered;
Your arrows flashed back and forth.(R)
18 The sound of Your thunder was in the whirlwind;
lightning lit up the world.(S)
The earth shook and quaked.(T)
19 Your way went through the sea
and Your path through the great waters,
but Your footprints were unseen.(U)
20 You led Your people like a flock(V)
by the hand of Moses and Aaron.(W)
Psalm 79
Faith amid Confusion
A psalm of Asaph.(A)
1 God, the nations have invaded Your inheritance,
desecrated Your holy temple,
and turned Jerusalem into ruins.(B)
2 They gave the corpses of Your servants
to the birds of the sky for food,
the flesh of Your godly ones
to the beasts of the earth.(C)
3 They poured out their blood
like water all around Jerusalem,
and there was no one to bury them.(D)
4 We have become an object of reproach
to our neighbors,
a source of mockery and ridicule
to those around us.(E)
5 How long, Yahweh? Will You be angry forever?
Will Your jealousy keep burning like fire?(F)
6 Pour out Your wrath on the nations
that don’t acknowledge You,
on the kingdoms that don’t call on Your name,(G)
7 for they have devoured Jacob
and devastated his homeland.(H)
8 Do not hold past sins[a] against us;
let Your compassion come to us quickly,
for we have become weak.(I)
9 God of our salvation, help us(J)—
for the glory of Your name.
Deliver us and atone for[b] our sins,
because of Your name.(K)
10 Why should the nations ask,
“Where is their God?”(L)
Before our eyes,
let vengeance for the shed blood of Your servants
be known among the nations.(M)
11 Let the groans of the prisoners reach You;
according to Your great power,
preserve those condemned to die.(N)
4 Esther’s female servants and her eunuchs came and reported the news to her, and the queen was overcome with fear.(A) She sent clothes for Mordecai to wear so he could take off his sackcloth, but he did not accept them. 5 Esther summoned Hathach, one of the king’s eunuchs assigned to her, and dispatched him to Mordecai to learn what he was doing and why.[a] 6 So Hathach went out to Mordecai in the city square in front of the King’s Gate. 7 Mordecai told him everything that had happened as well as the exact amount of money Haman had promised to pay the royal treasury for the slaughter of the Jews.(B)
8 Mordecai also gave him a copy of the written decree issued in Susa ordering their destruction, so that Hathach might show it to Esther, explain it to her, and command her to approach the king, implore his favor, and plead with him personally for her people.(C) 9 Hathach came and repeated Mordecai’s response to Esther.
10 Esther spoke to Hathach and commanded him to tell Mordecai, 11 “All the royal officials and the people of the royal provinces know that one law applies to every man or woman who approaches the king in the inner courtyard(D) and who has not been summoned—the death penalty.(E) Only if the king extends the gold scepter will that person live.(F) I have not been summoned to appear before the king(G) for the last[b] 30 days.” 12 Esther’s response was reported to Mordecai.
13 Mordecai told the messenger to reply to Esther, “Don’t think that you will escape the fate of all the Jews because you are in the king’s palace. 14 If you keep silent at this time, liberation and deliverance will come to the Jewish people from another place,(H) but you and your father’s house will be destroyed. Who knows, perhaps you have come to your royal position for such a time as this.”(I)
15 Esther sent this reply to Mordecai: 16 “Go and assemble all the Jews who can be found in Susa and fast for me. Don’t eat or drink for three days,(J) day or night. I and my female servants will also fast(K) in the same way. After that, I will go to the king even if it is against the law.(L) If I perish, I perish.”(M) 17 So Mordecai went and did everything Esther had ordered him.
Founding the Corinthian Church
18 After this, he[a] left Athens and went to Corinth,(A) 2 where he found a Jewish man named Aquila,(B) a native of Pontus, who had recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla because Claudius[b] had ordered all the Jews to leave Rome. Paul came to them, 3 and being of the same occupation, stayed with them and worked, for they were tentmakers[c] by trade.(C) 4 He reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath and tried to persuade both Jews and Greeks.(D)
5 When Silas and Timothy came down from Macedonia, Paul was occupied with preaching the message[d] and solemnly testified to the Jews that Jesus is the Messiah.(E) 6 But when they resisted and blasphemed,(F) he shook his robe[e](G) and told them, “Your blood is on your own heads!(H) I am innocent.[f] From now on I will go to the Gentiles.”(I) 7 So he left there and went to the house of a man named Titius Justus, a worshiper of God, whose house was next door to the synagogue. 8 Crispus, the leader of the synagogue, believed the Lord, along with his whole household.(J) Many of the Corinthians, when they heard, believed and were baptized.
9 Then the Lord said to Paul in a night vision, “Don’t be afraid, but keep on speaking and don’t be silent. 10 For I am with you, and no one will lay a hand on you to hurt you, because I have many people in this city.”(K) 11 And he stayed there a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them.
The Dedication to Theophilus
1 Many have undertaken to compile a narrative about the events that have been fulfilled[a] among us,(A) 2 just as the original eyewitnesses(B) and servants of the word(C) handed them down to us. 3 It also seemed good to me, since I have carefully investigated everything from the very first, to write to you in an orderly sequence, most honorable(D) Theophilus,(E) 4 so that you may know the certainty of the things about which you have been instructed.[b](F)
The Messiah’s Herald
3 In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar,[a] while Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea,(A) Herod was tetrarch[b] of Galilee,(B) his brother Philip tetrarch of the region of Iturea[c] and Trachonitis,[d] and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene,[e] 2 during the high priesthood of Annas(C) and Caiaphas,(D) God’s word came to John the son of Zechariah in the wilderness.(E) 3 He went into all the vicinity of the Jordan,(F) preaching a baptism of repentance[f] for the forgiveness of sins, 4 as it is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah:
A voice of one crying out in the wilderness:
Prepare the way for the Lord;
make His paths straight!
5 Every valley will be filled,
and every mountain and hill will be made low;[g]
the crooked will become straight,
the rough ways smooth,
6 and everyone[h] will see the salvation of God.(G)[i]
7 He then said to the crowds who came out to be baptized by him, “Brood of vipers!(H) Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? 8 Therefore produce fruit consistent with repentance. And don’t start saying to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father,’(I) for I tell you that God is able to raise up children for Abraham from these stones! 9 Even now the ax is ready to strike[j] the root of the trees! Therefore, every tree that doesn’t produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.”(J)
10 “What then should we do?”(K) the crowds were asking him.
11 He replied to them, “The one who has two shirts[k] must share with someone who has none, and the one who has food must do the same.”(L)
12 Tax collectors also came to be baptized, and they asked him, “Teacher, what should we do?”(M)
13 He told them, “Don’t collect any more than what you have been authorized.”
14 Some soldiers also questioned him: “What should we do?”
He said to them, “Don’t take money from anyone by force or false accusation; be satisfied with your wages.”
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