Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 70
Hurry to Save Me
(Psalm 40:13-17)
Heading
For the choir director. By David. To bring to remembrance.
Hurry to Help Me
1 Hurry, God! Rescue me!
Lord, hurry to help me!
2 May those who seek my life be put to shame and disgrace.
May all who desire to harm me be turned back and disgraced.
3 May those who say, “Aha! We got you!” be dismayed,
because they have been put to shame.
4 But may all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you.
May those who love your salvation always say, “Let God be exalted!”
5 Yet I am oppressed and poor.
God, hurry to me. You are my help and my deliverer.
O Lord, do not delay.
Psalm 71
Do Not Throw Me Away When I Am Old
Opening Prayer
1 In you, Lord, I have taken refuge.
May I not be put to shame forever.
2 In your righteousness rescue me and deliver me.
Turn your ear to me and save me.
3 Be my rock and my refuge to which I can always go.
You give the command to save me,
because you are my high ridge and my stronghold.
4 My God, deliver me from the hand of the wicked,
from the grasp of the unjust and the ruthless.
Remembrance of Past Help
5 For you have been my hope, Lord God,
my confidence since my youth.
6 I have depended on[a] you since I was in the womb.
You separated me from my mother’s body.
My praise to you is continuous.
Statement of Present Need
7 I am like an evil omen to many,
but you are my strong refuge.
8 My mouth is filled with praise for you
and with your splendor all day long.
Plea for Help in Present Trouble
9 Do not throw me away in old age.
As my strength fails, do not forsake me.
10 For my enemies speak against me,
and those who seek my life conspire together.
11 They say, “God has forsaken him.
Pursue him and seize him,
because there is no one to rescue him.”
12 God, do not be far from me.
My God, hurry to help me.
13 Let them be ashamed.
Let my murderous accusers be consumed.
Let those who seek to harm me be covered
with shame and disgrace.
Present and Future Praise
14 But as for me, I will always keep hoping.
I will keep adding to my praise for you.
15 My mouth will tell about your righteousness,
about your salvation all day long,
although I do not know how to tell all about it.
16 I will come and tell about your mighty deeds, Lord God.
I will commemorate[b] your righteousness, yours alone.
17 God, you have taught me since my youth,
and even now I still declare your marvelous deeds.
18 Even when I am old and gray, O God, do not forsake me,
till I declare the strength of your arm to the next generation,
your power to all who are to come.
Closing Confidence
19 Your righteousness, God, reaches to the heights.
You have done great things.
God, who is like you,
20 you who have made us see many troubles and disasters?
You will give us life again.
From the depths of the earth you will bring me up again.
21 You will increase my greatness and comfort me once again.
Closing Praise
22 Yes, I will praise you, my God, for your faithfulness.
I will praise you with an instrument, with the harp.
I will make music to you with the lyre, O Holy One of Israel.
23 My lips will shout with joy when I make music to you.
Even my soul, which you have redeemed, will shout.
24 Indeed, my tongue will tell of your righteousness all day long.
How ashamed, how disgraced they are—
those who are trying to harm me.
Psalm 74
The Destruction of the Temple
Heading
A maskil[a] by Asaph.
Introductory Plea
1 Why do you stay angry to the end, O God?
Why does your anger smoke against the flock in your pasture?
2 Remember your community that you purchased long ago,
the tribe that you redeemed to be your possession.
Remember Mount Zion where you dwell.
3 March toward the perpetual ruins.
March against all the evil done by the enemy in the sanctuary.
The Destruction
4 Your foes roared in the middle of your appointed place.
They set up their battle standards as signs.
5 They looked like men swinging axes in a thicket of trees.
6 Yes, they even chopped up all the carved paneling
with their hatchets and hammers.
7 They delivered your sanctuary to the fire.
They defiled the dwelling place for your Name
by throwing it to the ground.
8 They said in their hearts, “We will crush them completely!”
They burned all the appointed places of God in the land.
Deserted?
9 We do not see any signs to guide us.
There is no longer a prophet,
and none of us knows how long this will go on.
10 How long will the foe scoff, O God?
Will the enemy insult your name forever?
11 Why do you hold back your hand, even your right hand?
Take it out of your pocket[b] and finish them off!
God’s Past Goodness
12 But you, O God, are my king from long ago,
the one who works salvation right here on earth.
13 It was you who shattered the sea by your power.
You broke the heads of the great sea monsters.
14 It was you who crushed the heads of Leviathan.[c]
You gave him as food to the people who live in the desert.
15 It was you who opened up a spring and a seasonal stream.
You dried up the rivers that flow year-round.
16 The day belongs to you, and the night is also yours.
You set the moon and sun in place.
17 It was you who laid out all the boundaries of the earth.
Summer and winter—you shaped them.
Plea for Relief
18 Remember this—the enemy scoffs, Lord,
and a foolish people has insulted your name.
19 Do not surrender the life of your turtledove to a wild animal.
Do not forget the life of your afflicted ones forever.
20 Pay attention to the covenant,
because dens of violence fill the dark places in the land.
21 Do not let the oppressed turn back in disgrace.
Let the poor and needy praise your name.
22 Rise up, O God, and prosecute your case.
Remember how the fools mocked you all day long.
23 Do not forget the sound of your foes,
the uproar of those who rise against you, which goes up continually.
Ezra and His Mission
7 After these things,[a] during the reign of King Artaxerxes of Persia, Ezra the son of Seraiah, the son of Azariah, the son of Hilkiah, 2 the son of Shallum, the son of Zadok, the son of Ahitub, 3 the son of Amariah, the son of Azariah, the son of Meraioth, 4 the son of Zerahiah, the son of Uzzi, the son of Bukki, 5 the son of Abishua, the son of Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, the high priest— 6 this Ezra came up from Babylon.
Now he was a scribe skilled in the Law of Moses, which the Lord, the God of Israel, had given to them. The king granted him his entire request, because the hand of the Lord his God was resting upon him. 7 Some of the Israelites and some of the priests, Levites, singers, gatekeepers, and temple servants went up to Jerusalem in the seventh year of King Artaxerxes. 8 Ezra came to Jerusalem in the fifth month (it was during the king’s seventh year). 9 On the first day of the first month, he began the ascent from Babylon. On the first day of the fifth month he came to Jerusalem. The good hand of his God was resting upon him, 10 because Ezra had set his heart to seek the Law of the Lord and to obey it, and to teach the statutes and ordinances in Israel.
Authorization for Ezra’s Mission
11 This is a copy of the document that King Artaxerxes gave to Ezra the priest and scribe, who was a scribe of the words of the commands of the Lord and of his statutes for Israel:
12 From Artaxerxes, King of Kings.
To Ezra the priest, the scribe of the Law of the God of Heaven, etc.[b]
Here is the message:
13 A decree has been issued by me that anyone from among the people of Israel who is living in my kingdom who is willing to go to Jerusalem with you, including its priests and Levites, may go. 14 Since you are being sent from the king and his seven advisors to look after Judah and Jerusalem on the basis of the Law of your God, which is in your possession, 15 you may take along the silver and gold that the king and his advisors have voluntarily contributed to the God of Israel, whose dwelling is in Jerusalem, 16 and you may also take along all the silver and gold that you collect throughout the province of Babylon as voluntary contributions from the people and the priests, which they are freely giving to the house of their God that is in Jerusalem.
17 Therefore, you are to be careful to use this money to purchase bulls, rams, lambs, and the grain offerings and drink offerings that go with them. You are to offer them on the altar of the house of your God that is in Jerusalem. 18 Whatever seems good to you and to your brothers to do with the rest of the silver and the gold, you may do according to the will of your God. 19 Also the vessels that have been given to you for the service of the house of your God, you are to deliver to the God of Jerusalem. 20 As for the rest of the needs of the house of your God which you are responsible to pay, you may pay for them from the royal treasury.
21 From me—I, King Artaxerxes—a decree is issued to all the treasurers who are in the Trans-Euphrates region: Everything that Ezra the priest, the scribe of the Law of the God of Heaven, asks from you is to be done exactly as specified. 22 Give him up to one hundred talents of silver,[c] up to six hundred bushels of wheat, up to six hundred gallons of wine, up to six hundred gallons of olive oil, and salt without limit— 23 everything that is decreed by the God of Heaven shall be done correctly for the house of the God of Heaven. Why should there be anger against the kingdom of the king and his sons?
24 We are informing you concerning all of the priests and Levites, singers, gatekeepers, temple servants, and other servants of this house of God—taxes, tribute, and revenue shall not be imposed on them.
25 Now you, Ezra, according to the wisdom of your God that you possess, are to appoint magistrates and judges who will judge all the people in the Trans-Euphrates region who know the laws of your God. If anyone does not know them, you will inform him about God’s laws. 26 Severe judgment will be imposed on everyone who does not obey the law of your God and the law of the king, whether death or banishment or fine or imprisonment.
The Lamb and the 144,000
14 Then I looked, and there was the Lamb standing on Mount Zion, and with him 144,000 who had his name and the name of his Father written on their foreheads. 2 And I heard a sound from heaven like the roar of many waters and like the sound of a loud thunderclap. The sound that I heard was also like the sound of harpists playing their harps. 3 They were singing[a] a new song in front of the throne and the four living creatures and the elders. No one was able to learn that song except the 144,000, who had been purchased from the earth. 4 These are the ones who were not defiled with women, because they are virgins. They continually follow the Lamb wherever he goes. They were purchased from among mankind as firstfruits for God and the Lamb. 5 And no lie was found in their mouths. They are blameless.[b]
The Three Angels
6 Then I saw another angel flying in the middle of the sky. He had the everlasting gospel to proclaim to those who live on the earth, to every nation, tribe, language, and people. 7 He said with a loud voice:
Fear God and give him glory,
because the hour of his judgment has come.
Worship him who made the sky, the earth, the sea, and the springs of water.
8 Another angel, a second,[c] followed. He said, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the Great,[d] who made every nation drink from the wine of her adulterous desire.”
9 Another angel, a third one, followed them. He said with a loud voice, “If anyone worships the beast and his image and receives a mark on his forehead or on his hand, 10 he will also drink from the wine of God’s wrath, which has been poured undiluted[e] into the cup of his anger, and he will be tormented with burning sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and the Lamb. 11 And the smoke of their torment is going to rise forever and ever. Those who worship the beast and his image, and anyone who receives the mark of his name, are going to have no rest day and night.”
12 Here patient endurance is needed by the saints, who hold on to the commands of God and their faith in Jesus. 13 And I heard a voice from heaven say,[f] “Write: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.”
“Yes,” says the Spirit, “because they will rest from their labors, for their works follow them.”
Recalling the Death of John the Baptist
14 At that time, Herod the tetrarch heard the news about Jesus. 2 He said to his servants, “This is John the Baptist! He has risen from the dead! That is why these powers are working in him.” 3 For Herod had arrested John, bound him, and put him in prison because of Herodias, the wife of his brother Philip. 4 John had been telling him, “It is not lawful for you to have her.” 5 Although Herod wanted to put him to death, he feared the crowd, because they regarded him as a prophet. 6 But when it was Herod’s birthday, the daughter of Herodias danced among them. This pleased Herod. 7 So he promised with an oath to give her whatever she might ask. 8 Prompted by her mother, she said, “Give me here on a platter the head of John the Baptist.”
9 Although this saddened the king, because of his oaths and his dinner guests, he ordered that it be done. 10 He sent the order and had John beheaded in prison. 11 His head was brought on a platter and given to the girl, and she brought it to her mother. 12 John’s disciples came, took the body, and buried it. Then they went and reported this to Jesus.
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.