Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 5
With You the Wicked Cannot Dwell
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For the choir director. For flutes. A psalm by David.
Access in Prayer
1 Turn your ear to my words, O Lord.
Understand me when I sigh.
2 Pay attention to my cry for help,
my King and my God,
for to you I pray.
3 Lord, in the morning you hear my voice.
In the morning I lay out my requests in front of you,
and I watch for your answer.
No Access
4 For you are not a God who takes pleasure in evil.
With you the wicked cannot dwell.
5 The arrogant cannot stand before your eyes.
You hate all evildoers.
6 You put to death those who speak lies.
The Lord is disgusted with bloodthirsty, deceitful men.
Access in Prayer
7 But as for me, by your great mercy
I will enter your house.
I will bow down toward your holy temple
with reverence for you.
8 Lord, lead me in your righteousness.
Because of those who slander me,
make your way straight before me.
Lying Tongues
9 Nothing reliable comes out of their mouth.
From within them comes destruction.
Their throat is an open grave.
With their tongue they flatter.
10 Declare them guilty, O God!
Let them fall because of their own schemes.
For their many treacherous deeds banish them,
because they have rebelled against you.
Praising Tongues
11 But let all who take refuge in you be glad.
Let them sing for joy forever.
You cover them with protection,
so those who love your name rejoice in you.
12 Yes, you bless the righteous, Lord.
You surround them with your favor as a shield.
Psalm 6
Do Not Rebuke Me in Your Anger
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For the choir director. With stringed instruments.
According to sheminith.[a] A psalm by David.
Anxious Prayer
1 Lord, do not rebuke me in your anger.
Do not discipline me in your wrath.
2 Be merciful to me, Lord, for I am fading away.
Heal me, Lord, for my bones are trembling,
3 and my soul is terrified.
But you, O Lord—how long?
4 Turn, O Lord, and deliver my soul.
Save me because of your mercy.
5 For in death no one remembers you.
In the grave who praises you?
6 I am worn out from my groaning.
I flood my bed all night long.
With my tears I drench my couch.
7 My eyes are blurred by sorrow.
They are worn out because of all my foes.
Confident Trust
8 Turn away from me, all you evildoers,
because the Lord has heard the sound of my weeping.
9 The Lord has heard my cry for mercy.
The Lord accepts my prayer.
10 They will be put to shame.
All my enemies will be terrified.
They will turn back.
They will be put to shame in an instant.
Psalm 10
Break the Arm of the Wicked Man
An Opening Appeal for Action
1 Why, Lord, do you stand so far away?
Why do you hide in times of distress?
A Portrait of the Wicked
2 Because of the pride of the wicked, the oppressed burn.[a]
They are caught in the schemes that the wicked plan.
3 Yes, the wicked man boasts about his heart’s desires.
He blesses the robber. He despises the Lord.[b]
4 With his nose in the air, the wicked does not seek God.
There is no room at all for God in his thoughts.
5 His ways are prosperous all the time.
He is haughty. Your judgments do not concern him.
He snorts at all of his foes.
6 He says in his heart, “I will not be shaken.
Through age after age I will have no trouble.”
7 Cursing fills his mouth, along with lies and threats.
Trouble and evil lie under his tongue.
8 He waits in ambush by the villages.
In hidden places he murders the innocent.
His eyes are spying on the helpless.
9 He lies in ambush. He hides like a lion in a thicket.
He lies in ambush to catch the oppressed.
He catches the oppressed by dragging them in his net.
10 The helpless are crushed. They sink down.
They fall under his strength.
11 He says in his heart, “God has forgotten.
He hides his face. He never sees.”
An Appeal for Divine Justice
12 Rise up, O Lord! Lift up your hand, O God.
Do not forget the oppressed.
13 Why does the wicked man despise God?
Why does he say in his heart,
“You do not seek justice”?
14 But you do see. You notice trouble and grief.
You take it into your own hands.
The helpless one abandons himself to you.
For the fatherless you are indeed a helper.
15 Break the arm of the wicked.
You pursue the wickedness of the evil man
until you find no more.[c]
Confidence in Divine Justice
16 The Lord is King forever and ever.
The nations will perish from his land.
17 Lord, you hear the desire of the afflicted.
You strengthen their hearts,
and your ear pays attention,
18 to obtain justice for the fatherless and the crushed,
so that the worldly man[d] may no longer terrify.
Psalm 11
Faith, Not Flight
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For the choir director. By David.
The Fear of the Fainthearted
1 In the Lord I take refuge.
How can you say to my soul:
“Flee to your mountain like a bird.
2 Look! The wicked bend their bow.
They set their arrow against the string
to shoot in the darkness at the upright in heart.
3 When the foundations are being torn down,
what can the righteous do?”
David’s Answer
4 The Lord is in his holy temple.
The Lord is on his throne in heaven.
His eyes observe.
He focuses on[e] the children of Adam.[f]
5 The Lord is righteous.
He examines the wicked.
He really hates[g] those who love violence.
6 On the wicked he will rain down fiery coals and sulfur.[h]
A scorching wind will be the cup given to them.
7 Indeed, the Lord is righteous. He loves righteousness.
The upright will view his face.
The Fall Into Sin
3 Now the serpent was more clever than any wild animal which the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Has God really said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree in the garden’?”
2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees of the garden, 3 but not from the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden. God has said, ‘You shall not eat from it. You shall not touch it, or else you will die.’”
4 The serpent said to the woman, “You certainly will not die. 5 In fact, God knows that the day you eat from it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
6 When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was appealing to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took some of its fruit and ate. She gave some also to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. 7 The eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized that they were naked. They sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for their waists.[a] 8 They heard the voice of the Lord God, who was walking around in the garden during the cooler part[b] of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.
9 The Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?”
10 The man said, “I heard your voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, so I hid myself.”
11 God said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree from which I commanded you not to eat?”
12 The man said, “The woman you gave to be with me—she gave me fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”
13 The Lord God said to the woman, “What have you done?”
The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
14 The Lord God said to the serpent:
Because you have done this,
you are cursed more than all the livestock,
and more than every wild animal.
You shall crawl on your belly,
and you shall eat dust all the days of your life.
15 I will put hostility between you and the woman,
and between your seed and her seed.[c]
He will crush your head,
and you will crush his heel.
16 To the woman he said:
I will greatly increase your pain in childbearing.
With painful labor you will give birth to children.
Your desire will be for your husband,
but[d] he will rule over you.
17 To Adam he said:
Because you listened to your wife’s voice
and ate from the tree about which I commanded you,
“You shall not eat from it,”
the soil is cursed on account of you.
You will eat from it with painful labor all the days of your life.
18 Thorns and thistles will spring up from the ground for you,
but you will eat the crops of the field.
19 By the sweat of your face you will eat bread
until you return to the soil,
for out of it you were taken.
For you are dust,
and to dust you shall return.
20 The man named his wife Eve[e] because she would be the mother of all the living. 21 The Lord God made clothing of animal skins for Adam and for his wife and clothed them.
22 The Lord God said, “Look, the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil. Now, so that he does not reach out his hand and also take from the Tree of Life and eat and live forever—” 23 the Lord God sent him out from the Garden of Eden to work the soil from which he had been taken. 24 So he drove the man out, and in front of[f] the Garden of Eden he stationed cherubim[g] and a flaming sword, which turned in every direction to guard the way to the Tree of Life.
Pay Attention to God’s Word
2 Therefore, we need to pay even more attention to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away. 2 For if the message that was spoken through angels[a] was valid, and every transgression and disobedient act received a just punishment, 3 how will we escape if we ignore such a great salvation? First the message was spoken by the Lord; then it was confirmed to us by those who heard him. 4 God also testified to it with signs and wonders, various miracles and gifts of the Holy Spirit, according to his will.
God Put Everything Under His Control
5 For God did not place the coming world, about which we are speaking, under the control of angels. 6 But there is a place where someone has testified:
What is man that you remember him,
or the Son of Man[b] that you look after him?
7 You made him lower than the angels for a little while.[c]
You crowned him with glory and honor.[d]
8 You put everything in subjection under his feet.[e]
Indeed, in putting everything in subjection to him, God left nothing that is not in subjection to him. At the present time, we do not yet see everything in subjection to him. 9 But we look to Jesus (the one who was made lower than the angels for a little while, so that by God’s grace he might taste death for everyone), now crowned with glory and honor, because he suffered death.
A Merciful and Faithful High Priest
10 Certainly it was fitting for God (the one for whom and through whom everything exists), in leading many sons to glory, to bring the author of their salvation to his goal through sufferings.
John the Baptist Prepares the Way
19 This is the testimony John gave when the Jews from Jerusalem sent priests and Levites[a] to ask him, “Who are you?”
20 He confessed and did not deny. He confessed, “I am not the Christ.”
21 And they asked him, “Who are you then? Are you Elijah?”
He said, “I am not.”
“Are you the Prophet?”
“No,” he answered.
22 Then they asked him, “Who are you? Tell us so we can give an answer to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?”
23 He said, “I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’[b] just as Isaiah the prophet said.”
24 They had been sent from the Pharisees. 25 So they asked John, “Why then do you baptize, if you are not the Christ, or Elijah, or the Prophet?”
26 “I baptize with water,” John answered. “Among you stands one you do not know. 27 He is the one coming after me,[c] whose sandal strap I am not worthy to untie.”
28 These things happened in Bethany beyond the Jordan, where John was baptizing.
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.