Book of Common Prayer
A special Davidic Psalm.[a]
Trust in the Face of Death
16 Keep me safe, God,
for I take refuge in you.
2 I told the Lord,
“You are my master,[b]
I have nothing good apart from you.”
3 As for the saints that are in the land,
they are noble, and all my delight is in them.
4 Those who hurry after another god[c] will have many sorrows;
I will not present[d] their drink offerings of blood,
nor will my lips speak[e] their names.
5 The Lord is my inheritance and my cup;
you support my lot.
6 The boundary lines have fallen in pleasant places for me;
truly, I have a beautiful heritage.
7 I will bless the Lord who has counseled me;
indeed, my conscience instructs[f] me during the night.
8 I have set the Lord before me continuously;
because he stands at my right hand, I will stand firm.[g]
9 Therefore, my heart is glad,
my whole being[h] rejoices,
and my body will dwell securely.
10 For you will not leave my soul in Sheol,[i]
you will not allow your holy one to experience corruption.[j]
11 You cause me to know the path of life;
in your presence is joyful abundance,
at your right hand there are pleasures forever.
A Davidic Prayer.
A Cry for Justice
17 Lord, hear my just plea!
Pay attention to my cry!
Listen to my prayer,
since it does not come from lying lips.
2 Justice for me will come from your presence;
your eyes see what is right.
3 When you probe my heart,
and examine me at night;
when you refine me,
you will find nothing wrong,[k]
for I have determined that I will not transgress with my mouth.
4 As for the ways of mankind,
I have, according to the words of your lips,
avoided the ways of the violent.
5 Because my steps have held fast to your paths,
my footsteps have not faltered.
6 I call upon you, for you will answer me, God.
Listen closely to me
and hear my prayer.
7 Show forth your gracious love,
save those who take refuge in you
from those who rebel against your sovereign power.[l]
8 Protect me as the most precious part of the eye;[m]
hide me under the shadow of your wings
9 from the wicked[n] who have afflicted me,
from my enemies who have surrounded me.
10 They are imprisoned by their own prosperity,[o]
they have boasted proudly with their mouth.
11 Now they have encircled our paths[p]
and are determined[q] to cast us down to the ground.
12 Like a lion they desire to rip us to pieces,
like a young lion waiting in ambush.
13 Arise, Lord,
confront them,
bring them to their knees!
Deliver me from the wicked by your sword—
14 from men, Lord, by your hand—
from men who belong to this world,
whose reward is only[r] in this[s] life.
But as for your treasured ones,
may their stomachs be full,
may their children have an abundance,
and may they leave wealth to their offspring.
15 But as for me, justified, I will behold your face;
when I awake, your presence[t] will satisfy me.
To the Director: To the tune of[a] “Doe of the Dawn”.
A Davidic Psalm.
God Delivers His Suffering Servant
22 My God! My God!
Why have you abandoned me?
Why are you so far from delivering me—
from my groaning words?
2 My God, I cry out to you throughout the day,
but you do not answer;
and throughout the night,
but I have no rest.[b]
3 You are holy,
enthroned on the praises of Israel.
4 Our ancestors trusted in you;
they trusted and you delivered them.
5 They cried out to you and escaped;
they trusted in you and were not put to shame.
6 But as for me,
I am only a worm and not a man,
scorned by mankind and despised by people.
7 Everyone who sees me mocks me;
they gape at me with open mouths
and shake their heads at me.
8 They say,[c] “Commit yourself to the Lord;
perhaps the Lord[d] will deliver him,
perhaps he will cause him to escape,
since he delights in him.”
9 Yet, you are the one who took me from the womb,
and kept me safe on my mother’s breasts.
10 I was dependent on you from birth;
from my mother’s womb you have been my God.
11 Do not be so distant from me,
for trouble is at hand;
indeed, there is no deliverer.
12 Many bulls have surrounded me;
the vicious bulls of Bashan have encircled me.
13 Their mouths are opened wide toward me,
like roaring and attacking lions.
14 I am poured out like water;
all my bones are out of joint.
My heart is like wax, melting within me.
15 My strength is dried up like broken pottery;
my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth,[e]
and you have brought me down to the dust of death.
16 For dogs have surrounded me;
a gang of those who practice evil has encircled me.
They gouged[f] my hands and my[g] feet.
17 I can count all my bones.
They look at me;
they stare at me.
18 They divide my clothing among themselves;
they cast lots for my clothing!
19 But as for you, Lord, do not be far away from me;
My Strength, come quickly to help me.
20 Deliver me from the sword;
my precious life from the power of the dog.
21 Deliver me from the mouth of the lion,
from the horns of the wild oxen.
You have answered me.
22 I will declare your name to my brothers;
in the midst of the congregation, I will praise you, saying,[h]
23 “All who fear the Lord, praise him!
All the seed of Jacob, glorify him!
All the seed of Israel, fear him!
24 For he does not despise nor detest the afflicted person;
he does not hide his face from him,
but he hears him when he cries out to him.”
25 My praise in the great congregation is because of you;
I will pay my vows before those who fear you.[i]
26 The afflicted will eat and be satisfied;
those who seek the Lord will praise him,
“May you[j] live forever!”
27 All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the Lord;
all the families of the nations will bow in submission to the Lord.
28 Indeed, the kingdom belongs to the Lord;
he rules over the nations.
29 All the prosperous people will eat and bow down in submission.
All those who are about to go down to the grave[k]
will bow down in submission,
along with the one who can no longer keep himself alive.
30 Our[l] descendants will serve him,
and that generation will be told about the Lord.
31 They will come and declare his righteousness
to a people yet to be born;
indeed, he has accomplished it!
Human Corruption
6 Now after the population of human beings had increased throughout the[a] earth, and daughters had been born to them, 2 some divine beings[b] noticed how attractive human women[c] were, so they took wives for themselves from a selection that pleased them.[d] 3 So the Lord said, “My Spirit won’t remain[e] with human beings forever, because they’re truly mortal.[f] Their lifespan[g] will be 120 years.”
4 The Nephilim[h] were on the earth at that time[i] (and also immediately afterward), when those divine beings[j] were having sexual relations with[k] those human women,[l] who gave birth to children for them. These children[m] became the heroes and legendary figures of ancient times.[n]
God Decides to Destroy the World
5 The Lord saw that human evil was growing more and more throughout the earth, with every inclination of people’s thoughts[o] becoming only evil on a continuous basis. 6 Then the Lord regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and he was deeply grieved about that.[p] 7 So the Lord said, “I will annihilate these human beings whom I’ve created from the[q] earth, including people, animals, crawling things, and flying creatures, because I’m grieving that I made them.” 8 However, the Lord was pleased with Noah.
12 See to it, my brothers, that no evil, unbelieving heart is found in any of you, as shown by your turning away from the living God. 13 Instead, continue to encourage one another every day, as long as it is called “Today,” so that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin, 14 because we are the Messiah’s[a] partners only if we hold on to our original confidence to the end.[b] 15 As it is said,
“Today, if you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts
as they did when they provoked me.”[c]
16 Now who heard him and provoked him? Was it not all those who came out of Egypt led[d] by Moses? 17 And with whom was he angry for 40 years? Was it not with those who sinned and whose bodies fell dead in the wilderness? 18 And to whom did he swear that they would never enter his rest? It was to those who disobeyed him, was it not? 19 So we see that they were unable to enter because of their unbelief.
Jesus Changes Water into Wine
2 On the third day of that week[a] there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee. Jesus’ mother was there, 2 and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. 3 When the wine ran out, Jesus’ mother told him, “They don’t have any more wine.”
4 “How does that concern us, dear lady?”[b] Jesus asked her. “My time hasn’t come yet.”
5 His mother told the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”
6 Now standing there were six stone water jars used for the Jewish rites of purification, each one holding from two to three measures.[c] 7 Jesus told the servants,[d] “Fill the jars with water.” So they filled them up to the brim. 8 Then he told them, “Now draw some out and take it to the man in charge of the banquet.” So they did.
9 When the man in charge of the banquet tasted the water that had become wine (without knowing where it had come from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew), he[e] called for the bridegroom 10 and told him, “Everyone serves the best wine first, and the cheap kind when people[f] are drunk. But you have kept the best wine until now!” 11 Jesus did this, the first[g] of his signs, in Cana of Galilee. He revealed his glory, and his disciples believed in him.
12 After this, Jesus[h] went down to Capernaum—he, his mother, his brothers, and his disciples—and they remained there for a few days.
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