Book of Common Prayer
To the Director: A composition[a] by David for stringed instruments.
A Prayer for God’s Protection
61 God, hear my cry;
pay attention to my prayer.
2 From the end of the earth I will cry to you
whenever my heart is overwhelmed.
Place me on the rock that’s too high for me.
3 For you have been a refuge for me,
a tower of strength before the enemy.
4 Let me make my home in your tent forever;
let me hide under the shelter of your wings.
5 For you, God, have heard my promises;
you have assigned to me[b] the heritage of those who fear your name.
6 Add day after day to the king’s life;
may his years continue[c] for many generations.
7 May he be enthroned before God forever;
Appoint your[d] gracious love and truth to guard him.
8 So I will sing songs to your name forever;
I will fulfill my promises day by day.
To the Director: According to Jeduthun’s style. A Davidic Psalm.
A Psalm of Trust in God
62 My soul rests quietly only when it looks[e] to God;
from him comes my deliverance.
2 He alone is my rock, my deliverance, and my high tower;
nothing will shake me.
3 How long will you rage against someone?
Would you attack him
as if he were a leaning wall or a tottering fence?
4 They plan to cast him down from his exalted position.
They delight in lies;
their mouth utters blessings,
while their heart is cursing.
5 My soul, be quiet before God,
for from him comes my hope.
6 He alone is my rock, my deliverance, and my high tower;
nothing will shake me.
7 I rely on God who is my deliverance and my glory;
he is my strong rock,
and my refuge is in God.
8 People, in every situation put your trust in God;[f]
pour out your heart before him;
for God is a refuge for us.
9 Human beings[g] are a mere vapor,
while people in high positions[h] are not what they appear.
When they are placed on the scales, they weigh nothing;
even when weighed together, they are less than nothing.
10 Don’t trust in oppression
or put false hope in stealing;
if you become wealthy,
do not set your heart on it.
11 God spoke once,
but I heard it twice,
“Power belongs to God.”
12 Also to you, Lord, belongs gracious love,
because you reward each person according to what he does.
To the Director of music: A Psalm. A song.
A Song of Praise to God
68 God arises,
and his enemies are scattered.
Those who hate him flee from his presence.[a]
2 As smoke is driven away, so you drive them away.
As wax melts in the presence of fire,
so the wicked die in the presence of God.
3 But the righteous rejoice and exult before God;
they are overwhelmed with joy.
4 Sing to God!
Sing praise to his name!
Exalt the one who rides on the clouds.
The Lord is his name.
Be jubilant in his presence.
5 A father to orphans and an advocate for widows
is God in his holy dwelling place.
6 God causes the lonely to dwell in families.[b]
He leads prisoners into prosperity,
but rebels live on parched land.
7 God, when you led out your people,
when you marched through the desert,
8 the land quaked.
Indeed, the heavens poured down rain
from the presence of God,
this God of Sinai,
from the presence of God,
the God of Israel.
9 God, you poured out abundant rain on your inheritance.
When Israel[c] was weary, you sustained her.
10 Your people live[d] there;
you sustain the needy[e] with your goodness, God.
11 The Lord issues a command.
Numerous are the women who announce the news:
12 “Kings of armies retreat and flee,
while the lady of the house divides the spoil.
13 When you men lie down among the sheepfolds,
you are like[f] the wings of the dove covered with silver,
with its feathers in glittering gold.”
14 When the Almighty scattered the kings there,
there was snow on Mt. Zalmon.
15 The mountain of God is as the mountain of Bashan;
a mountain of many peaks is Mount Bashan.
16 You mountains of many peaks, why do you watch with envy
the mountain in which God has chosen to dwell?
Indeed, the Lord will live there forever.
17 God’s chariots were many thousands.
The Lord was there with them at Sinai in holiness.
18 You ascended to the heights,
you took captives.
You received gifts among mankind,
even the rebellious,
so the Lord God may live there.[g]
19 Blessed be the Lord who daily carries us.
God is our deliverer.
20 God is for us the God of our deliverance.
The Lord God rescues us from death.
21 God surely strikes the heads of his enemies,
even the hairy heads of those who continue in their guilt.
22 The Lord says, “From Bashan I will bring them,
I will bring them from the depths of the sea,
23 that your feet may wade through blood.
The tongues of your dogs will have their portions
from your enemies.”
24 They have observed your processions, God,
the processions of my God,
my king, in the sanctuary.
25 The singers are in front,
the musicians follow,
strumming their stringed instruments
among the maidens who are playing their tambourines.
26 Bless God in the great congregation,
the Lord who is the fountain of Israel.
27 Little Benjamin is there, leading them,
and the princes of Judah all together
with the princes of Zebulun and the princes of Naphtali.
28 Summon the power of your God,
the power, God, that you have shown us.
29 Because of your Temple in Jerusalem,
kings bring tribute to you.
30 Rebuke the wildlife that lives among the reeds,
the nations that congregate like bulls and cows,
humbling themselves with pieces of silver,
for God[h] scatters the nations that delight in battle.
31 Envoys will come from Egypt.
Let the Ethiopians stretch out their hands to God.
32 You kingdoms of the earth, sing to God!
Sing praises to the Lord,
33 to the one who rides the heavens, the ancient heavens.
Behold! He thunders with a mighty voice.
34 Ascribe power to God, whose glory is over Israel,
whose power is in the skies.
35 You are awesome, God, from your sanctuaries.
The God of Israel is the one
who gives strength and power to the people.
Blessed be God!
Isaac is Born
21 The Lord came to Sarah, just as he had said, and the Lord did for Sarah what he had promised. 2 Sarah conceived and gave birth to a son for Abraham in his old age, at the very time that God had told him.
3 Abraham named his son who was born to him Isaac—the very one whom Sarah bore for him! 4 On the eighth day after his son Isaac had been born,[a] Abraham circumcised him, just as God had commanded him. 5 Abraham was 100 years old when his son Isaac was born to him.
6 Now Sarah had said, “God has caused me to laugh,[b] and all who hear about it[c] will laugh with me.” 7 She also said, “Who would have told Abraham that Sarah would nurse sons? Yet I have given birth to a son in my husband’s[d] old age!”
Hagar and Ishmael Leave
8 The child grew and eventually was weaned, so Abraham threw a tremendous banquet on the very day Isaac was weaned. 9 Nevertheless, when Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian—whom Hagar had borne to Abraham—making fun of Isaac,[e] 10 she told Abraham, “Throw out this slave girl, along with her son, because this slave’s son will never be a co-heir with my son Isaac!”
11 Abraham was very troubled about what was being said about his son, 12 but God told Abraham, “Don’t be troubled about the youth and your slave girl. Pay attention to Sarah in everything she tells you, because your offspring are to be named through Isaac. 13 Nevertheless, I will make the slave girl’s son into a nation, since he, too, is your offspring.”
14 So early the next morning, Abraham got up, took bread and a leather bottle of water, gave them to Hagar, and placed them on her shoulder. He then sent her away, along with the child. She went off and roamed in the Beer-sheba wilderness. 15 Eventually, the water in the leather bottle ran out, so she placed the child under one of the bushes. 16 Then she went and sat by herself about a distance of a bowshot away, because she kept saying to herself, “I can’t bear to watch the child die!” That’s why she sat a short distance away, crying aloud and weeping.
The Lord Rescues Hagar and Ishmael
17 God heard the boy’s voice, and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven. He asked her, “What’s wrong with you, Hagar? Don’t be afraid, because God has heard the voice of the youth where he is. 18 Get up! Pick up the youth and grab his hand, because I will make a great nation of his descendants.”[f] 19 Then God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water. So she went, filled the skin with water, and gave the boy a drink. 20 God was with the boy as he grew up. He settled in the wilderness and became an expert archer. 21 Later he settled in the desert area of Paran, and his mother chose a wife for him from the land of Egypt.
13 All these people died having faith. They did not receive the things that were promised, yet they saw them in the distant future and welcomed them, acknowledging that they were strangers and foreigners on earth. 14 For people who say such things make it clear that they are looking for a country of their own. 15 If they had been thinking about what they had left behind, they would have had an opportunity to go back. 16 Instead, they were longing for a better country, that is, a heavenly one. That is why God is not ashamed to be called their God, because he has prepared a city for them.
17 By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered Isaac—he who had received the promises was about to offer his unique son[a] in sacrifice, 18 about whom it had been said, “It is through Isaac that descendants will be named for you.”[b] 19 Abraham[c] was certain that God could raise the dead, and figuratively speaking, he did get Isaac[d] back in this way.
20 By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau in regard to their future.
21 By faith Jacob, when he was dying, blessed each of Joseph’s sons “and worshipped while leaning[e] on the top of his staff.”
22 By faith Joseph, when his end was near, spoke about the exodus of the Israelis and gave them instructions about burying[f] his bones.
41 Then the Jewish leaders[a] began grumbling about him because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.”
42 They kept saying, “This is Jesus, the son of Joseph, isn’t it, whose father and mother we know? So how can he say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?”
43 Jesus answered them, “Stop grumbling among yourselves. 44 No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him to life on the last day. 45 It is written in the Prophets, ‘And all of them will be taught by God.’[b] Everyone who has listened to the Father and has learned anything comes to me. 46 Not that anyone has seen the Father except the one who comes from God. This one has seen the Father. 47 Truly, I tell all of you[c] emphatically, the one who believes in me[d] has eternal life. 48 I’m the bread of life. 49 Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness and died. 50 This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that a person may eat it and not die. 51 I’m the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats this bread, he’ll live forever. And the bread I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”
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