Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 70[a]
Insistent Prayer for Divine Assistance
1 For the director.[b] Of David. For remembrance.
2 [c]Make haste, O God, to rescue me;
O Lord, come quickly to my aid.
3 [d]May all those who seek to take my life
endure shame and confusion.
May all those who desire my ruin
be turned back and humiliated.
4 May those who cry out to me, “Aha! Aha!”[e]
be forced to retreat in shame.
5 But may all who seek you
rejoice in you and be jubilant.
May those who love your salvation
cry out forever, “May God be magnified.”[f]
6 As for me, I am poor and needy;[g]
hasten to my aid, O God.
You are my help and my deliverer;
O Lord, do not delay.
Psalm 71[h]
Prayer of the Righteous in Old Age
1 In you, O Lord, I have taken refuge;
let me never be put to shame.
2 In your righteousness rescue me and deliver me;
hear my plea and save me.
3 Be to me a rock of refuge
to which I can always go;
proclaim the order to save me,
for you are my rock and my fortress.
4 O my God, rescue me from the hands of the impious,
from the grasp of cruel and ruthless foes.
5 You, O Lord, are my hope,
my confidence, O God, from my youth.
6 I have relied upon you since birth,
and you have been my strength from my mother’s womb;
my praise rises unceasingly to you.[i]
7 I have become a portent to many,[j]
but you are my sure refuge.
8 My mouth is filled with your praises
as I relate your glory all day long.
9 Do not cast me off in my old age;
do not forsake me when my strength is completely spent.
10 For my enemies speak against me,
and those who seek my life plot together.
11 They say: “God has abandoned him;
go after him and seize him,
for no one will come to his rescue.”
12 O God, do not remain aloof from me;
come quickly to help me, O my God.
13 Let those who accuse me
be put to shame and perish;
let those who are determined to harm me
incur contempt and disgrace.[k]
14 But I will hope in you continually
and will render even more praise to you.
15 [l]My lips will proclaim your righteous deeds
and your salvation all day long,
though I do not know their extent.[m]
16 I will speak of your mighty deeds, O Lord God,
and declare your righteousness,[n] yours alone.
17 O God, you have taught me from my youth,
and to this day I proclaim your marvelous works.
18 Now that I am old and my hair is gray,[o]
do not abandon me, O God,
until I have extolled your might
to all the generations yet to come,
your strength 19 and your righteousness, O God,
to the highest heavens.
You have done great things;
O God, who is there who is like you?
20 You have shown me many afflictions and hardships,
but you will once again revive me.
From the depths of the earth[p]
you will once again raise me up.
21 You will restore my honor
and console me once again.
22 Then I will also praise[q] you with the harp
for your faithfulness, O my God.
I will sing praises to you with the lyre,
O Holy One of Israel.
23 When I sing to you, my lips will rejoice,
and so will my soul, which you have redeemed.
24 All day long my tongue
will relate your righteousness.
For those who intended to do me harm
will suffer shame and disgrace.
Psalm 74[a]
Prayer in Time of Calamity
1 A maskil[b] of Asaph.
Why, O God, have you cast us off forever?
Why[c] does your anger blaze forth
against the sheep of your pasture?
2 Remember the people that you purchased long ago,
the tribe that you redeemed as your own possession,[d]
and Mount Zion that you chose as your dwelling.
3 Direct now your steps[e] to the endless ruins,
toward the sanctuary destroyed by the enemy.
4 Your foes exulted triumphantly in the place of your assembly
and set up their memorial emblems.
5 They set upon it with their axes
as if it were a thicket of trees.
6 And then, with hatchets and hammers,
they bludgeoned all the carved work.
7 They set your sanctuary ablaze;
they razed and defiled the dwelling place of your name.[f]
8 They said to themselves, “We will utterly crush them,”
and they burned every shrine of God in the land.[g]
9 Now we see no signs,
there are no longer any prophets,
and none of us knows how long this will last.[h]
10 How long, O God, will the foe mock you?
Will the enemy blaspheme your name forever?[i]
11 Why do you hold back your right hand?
Take it out from your robe and destroy them.[j]
12 Yet you, O God, are my King from of old,
working deeds of salvation throughout the earth.
13 [k]By your power you split the sea in two
and shattered the heads of the dragons in the waters.
14 You crushed the heads of Leviathan
and gave him as food for the wild beasts.
15 You opened up springs and torrents
and turned flowing rivers into dry land.[l]
16 [m]Yours is the day, and yours also is the night,
for you set in place both sun and moon.
17 You fixed all the boundaries of the earth
and created both summer and winter.
18 [n]Remember, O Lord, how the enemy has mocked you,
how a foolish people has blasphemed your name.
19 Do not surrender the soul of your dove[o] to wild beasts;
do not forget forever the life of your poor.
20 Have regard for your covenant!
For the land is filled with darkness,
and the pastures are haunts of violence.
21 Do not let the oppressed turn back in shame;
let the poor and needy[p] bless your name.
22 Rise up, O God, and defend your cause;
remember how fools mock you all day long.
23 Do not ignore the outbursts of your enemies,
the unceasing tumult of your foes.
Chapter 23
Tomb of the Patriarch.[a] 1 Sarah lived to be one hundred and twenty-seven years old. 2 She died at Kiriath-arba, that is Hebron, in the land of Canaan. Abraham went in to mourn for Sarah and he wept for her.
3 Abraham then left the body of his loved one and said to the Hittites, 4 “I am a foreigner and I sojourn among you. Sell me a piece of land here for a grave. In that way I can carry the body there and bury it.”
5 The Hittites answered, 6 “Hear us, my lord. You are a prince of God living in our midst. Bury your dead one in the best of our tombs. No one among us will prevent you from burying your dead in your tomb.”
7 Then Abraham got up and bowed down before the people of the land, the Hittites, 8 and said to them, “If it is your will that I take my deceased and bury her, listen to me and convince Ephron, the son of Zohar, 9 to give me the cave of Machpelah, which is found at the edge of his field. Let him sell it to me at its full price so that it may be my burial place in your land.”
10 Now Ephron was seated among the Hittites. Ephron the Hittite answered Abraham in the hearing of the Hittites at the entrance to the gate of the city. He said, 11 “Hear me, my lord. I will give you the field along with the cave. In the presence of the sons of my people, I give it to you. Bury your dead.”
12 Abraham bowed down to him before the people of the land. 13 He spoke to Ephron in the hearing of the people of the land and said, “If only you would please listen to me, I will pay you for the price of the field. Accept it from me, so that I may bury my dead there.”
14 Ephron said to Abraham, 15 “Hear me, my lord. A field with a value of four hundred silver shekels,[b] what is that between me and you? Bury your dead there.”
16 Abraham accepted Ephron’s terms. He paid Ephron the price that had been mentioned in the hearing of the Hittites, namely, four hundred silver shekels of the current market weight.
17 The field of Ephron was at Machpelah facing Mamre. The field and the cave found there and all the trees in the field and within the boundaries of the field, 18 all these became the property of Abraham in the presence of the Hittites at the entrance to the gate of the city. 19 Afterward, Abraham buried Sarah, his wife, in the cave of the field of Machpelah facing Mamre (that is Hebron), in the land of Canaan. 20 The field and the cave passed from the Hittites to Abraham as his burial plot.
32 The Faith of the Judges and Prophets. What more shall I say? Time is too short for me to speak of Gideon, Barak, Samson, and Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the Prophets,[a] 33 who by faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and obtained the promises. They closed the mouths of lions,[b] 34 quenched raging fires,[c] and escaped the edge of the sword. Their weakness was turned into strength as they became mighty in battle and put foreign armies to flight.
35 Women received their dead[d] back through resurrection. Others who were tortured refused to accept release in order to obtain a better resurrection. 36 Still others were mocked and scourged, even to the point of enduring chains and imprisonment.
37 They were stoned,[e] or sawed in two, or put to death by the sword. They went about in skins of sheep or goats—destitute, persecuted, and tormented. 38 The world was not worthy of them. They wandered about in desert areas and on mountains, and they lived in dens and caves of the earth.
39 Yet all these, even though they were commended for their faith, did not receive what was promised. 40 For God had made provision for us to have something better, and they were not to achieve perfection except with us.[f]
Let Us Run with Eyes Fixed on Jesus[g]
Chapter 12
You Have Not Yet Resisted to the Point of Bloodshed. 1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses,[h] let us throw off everything that weighs us down and the sins that so easily distract us and with perseverance run the race that lies ahead of us, 2 with our eyes fixed on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith. For the sake of the joy that lay before him, he endured the cross, ignoring its shame, and is now seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
60 After hearing his words, many of his disciples said, “This is a hard saying. Who can accept it?” 61 Aware of the complaints of his disciples, Jesus said to them,
“Does this shock you?
62 What then if you were to behold the Son of Man
ascend to where he was before?
63 It is the spirit that gives life;
the flesh[a] can achieve nothing.
The words that I have spoken to you
are spirit and life.
64 But there are some among you
who do not believe.”
For from the very beginning Jesus knew who did not believe, and who would betray him. 65 He said,
“This is why I told you
that no one can come to me
unless it is granted to him by my Father.”
66 After this, many of his disciples turned away and no longer remained with him. 67 Then Jesus said to the Twelve, “Do you also wish to leave?” 68 Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. 69 We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.”
70 Jesus replied, “Did I not choose you twelve? Yet one of you is a devil.” 71 He was speaking of Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot. Although he was one of the Twelve, he would be the one who would betray him.
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