Book of Common Prayer
Worship and Obedience
95 Come! Let us sing joyfully to the Lord!
Let us shout for joy to the rock of our salvation.
2 Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving;
let us shout with songs of praise to him.
3 For the Lord is an awesome God;
a great king above all divine beings.[a]
4 He holds in his hand the lowest parts of the earth
and the mountain peaks belong to him.
5 The sea that he made belongs to him,
along with the dry land that his hands formed.
6 Come! Let us worship and bow down;
let us kneel in the presence of the Lord, who made us.
7 For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture
and the flock in his care.[b]
If only you would listen to his voice today,
8 do not be stubborn like your ancestors were[c] at Meribah,
as on that day at Massah, in the wilderness,
9 where your ancestors tested me.
They tested me,
even though they had seen my awesome deeds.
10 For forty years I loathed that generation, so I said,
“They are a people whose hearts continuously err,
and they have not understood my ways.”
11 So in my anger I declared an oath:
“They are not to enter my place of rest.”
To the Director: A Davidic Psalm.
Prayer and Thanksgiving
31 In you, Lord, I have taken refuge.
Let me never be ashamed.
Because you are righteous, deliver me!
2 Listen to me,
and deliver me quickly.
Become a rock of safety for me,
a fortified citadel to deliver me;
3 For you are my rock and my fortress;
for the sake of your name guide me and lead me.
4 Rescue me from the net that they concealed to trap me;
for you are my strength.
5 Into your hands I commit my spirit;
for you have redeemed me,
Lord God of truth.
6 I despise those who trust vain idols;
but I have trusted in the Lord.
7 I will rejoice and be glad in your gracious love,
for you see my affliction
and take note that my soul is distressed.
8 You have not delivered me into the hand of the enemy,
but you have set my feet in a sturdy[a] place.
9 Be gracious to me, Lord,
for I am in distress.
My eyes have been consumed by my grief
along with my soul and my body.
10 My life is consumed by sorrow,
my years with groaning.
My strength has faltered because of my iniquity;[b]
my bones have been consumed.
11 I have become an object of reproach to all my enemies,
especially to my neighbors.
I have become an object of fear to my friends,
and whoever sees me outside runs away from me.
12 Like a dead man, I am forgotten in their thoughts[c]—
like broken pottery.
13 I have heard the slander of many;
it is like terror all around me,
as they conspire together and plot to take my life.
14 But I trust in you, Lord.
I say, “You are my God.”
15 My times are in your hands.
Deliver me from the hands of my enemies
and from those who pursue me.
16 May your face shine on your servant;
in your gracious love, deliver me.
17 Let me not be ashamed, Lord,
for I have called upon you.
Let the wicked be put to shame,
let them be silent in the next life.[d]
18 Let the lying lips be made still,
especially those who speak arrogantly
against the righteous with pride and contempt.
19 How great is your goodness
that you have reserved for those who fear you,
that you have set in place for those who take refuge in you,
in the presence of the children of men.
20 You will hide them in the secret place of your presence,
away from the conspiracies of men.
You will hide them in your tent,
away from their contentious tongues.
21 Blessed be the Lord!
In a marvelous way he demonstrated his gracious love to me,
when I was in a city under siege.
22 When I said in my panic,
“I have been cut off in your sight,”
then you surely heard the voice of my prayer
in my plea to you for help.
23 Love the Lord, all his godly ones!
The Lord preserves the faithful
and repays those who act with proud motives.
24 Be strong,
and let your heart be courageous,
all you who put your hope in the Lord.
Davidic
A Prayer for Deliverance
35 Argue my case,[a] Lord,
against those who argue against me.
Fight against those who fight against me.
2 Take up the buckler[b] and the shield,
and rise up to help me.
3 Take out the spear and the ax to confront the one who pursues me;
say to me, “I am your deliverer!”
4 Let those who seek my life be ashamed and disgraced;
let those who plot evil against me be driven back and confounded.
5 Make them like the chaff before the wind,
as the messenger of the Lord pushes them aside.
6 May their path be dark and slippery,
as the messenger of the Lord tracks them down.
7 Without justification they laid a snare for me;
without justification they dug a pit to trap me.
8 Let destruction come upon them[c] unawares,
and let the net that he hid catch him;
let him fall into destruction.
9 My soul will rejoice in the Lord
and be glad in his deliverance.
10 All my bones will say,
“Lord, who is like you?
Who delivers the weak from the one who is stronger than he,
and the weak and the needy from the one who wants to rob him?”
11 False witnesses stepped forward
and questioned me concerning things
about which I knew nothing.
12 They paid me back evil for good;
my soul mourns.
13 But when they were sick,
I wore sackcloth, humbled myself with fasting,
and prayed from my heart repeatedly for them.[d]
14 I paced about as for my friend or my brother,
and fell down mourning as one weeps for one’s mother.
15 But when I stumbled,
they rejoiced and gathered together.
They gathered together against me—
attackers whom I did not know.
They tore me apart and would not stop.
16 Malicious mockers[e]—
they gnashed[f] their teeth against me.
17 Lord, how long will you just watch?
Rescue me from their destruction,
my precious life from these young lions.
18 Then I will give you thanks in front of the great congregation;
in the midst of the mighty throng I will praise you.
19 Do not let my deceitful enemies gloat over me,
nor let those who hate me without justification mock me with their eyes.
20 For they do not speak peace;
they devise clever lies against the peaceful people of the land.
21 They open their mouth wide against me,
claiming, “Yes! Yes! We saw him do[g] it with our own eyes!”
22 You see this, Lord,
so do not be silent.
Lord, do not be far from me!
23 Wake up! Arouse yourself to vindicate me
and argue my case, my God and my Lord.
24 Judge me according to your righteousness, Lord my God!
But do not let them gloat over me.
25 Don’t let them say in their hearts,
“Yes! We got what we wanted.”
Don’t let them say,
“We have swallowed him up.”
26 Instead, let those who gloat over the evil directed against me
be ashamed and confounded together;
Let those who exalt themselves over me
be clothed with shame and dishonor.
27 Let those who delight in my vindication
shout for joy and rejoice!
Let them continuously say,
“Magnify the Lord, who delights in giving peace to[h] his servant.”
28 My tongue will declare your righteousness
and praise you all day long.
The Outdated Proverb
18 This message came to me from the Lord: 2 “Why do you cite this proverb when you talk about Israel’s land: ‘The fathers eat sour grapes but it’s their children’s teeth that have become numb.’ 3 As long as I live,” declares the Lord, “you won’t use this proverb about Israel anymore. 4 Look! Every living soul belongs to me—the father’s as well as the son’s.[a] So pay attention! The person who keeps on sinning is going to die.”
Accusing God of Unrighteousness
25 “Yet you keep saying, ‘The Lord isn’t being consistent with his standards.’ Pay attention, you house of Israel: Is my behavior really inconsistent with my standards? Isn’t it your behavior that isn’t just?
26 “When a righteous person turns from his righteous deeds and does evil, he’ll die because of that evil. He’ll die because of his unrighteous acts that he committed. 27 When a wicked person quits[a] his wicked behavior[b] and does what’s just and right, he’ll be enabled to live.[c] 28 Because he reconsidered his transgression and turned away from everything that he had been doing, he’ll certainly live and not die. 29 Yet Israel’s house keeps saying, ‘The Lord isn’t being consistent with his standards.’ Is it my behavior that’s inconsistent with my standards?[d] Is it not your behavior that’s inconsistent with my standards?”[e]
A Command to Repent
30 “Therefore, Israel, I’m going to judge you according to the behavior of each and every one of you,” declares the Lord God. “So repent and turn from all your sins so that sin won’t keep on being a stumbling block for you. 31 Stop your transgressing—the deeds by which you’ve rebelled—and then make for yourselves a new heart and a new spirit. Why should you die, you house of Israel? 32 I don’t take pleasure in the death of anyone who dies,” declares the Lord. “So repent, so you may live!”
Closing Exhortations
4 Therefore, my dear brothers whom I long for, my joy and my victor’s crown, this is how you must stand firm in the Lord, dear friends. 2 I urge Euodia and Syntyche to have the same attitude in the Lord. 3 Yes, I also ask you, my true partner,[a] to help these women. They have worked hard with me to advance[b] the gospel, along with Clement and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the Book of Life.
4 Keep on rejoicing in the Lord at all times. I will say it again: Keep on rejoicing! 5 Let your gracious attitude[c] be known to all people. The Lord is near: 6 Never worry about anything. Instead, in every situation let your petitions be made known to God through prayers and requests, with thanksgiving. 7 Then God’s peace, which goes far beyond anything we can imagine, will guard your hearts and minds in union with the Messiah[d] Jesus.
8 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is fair, whatever is pure, whatever is acceptable, whatever is commendable, if there is anything of excellence and if there is anything praiseworthy—keep thinking about these things. 9 Likewise, keep practicing these things: what you have learned, received, heard, and seen in me. Then the God of peace will be with you.
9 “I am asking on their behalf. I am not asking on behalf of the world, but on behalf of those you gave me, because they are yours. 10 All that is mine is yours, and what is yours is mine, and I have been glorified through them. 11 I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by your Name, the Name[a] that you gave me, so that they may be one, as we are one. 12 While I was with them, I protected them by the authority[b] that you gave me. I guarded them, and not one of them became lost except the one who was destined for[c] destruction, so that the Scripture might be fulfilled.
13 “And now I am coming to you, and I say these things in the world so that they may have my joy made complete in themselves. 14 I have given them your word, and the world has hated them, because they do not belong to the world, just as I don’t belong to the world. 15 I’m not asking you to take them out of the world but to protect them from the evil one. 16 They don’t belong to the world, just as I don’t belong to the world.
17 “Sanctify them by the truth. Your word is truth. 18 Just as you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. 19 It is for their sakes that I sanctify myself, so that they, too, may be sanctified by the truth.
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