Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 40
I Desire to Do Your Will
(Psalm 40:13-17 parallels Psalm 70)
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For the choir director. By David. A psalm.
Messiah’s Prayer of Thanks
1 I waited and waited for the Lord.
Then he turned to me and heard my cry.
2 Then he pulled me up from the deadly quicksand,
from the mud and muck.
He made my feet stand on a rock to keep my steps from slipping.
3 Then he put a new song in my mouth,
a hymn of praise to our God.
Many will see and fear.
They will trust in the Lord.
4 How blessed is everyone who trusts in the Lord,
who does not look to the proud
or to those who turn aside to falsehood.
5 Many are the wonders you have done, O Lord my God.
No one can explain to you all your thoughts for us.[a]
If I try to speak and tell about them,
they are too many to count.
Messiah’s Willing Sacrifice
6 Sacrifice and offering you did not desire.
Ears you have opened for me.[b]
You did not ask for burnt offerings and sin offerings.
7 Then I said, “Here I am, I have come.
The book written on a scroll tells about me.
8 My God, I take pleasure in doing your will.
Your law[c] is in my heart.”
Messiah’s Preaching of Good News
9 I preach righteousness in the great assembly.
Indeed, I do not hold back my lips, O Lord, as you know.
10 I do not conceal your righteousness deep in my heart.
I speak of your faithfulness and salvation.
I do not hide your mercy and your truth from the great assembly.
Messiah’s Prayer in Distress
11 Lord, you do not hold back your compassion from me.
Let your mercy and your truth always protect me,
12 although troubles without number surround me.
Punishments for my guilt have smothered me, so I cannot see.
They are more than the hairs of my head, so my courage deserts me.
13 Be pleased, O Lord, to save me.
Lord, hurry to help me.
14 Let all who seek to end my life be frustrated and completely confused.[d]
Let everyone who desires my ruin be turned back and disgraced.
15 Let those who say to me, “Aha! We got you!” be dismayed,
because they have been put to shame.
16 But let all those who seek you rejoice and be glad in you.
Let those who love your salvation always say,
“The Lord is great!”
17 Yet I am poor and needy.
May the Lord think about me.
You are my help and my deliverer.
O my God, do not delay.
Psalm 54
Ruthless Men Seek My Life
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For the choir director. With stringed instruments.
A maskil by David. When the Ziphites went and said to Saul, “Isn’t David hiding himself with us?”[a]
The Plea
1 God, save me by your name.
By your power judge me justly.
2 God, hear my prayer.
Turn your ear to the words of my mouth.
The Problem
3 For strangers have risen up against me.
Ruthless men seek my life. Interlude
They pay no attention to God.
The Solution
4 Indeed, God is my helper.
The Lord is the one who preserves my life.
5 Let evil return on those who oppress me.
In your faithfulness destroy them.
The Outcome
6 I will sacrifice willingly to you.
I will praise your name, O Lord, because it is good.
7 Surely, from all my distress he has delivered me.
My eyes have looked down on my enemies.
Psalm 51
Cleanse Me From My Sin
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For the choir director. A psalm by David.
When Nathan the prophet came to him after he had gone to Bathsheba.[a]
David’s Plea for Forgiveness
1 Be gracious to me, God,
according to your mercy.
Erase my acts of rebellion
according to the greatness of your compassion.
2 Scrub me clean from my guilt.
Purify me from my sin.
David’s Confession
3 For I admit my rebellious acts.
My sin is always in front of me.
4 Against you, you only, have I sinned,
and I have done this evil in your eyes.
So you are justified when you sentence me.
You are blameless when you judge.
5 Certainly, I was guilty when I was born.
I was sinful when my mother conceived me.
David’s Need for Renewal
6 Since you desire truth on the inside,
in my hidden heart you teach me wisdom.
7 Remove my sin with hyssop, and I will be clean.
Wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.
8 Let me hear joy and gladness.
Let the bones you have crushed celebrate.
9 Hide your face from my sins.
Erase all my guilty deeds.
10 Create in me a pure heart, O God.
Renew an unwavering spirit within me.
11 Do not cast me from your presence.
Do not take your Holy Spirit from me.
12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation.
Sustain me with a willing spirit.
David’s Pledge of Renewed Service
13 I will teach rebels your ways,
and sinners will turn to you.
14 Deliver me from bloodshed, O God,
the God who saves me.
My tongue will shout for joy about your righteousness.
15 Lord, open my lips,
and my mouth will declare your praise.
16 For you do not delight in sacrifice,
or I would give it.
You do not take pleasure in burnt offerings.
17 The sacrifices God wants are a broken spirit.
A broken and crushed heart, O God, you will not despise.
David’s Prayer for the People
18 As it pleases you, do good for Zion.
Build up the walls of Jerusalem.
19 Then you will be pleased with righteous sacrifices,
burnt offerings and whole offerings.
Then bulls will be offered up on your altar.
The Covenant Festivals
18 You shall observe the Festival of Unleavened Bread.[a] For seven days you are to eat bread without yeast, as I commanded you. Eat it at the time appointed in the month of Abib, because you came out of Egypt in the month of Abib.
19 The firstborn of every mother[b] is mine—the firstborn from all your male livestock, the firstborn of cattle and sheep. 20 The firstborn of a donkey you may redeem with a lamb, but if you do not want to redeem it, then you must break its neck. All the firstborn of your sons you must redeem. No one shall appear before me empty-handed.
21 Six days you shall work, but on the seventh day you must rest. Even in plowing time and in harvest time you must rest.
22 You are to observe the Festival of Weeks[c] with the first ripe produce from the wheat harvest.
Observe the Festival of Ingathering[d] at the year’s end.
23 Three times a year all your males are to appear before God the Lord, the God of Israel. 24 Because I will drive out nations before you and expand your borders, no one will covet your land when you go up to be in the presence of[e] the Lord, your God, three times a year.
25 You shall not offer leavened bread along with the blood of my sacrifices. Nothing from the sacrifice of the Festival of the Passover is to be left over until morning. 26 You are to bring the best of the firstfruits from your soil to the house of the Lord your God.
You shall not boil a baby goat in its mother’s milk.
27 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Write these words for yourself, for these are the words with which I have made a covenant with you and with Israel.”
28 Moses was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights. He did not eat any bread or drink any water. He wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments.[f]
Moses’ Shining Face
29 When Moses came down from Mount Sinai, with the two tablets of the Testimony in his hand as he came down from the mountain, Moses did not realize that the skin of his face was shining because he had been speaking with the Lord. 30 When Aaron and all the people of Israel saw Moses, they were amazed that the skin of his face was shining, so they were afraid to come close to him. 31 Moses called to them, so Aaron and all the rulers of the community returned to him, and Moses spoke to them. 32 Afterward, all the people of Israel came close to him, and he gave them all of the commands that the Lord had spoken to him on Mount Sinai. 33 When Moses was finished speaking with them, he put a veil over his face. 34 But whenever Moses went in before the Lord to speak with him, he would take the veil off until he came out again. Then he would come out and tell the people of Israel what he had been commanded. 35 Whenever the people of Israel saw Moses’ face, they would see that the skin of Moses’ face was shining. Then Moses would put the veil on his face again, until he went in to speak with the Lord again.
Timothy’s Mission and Good Report
3 So, when we could not stand it any longer, we thought it best to remain behind in Athens alone, 2 and we sent Timothy, our brother and coworker for God in the gospel of Christ.[a] We sent him to strengthen and encourage you in your faith, 3 so that no one will be shaken by these trials, for you know well that we are destined for this. 4 In fact, even when we were with you, we told you ahead of time that we were going to suffer, and it happened just that way, as you know. 5 This is why, when I could not stand it any longer, I sent to find out about your faith, because I was afraid that somehow the Tempter had tempted you and our labor might have been for nothing.
6 But now, Timothy has returned to us from you and has told us the good news about your faith and love. He also told us that you always have fond memories of us and long to see us, just as much as we also long to see you. 7 Because of this, brothers, in all our distress and affliction, we have been encouraged about you through your faith. 8 For now we really live, if you are standing firm in the Lord. 9 Indeed, how can we thank God enough for you in return for all the joy we have before God on account of you? 10 Night and day we are praying earnestly to see you in person and to supply what is lacking in your faith.
11 May God our Father himself and our Lord Jesus direct our way to you. 12 And may the Lord increase your love and make it overflow for each other and for all people, just as ours does for you, 13 so that he may establish your hearts as blameless in holiness before our God and Father, when our Lord Jesus comes with all his saints.[b]
Lust
27 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery,’[a] 28 but I tell you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart. 29 If your right eye causes you to fall into sin, pluck it out and throw it away from you. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. 30 If your right hand causes you to fall into sin, cut it off and throw it away from you. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.
Divorce
31 “It was also said, ‘Whoever divorces his wife must give her a certificate of divorce.’[b] 32 But I tell you that whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, causes her to be regarded as an adulteress. And whoever marries the divorced woman is regarded as an adulterer.
Oaths
33 “Again you have heard that it was said to people long ago, ‘Do not break your oaths, but fulfill your vows to the Lord.’[c] 34 But I tell you, do not swear at all: not by heaven, because it is God’s throne; 35 and not by earth, because it is his footstool; and not by Jerusalem, because it is the city of the great King. 36 And do not swear by your own head, since you cannot make one hair white or black. 37 Instead, let your statement be, ‘Yes, yes,’ or ‘No, no.’ Whatever goes beyond these is from the Evil One.
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.