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.
22 Then Joshua summoned them and said to them, “Why did you deceive us by saying, ‘We live very far away from you,’ when in fact you live right among us? 23 So now you are cursed! The name ‘slave’ will never be removed from you. You will always be wood cutters and water carriers for the house of my God.”
24 They answered Joshua, “Your servants were told very clearly that the Lord your God commanded his servant Moses to give you all the land and to exterminate all the inhabitants of the land from your presence. We feared greatly for our lives because of you. That is why we did this. 25 So here we are, in your hand. Whatever seems good and right in your eyes to do to us, do it.”
26 So that is what he did to them. He saved them from the hand of the people of Israel so that they did not kill them. 27 On that day Joshua designated them as wood cutters and water carriers for the community and for the altar of the Lord, for the place the Lord would choose, until this very day.
The Southern Campaign
10 When Adoni-Zedek king of Jerusalem heard that Joshua had captured Ai and devoted it to destruction, and that Joshua had done to Ai and its king exactly what he had done to Jericho and its king, and that the inhabitants of Gibeon had made peace with Israel and were allied with them, 2 then he and those with him were very afraid because Gibeon was a large city, like one of the royal capital cities. It was larger than Ai, and all its men were warriors. 3 So Adoni-Zedek king of Jerusalem sent word to Hoham king of Hebron, to Piram king of Jarmuth, to Japhia king of Lachish, and to Debir king of Eglon. He said, 4 “Come up, join me, and help me. We must attack Gibeon, because it made peace with Joshua and with the Israelites.”
5 So the five kings of the Amorites—namely, the king of Jerusalem, the king of Hebron, the king of Jarmuth, the king of Lachish, and the king of Eglon—gathered together and went up with all their divisions.[a] They set up camp around Gibeon and waged war against it.
6 The men of Gibeon sent word to Joshua in the camp at Gilgal, saying, “Do not withdraw your hand from your servants. Come up to us quickly! Save us! Help us, because all the kings of the Amorites living in the hill country have united themselves against us.”
7 So Joshua went up from Gilgal—he and all the military forces with him, including all the strong warriors.
8 Then the Lord said to Joshua, “Do not be afraid of them, because I have given them into your hand. Not a man among them will be able to stand in your presence.”
9 So Joshua came upon them unexpectedly by marching up from Gilgal all night. 10 The Lord threw them into a panic before Israel, and he struck a powerful blow against them at Gibeon. Then he chased them on the road that goes up to Beth Horon, and he struck them as far as Azekah and Makkedah. 11 While they were fleeing from Israel on the descent from Beth Horon, the Lord hurled large stones from the heavens on them all the way to Azekah. So they died. Those who died from the hailstones were many more than those whom the Israelites killed by the sword.
12 Then Joshua spoke to the Lord on the day that the Lord gave the Amorites into the power of Israel ⎣when he struck them down at Gibeon, and they were struck down before the people of Israel⎦.[b] He said in the sight of Israel:
Sun, rest at Gibeon.
Moon, rest at the Valley of Aijalon.
13 The sun rested,
and the moon stood still
until a nation could avenge itself on its enemies.
Is this not written in the Book of Jashar?[c] The sun stood still in the middle of the sky and did not hurry to set for about a whole day. 14 There has never been a day like that day either before it or after it, a day when the Lord listened to the voice of a man, for the Lord was fighting for Israel.
15 Then Joshua and all Israel with him returned to the camp at Gilgal.
Paul’s Goal: To Bring Christ’s Name Where It Was Not Known
14 I myself am convinced about you, my brothers, that you yourselves are also full of goodness, filled with complete knowledge, and able to instruct one another. 15 But I have written a letter to you (rather boldly at times) as a reminder to you, because of the grace God has given me 16 to be a public minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles. I am to do the priestly work of proclaiming the gospel of God so that the Gentiles would be an acceptable offering, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.
17 Therefore I have a reason to boast in Christ Jesus about my service to God. 18 For I will not dare to speak about anything except those things Christ accomplished through me that resulted in the Gentiles’ obedience. Christ accomplished them by word and deed, 19 along with the power of signs and wonders done by the power of God’s[a] Spirit. As a result, I have fully proclaimed the gospel of Christ from Jerusalem all the way around to Illyricum. 20 And so I consider it an honor to proclaim the gospel where Christ’s name is not known, so that I may not build on another man’s foundation. 21 Instead, as it is written:
Those who were not told about him will see,
and those who have not heard will understand.[b]
Paul Hopes to Come to Rome on His Way to Spain
22 This is also the reason I have been prevented many times from coming to you. 23 But now I no longer have a place to work in these regions, and I have longed for many years to come to you. 24 So when I go to Spain, I hope to visit you on my way. After I have enjoyed being with you for a while, I hope that you will help me on my journey there.
27 Early in the morning, all the chief priests and the elders of the people reached the decision to put Jesus to death. 2 They bound him, led him away, and handed him over to Pontius Pilate, the governor.
The End of Judas
3 Then when Judas, who had betrayed him, saw that Jesus was condemned, he felt remorse. He brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders 4 and said, “I have sinned by betraying innocent blood.” But they said, “What is that to us? That’s your problem.”
5 He threw the pieces of silver into the temple and left. Then he went out and hanged himself. 6 The chief priests took the pieces of silver and said, “It is not lawful to put these into the treasury, since it is blood money.” 7 They reached a decision to buy the potter’s field with the money, as a burial place for foreigners. 8 So that field has been called The Field of Blood to this day. 9 Then what was spoken through Jeremiah the prophet was fulfilled:
They took the thirty pieces of silver, the price the sons of Israel had set for him, 10 and they gave them for the potter’s field, just as the Lord commanded me.[a]
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.