Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 70
Hurry to Save Me
(Psalm 40:13-17)
Heading
For the choir director. By David. To bring to remembrance.
Hurry to Help Me
1 Hurry, God! Rescue me!
Lord, hurry to help me!
2 May those who seek my life be put to shame and disgrace.
May all who desire to harm me be turned back and disgraced.
3 May those who say, “Aha! We got you!” be dismayed,
because they have been put to shame.
4 But may all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you.
May those who love your salvation always say, “Let God be exalted!”
5 Yet I am oppressed and poor.
God, hurry to me. You are my help and my deliverer.
O Lord, do not delay.
Psalm 71
Do Not Throw Me Away When I Am Old
Opening Prayer
1 In you, Lord, I have taken refuge.
May I not be put to shame forever.
2 In your righteousness rescue me and deliver me.
Turn your ear to me and save me.
3 Be my rock and my refuge to which I can always go.
You give the command to save me,
because you are my high ridge and my stronghold.
4 My God, deliver me from the hand of the wicked,
from the grasp of the unjust and the ruthless.
Remembrance of Past Help
5 For you have been my hope, Lord God,
my confidence since my youth.
6 I have depended on[a] you since I was in the womb.
You separated me from my mother’s body.
My praise to you is continuous.
Statement of Present Need
7 I am like an evil omen to many,
but you are my strong refuge.
8 My mouth is filled with praise for you
and with your splendor all day long.
Plea for Help in Present Trouble
9 Do not throw me away in old age.
As my strength fails, do not forsake me.
10 For my enemies speak against me,
and those who seek my life conspire together.
11 They say, “God has forsaken him.
Pursue him and seize him,
because there is no one to rescue him.”
12 God, do not be far from me.
My God, hurry to help me.
13 Let them be ashamed.
Let my murderous accusers be consumed.
Let those who seek to harm me be covered
with shame and disgrace.
Present and Future Praise
14 But as for me, I will always keep hoping.
I will keep adding to my praise for you.
15 My mouth will tell about your righteousness,
about your salvation all day long,
although I do not know how to tell all about it.
16 I will come and tell about your mighty deeds, Lord God.
I will commemorate[b] your righteousness, yours alone.
17 God, you have taught me since my youth,
and even now I still declare your marvelous deeds.
18 Even when I am old and gray, O God, do not forsake me,
till I declare the strength of your arm to the next generation,
your power to all who are to come.
Closing Confidence
19 Your righteousness, God, reaches to the heights.
You have done great things.
God, who is like you,
20 you who have made us see many troubles and disasters?
You will give us life again.
From the depths of the earth you will bring me up again.
21 You will increase my greatness and comfort me once again.
Closing Praise
22 Yes, I will praise you, my God, for your faithfulness.
I will praise you with an instrument, with the harp.
I will make music to you with the lyre, O Holy One of Israel.
23 My lips will shout with joy when I make music to you.
Even my soul, which you have redeemed, will shout.
24 Indeed, my tongue will tell of your righteousness all day long.
How ashamed, how disgraced they are—
those who are trying to harm me.
Psalm 74
The Destruction of the Temple
Heading
A maskil[a] by Asaph.
Introductory Plea
1 Why do you stay angry to the end, O God?
Why does your anger smoke against the flock in your pasture?
2 Remember your community that you purchased long ago,
the tribe that you redeemed to be your possession.
Remember Mount Zion where you dwell.
3 March toward the perpetual ruins.
March against all the evil done by the enemy in the sanctuary.
The Destruction
4 Your foes roared in the middle of your appointed place.
They set up their battle standards as signs.
5 They looked like men swinging axes in a thicket of trees.
6 Yes, they even chopped up all the carved paneling
with their hatchets and hammers.
7 They delivered your sanctuary to the fire.
They defiled the dwelling place for your Name
by throwing it to the ground.
8 They said in their hearts, “We will crush them completely!”
They burned all the appointed places of God in the land.
Deserted?
9 We do not see any signs to guide us.
There is no longer a prophet,
and none of us knows how long this will go on.
10 How long will the foe scoff, O God?
Will the enemy insult your name forever?
11 Why do you hold back your hand, even your right hand?
Take it out of your pocket[b] and finish them off!
God’s Past Goodness
12 But you, O God, are my king from long ago,
the one who works salvation right here on earth.
13 It was you who shattered the sea by your power.
You broke the heads of the great sea monsters.
14 It was you who crushed the heads of Leviathan.[c]
You gave him as food to the people who live in the desert.
15 It was you who opened up a spring and a seasonal stream.
You dried up the rivers that flow year-round.
16 The day belongs to you, and the night is also yours.
You set the moon and sun in place.
17 It was you who laid out all the boundaries of the earth.
Summer and winter—you shaped them.
Plea for Relief
18 Remember this—the enemy scoffs, Lord,
and a foolish people has insulted your name.
19 Do not surrender the life of your turtledove to a wild animal.
Do not forget the life of your afflicted ones forever.
20 Pay attention to the covenant,
because dens of violence fill the dark places in the land.
21 Do not let the oppressed turn back in disgrace.
Let the poor and needy praise your name.
22 Rise up, O God, and prosecute your case.
Remember how the fools mocked you all day long.
23 Do not forget the sound of your foes,
the uproar of those who rise against you, which goes up continually.
4 Deborah, a woman, a prophetess, the wife of Lappidoth,[a] was judging Israel at that time. 5 She would sit under the Palm Tree of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim, and the people of Israel would come to her for judgment.
6 She sent for Barak son of Abinoam from Kedesh in Naphtali. She said to him, “The Lord, the God of Israel, has commanded, ‘Go and march to Mount Tabor, and take with you ten thousand men from Naphtali and Zebulun. 7 I will lure Sisera, commander of the army of Jabin, to you at the stream Kishon along with his chariots and his horde, and I will give him into your hand.’”
8 But Barak said to her, “If you go with me, I will go, but if you do not go with me, I will not go.”
9 She answered, “All right. I will go with you, but because of the way you are going about it, the honor will not be yours. The Lord will sell Sisera into the hand of a woman.” Then Deborah got up and went with Barak to Kedesh.
10 Barak called up the forces of Zebulun and Naphtali to meet at Kedesh. Ten thousand men went up on foot, and Deborah also went up with him.
11 It happened that Heber the Kenite had separated himself from the other Kenites, who were the descendants of Hobab, the brother-in-law[b] of Moses, and he had set up his tent out by the oak tree in Za’anannim[c] near Kedesh.
12 When Sisera was told that Barak son of Abinoam had gone up to Mount Tabor, 13 Sisera led out all his chariots (nine hundred iron chariots) and all the people who were with him from Harosheth Haggoyim, and they came to the stream Kishon.[d]
14 Deborah said to Barak, “Get up! Today is the day that the Lord has given Sisera into your hands! Is not the Lord going ahead of you?” So Barak went down from Mount Tabor, and ten thousand men followed him.
15 The Lord threw Sisera, all his chariots, and all his troops into confusion with the edge[e] of the sword of Barak. So Sisera got down from his chariot and fled on foot. 16 Barak pursued the chariots and the troops as far as Harosheth Haggoyim. Sisera’s whole army fell by the edge of the sword. Not a single man was left.
17 Sisera meanwhile fled on foot to the tent of Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, because there was peace between Jabin king of Hazor and the household of Heber the Kenite. 18 Jael came out to meet Sisera and said to him, “This way, my lord. Come here to me! Do not be afraid.” So he turned aside to her, went into her tent, and she hid him with a covering.
19 He said to her, “Give me something to drink, please—just a little water, because I am thirsty.” She opened a skin of milk and gave him some milk to drink. Then she covered him up.
20 After that, he said to her, “Stand at the door of the tent, and if anyone comes and asks you, ‘Is there anyone here?’ say, ‘No.’”
21 But then Jael wife of Heber took a tent stake, and gripping a hammer in her hand, she came to Sisera quietly and drove the stake through his temple, right through into the ground. Sisera had been fast asleep, exhausted—now he was dead!
22 When Barak arrived in pursuit of Sisera, Jael came out to meet him. She said to him, “Come in, and I will show you the man you are looking for.” So he went with her, and there he was. Sisera was lying there dead, with the tent stake through his temple.
23 So on that day God subdued Jabin king of Canaan before the people of Israel,
15 In those days, when the group there numbered about 120 people, Peter stood up among the brothers[a] and said, 16 “Gentlemen,[b] brothers, the Scripture[c] had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit spoke long ago through the mouth of David about Judas, who became a guide for those who arrested Jesus. 17 Judas was counted as one of us and was given a share in this ministry.
18 “Now this man acquired a field with what he was paid for his wicked act. When he fell headfirst, his middle burst open, and all his intestines spilled out. 19 This became known to all the residents of Jerusalem, and so in their own language that field was called Akeldema, which means Field of Blood. 20 Indeed, it is written in the book of Psalms:
May his residence be deserted.
Let there be no one dwelling in it.[d]
And,
let someone else take his position.[e]
21 “Therefore it is necessary that one of the men who accompanied us during the entire time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, 22 beginning from his baptism by John until the day Jesus was taken up from us, become a witness with us of his resurrection.”
23 They proposed two: Joseph called Barsabbas (who was also called Justus) and Matthias. 24 Then they prayed, “Lord, you know everyone’s heart. Show us which of these two you have chosen 25 to take the place in this apostolic ministry from which Judas turned away to go to his own place.”[f]
26 Then they assigned lots for them, and the lot fell to Matthias. So he was counted with the eleven apostles.[g]
55 Many women who had followed Jesus from Galilee and who had served him were there, watching from a distance. 56 Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and the mother of Zebedee’s sons.
Jesus’ Burial
57 When it was evening, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who was also a disciple of Jesus. 58 He went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then Pilate ordered that it be given to him. 59 Joseph took the body, wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, 60 and laid it in his own new tomb that he had cut in the rock. He rolled a large stone over the tomb’s entrance and left. 61 Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were there sitting opposite the tomb.
The Guard
62 On the next day, which was the day after the Preparation Day, the chief priests and Pharisees gathered in the presence of Pilate 63 and said, “Sir, we remembered what that deceiver said while he was still alive: ‘After three days I will rise again.’ 64 So give a command that the tomb be made secure until the third day. Otherwise his disciples might steal his body and tell the people, ‘He is risen from the dead.’ And this last deception will be worse than the first.”
65 Pilate said to them, “You have a guard. Go, make it as secure as you know how.” 66 So they went and made the tomb secure by sealing the stone and posting a guard.
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.