Book of Common Prayer
38 O Lord, don’t punish me while you are angry! 2 Your arrows have struck deep; your blows are crushing me. 3-4 Because of your anger, my body is sick, my health is broken beneath my sins. They are like a flood, higher than my head; they are a burden too heavy to bear. 5-6 My wounds are festering and full of pus. Because of my sins, I am bent and racked with pain. My days are filled with anguish. 7 My loins burn with inflammation,[a] and my whole body is diseased. 8 I am exhausted and crushed; I groan in despair.[b]
9 Lord, you know how I long for my health once more. You hear my every sigh. 10 My heart beats wildly, my strength fails, and I am going blind. 11 My loved ones and friends stay away, fearing my disease. Even my own family stands at a distance.
12 Meanwhile my enemies are trying to kill me. They plot my ruin and spend all their waking hours planning treachery. 13-14 But I am deaf to all their threats; I am silent before them as a man who cannot speak. I have nothing to say. 15 For I am waiting for you, O Lord my God. Come and protect me. 16 Put an end to their arrogance, these who gloat when I am cast down!
17 How constantly I find myself upon the verge of sin;[c] this source of sorrow always stares me in the face. 18 I confess my sins; I am sorry for what I have done. 19 But my enemies persecute with vigor and continue to hate me—though I have done nothing against them to deserve it. 20 They repay me evil for good and hate me for standing for the right.
21 Don’t leave me, Lord; don’t go away! 22 Come quickly! Help me, O my Savior.
25 I am completely discouraged—I lie in the dust. Revive me by your Word. 26 I told you my plans and you replied. Now give me your instructions. 27 Make me understand what you want; for then I shall see your miracles.
28 I weep with grief; my heart is heavy with sorrow; encourage and cheer me with your words. 29-30 Keep me far from every wrong; help me, undeserving as I am, to obey your laws, for I have chosen to do right. 31 I cling to your commands and follow them as closely as I can. Lord, don’t let me make a mess of things. 32 If you will only help me to want your will, then I will follow your laws even more closely.
33-34 Just tell me what to do and I will do it, Lord. As long as I live I’ll wholeheartedly obey. 35 Make me walk along the right paths, for I know how delightful they really are.
36 Help me to prefer obedience to making money! 37 Turn me away from wanting any other plan than yours.[a] Revive my heart toward you. 38 Reassure me that your promises are for me, for I trust and revere you.
39 How I dread being mocked for obeying, for your laws are right and good. 40-42 I long to obey them! Therefore in fairness renew my life, for this was your promise—yes, Lord, to save me! Now spare me by your kindness and your love. Then I will have an answer for those who taunt me, for I trust your promises.
43 May I never forget your words, for they are my only hope. 44-46 Therefore I will keep on obeying you forever and forever, free within the limits of your laws. I will speak to kings about their value, and they will listen with interest and respect.
47 How I love your laws! How I enjoy your commands! 48 “Come, come to me,” I call to them, for I love them and will let them fill my life.
24 The Lord, your Redeemer who made you, says: All things were made by me; I alone stretched out the heavens. By myself I made the earth and everything in it.
25 I am the one who shows what liars all false prophets are, by causing something else to happen than the things they say. I make wise men give opposite advice to what they should and make them into fools. 26 But what my prophets say, I do; when they say Jerusalem will be delivered and the cities of Judah lived in once again—it shall be done! 27 When I speak to the rivers and say, “Be dry!” they shall be dry. 28 When I say of Cyrus,[a] “He is my shepherd,” he will certainly do as I say; and Jerusalem will be rebuilt and the Temple restored, for I have spoken it.
45 This is Jehovah’s message to Cyrus, God’s anointed, whom he has chosen to conquer many lands. God shall empower his right hand, and he shall crush the strength of mighty kings. God shall open the gates of Babylon to him; the gates shall not be shut against him anymore. 2 I will go before you, Cyrus, and level the mountains and smash down the city gates of brass and iron bars. 3 And I will give you treasures hidden in the darkness, secret riches; and you will know that I am doing this—I, the Lord, the God of Israel, the one who calls you by your name.
4 And why have I named you for this work? For the sake of Jacob, my servant—Israel, my chosen. I called you by name when you didn’t know me. 5 I am Jehovah; there is no other God. I will strengthen you and send you out to victory even though you don’t know me, 6 and all the world from east to west will know there is no other God. I am Jehovah and there is no one else. I alone am God. 7 I form the light and make the dark. I send good times and bad. I, Jehovah, am he who does these things.
5 Follow God’s example in everything you do just as a much loved child imitates his father. 2 Be full of love for others, following the example of Christ who loved you and gave himself to God as a sacrifice to take away your sins. And God was pleased, for Christ’s love for you was like sweet perfume to him.
3 Let there be no sex sin, impurity or greed among you. Let no one be able to accuse you of any such things. 4 Dirty stories, foul talk, and coarse jokes—these are not for you. Instead, remind each other of God’s goodness, and be thankful.
5 You can be sure of this: The Kingdom of Christ and of God will never belong to anyone who is impure or greedy, for a greedy person is really an idol worshiper—he loves and worships the good things of this life more than God. 6 Don’t be fooled by those who try to excuse these sins, for the terrible wrath of God is upon all those who do them. 7 Don’t even associate with such people. 8 For though once your heart was full of darkness, now it is full of light from the Lord, and your behavior should show it! 9 Because of this light within you, you should do only what is good and right and true.
10 Learn as you go along what pleases the Lord.[a] 11 Take no part in the worthless pleasures of evil and darkness, but instead, rebuke and expose them. 12 It would be shameful even to mention here those pleasures of darkness that the ungodly do. 13 But when you expose them, the light shines in upon their sin and shows it up, and when they see how wrong they really are, some of them may even become children of light! 14 That is why God says in the Scriptures, “Awake, O sleeper, and rise up from the dead; and Christ shall give you light.”
4 Once again an immense crowd gathered around him on the beach as he was teaching, so he got into a boat and sat down and talked from there. 2 His usual method of teaching was to tell the people stories. One of them went like this:
3 “Listen! A farmer decided to sow some grain. As he scattered it across his field, 4 some of it fell on a path, and the birds came and picked it off the hard ground and ate it. 5-6 Some fell on thin soil with underlying rock. It grew up quickly enough, but soon wilted beneath the hot sun and died because the roots had no nourishment in the shallow soil. 7 Other seeds fell among thorns that shot up and crowded the young plants so that they produced no grain. 8 But some of the seeds fell into good soil and yielded thirty times as much as he had planted—some of it even sixty or a hundred times as much! 9 If you have ears, listen!”
10 Afterwards, when he was alone with the Twelve and with his other disciples, they asked him, “What does your story mean?”
11-12 He replied, “You are permitted to know some truths about the Kingdom of God that are hidden to those outside the Kingdom:
‘Though they see and hear, they will not understand or turn to God, or be forgiven for their sins.’
13
14 “The farmer I talked about is anyone who brings God’s message to others, trying to plant good seed within their lives. 15 The hard pathway, where some of the seed fell, represents the hard hearts of some of those who hear God’s message; Satan comes at once to try to make them forget it. 16 The rocky soil represents the hearts of those who hear the message with joy, 17 but, like young plants in such soil, their roots don’t go very deep, and though at first they get along fine, as soon as persecution begins, they wilt.
18 “The thorny ground represents the hearts of people who listen to the Good News and receive it, 19 but all too quickly the attractions of this world and the delights of wealth, and the search for success and lure of nice things come in and crowd out God’s message from their hearts, so that no crop is produced.
20 “But the good soil represents the hearts of those who truly accept God’s message and produce a plentiful harvest for God—thirty, sixty, or even a hundred times as much as was planted in their hearts.”
The Living Bible copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.