Book of Common Prayer
Yahweh Is a Fortress
For the music director. A psalm of David.[a]
31 In you, O Yahweh, I have taken refuge.
Let me not be put to shame ever.
Deliver me by your righteousness.
2 Incline your ear to me.
Quickly deliver me.
Become my rock of refuge,
a fortified keep[b] to save me.
3 For you are my rock and my fortress.
So, for the sake of your name,
lead me and guide me.
4 Bring me out of the net that they have secretly set for me,
for you are my refuge.
5 Into your hand I commit my spirit.
You have redeemed me, O Yahweh, faithful God.[c]
6 I hate those devoted to useless idols,
but I trust Yahweh.
7 I will exult and rejoice in your loyal love.
Because you have seen my misery,
you know the distresses of my life.[d]
8 And you have not delivered me
into the hand of the enemy.
You have set my feet in a broad place.
9 Be gracious to me, O Yahweh,
because I have distress.
My eye wastes away because of vexation,
along with my soul and my body.[e]
10 For my life is at an end with sorrow,
and my years with sighing.
My strength stumbles because of my iniquity,
and my bones waste away.
11 Because of all my adversaries I have become a disgrace,
especially to my neighbors,
and a dread to my acquaintances.
Those who see me in the street flee from me.
12 I have become forgotten like one dead, out of mind.[f]
I am like a destroyed vessel.
13 For I hear the rumor of many,
“Terror on every side!”
When conspiring together against me,
they have plotted to take my life.
14 But as for me, I trust you, O Yahweh.
I say, “You are my God.”
15 My times[g] are in your hand.
Deliver me from the hand of my enemies
and from those who pursue me.
16 Shine your face upon your servant.
Save me by your loyal love.
17 O Yahweh, let me not be put to shame, for I call on you.
Let the wicked be put to shame.
Let them go silently[h] to Sheol.
18 Let lying lips be dumb,
that speak against the righteous[i] unrestrained
with arrogance and contempt.
19 How abundant is your goodness
that you have stored up for those who fear you,
that you perform for those who take refuge in you
before the children of humankind.
20 You will hide them in the protection of your presence
from the plots of man.
You will hide them in a shelter from the strife of tongues.
21 Blessed is Yahweh,
because he has worked marvelously his loyal love to me
in a besieged city.
22 As for me, I said in my alarm,
“I am cut off from before your eyes.”
However you heard the voice of my supplications
when I cried to you for help.
23 Love Yahweh, all you his faithful ones.
Yahweh preserves the faithful
but repays abundantly the one who acts arrogantly.
24 Be strong and let your[j] heart show strength,
all you who wait for Yahweh.
A Prayer for Rescue from Enemies
Of David.[a]
35 Contend, O Yahweh, with my contenders;
fight those who fight me.
2 Grasp buckler and shield
and rise to my aid.
3 And draw the spear and javelin to meet those who pursue me.
Say to my soul, “I am your salvation.”
4 Let those who seek my life be shamed and humiliated.
Let those who plot calamity against me be repulsed and ashamed.
5 Let them be like chaff before the wind,
with the angel of Yahweh driving them.[b]
6 Let their way be dark and slippery,
with the angel of Yahweh pursuing them.
7 For without cause they secretly hide the pit with their net for me;
without cause they dug it for my life.
8 Let unforeseen ruin[c] come on him,
and his net that he hid, let it catch him.
Let him fall into it in ruin.
9 Then my soul will rejoice in Yahweh;
it will rejoice in his salvation.
10 All of my bones shall say, “O Yahweh, who is like you,
who delivers the poor from one stronger than he
and the poor and needy from the one who robs him?”
11 Violent witnesses rise up;
they ask me concerning what I do not know.
12 They repay me evil in place of good.
It is bereavement to my soul.
13 But as for me, when they were sick, my clothing was sackcloth.
I weakened my soul with fasting,
and my prayer returned to me unanswered.[d]
14 I behaved[e] as though he were a friend or as a brother to me.
As one lamenting a mother, I was bowed down in mourning.
15 But at my stumbling they rejoiced and gathered together;
smiters whom I did not know gathered against me.
They tore and did not cease.
16 Among the ungodly of the mockers at feasts,[f]
they gnashed at me with their teeth.
17 My Lord, how long will you watch?
Restore my life from their ravages,[g]
my only life from the young lions.
18 I will give thanks to you in the great assembly;
among the mighty people I will praise you.
19 Let not those who are wrongfully my enemies[h] rejoice over me.
Nor let those who hate me without cause wink the eye.
20 For they do not speak peace,
but against the quiet ones of the land
they plan deceitful words.
21 They also made wide their mouths[i] against me.
They said, “Aha! Aha!
Our eyes have seen it.”
22 You have seen, O Yahweh. Do not be deaf.
O Lord, do not be far from me.
23 Wake up and rouse yourself for my right,
for my cause, O my God and my Lord.
24 Vindicate me according to your righteousness,
O Yahweh my God,
and do not let them rejoice over me.
25 Do not let them say in their hearts,[j] “Aha, our desire.”
Let them not say, “We have swallowed him up.”
26 Let them be shamed and abashed altogether,
who rejoice at my misfortune.
Let them put on shame and insult,
who magnify themselves against me.
27 Let them shout for joy and be glad,
who delight in my vindication;
and let them say continually, “Yahweh is great,
who delights in the welfare of his servant.”
28 Then my tongue will proclaim your righteousness,
and your praise all day.
David Encounters the Priests of Nob
21 Now David came to Nob, to Ahimelech the priest. And Ahimelech came trembling to meet David, and he said to him, “Why are you alone and there are no men with you?” 2 So David said to Ahimelech the priest, “The king charged me with a matter and said to me, ‘No one must know anything about this matter on which I am sending you, with which I have charged you and the servants.’” So I have arranged to meet with my servants at a certain place.[a] 3 Now then, what do you have at hand?[b] Give me five loaves of bread or whatever is here.”[c] 4 The priest answered David and said, “There is no ordinary bread here at hand;[d] there is only holy bread, but only if the young men have kept themselves from women.” 5 David answered the priest and said to him, “Indeed, women were held back from us as it has been when I’ve gone out before.[e] And the things[f] of the young men are holy when[g] it is an ordinary journey. How much more[h] today[i] will the things[j] be holy?” 6 So the priest gave him the holy bread, for there was no bread there except the bread of the Presence, which was removed from before Yahweh, in order to set hot bread there on the day when it was taken away.
7 Now there was a man from the servants of Saul on that day, detained before Yahweh, whose name was Doeg the Edomite, the chief of Saul’s shepherds. 8 David asked Ahimelech, “Is there not at your disposal[k] a spear or a sword? For I took neither my sword nor my weapons with me because the king’s matter was urgent.” 9 So the priest said, “The sword of Goliath the Philistine whom you killed in the valley of Elah is here, wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod. If you want to take it for yourself, then take it, for there is no other except it here.” And David said, “There is none like it; give it to me.”
David Flees to Achish in Gath
10 So David got up and fled on that day from the presence of Saul, and he came to Achish the king of Gath. 11 The servants of Achish said to him, “Is not this David the king of the land? Is it not for this one that they sang in the dances, saying, ‘Saul killed his thousands, but David his ten thousands?’” 12 David took these words seriously[l] and felt severely threatened by[m] Achish the king of Gath. 13 So he changed his behavior before them[n] and pretended to be mad in their presence.[o] He made scratches on the doors of the gate and let his saliva run down into his beard. 14 Then Achish said to his servants, “Look, you see a madman! Why did you bring him to me? 15 Do I lack madmen that you have brought this one to act like a madman before me? Should this one enter my household?”
Preaching in the Synagogue at Pisidian Antioch
13 Now Paul and his companions[a] put out to sea from Paphos and[b] came to Perga in Pamphylia, but John departed from them and[c] returned to Jerusalem. 14 And they went on from Perga and[d] arrived at Pisidian Antioch. And they entered into the synagogue on the day of the Sabbath and[e] sat down. 15 So after the reading from the law and the prophets, the rulers of the synagogue sent word[f] to them, saying, “Men and brothers, if there is any message of exhortation by you for the people, say it.”[g]
16 So Paul stood up,[h] and motioning with his[i] hand, he said, “Israelite men, and those who fear God, listen! 17 The God of this people Israel chose our fathers and exalted the people during their[j] stay in the land of Egypt, and with uplifted arm he led them out of it. 18 And for a period of time of about forty years, he put up with them in the wilderness. 19 And after[k] destroying seven nations in the land of Canaan, he gave their land to his people[l] as an inheritance. 20 This took[m] about four hundred and fifty years. And after these things, he gave them[n] judges until Samuel the prophet. 21 And then they asked for a king, and God gave them Saul son of Kish, a man from the tribe of Benjamin, for forty years. 22 And after[o] removing him, he raised up David for their king, about whom he also said, testifying, ‘I have found David the son of Jesse to be a man in accordance with my heart, who will carry out all my will.’[p] 23 From the descendants of this man, according to his promise, God brought to Israel a Savior, Jesus. 24 Before his coming[q] John had publicly proclaimed[r] a baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel. 25 But while John was completing his[s] mission, he said, ‘What do you suppose me to be? I am not he! But behold, one is coming after me of whom I am not worthy to untie the sandals of his[t] feet!’
Jesus Heals Crowds by the Sea
7 And Jesus went away with his disciples to the sea,[a] and a great crowd from Galilee followed him.[b] And from Judea 8 and from Jerusalem and from Idumea and the other side of the Jordan and around Tyre and Sidon a great crowd came to him because they[c] heard all that he was doing. 9 And he told his disciples that a small boat should stand ready for him because of the crowd, so that they would not press upon him. 10 For he had healed many, so that all those who were suffering from diseases[d] pressed about him in order that they could touch him. 11 And the unclean spirits, whenever they saw him, were falling down before him and crying out, saying, “You are the Son of God!” 12 And he warned them strictly that they should not make him known.
The Selection of the Twelve Apostles
13 And he went up on the mountain and summoned those whom he wanted, and they came to him. 14 And he appointed twelve,[e] so that they would be with him and so that he could send them out to preach 15 and to have authority to expel demons. 16 And he appointed the twelve.[f] And to Simon he gave the name Peter, 17 and James the son of Zebedee and John the brother of James (and he gave to them the name Boanerges, that is, “Sons of Thunder”), 18 and Andrew, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and Matthew, and Thomas, and James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus, and Simon the Zealot,[g] 19 and Judas Iscariot, who also betrayed him.
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