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.
Ahab Dies in Battle
29 Then the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat king of Judah went up to Ramoth Gilead.
30 The king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, “I will disguise myself when I go into the battle, but you wear your robes.” So the king of Israel disguised himself and went into battle.
31 The king of Aram had ordered his thirty-two chariot commanders, “Do not fight with anyone small or great, but only against the king of Israel.”
32 When the chariot commanders saw Jehoshaphat, they said, “That is the king of Israel!” They turned to fight against him, and Jehoshaphat cried for help.
33 When the chariot commanders realized that he was not the king of Israel, they stopped pursuing him. 34 But a man shot an arrow at random and struck the king of Israel in the seam between two parts of his armor.
So Ahab said to his chariot driver, “Turn around and take me out of the battle, because I have been wounded.”
35 The battle went on all that day, and the king was propped up in his chariot facing Aram. He died in the evening, and the blood from his wound ran down onto the floor of the chariot. 36 Then, as the sun was going down, a cry went up through the army: “Every man to his own city and every man to his own land!”
37 So the king died, and they brought him to Samaria, and they buried the king in Samaria. 38 They washed the chariot at the pool of Samaria, and dogs licked up his blood, and the prostitutes bathed there, in fulfillment of the word which the Lord had spoken.
39 As for the rest of Ahab’s acts and everything he did, and the ivory house he built, and all the cities he built, are they not written in the annals of the kings of Israel? 40 Ahab rested with his fathers. Then his son Ahaziah became king in his place.
Jehoshaphat Son of Asa, King of Judah
41 Jehoshaphat son of Asa became king over Judah in the fourth year of Ahab king of Israel. 42 Jehoshaphat was thirty-five years old when he became king, and he ruled in Jerusalem for twenty-five years. The name of his mother was Azubel daughter of Shilhi.
43 Jehoshaphat walked in all the ways of his father Asa. He did not turn from them. He did what is right in the eyes of the Lord. But the high places were not removed. The people were still sacrificing and burning incense on the high places. 44 Jehoshaphat was at peace with the king of Israel.[a]
45 As for the rest of Jehoshaphat’s acts, the mighty deeds which he did, and the wars he fought, are they not written in the annals of the kings of Judah?
14 However, an unspiritual person does not accept the truths taught by God’s Spirit, because they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually evaluated. 15 But the spiritual person evaluates all things, and he himself is evaluated by no one. 16 Indeed, “Who has known the mind of the Lord? Who will instruct him?”[a] But we have the mind of Christ.
3 Brothers, I could not speak to you as spiritual people, but as people who are led by the flesh, as infants in Christ. 2 I fed you with milk, not solid food, because you were not yet ready. Why, even now you are still not ready, 3 because you are still people who are following the flesh. Indeed, insofar as jealousy, strife, and factions[b] have a place among you, are you not people who are following the flesh? Are you not behaving in a merely human way? 4 When one says, “I belong to Paul,” and another, “I belong to Apollos,” are you not being merely human?
Analogies Illustrating Ministry and the Church
5 What then is Apollos? And what is Paul? They are ministers through whom you believed, and each served as the Lord gave him his role. 6 I planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth. 7 So then, neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but it is God who causes the growth. 8 The one who plants and the one who waters are united, and each will receive his own reward according to his own labor. 9 For God is the one whom we serve as coworkers, and you are God’s field, God’s building.
10 In keeping with the grace of God given to me, as a wise master builder, I laid a foundation, and someone else is building on it. But let each person be careful how he builds on it. 11 In fact, no one can lay any other foundation than the one that has been laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12 But if anyone is building on the foundation with gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay, or straw, 13 each person’s work will become evident. The Day will make it plain, because it is going to be revealed in fire, and the fire will test each person’s work to show what sort of work it is. 14 If what someone has built remains, he will receive a reward. 15 If someone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but it will be like an escape through fire.
The Sermon on the Mount
5 When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up onto a mountain. When he sat down, his disciples came to him. 2 He opened his mouth and began to teach them. He said these things:
3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit,
because theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4 Blessed are those who mourn,
because they will be comforted.
5 Blessed are the gentle,
because they will inherit the earth.
6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
because they will be filled.
7 Blessed are the merciful,
because they will receive mercy.
8 Blessed are the pure in heart,
because they will see God.
9 Blessed are the peacemakers,
because they will be called sons of God.
10 Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
because theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.