Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 70
For the worship leader. A song of David for remembering.
1 O God, hurry to save me;
Eternal One, hurry to my side.
2 For those who seek to kill me,
God, may they burn in disgrace and humiliation!
Repulse the attacks; ridicule the efforts
of those taking pleasure in my pain.
3 I hear their taunts: “Nah, nah, nah . . . .”
Let those hecklers fall back upon their brays—ashamed and confused—
4 But let those who pursue You
celebrate and have joy because of You.
And let the song of those who love Your saving grace
never cease: “God is great!”
5 But I am poor and in serious need,
so hurry to my side, God,
Because You are my helper, my liberator.
Eternal One, please don’t wait.
Psalm 71
1 I have found shelter in You, Eternal One;
I count on You to shield me always from humiliation and disgrace.
2 Rescue and save me in Your justice.
Turn Your ear to me, and hurry to deliver me from my enemies.
3 Be my rock of refuge where I can always hide.
You have given the order to keep me safe;
You are my solid ground—my rock and my fortress.
4 Save me from the power of sinful people, O my God,
from the grip of unjust and cruel men.
5 For You are my hope, Eternal One;
You, Lord, have been the source of my confidence since I was young.
6 I have leaned upon You since I came into this world;
I have relied on You since You took me safely from my mother’s body,
So I will ever praise You.
7 Many find me a mystery,
but You are my rock and my shelter—my soul’s asylum.
8 My mouth overflows with praise to You
and proclaims Your magnificence all day long.
9 Do not set me aside when I am old;
do not abandon me when I am worn out.
10 For my enemies often voice evil against me;
those who desire to kill me plot together in secret.
11 They say, “God has abandoned him;
let’s go after him right now and seize him.
There’s no one around to rescue him.”
12 God, stay close by me.
Come quick, O my God, and help me!
13 May my enemies be covered in shame and then die;
may those who seek to harm me
be overwhelmed with contempt and disgrace.
14 But I will keep hope alive,
and my praise to You will grow exponentially.
15 I will bear witness to Your merciful acts;
throughout the day I will speak of all the ways You deliver,
although, I admit, I do not know the entirety of either.
16 I will come with stories of Your great acts, my Lord, the Eternal.
I will remind them of Your justice, only Yours.
17 You have taught me since I was young, O God,
and I still proclaim the wonderful things You have done.
18 Now as I grow old and my hair turns gray,
I ask that You not abandon me, O God.
Allow me to share with the generation to come
about Your power;
Let me speak about Your strength and wonders
to all those yet to be born.
19 God, Your justice stretches to the heavens,
You who have done mighty things!
Who is like You, O God?
20 You have made me see hard times: I’ve experienced many miserable days,
but You will restore me again.
You will raise me up
from the deep pit.
21 You will greatly increase my status
and be my comfort once again.
22 I will praise You with music played on a harp
because You have been faithful, O my God.
I will sing praises to You with the lyre,
O Holy One of Israel.
23 I will shout for joy
as I sing Your praises;
my soul will celebrate because You have rescued me.
24 All day long I will declare how Your justice saved me,
for those who have plotted to bring me harm
are now ashamed and humiliated.
Psalm 74
A contemplative song[a] of Asaph.
This lament was written shortly after the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem and the temple in 586 b.c. Now in exile and separated from God, His city, and His land, the people of God experience pain that is palpable.
1 O True God, why have You turned Your back on us and abandoned us forever?
Why is Your anger seething and Your wrath smoldering against the sheep of Your pasture?
2 Remember the congregation of people You acquired long ago,
the tribe which You redeemed to be Your very own.
Remember Mount Zion, where You have chosen to live!
3 Come, direct Your attention to Your sanctuary;
our enemy has demolished everything and left it in complete ruin.
4 Your enemies roared like lions in Your sacred chamber;
they have claimed it with their own standards as signs.
5 They acted like lumberjacks swinging their axes
to cut down a stand of trees.
6 They hacked up all the beautifully carved items,
smashed them to splinters with their axes and hammers.
7 They have burned Your sanctuary to the ground;
they have desecrated the place where Your holy name lived in honor;
8 They have plotted in their hearts, “We will crush them and bring them to their knees!”
Then they scorched all of the places in the land where the True God met His people.
9 We no longer receive signs,
there are no more prophets who remain,
and not one of us knows how long this situation will last.
10 O True God, how much longer will the enemy mock us?
Will this insult continue against You forever?
11 Why do You stand by and do nothing?
Unleash Your power and finish them off!
12 Even so, the True God is my King from long ago,
bringing salvation to His people throughout the land.
13 You have divided the sea with Your power;
You shattered the skulls of the creatures of the sea;
14 You smashed the heads of Leviathan
and fed his remains to the people of the desert.
15 You broke open the earth and springs burst forth and streams filled the crevices;
You dried up the great rivers.
16 The day and the night are both Yours—
You fashioned the sun, moon, and all the lights that pierce the darkness.
17 You have arranged the earth, set all its boundaries;
You are the Architect of the seasons: summer and winter.
18 Eternal One, do not forget that the enemy has taunted You
and a company of fools has rejected Your name.
19 We are Your precious turtledoves;
don’t surrender our souls to the wild beasts.
Do not forget the lives of Your poor, afflicted, and brokenhearted ones forever.
20 Be mindful of Your covenant with us,
for the dark corners of the land are filled with pockets of violence.
21 Do not allow the persecuted to return without honor;
may the poor, wounded, and needy sing praises to You;
may they bring glory to Your name!
22 O True God, rise up and defend Your cause;
remember how the foolish man insults You every hour of the day.
23 Do not forget the voices of Your enemies,
the commotion and chaos of Your foes, which continually grow.
29 Israel’s king and Jehoshaphat, Judah’s king, waged war against Ramoth-gilead.
Ahab (to Jehoshaphat): 30 Here’s what I am going to do. I am going to put on a disguise and enter into battle, but you are going to dress in your normal robes.
Fearing that Micaiah might be right, Israel’s king put on a disguise and entered battle.
31 Aram’s king commanded the 32 captains in charge of all the chariots.
King of Aram (to his captains): Don’t waste your time fighting with any important or unimportant person. Fight only with Israel’s king. He’s the one we want dead.
32 When the chariot captains laid eyes upon Jehoshaphat and saw the robes he was wearing, they said to themselves, “This must be Israel’s king. Only a king wears such robes.” They engaged in battle with him, and Jehoshaphat screamed for his life. 33 To Jehoshaphat’s immense relief, when the chariot captains realized that this was not Israel’s king, they left him alone. 34 In the meantime, one warrior shot a random arrow from his bow up into the air, and the arrow happened to strike inside a joint of Israel’s king’s armor.
Ahab (to his charioteer): Get me out of this battle quickly! I am hurt badly.
35 The fighting continued throughout that entire day. Meanwhile, the king was propped up inside his chariot before all the Arameans, so they would think he still led Israel, and he died that night. Blood dripped out from where the arrow had pierced him, and it stained the bottom of the chariot. 36 At sunset, word spread throughout the entire army: “Israel’s king is dead. Go back to where you came from. Return to your native cities and countries.”
37 Israel’s king died and was transported to Samaria where he was laid to rest. 38 They cleaned the blood out of his chariot at the Samaritan pool, where all the prostitutes and promiscuous women bathed in the bloodstained water and the dogs licked up his blood, just as the Eternal said they would.
39 Is not the rest of Ahab’s story—all his actions and the ivory house and cities he constructed—documented in the book of the chronicles of Israel’s kings? 40 Ahab left this world to sleep with his fathers; and his son, Ahaziah, then inherited the throne.
41 Jehoshaphat (Asa’s son) became Judah’s king during the 4th year of Ahab’s reign in Israel. 42 Jehoshaphat was 35 years old when he received the throne. His reign lasted 25 years in Jerusalem. His mother was Azubah (Shilhi’s daughter). 43 Jehoshaphat was devoted to the Eternal just as his father, Asa, was. He walked the good path and did what was good in the eyes of the Eternal One. But the high places were not torn down, and everyone still offered sacrifices and burned incense there. This wickedness still took place under Jehoshaphat’s reign, though he did not inspire it. 44 Jehoshaphat also made peace between himself and Israel’s king.
45 Is not the rest of Jehoshaphat’s story—his mighty actions and how he waged war—documented in the book of the chronicles of Judah’s kings?
14 But a person who denies spiritual realities will not accept the things that come through the Spirit of God; they all sound like foolishness to him. He is incapable of grasping them because they are disseminated, discerned, and valued by the Spirit. 15 A person who walks by the Spirit examines everything, sizing it up and seeking out truth. But no one is able to examine or size up that kind of spiritual person, 16 for the Scripture asks, “Does anyone know the mind of the Lord well enough to become His advisor?”[a] But we do possess the mind of the Anointed One.
3 My brothers and sisters, I cannot address you as people who walk by the Spirit; I have to speak to you as people who tend to think in merely human terms, as spiritual infants in the Anointed One. 2 I nursed you with milk, as a mother would feed her baby, because you were not, and still are not, developed enough to digest complex spiritual food. 3 And here’s why: you are still living in the flesh, not in the Spirit. How do I know? Are you fighting with one another? Are you comparing yourselves to others and becoming consumed with jealousy? Then it sounds like you are living in the flesh, no different from the rest who live by the standards of this rebellious and broken world. 4 If one of you is saying, “I am with Paul,” and the other says, “I am with Apollos,” aren’t you like everybody else? 5 So who is Apollos really? Or Paul for that matter? We are only servants, agents who led you to faith, and the Lord commissioned each of us to do a particular job.
Paul’s test for spiritually immaturity: Do you argue? Do you compare yourself to others? Are you jealous? Answer “yes” to any of these, then you are spiritually immature.
6 My job was to plant the seed, and Apollos was called to water it. Any growth comes from God, 7 so the ones who water and plant have nothing to brag about. God, who causes the growth, is the only One who matters. 8 The one who plants is no greater than the one who waters; both will be rewarded based on their work. 9 We are gardeners and field workers laboring with God. You are the vineyard, the garden, the house where God dwells. 10 Like a skilled architect and master builder, I laid a foundation based upon God’s grace given to me. Now others will come along to build on the foundation. Each serves in a different way and is to build upon it with great care. 11 There is, in fact, only one foundation, and no one can lay any foundation other than Jesus the Anointed. 12 As others build on the foundation (whether with gold, silver, gemstones, wood, hay, or straw), 13 the quality of each person’s work will be revealed in time as it is tested by fire. 14 If a man’s work stands the test of fire, he will be rewarded. 15 If a man’s work is consumed by the fire, his reward will be lost but he will be spared, rescued from the fire.
People talk about this Jesus, this Preacher and Healer. Word spreads of His charisma and wisdom and power and love. People who are too sick to walk persuade their friends and relatives to carry them to Jesus. These cripples and demonized and ill and paralytics come to Jesus, and He heals them, and they follow Him.
5 Now when He saw the crowds, He went up on a mountain (as Moses had done before Him) and He sat down (as Jewish teachers of His day usually did). His disciples gathered around Him.
There on the mountain Jesus teaches them all. And as He is teaching, crowds gather around and overhear His teachings, listen in, and are captivated. This, the Sermon on the Mount, is the first of the five Mosaic-like sermons in Matthew.
2 And He began to teach them.
3 Jesus: Blessed are the spiritually poor—the kingdom of heaven is theirs.
4 Blessed are those who mourn—they will be comforted.
5 Blessed are the meek and gentle—they will inherit the earth.
6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness—they will be filled.
7 Blessed are the merciful—they will be shown mercy.
8 Blessed are those who are pure in heart—they will see God.
9 Blessed are the peacemakers—they will be called children of God.
10 Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness—the kingdom of heaven is theirs.
The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.