Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 88
For the worship leader. A song of the sons of Korah accompanied by dance.[a] A contemplative song[b] of Heman the Ezrahite.
This individual lament was composed by someone afflicted with a grave illness, feeling lonely and abandoned by God. This song is reminiscent of Job’s sufferings.
1 O Eternal One! O True God my Savior!
I cry out to You all the time, under the sun and the moon.
2 Let my voice reach You!
Please listen to my prayers!
3 My soul is deeply troubled,
and my heart can’t bear the weight of this sorrow. I feel so close to death.
4 I’m like the poor and helpless who die alone,
left for dead, as good as the unknowable sea of souls lying under our feet,
5-6 Forsaken by Him and cut off from His hand,
abandoned among the dead who rest in their graves.
And You have sent me to be forgotten with them,
in the lowest pits of the earth,
in the darkest canyons of the ocean.
7 You crush me with Your anger.
You crash against me like the relentless, angry sea.
[pause][c]
8 Those whom I have known, who have been with me,
You have gathered like sheaves and cast to the four winds.
They can’t bear to look me in the eye, and they are horrified when they think of me.
I am in a trap and cannot be free.
9 My eyes grow dim, weakened by this sickness;
it is taking my strength from me.
Like a worn cloth, my hands are unfolded before You daily, O Eternal One.
10 Are You the miracle-worker for the dead?
Will they rise from the dark shadows to worship You again?
[pause]
11 Will Your great love be proclaimed in the grave
or Your faithfulness be remembered in whispers like mists throughout the place of ruin?[d]
12 Are Your wonders known in the dominion of darkness,
or is Your righteousness recognized in a land where all is forgotten?
13 But I am calling out to You, Eternal One.
My prayers rise before You with every new sun!
14 Why do You turn Your head
and brush me aside, O Eternal One?
Why are You avoiding me?
15 Since the days of my youth, I have been sick and close to death.
My helpless soul has suffered Your silent horrors;
now I am desperate.
16 Your rage spills over me like rivers of fire;
Your assaults have all but destroyed me.
17 They surround me like a flood, rising throughout the day,
closing in from every direction.
18 You have taken from me the one I love and my friend;
even the light of my acquaintances are darkness.
Psalm 91
1 He who takes refuge in the shelter of the Most High
will be safe in the shadow of the Almighty.
2 He will say to the Eternal, “My shelter, my mighty fortress,
my God, I place all my trust in You.”
3 For He will rescue you from the snares set by your enemies who entrap you
and from deadly plagues.
4 Like a bird protecting its young, God will cover you with His feathers,
will protect you under His great wings;
His faithfulness will form a shield around you, a rock-solid wall to protect you.
Psalm 91 is a beautiful psalm of trust in God. But how does God take care of all His people, all at the same time? Well, keep reading because Psalm 91 is one of just a few places in Scripture that describe what we might call “guardian angels” (Exodus 23:20; Psalm 43:3). Though rare, these passages teach that God is not alone in maintaining and protecting His creation and His people. He has made a host of heavenly messengers ready to do His bidding, and His bidding is often to guard His people throughout their lives and protect them—sometimes from dangers they are not even aware of.
5 You will not dread the terrors that haunt the night
or enemy arrows that fly in the day
6 Or the plagues that lurk in darkness
or the disasters that wreak havoc at noon.
7 A thousand may fall on your left,
ten thousand may die on your right,
but these horrors won’t come near you.
8 Only your eyes will witness
the punishment that awaits the evil,
but you will not suffer because of it.
9 For you made the Eternal [your][a] refuge,
the Most High your only home.
10 No evil will come to you;
plagues will be turned away at your door.
11 He will command His heavenly messengers to guard you,
to keep you safe in every way.
12 They will hold you up in their hands
so that you will not crash, or fall, or even graze your foot on a stone.[b]
13 You will walk on the lion and the cobra;
you will trample the lion and the serpent underfoot.
14 “Because he clings to Me in love,
I will rescue him from harm;
I will set him above danger.
Because he has known Me by name,
15 He will call on Me, and I will answer.
I’ll be with him through hard times;
I’ll rescue him and grant him honor.
16 I’ll reward him with many good years on this earth
and let him witness My salvation.”
Psalm 92
A song for the Sabbath Day.
Psalm 92 gives thanks to God for His salvation. The superscription provides the only reference to the Sabbath in the Book of Psalms.
1 How good it is to give thanks to the Eternal
and to praise Your name with song, O Most High;
2 To speak of Your unfailing love in the morning
and rehearse Your faithfulness as night begins to fall.
3 How good it is to praise to the sound of strings—lute and harp—
the stirring melodies of the lyre.
4 Because You, O Eternal One, thrill me with the things You have done,
I will sing with joy in light of Your deeds.
5 Your works are marvelous, O Eternal One!
Your thoughts are unfathomable.
6 But a weak-minded man can’t understand this;
foolish people are unable to see
7 That evil men sprout like grass
and wicked men flourish,
only so that they will be doomed forever.
8 But You, O Eternal One, are above all, forever.
9 As for Your enemies, O Eternal One,
their fate is obvious:
those who hate You will not survive;
those who practice evil will be broken in pieces.
10 But You have made me strong as a wild ox,
anointed me with the refreshing oil of Your blessing.
11 And I have seen with my own eyes my enemies defeated;
I have heard with my own ears my attackers cut down.
12 Those who are devoted to God will flourish like budding date-palm trees;
they will grow strong and tall like cedars in Lebanon.
13 Those planted in the house of the Eternal
will thrive in the courts of our God.
14 They will bear fruit into old age;
even in winter, they will be green and full of sap
15 To display that the Eternal is righteous.
He is my rock, and there is no shadow of evil in Him.
17 The watchman was up on the watchtower in Jezreel, and he saw Jehu and his followers approaching.
Watchman: There is a large group of people approaching.
Joram: Summon a horseman to go out to the group and ask them, “Do you come in peace?”
18 A horseman went out and spoke to Jehu and his followers.
Horseman: The king asks, “Do you come in peace?”
Jehu: Peace? What do you know about peace? Get behind me, and follow.
The watchman immediately went and updated Joram about the situation.
Watchman: The horseman went out to them, but he did not come back.
19 Joram summoned another horseman.
Second Horseman: The king asks, “Do you come in peace?”
Jehu: Peace? What do you know about peace? Get behind me, and follow.
20 The watchman then went and updated Joram about the situation again.
Watchman: The second horseman went out to them, but he did not come back either. Their force and speed is as fierce as the crazy driving of Jehu (Nimshi’s son).
Joram: 21 Prepare my chariot.
So they prepared his chariot; and he and Ahaziah (Judah’s king) went out together, each in his own chariot, to meet Jehu’s caravan on Naboth the Jezreelite’s land.
Joram (face-to-face with Jehu): 22 Do you come in peace, Jehu?
Jehu: Peace? What do you know about peace when the promiscuity and witchcraft of your mother, Jezebel, are too vast to measure!
23 Joram quickly realized that Jehu intended to attack, so he immediately turned his chariot around, quickly rode away, and yelled out to Ahaziah.
Joram: We’ve been betrayed, Ahaziah! Quickly, ride away!
24 But Jehu pulled his bowstring back as far as he could. He released an arrow that struck Joram between his shoulder blades, piercing straight through his heart. Joram fell over in his chariot.
Jehu (to his officer, Bidkar): 25 Pick up his body, and throw him into the field of Naboth the Jezreelite on the eastern slope of the Jezreel hill. I have just remembered that while you and I were riding after his father, Ahab, the Eternal revealed a prophecy concerning him: 26 “I have seen the past and witnessed Naboth’s blood and that of his sons as well. I will one day pay you back in this land,” spoke the Eternal. So go now, pick up Joram’s body, and throw him into Naboth’s field, just as He has said.
27 Ahaziah (Judah’s king) witnessed all of this from a distance, and he rode away by the path to Beth-haggan. Jehu went after him.
Jehu (calling out): Send an arrow toward his chariot, and kill him too!
They shot him at Ibleam as he was driving up toward Gur. But he did not die there. He continued on to Megiddo, where he took his last breath.
28 Ahaziah’s servants transported him to Jerusalem in a chariot. They buried him with his fathers in the city of David. 29 During the 11th year of Joram (Ahab’s son), Ahaziah inherited the throne over Judah.
30 When Jehu arrived in Jezreel, Jezebel was informed of his arrival. She put on her best make-up and fixed her hair, and she stuck her head out her window. 31 While Jehu rode through the gate, she taunted him.
Jezebel: Is everything okay, traitor?[a] Is everything all right, you murderer of your master?
Jehu (looking up at her window): 32 Is anyone in this city on my side? Anyone?
A few officers, who were eunuchs, peered down at him.
Jehu: 33 Seize her, and throw her out the window!
They did as he instructed and threw her out the window. Her blood splattered everywhere—on the ground, on the wall, on the horses. He rode his horse over her and pounded her into the ground.
34 He then went inside to eat and drink. After he had his fill, he gave instructions.
Jehu: Go take care of the mess outside. Give the accursed woman a proper burial. After all, she was a royal daughter.
35 They went out to clean up the mess and bury her body; but when they got there, they found a most haunting sight. All that remained was her skull, her feet, and the palms of her hands. 36 They went back and told Jehu this news, and he explained it to them.
Jehu: This is the Eternal’s message which He gave through the prophet Elijah the Tishbite: “Jezebel will be devoured by dogs in the land of Jezreel.[b] 37 Her body will be so gruesome that it will be like a pile of dung on the surface of a field in the land of Jezreel. No one will recognize the remains. No one will be able to say, ‘This is Jezebel.’”
Salvation is a costly proposition. You and your body belong to God, so use your body for the work of God, not for selfish pursuits.
7 Now to the topics you raised in your last letter. Some have said, “It is better for a man to abstain from having sex with his wife.” 2 Well, I disagree. Because of our tendency to embrace immoralities, each man should feel free to join together in sexual intimacy with his own wife, and each woman should join with her own husband. 3 Husbands and wives have reciprocal duties. Each husband has the responsibility to meet his wife’s sexual desires, and each wife should do the same for her husband. 4 In marriage neither the husband nor the wife should act as if his or her body is private property—your bodies now belong to one another, and together they are whole. 5 So do not withhold sex from one another, unless both of you have agreed to devote a certain period of time to prayer. When the agreed time is over, come together again so that Satan will not tempt you when you are short on self-control. 6 I am trying to encourage you and give you some wise counsel, so don’t take this advice as a command. 7 I wish that all of you could live as I do, unmarried. But the truth is all people are different, each gifted by God in various and dissimilar ways.
Paul’s teaching to the Corinthians about marriage stands in contrast to the message in Genesis 2, where God declares that it is not good to be alone. There He sculpts woman from the rib of the man: she was molded so that man and woman fit perfectly together. And God blesses marriage as a good and beautiful thing.
So is Paul contradicting the declaration of the Creator God when he suggests that it might be better for some people to choose an unmarried life? Absolutely not! Marriage is a sacred union, but it is possible that many will be able to serve God more fully if they do not have the limitations that come with marriage and family. Paul shares his advice humbly based on his own experience. The tension between the beauty of marriage and the freedom from marital obligations is one we should all explore. As we come to our own conclusions, we must also carry them humbly, remembering that one is not better than the other.
8 To those who are unmarried or widowed, here’s my advice: it is a good thing to stay single as I do. 9 If they do not have self-control, they should go ahead and get married. It is much better to marry than to be obsessed by sexual urges.
7 And when you pray, do not go on and on, excessively and strangely like the outsiders; they think their verbosity will let them be heard by their deities. 8 Do not be like them. Your prayers need not be labored or lengthy or grandiose—for your Father knows what you need before you ever ask Him.
9 Your prayers, rather, should be simple, like this:
Our Father in heaven,
let Your name remain holy.
10 Bring about Your kingdom.
Manifest Your will here on earth,
as it is manifest in heaven.
11 Give us each day that day’s bread—no more, no less—
12 And forgive us our debts
as we forgive those who owe us something.
13 Lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
[But let Your kingdom be,
and let it be powerful
and glorious forever. Amen.][a]
Jesus says to declare forgiveness of those who have wronged us. This is because forgiveness of other people emulates God’s forgiveness of us.
14 If you forgive people when they sin against you, then your Father will forgive you when you sin against Him and when you sin against your neighbor. 15 But if you do not forgive your neighbors’ sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.
The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.