Book of Common Prayer
145 I am praying with great earnestness; answer me, O Lord, and I will obey your laws. 146 “Save me,” I cry, “for I am obeying.” 147 Early in the morning before the sun is up, I am praying and pointing out how much I trust in you. 148 I stay awake through the night to think about your promises. 149 Because you are so loving and kind, listen to me and make me well again.
150 Here come these lawless men to attack me, 151 but you are near, O Lord; all your commandments are based on truth. 152 I have known from earliest days that your will never changes.
153 Look down upon my sorrows and rescue me, for I am obeying your commands. 154 Yes, rescue me and give me back my life again just as you have promised. 155 The wicked are far from salvation, for they do not care for your laws. 156 Lord, how great is your mercy; oh, give me back my life again.
157 My enemies are so many. They try to make me disobey, but I have not swerved from your will. 158 I loathed these traitors because they care nothing for your laws. 159 Lord, see how much I really love your demands. Now give me back my life and health because you are so kind. 160 There is utter truth in all your laws; your decrees are eternal.
161 Great men have persecuted me, though they have no reason to, but I stand in awe of only your words. 162 I rejoice in your laws like one who finds a great treasure. 163 How I hate all falsehood, but how I love your laws. 164 I will praise you seven times a day because of your wonderful laws.
165 Those who love your laws have great peace of heart and mind and do not stumble. 166 I long for your salvation, Lord, and so I have obeyed your laws. 167 I have looked for your commandments, and I love them very much; 168 yes, I have searched for them. You know this because everything I do is known to you.
169 O Lord, listen to my prayers; give me the common sense you promised. 170 Hear my prayers; rescue me as you said you would. 171 I praise you for letting me learn your laws. 172 I will sing about their wonder, for each of them is just. 173 Stand ready to help me because I have chosen to follow your will. 174 O Lord, I have longed for your salvation, and your law is my delight. 175 If you will let me live, I will praise you; let your laws assist me.
176 I have wandered away like a lost sheep; come and find me, for I have not turned away from your commandments.
128 Blessings on all who reverence and trust the Lord—on all who obey him!
2 Their reward shall be prosperity and happiness. 3 Your wife shall be contented in your home. And look at all those children! There they sit around the dinner table as vigorous and healthy as young olive trees. 4 That is God’s reward to those who reverence and trust him.
5 May the Lord continually bless you with heaven’s blessings[a] as well as with human joys. 6 May you live to enjoy your grandchildren! And may God bless Israel!
129 Persecuted from my earliest youth (Israel is speaking), 2 and faced with never-ending discrimination—but not destroyed! My enemies have never been able to finish me off!
3-4 Though my back is cut to ribbons with their whips, the Lord is good. For he has snapped the chains that evil men had bound me with.
5 May all who hate the Jews be brought to ignominious defeat. 6-7 May they be as grass in shallow soil, turning sere and yellow when half grown, ignored by the reaper, despised by the binder. 8 And may those passing by refuse to bless them by saying, “Jehovah’s blessings be upon you; we bless you in Jehovah’s name.”
130 O Lord, from the depths of despair I cry for your help: 2 “Hear me! Answer! Help me!”
3-4 Lord, if you keep in mind our sins, then who can ever get an answer to his prayers? But you forgive! What an awesome thing this is! 5 That is why I wait expectantly, trusting God to help, for he has promised. 6 I long for him more than sentinels long for the dawn.
7 O Israel, hope in the Lord; for he is loving and kind and comes to us with armloads of salvation. 8 He himself shall ransom Israel from her slavery to sin.
14 So Hilkiah the priest, and Ahikam, and Achbor, and Shaphan, and Asaiah went to the Mishneh section of Jerusalem to find Huldah the prophetess. (She was the wife of Shallum—son of Tikvah, son of Harhas—who was in charge of the palace tailor shop.) 15-16 She gave them this message from the Lord God of Israel:
“Tell the man who sent you to me that I am going to destroy this city and its people, just as I stated in that book you read. 17 For the people of Judah have thrown me aside and have worshiped other gods and have made me very angry; and my anger can’t be stopped. 18-19 But because you were sorry and concerned and humbled yourself before the Lord when you read the book and its warnings that this land would be cursed and become desolate, and because you have torn your clothing and wept before me in contrition, I will listen to your plea. 20 The death of this nation will not occur until after you die—you will not see the evil that I will bring upon this place.”
So they took the message to the king.
23 1-2 Then the king sent for the elders and other leaders of Judah and Jerusalem to go to the Temple with him. So all the priests and prophets and the people, small and great, of Jerusalem and Judah gathered there at the Temple so that the king could read to them the entire book of God’s laws which had been discovered in the Temple. 3 He stood beside the pillar in front of the people, and he and they made a solemn promise to the Lord to obey him at all times and to do everything the book commanded.
23 For this is what the Lord himself has said about his Table, and I have passed it on to you before: That on the night when Judas betrayed him, the Lord Jesus took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks to God for it, he broke it and gave it to his disciples and said, “Take this and eat it. This is my body, which is given[a] for you. Do this to remember me.” 25 In the same way, he took the cup of wine after supper, saying, “This cup is the new agreement between God and you that has been established and set in motion by my blood. Do this in remembrance of me whenever you drink it.” 26 For every time you eat this bread and drink this cup you are retelling the message of the Lord’s death, that he has died for you. Do this until he comes again.
27 So if anyone eats this bread and drinks from this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner, he is guilty of sin against the body and the blood of the Lord. 28 That is why a man should examine himself carefully before eating the bread and drinking from the cup. 29 For if he eats the bread and drinks from the cup unworthily, not thinking about the body of Christ and what it means, he is eating and drinking God’s judgment upon himself; for he is trifling with the death of Christ. 30 That is why many of you are weak and sick, and some have even died.
31 But if you carefully examine yourselves before eating you will not need to be judged and punished. 32 Yet, when we are judged and punished by the Lord, it is so that we will not be condemned with the rest of the world. 33 So, dear brothers, when you gather for the Lord’s Supper—the communion service—wait for each other; 34 if anyone is really hungry he should eat at home so that he won’t bring punishment upon himself when you meet together.
I’ll talk to you about the other matters after I arrive.
9 As Jesus was going on down the road, he saw a tax collector, Matthew,[a] sitting at a tax collection booth. “Come and be my disciple,” Jesus said to him, and Matthew jumped up and went along with him.
10 Later, as Jesus and his disciples were eating dinner at Matthew’s house,[b] there were many notorious swindlers there as guests!
11 The Pharisees were indignant. “Why does your teacher associate with men like that?”
12 “Because people who are well don’t need a doctor! It’s the sick people who do!” was Jesus’ reply. 13 Then he added, “Now go away and learn the meaning of this verse of Scripture,
‘It isn’t your sacrifices and your gifts I want—I want you to be merciful.’[c]
For I have come to urge sinners, not the self-righteous, back to God.”
14 One day the disciples of John the Baptist came to Jesus and asked him, “Why don’t your disciples fast as we do and as the Pharisees do?”
15 “Should the bridegroom’s friends mourn and go without food while he is with them?” Jesus asked. “But the time is coming when I[d] will be taken from them. Time enough then for them to refuse to eat.
16 “And who would patch an old garment with unshrunk cloth? For the patch would tear away and make the hole worse. 17 And who would use old wineskins[e] to store new wine? For the old skins would burst with the pressure, and the wine would be spilled and skins ruined. Only new wineskins are used to store new wine. That way both are preserved.”
The Living Bible copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.