Book of Common Prayer

70 Rescue me, O God! Lord, hurry to my aid! ^2-3 They are after my life and delight in hurting me. Confuse them! Shame them! Stop them! Don’t let them keep on mocking me! ⁴ But fill the followers of God with joy. Let those who love your salvation exclaim, “What a wonderful God he is!” ⁵ But I am in deep trouble. Rush to my aid, for only you can help and save me. O Lord, don’t delay.

71 Lord, you are my refuge! Don’t let me down! ² Save me from my enemies, for you are just! Rescue me! Bend down your ear and listen to my plea and save me. ³ Be to me a great protecting Rock, where I am always welcome, safe from all attacks. For you have issued the order to save me. ⁴ Rescue me, O God, from these unjust and cruel men. ⁵ O Lord, you alone are my hope; I’ve trusted you from childhood. ⁶ Yes, you have been with me from birth and have helped me constantly—no wonder I am always praising you! ⁷ My success—at which so many stand amazed—is because you are my mighty protector. ⁸ All day long I’ll praise and honor you, O God, for all that you have done for me.

⁹ And now, in my old age, don’t set me aside. Don’t forsake me now when my strength is failing. ¹⁰ My enemies are whispering, ¹¹ “God has forsaken him! Now we can get him. There is no one to help him now!” ¹² O God, don’t stay away! Come quickly! Help! ¹³ Destroy them! Cover them with failure and disgrace—these enemies of mine.

¹⁴ I will keep on expecting you to help me. I praise you more and more. ¹⁵ I cannot count the times when you have faithfully rescued me from danger. I will tell everyone how good you are, and of your constant, daily care. ¹⁶ I walk in the strength of the Lord God. I tell everyone that you alone are just and good. ¹⁷ O God, you have helped me from my earliest childhood—and I have constantly testified to others of the wonderful things you do. ¹⁸ And now that I am old and gray, don’t forsake me. Give me time to tell this new generation (and their children too) about all your mighty miracles. ¹⁹ Your power and goodness, Lord, reach to the highest heavens. You have done such wonderful things. Where is there another God like you? ²⁰ You have let me sink down deep in desperate problems. But you will bring me back to life again, up from the depths of the earth. ²¹ You will give me greater honor than before and turn again and comfort me.

²² I will praise you with music, telling of your faithfulness to all your promises, O Holy One of Israel. ²³ I will shout and sing your praises for redeeming me. ²⁴ I will talk to others all day long about your justice and your goodness. For all who tried to hurt me have been disgraced and dishonored.

74 O God, why have you cast us away forever? Why is your anger hot against us—the sheep of your own pasture? ² Remember that we are your people—the ones you chose in ancient times from slavery and made the choicest of your possessions. You chose Jerusalem^[a] as your home on earth!

³ Walk through the awful ruins of the city and see what the enemy has done to your sanctuary. ⁴ There they shouted their battle cry and erected their idols to flaunt their victory. ^5-6 Everything lies in shambles like a forest chopped to the ground. They came with their axes and sledgehammers and smashed and chopped the carved paneling; ⁷ they set the sanctuary on fire, and razed it to the ground—your sanctuary, Lord. ⁸ “Let’s wipe out every trace of God,” they said, and went through the entire country burning down the assembly places where we worshiped you.

^9-10 There is nothing left to show that we are your people. The prophets are gone, and who can say when it all will end? How long, O God, will you allow our enemies to dishonor your name? Will you let them get away with this forever? ¹¹ Why do you delay? Why hold back your power? Unleash your fist and give them a final blow.

¹² God is my King from ages past; you have been actively helping me everywhere throughout the land. ^13-14 You divided the Red Sea with your strength; you crushed the sea god’s heads! You gave him to the desert tribes to eat! ¹⁵ At your command the springs burst forth to give your people water; and then you dried a path for them across the ever-flowing Jordan. ¹⁶ Day and night alike belong to you; you made the starlight and the sun. ¹⁷ All nature is within your hands; you make the summer and the winter too. ¹⁸ Lord, see how these enemies scoff at you. O Jehovah, an arrogant nation has blasphemed your name.

¹⁹ O Lord, save me! Protect your turtledove from the hawks.^[b] Save your beloved people from these beasts. ²⁰ Remember your promise! For the land is full of darkness and cruel men. ²¹ O Lord, don’t let your downtrodden people be constantly insulted. Give cause for these poor and needy ones to praise your name! ²² Arise, O God, and state your case against our enemies. Remember the insults these rebels have hurled against you all day long. ²³ Don’t overlook the cursing of these enemies of yours; it grows louder and louder.

7 ^1-5 Here is the genealogy of Ezra, who traveled from Babylon to Jerusalem^[a] during the reign of King Artaxerxes of Persia:

⁶ As a Jewish religious leader, Ezra was well versed in Jehovah’s laws, which Moses had given to the people of Israel. He asked to be allowed to return to Jerusalem, and the king granted his request; for the Lord his God was blessing him. ^7-9 Many ordinary people as well as priests, Levites, singers, gatekeepers, and Temple workers traveled with him. They left Babylon in the middle of March in the seventh year of the reign of Artaxerxes and arrived at Jerusalem in the month of August; for the Lord gave them a good trip. ¹⁰ This was because Ezra had determined to study and obey the laws of the Lord and to become a Bible teacher, teaching those laws to the people of Israel.

¹¹ King Artaxerxes presented this letter to Ezra the priest, the student of God’s commands:

¹² “From: Artaxerxes, the king of kings.

“To: Ezra the priest, the teacher of the laws of the God of heaven.

¹³ “I decree that any Jew in my realm, including the priests and Levites, may return to Jerusalem with you. ¹⁴ I and my Council of Seven hereby instruct you to take a copy of God’s laws to Judah and Jerusalem and to send back a report of the religious progress being made there. ¹⁵ We also commission you to take with you to Jerusalem the silver and gold, which we are presenting as an offering to the God of Israel.

¹⁶ “Moreover, you are to collect voluntary Temple offerings of silver and gold from the Jews and their priests in all of the provinces of Babylon. ¹⁷ These funds are to be used primarily for the purchase of oxen, rams, lambs, grain offerings, and drink offerings, all of which will be offered upon the altar of your Temple when you arrive in Jerusalem. ¹⁸ The money that is left over may be used in whatever way you and your brothers feel is the will of your God. ¹⁹ And take with you the gold bowls and other items we are giving you for the Temple of your God at Jerusalem. ²⁰ If you run short of money for the construction of the Temple or for any similar needs, you may requisition funds from the royal treasury.

²¹ “I, Artaxerxes the king, send this decree to all the treasurers in the provinces west of the Euphrates River: ‘You are to give Ezra whatever he requests of you (for he is a priest and teacher of the laws of the God of heaven), ²² up to $200,000 in silver; 1,225 bushels of wheat; 990 gallons of wine; any amount of salt; ²³ and whatever else the God of heaven demands for his Temple; for why should we risk God’s wrath against the king and his sons? ²⁴ I also decree that no priest, Levite, choir member, gatekeeper, Temple attendant, or other worker in the Temple shall be required to pay taxes of any kind.’

²⁵ “And you, Ezra, are to use the wisdom God has given you to select and appoint judges and other officials to govern all the people west of the Euphrates River; if they are not familiar with the laws of your God, you are to teach them. ²⁶ Anyone refusing to obey the law of your God and the law of the king shall be punished immediately by death, banishment, confiscation of goods, or imprisonment.”

14 Then I saw a Lamb standing on Mount Zion in Jerusalem, and with him were 144,000 who had his Name and his Father’s Name written on their foreheads. ² And I heard a sound from heaven like the roaring of a great waterfall or the rolling of mighty thunder. It was the singing of a choir accompanied by harps.

³ This tremendous choir—144,000 strong—sang a wonderful new song in front of the throne of God and before the four Living Beings and the twenty-four Elders; and no one could sing this song except those 144,000 who had been redeemed from the earth. ⁴ For they are spiritually undefiled, pure as virgins,^[a] following the Lamb wherever he goes. They have been purchased from among the men on the earth as a consecrated offering to God and the Lamb. ⁵ No falsehood can be charged against them; they are blameless.

⁶ And I saw another angel flying through the heavens, carrying the everlasting Good News to preach to those on earth—to every nation, tribe, language, and people.

⁷ “Fear God,” he shouted, “and extol his greatness. For the time has come when he will sit as Judge. Worship him who made the heaven and the earth, the sea and all its sources.”

⁸ Then another angel followed him through the skies, saying, “Babylon is fallen, is fallen—that great city—because she seduced the nations of the world and made them share the wine of her intense impurity and sin.”

⁹ Then a third angel followed them shouting, “Anyone worshiping the Creature from the sea^[b] and his statue, and accepting his mark on the forehead or the hand ¹⁰ must drink the wine of the anger of God; it is poured out undiluted into God’s cup of wrath. And they will be tormented with fire and burning sulphur in the presence of the holy angels and the Lamb. ¹¹ The smoke of their torture rises forever and ever, and they will have no relief day or night, for they have worshiped the Creature and his statue, and have been tattooed with the code of his name. ¹² Let this encourage God’s people to endure patiently every trial and persecution, for they are his saints who remain firm to the end in obedience to his commands and trust in Jesus.”

¹³ And I heard a voice in the heavens above me saying, “Write this down: At last the time has come for his martyrs^[c] to enter into their full reward. Yes, says the Spirit, they are blessed indeed, for now they shall rest from all their toils and trials; for their good deeds follow them to heaven!”

14 When King Herod^[a] heard about Jesus, ² he said to his men, “This must be John the Baptist, come back to life again. That is why he can do these miracles.” ³ For Herod had arrested John and chained him in prison at the demand of^[b] his wife Herodias, his brother Philip’s ex-wife, ⁴ because John had told him it was wrong for him to marry her. ⁵ He would have killed John but was afraid of a riot, for all the people believed John was a prophet.

⁶ But at a birthday party for Herod, Herodias’s daughter performed a dance that greatly pleased him, ⁷ so he vowed to give her anything she wanted. ⁸ Consequently, at her mother’s urging, the girl asked for John the Baptist’s head on a tray.

⁹ The king was grieved, but because of his oath, and because he didn’t want to back down in front of his guests, he issued the necessary orders.

¹⁰ So John was beheaded in the prison, ¹¹ and his head was brought on a tray and given to the girl, who took it to her mother.

¹² Then John’s disciples came for his body and buried it, and came to tell Jesus what had happened.