Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 56[a]
Trust in God
1 For the director. According to Yonath elem rehoqim.[b] A miktam of David, when the Philistines seized him at Gath.(A)
I
2 Have mercy on me, God,
for I am treated harshly;
attackers press me all the day.
3 My foes treat me harshly all the day;
yes, many are my attackers.
O Most High, 4 when I am afraid,
in you I place my trust.
5 I praise the word of God;
I trust in God, I do not fear.(B)
What can mere flesh do to me?(C)
II
6 All the day they foil my plans;
their every thought is of evil against me.
7 They hide together in ambush;
they watch my every step;
they lie in wait for my life.(D)
8 They are evil; watch them, God!
Cast the nations down in your anger!
9 My wanderings you have noted;
are my tears not stored in your flask,[c]
recorded in your book?(E)
10 My foes turn back when I call on you.
This I know: God is on my side.
11 I praise the word of God,
I praise the word of the Lord.
12 In God I trust, I do not fear.
What can man do to me?
III
13 I have made vows to you, God;
with offerings I will fulfill them,(F)
14 For you have snatched me from death,
kept my feet from stumbling,
That I may walk before God
in the light of the living.
Psalm 57[d]
Confident Prayer for Deliverance
1 For the director. Do not destroy.[e] A miktam of David, when he fled from Saul into a cave.(G)
I
2 Have mercy on me, God,
have mercy on me.
In you I seek refuge.
In the shadow of your wings[f] I seek refuge
till harm pass by.(H)
3 I call to God Most High,
to God who provides for me.
4 May God send help from heaven to save me,
shame those who trample upon me.
May God send fidelity and mercy.
Selah
5 I must lie down in the midst of lions
hungry for human prey.(I)
Their teeth are spears and arrows;
their tongue, a sharpened sword.(J)
6 Be exalted over the heavens, God;
may your glory appear above all the earth.(K)
II
7 They have set a trap for my feet;
my soul is bowed down;
They have dug a pit before me.
May they fall into it themselves!(L)
Selah
8 My heart is steadfast, God,
my heart is steadfast.
I will sing and chant praise.(M)
9 Awake, my soul;
awake, lyre and harp!
I will wake the dawn.[g](N)
10 I will praise you among the peoples, Lord;
I will chant your praise among the nations.(O)
11 For your mercy towers to the heavens;
your faithfulness reaches to the skies.(P)
12 Exalt yourself over the heavens, God;
may your glory appear above all the earth.
Psalm 58[h]
The Dethroning of Unjust Rulers
1 For the leader. Do not destroy.[i] A miktam of David.
I
2 Do you indeed pronounce justice, O gods;[j]
do you judge fairly you children of Adam?(Q)
3 No, you freely engage in crime;
your hands dispense violence to the earth.
II
4 The wicked have been corrupt since birth;
liars from the womb, they have gone astray.
5 [k]Their venom is like the venom of a snake,
like that of a serpent stopping its ears,(R)
6 So as not to hear the voice of the charmer
or the enchanter with cunning spells.
III
7 O God, smash the teeth in their mouths;
break the fangs of these lions, Lord!(S)
8 Make them vanish like water flowing away;(T)
trodden down, let them wither like grass.(U)
9 Let them dissolve like a snail that oozes away,[l]
like an untimely birth that never sees the sun.(V)
10 Suddenly, like brambles or thistles,
have the whirlwind snatch them away.(W)
11 Then the just shall rejoice to see the vengeance
and bathe their feet in the blood of the wicked.(X)
12 Then people will say:
“Truly there is a reward for the just;
there is a God who is judge on earth!”
Psalm 64[a]
Treacherous Conspirators Punished by God
1 For the leader. A psalm of David.
I
2 O God, hear my anguished voice;
from a dreadful foe protect my life.
3 Hide me from the malicious crowd,
the mob of evildoers.
4 They sharpen their tongues like swords,
bend their bows of poison words.(A)
5 They shoot at the innocent from ambush,
they shoot him in a moment and do not fear.
6 They resolve on their wicked plan;
they conspire to set snares;
they say: “Who will see us?”
7 They devise wicked schemes,
conceal the schemes they devise;
the designs of their hearts are hidden.(B)
II
8 God shoots an arrow at them;
in a moment they are struck down.(C)
9 They are brought down by their own tongues;
all who see them flee.(D)
10 Every person fears and proclaims God’s actions,
they ponder his deeds.
11 The righteous rejoices and takes refuge in the Lord;
all the upright give praise.(E)
Psalm 65[b]
Thanksgiving for God’s Blessings
1 For the leader. A psalm of David. A song.
I
2 To you we owe our hymn of praise,
O God on Zion;
To you our vows[c] must be fulfilled,
3 [d]you who hear our prayers.
To you all flesh must come(F)
4 with its burden of wicked deeds.
We are overcome by our sins;
only you can pardon them.(G)
5 Blessed the one whom you will choose and bring
to dwell in your courts.
May we be filled with the good things of your house,
your holy temple!
II
6 You answer us with awesome deeds[e] of justice,
O God our savior,
The hope of all the ends of the earth
and of those far off across the sea.(H)
7 You are robed in power,
you set up the mountains by your might.
8 You still the roaring of the seas,(I)
the roaring of their waves,
the tumult of the peoples.(J)
9 Distant peoples stand in awe of your marvels;
the places of morning and evening you make resound with joy.
10 [f]You visit the earth and water it,
make it abundantly fertile.(K)
God’s stream[g] is filled with water;
you supply their grain.
Thus do you prepare it:
11 you drench its plowed furrows,
and level its ridges.
With showers you keep it soft,
blessing its young sprouts.
12 You adorn the year with your bounty;
your paths[h] drip with fruitful rain.
13 The meadows of the wilderness also drip;
the hills are robed with joy.
14 The pastures are clothed with flocks,
the valleys blanketed with grain;
they cheer and sing for joy.(L)
Chapter 19
Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.[a] 1 The two angels reached Sodom in the evening, as Lot was sitting at the gate of Sodom. When Lot saw them, he got up to greet them; and bowing down with his face to the ground, 2 he said, “Please, my lords,[b] come aside into your servant’s house for the night, and bathe your feet; you can get up early to continue your journey.” But they replied, “No, we will pass the night in the town square.”(A) 3 He urged them so strongly, however, that they turned aside to his place and entered his house. He prepared a banquet for them, baking unleavened bread, and they dined.
4 (B)Before they went to bed, the townsmen of Sodom, both young and old—all the people to the last man—surrounded the house. 5 They called to Lot and said to him, “Where are the men who came to your house tonight? Bring them out to us that we may have sexual relations with them.” 6 Lot went out to meet them at the entrance. When he had shut the door behind him, 7 he said, “I beg you, my brothers, do not do this wicked thing! 8 I have two daughters who have never had sexual relations with men. Let me bring them out to you,[c] and you may do to them as you please. But do not do anything to these men, for they have come under the shelter of my roof.” 9 They replied, “Stand back! This man,” they said, “came here as a resident alien, and now he dares to give orders! We will treat you worse than them!” With that, they pressed hard against Lot, moving in closer to break down the door.(C) 10 But his guests put out their hands, pulled Lot inside with them, and closed the door; 11 they struck the men at the entrance of the house, small and great, with such a blinding light[d] that they were utterly unable to find the doorway.
12 Then the guests said to Lot: “Who else belongs to you here? Sons-in-law, your sons, your daughters, all who belong to you in the city—take them away from this place!(D) 13 We are about to destroy this place, for the outcry reaching the Lord against those here is so great that the Lord has sent us to destroy it.”(E) 14 So Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who had contracted marriage with his daughters.[e] “Come on, leave this place,” he told them; “the Lord is about to destroy the city.” But his sons-in-law thought he was joking.
15 As dawn was breaking, the angels urged Lot on, saying, “Come on! Take your wife with you and your two daughters who are here, or you will be swept away in the punishment of the city.” 16 When he hesitated, the men, because of the Lord’s compassion for him, seized his hand and the hands of his wife and his two daughters and led them to safety outside the city. 17 As soon as they had brought them outside, they said: “Flee for your life! Do not look back or stop anywhere on the Plain. Flee to the hills at once, or you will be swept away.”(F) 18 “Oh, no, my lords!” Lot replied to them. 19 “You have already shown favor to your servant, doing me the great kindness of saving my life. But I cannot flee to the hills, or the disaster will overtake and kill me. 20 Look, this town ahead is near enough to escape to. It is only a small place.[f] Let me flee there—is it not a small place?—to save my life.” 21 “Well, then,” he replied, “I grant you this favor too. I will not overthrow the town you have mentioned. 22 Hurry, escape there! I cannot do anything until you arrive there.” That is why the town is called Zoar.(G)
23 The sun had risen over the earth when Lot arrived in Zoar, 24 and the Lord rained down sulfur upon Sodom and Gomorrah, fire from the Lord out of heaven.(H) 25 He overthrew[g] those cities and the whole Plain, together with the inhabitants of the cities and the produce of the soil.(I) 26 But Lot’s wife looked back, and she was turned into a pillar of salt.(J)
27 The next morning Abraham hurried to the place where he had stood before the Lord. 28 As he looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah and the whole region of the Plain,[h] he saw smoke over the land rising like the smoke from a kiln.(K)
29 When God destroyed the cities of the Plain, he remembered Abraham and sent Lot away from the upheaval that occurred when God overthrew the cities where Lot had been living.
Moabites and Ammonites.[i]
V. Examples, Discipline, Disobedience
Chapter 11[a]
Faith of the Ancients. 1 Faith is the realization of what is hoped for and evidence[b] of things not seen.(A) 2 Because of it the ancients were well attested. 3 (B)By faith we understand that the universe was ordered by the word of God,[c] so that what is visible came into being through the invisible. 4 [d]By faith Abel offered to God a sacrifice greater than Cain’s. Through this he was attested to be righteous, God bearing witness to his gifts, and through this, though dead, he still speaks.(C) 5 By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death, and “he was found no more because God had taken him.” Before he was taken up, he was attested to have pleased God.(D) 6 [e]But without faith it is impossible to please him,(E) for anyone who approaches God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. 7 By faith Noah, warned about what was not yet seen, with reverence built an ark for the salvation of his household. Through this he condemned the world and inherited the righteousness that comes through faith.(F)
8 By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance; he went out, not knowing where he was to go.(G) 9 By faith he sojourned in the promised land as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs of the same promise;(H) 10 for he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and maker is God.(I) 11 By faith he received power to generate, even though he was past the normal age—and Sarah herself was sterile—for he thought that the one who had made the promise was trustworthy.(J) 12 So it was that there came forth from one man, himself as good as dead, descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sands on the seashore.(K)
27 Do not work for food that perishes but for the food that endures for eternal life,[a] which the Son of Man will give you. For on him the Father, God, has set his seal.”(A) 28 So they said to him, “What can we do to accomplish the works of God?” 29 Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in the one he sent.” 30 So they said to him, “What sign can you do, that we may see and believe in you? What can you do?(B) 31 [b]Our ancestors ate manna in the desert, as it is written:(C)
‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’”
32 So Jesus said to them, “Amen, amen, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave the bread from heaven; my Father gives you the true bread from heaven.(D) 33 For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”
34 (E)So they said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.” 35 [c]Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst.(F) 36 But I told you that although you have seen [me], you do not believe.(G) 37 Everything that the Father gives me will come to me, and I will not reject anyone who comes to me, 38 because I came down from heaven not to do my own will but the will of the one who sent me.(H) 39 And this is the will of the one who sent me, that I should not lose anything of what he gave me, but that I should raise it [on] the last day.(I) 40 For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him may have eternal life, and I shall raise him [on] the last day.”(J)
Scripture texts, prefaces, introductions, footnotes and cross references used in this work are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc., Washington, DC All Rights Reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.