Book of Common Prayer
Prayer for Relief from Adversaries(A)
To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David. (B)To bring to remembrance.
70 Make haste, (C)O God, to deliver me!
Make haste to help me, O Lord!
2 (D)Let them be ashamed and confounded
Who seek my life;
Let them be [a]turned back and confused
Who desire my hurt.
3 (E)Let them be turned back because of their shame,
Who say, [b]“Aha, aha!”
4 Let all those who seek You rejoice and be glad in You;
And let those who love Your salvation say continually,
“Let God be magnified!”
5 (F)But I am poor and needy;
(G)Make haste to me, O God!
You are my help and my deliverer;
O Lord, do not delay.
God the Rock of Salvation
71 In (H)You, O Lord, I put my trust;
Let me never be put to shame.
2 (I)Deliver me in Your righteousness, and cause me to escape;
(J)Incline Your ear to me, and save me.
3 (K)Be my [c]strong refuge,
To which I may resort continually;
You have given the (L)commandment to save me,
For You are my rock and my fortress.
4 (M)Deliver me, O my God, out of the hand of the wicked,
Out of the hand of the unrighteous and cruel man.
5 For You are (N)my hope, O Lord God;
You are my trust from my youth.
6 (O)By You I have been [d]upheld from birth;
You are He who took me out of my mother’s womb.
My praise shall be continually of You.
7 (P)I have become as a wonder to many,
But You are my strong refuge.
8 Let (Q)my mouth be filled with Your praise
And with Your glory all the day.
9 Do not cast me off in the time of old age;
Do not forsake me when my strength fails.
10 For my enemies speak against me;
And those who lie in wait for my life (R)take counsel together,
11 Saying, “God has forsaken him;
Pursue and take him, for there is none to deliver him.”
12 (S)O God, do not be far from me;
O my God, (T)make haste to help me!
13 Let them be [e]confounded and consumed
Who are adversaries of my life;
Let them be covered with reproach and dishonor
Who seek my hurt.
14 But I will hope continually,
And will praise You yet more and more.
15 My mouth shall tell of Your righteousness
And Your salvation all the day,
For I do not know their limits.
16 I will go in the strength of the Lord God;
I will make mention of Your righteousness, of Yours only.
17 O God, You have taught me from my (U)youth;
And to this day I declare Your wondrous works.
18 Now also (V)when I am old and grayheaded,
O God, do not forsake me,
Until I declare Your strength to this generation,
Your power to everyone who is to come.
19 Also (W)Your righteousness, O God, is [f]very high,
You who have done great things;
(X)O God, who is like You?
20 (Y)You, who have shown me great and severe troubles,
(Z)Shall revive me again,
And bring me up again from the depths of the earth.
21 You shall increase my greatness,
And comfort me on every side.
22 Also (AA)with the lute I will praise You—
And Your faithfulness, O my God!
To You I will sing with the harp,
O (AB)Holy One of Israel.
23 My lips shall greatly rejoice when I sing to You,
And (AC)my soul, which You have redeemed.
24 My tongue also shall talk of Your righteousness all the day long;
For they are confounded,
For they are brought to shame
Who seek my hurt.
A Plea for Relief from Oppressors
A [a]Contemplation of Asaph.
74 O God, why have You cast us off forever?
Why does Your anger smoke against the sheep of Your pasture?
2 Remember Your congregation, which You have purchased of old,
The tribe of Your inheritance, which You have redeemed—
This Mount Zion where You have dwelt.
3 Lift up Your feet to the perpetual desolations.
The enemy has damaged everything in the sanctuary.
4 (A)Your enemies roar in the midst of Your meeting place;
(B)They set up their banners for signs.
5 They seem like men who lift up
Axes among the thick trees.
6 And now they break down its carved work, all at once,
With axes and hammers.
7 They have set fire to Your sanctuary;
They have defiled the dwelling place of Your name to the ground.
8 (C)They said in their hearts,
“Let us [b]destroy them altogether.”
They have burned up all the meeting places of God in the land.
9 We do not see our signs;
(D)There is no longer any prophet;
Nor is there any among us who knows how long.
10 O God, how long will the adversary [c]reproach?
Will the enemy blaspheme Your name forever?
11 (E)Why do You withdraw Your hand, even Your right hand?
Take it out of Your bosom and destroy them.
12 For (F)God is my King from of old,
Working salvation in the midst of the earth.
13 (G)You divided the sea by Your strength;
You broke the heads of the [d]sea serpents in the waters.
14 You broke the heads of [e]Leviathan in pieces,
And gave him as food to the people inhabiting the wilderness.
15 (H)You broke open the fountain and the flood;
(I)You dried up mighty rivers.
16 The day is Yours, the night also is (J)Yours;
(K)You have prepared the light and the sun.
17 You have (L)set all the borders of the earth;
(M)You have made summer and winter.
18 Remember this, that the enemy has reproached, O Lord,
And that a foolish people has blasphemed Your name.
19 Oh, do not deliver the life of Your turtledove to the wild beast!
Do not forget the life of Your poor forever.
20 (N)Have respect to the covenant;
For the [f]dark places of the earth are full of the [g]haunts of [h]cruelty.
21 Oh, do not let the oppressed return ashamed!
Let the poor and needy praise Your name.
22 Arise, O God, plead Your own cause;
Remember how the foolish man [i]reproaches You daily.
23 Do not forget the voice of Your enemies;
The tumult of those who rise up against You increases continually.
Sarah’s Death and Burial
23 Sarah lived one hundred and twenty-seven years; these were the years of the life of Sarah. 2 So Sarah died in (A)Kirjath Arba (that is, (B)Hebron) in the land of Canaan, and Abraham came to mourn for Sarah and to weep for her.
3 Then Abraham stood up from before his dead, and spoke to the sons of (C)Heth, saying, 4 (D)“I am a foreigner and a visitor among you. (E)Give me property for a burial place among you, that I may bury my dead out of my sight.”
5 And the sons of Heth answered Abraham, saying to him, 6 “Hear us, my lord: You are (F)a [a]mighty prince among us; bury your dead in the choicest of our burial places. None of us will withhold from you his burial place, that you may bury your dead.”
7 Then Abraham stood up and bowed himself to the people of the land, the sons of Heth. 8 And he spoke with them, saying, “If it is your wish that I bury my dead out of my sight, hear me, and [b]meet with Ephron the son of Zohar for me, 9 that he may give me the cave of (G)Machpelah which he has, which is at the end of his field. Let him give it to me at the full price, as property for a burial place among you.”
10 Now Ephron dwelt among the sons of Heth; and Ephron the Hittite answered Abraham in the presence of the sons of Heth, all who (H)entered at the gate of his city, saying, 11 (I)“No, my lord, hear me: I give you the field and the cave that is in it; I give it to you in the presence of the sons of my people. I give it to you. Bury your dead!”
12 Then Abraham bowed himself down before the people of the land; 13 and he spoke to Ephron in the hearing of the people of the land, saying, “If you will give it, please hear me. I will give you money for the field; take it from me and I will bury my dead there.”
14 And Ephron answered Abraham, saying to him, 15 “My lord, listen to me; the land is worth four hundred (J)shekels of silver. What is that between you and me? So bury your dead.” 16 And Abraham listened to Ephron; and Abraham (K)weighed out the silver for Ephron which he had named in the hearing of the sons of Heth, four hundred shekels of silver, currency of the merchants.
17 So (L)the field of Ephron which was in Machpelah, which was before Mamre, the field and the cave which was in it, and all the trees that were in the field, which were within all the surrounding borders, were deeded 18 to Abraham as a possession in the presence of the sons of Heth, before all who went in at the gate of his city.
19 And after this, Abraham buried Sarah his wife in the cave of the field of Machpelah, before Mamre (that is, Hebron) in the land of Canaan. 20 So the field and the cave that is in it (M)were deeded to Abraham by the sons of Heth as property for a burial place.
32 And what more shall I say? For the time would fail me to tell of (A)Gideon and (B)Barak and (C)Samson and (D)Jephthah, also of (E)David and (F)Samuel and the prophets: 33 who through faith subdued kingdoms, worked righteousness, obtained promises, (G)stopped the mouths of lions, 34 (H)quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, became valiant in battle, turned to flight the armies of the aliens. 35 (I)Women received their dead raised to life again.
Others were (J)tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection. 36 Still others had trial of mockings and scourgings, yes, and (K)of chains and imprisonment. 37 (L)They were stoned, they were sawn in two, [a]were tempted, were slain with the sword. (M)They wandered about (N)in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented— 38 of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and mountains, (O)in dens and caves of the earth.
39 And all these, (P)having obtained a good testimony through faith, did not receive the promise, 40 God having provided something better for us, that they should not be (Q)made perfect apart from us.
The Race of Faith
12 Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, (R)let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and (S)let us run (T)with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking unto Jesus, the [b]author and [c]finisher of our faith, (U)who for the joy that was set before Him (V)endured the cross, despising the shame, and (W)has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Many Disciples Turn Away
60 (A)Therefore many of His disciples, when they heard this, said, “This is a [a]hard saying; who can understand it?”
61 When Jesus knew in Himself that His disciples [b]complained about this, He said to them, “Does this [c]offend you? 62 (B)What then if you should see the Son of Man ascend where He was before? 63 (C)It is the Spirit who gives life; the (D)flesh profits nothing. The (E)words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life. 64 But (F)there are some of you who do not believe.” For (G)Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe, and who would betray Him. 65 And He said, “Therefore (H)I have said to you that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted to him by My Father.”
66 (I)From that time many of His disciples went [d]back and walked with Him no more. 67 Then Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you also want to go away?”
68 But Simon Peter answered Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have (J)the words of eternal life. 69 (K)Also we have come to believe and know that You are the [e]Christ, the Son of the living God.”
70 Jesus answered them, (L)“Did I not choose you, the twelve, (M)and one of you is a devil?” 71 He spoke of (N)Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, for it was he who would (O)betray Him, being one of the twelve.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.