Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 18[a]
Thanksgiving for God’s Help
1 For the director.[b] Of David, the servant of the Lord. He sang to the Lord the words of this song after the Lord had rescued him from the clutches of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul. 2 He said:
I love you, O Lord, my strength,
3 O Lord, my rock,[c] my fortress, my deliverer.
My God is my rock in whom I take refuge,
my shield and the horn of my salvation,
my stronghold.
4 I call upon the Lord, who is worthy of all praise;
and I am saved from my enemies.
5 The cords of death encompassed me,
and the torrents of destruction assailed me.
6 The cords of the netherworld ensnared me,
and the snares of death[d] rose up before me.
7 In my anguish I cried out to the Lord
and called to my God for help.
From his temple[e] he heard my voice,
and my cry to him reached his ears.
8 [f]The earth swayed and rocked;
the foundations of the mountains shook,
rocking because of his blazing anger.
9 Smoke poured forth from his nostrils,
while a scorching fire blazed out of his mouth
and kindled coals into flame.
10 He parted the heavens and came down;
dark clouds lay under his feet.
11 He rode upon a cherub,[g]
soaring swiftly on the wings of the wind.
12 He used the darkness as his covering,
and dense thunderclouds as his canopy.
13 From the radiance before him thick clouds emerged,
spewing hail and flashes of fire.
14 The Lord thundered from the heavens,
and the Most High let his voice be heard.
15 He shot his arrows[h] and scattered them,
hurled his lightning bolts and routed them.
16 Then the depths of the sea were exposed,
and the earth’s foundations were laid bare,
at the rebuke of the Lord,[i]
at the blast of wind from his nostrils.
17 He reached down from on high and snatched me up;
he drew me out of the watery depths.[j]
18 He delivered me from my powerful enemy,
and from my foes, who were too strong for me.
19 They assailed me in the day of my misfortune,
but the Lord came forward to uphold me.
20 He led me forth into the open field;
he set me free because he was pleased with me.
21 The Lord has dealt with me according to my righteousness;[k]
because my hands were pure, he has rewarded me.
22 For I have kept the ways of the Lord[l]
and refused to turn away from my God.
23 His laws are clearly known to me,
and I have not failed to observe his decrees.
24 I was blameless in his sight,
and I kept myself free of sin.
25 Therefore, the Lord has rewarded me according to my righteousness,
because of the cleanness of my hands in his eyes.
26 To the loyal, you show yourself to be loyal;
to the blameless, you show yourself to be blameless;
27 to the pure, you show yourself to be pure;
but to the perverse,[m] you show yourself to be shrewd.
28 For you save the humble,
but you bring down the haughty.
29 You, O Lord, are light for my lamp;[n]
O my God, you make my darkness turn to light.
30 With your help I can storm a rampart;
with my God to aid me, I can scale any wall.
31 The way of God is blameless,
and the Lord’s promise proves true;
he is a shield to all
who flee to him for safety.
32 Indeed, who is God except the Lord?
Who is the Rock besides our God?
33 It is God who clothes me with strength
and makes my way blameless.
34 He gives me the swift feet of a deer
and places me securely on the heights.
35 He trains my hands for war
and my arms to bend a bow of bronze.[o]
36 You have given me the shield of your salvation;
your right hand sustains me,
and your goodness makes me great.
37 You broadened the path beneath me
so that my feet have never stumbled.
38 I went after my enemies and overtook them;
I did not turn back until they were defeated.
39 When I knocked them down, they were unable to rise;
they fell down at my feet.
40 You clothed me with strength for the battle
and cast down my adversaries beneath me.
41 You made my enemies retreat before me,
so that I could scatter those who hated me.
42 They called for help, but there was no one to deliver them;
they called to the Lord, but no answer came.
43 I crushed them like fine dust before the wind;
I trod on them like mud in the streets.
44 You delivered me from a people in rebellion,
and you placed me in charge of the nations;
people I did not know have become my subjects.
45 As soon as they heard me, they obeyed;
foreigners groveled before me.
46 Then they became disheartened
and came forth trembling from their strongholds.
47 The Lord lives! Blessed[p] be my Rock!
Exalted be God, my Savior!
48 O God, you obtained vindication for me,
subjected nations under me,
49 and freed me from my enemies.
You exalted me over my adversaries
and delivered me from the violent.
50 For this, O Lord, I will praise you among the nations
and sing praise to your name.[q]
51 You have bestowed great victories on your king,
and you have shown kindness to your anointed,[r]
to David and his descendants forever.
10 While Aaron spoke to the entire community of the children of Israel, they turned toward the desert and, behold, the glory of the Lord appeared in the clouds.
11 The Lord said to Moses, 12 “I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel. Say this to them: ‘At dusk you will eat meat, and in the morning you will have your fill of bread. You will know that I am the Lord, your God.’ ”
13 In the evening quail rose up and covered the camp. In the morning there was a layer of dew on the ground around the camp. 14 The layer of dew evaporated, and on the surface of the desert there was something small and flaky, as small as hoarfrost on the ground. 15 The children of Israel saw it and said to one another, “What is it?”[a] because they did not know what it was. Moses said to them, “It is the bread that the Lord has given us as food.
16 “This is what the Lord commands: ‘Collect as much as each person can eat, an omer[b] per person. Let every person take as much as needed for the people living with him, for as many as there are in his tent.’ ”
17 This is what the children of Israel did. Some collected quite a bit and others much less. 18 They measured it with the omer. Those who had collected more did not have too much, while those who collected less did not have too little. They had collected just as much as each person could eat.
19 Then Moses said to them, “Nothing should be left till the morning.” 20 However, some did not obey Moses and saved a bit of it until the morning, but it grew rancid and had worms. Moses was angry with them.
21 They therefore collected it each morning, as much as each one would eat. When the sun warmed up, it melted away.
22 On the sixth day, they collected double the amount of bread, two omers for each person. All the leaders of the community came to tell Moses,
God’s People in a Hostile World[a]
11 Lead a Good Life amidst Pagans.[b] Beloved, I urge you as aliens and exiles not to succumb to the desires of the flesh that wage war against the soul. 12 Conduct yourselves honorably among the Gentiles so that, although they now malign you as evildoers, they may observe your good works and glorify God on the day of visitation.
13 Christianity Is Not a Subversive Group.[c] For the Lord’s sake, submit to every human institution, whether of the emperor as supreme 14 or of governors as sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do good works. 15 For it is the will of God that by doing right you should silence the ignorant talk of fools.
16 As servants of God, behave as free people, but do not use your freedom as a means to cover up wrongdoing. 17 Give due honor to everyone. Love your fellow believers. Fear God. Honor the emperor.
18 Recommendations for Slaves.[d] Slaves, submit to your masters with due respect, not only to those who are kind and forbearing but also to those who are harsh. 19 It is a sign of grace if you endure the pain of unjust suffering because of your awareness of God.
20 What credit do you deserve if you are patient when you are beaten for doing wrong? However, if you are patient when you do what is right and suffer for it, you have earned merit with God.
21 [e]This, in fact, is what you have been called to do, because Christ himself suffered for you and left an example for you to follow in his footsteps.
22 He committed no sin,[f]
and no deceit was found on his lips.
23 When he was abused, he did not retaliate. When he suffered, he made no threats, but he placed his trust in the one who judges justly. 24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live in righteousness.
By his wounds you have been healed. 25 For you were like sheep who had gone astray, but now you have returned to the shepherd and guardian of your souls.[g]
Love as Jesus Does[a]
12 “This is my commandment:
love one another
as I have loved you.
13 No one can have greater love
than to lay down his life for his friends.
14 You are my friends
if you do what I command you.
15 “I shall no longer call you servants,
because a servant does not know
what his master is doing.
I have called you friends
because I have revealed to you
everything that I have heard from my Father.
16 “You did not choose me.
Rather, I chose you.
And I appointed you
to go out and bear fruit,
fruit that will remain,
so that the Father may give you
whatever you ask him in my name.
17 The command I give you is this:
love one another.
Witnesses to Jesus in the Face of the World’s Hatred[b]
18 “If the world hates you,
be aware that it hated me
before it hated you.
19 If you belonged to the world,
the world would love you as its own.
But you do not belong to the world
because I have chosen you out of the world,
and therefore the world hates you.
20 “Remember the word that I said to you:
‘a servant is not greater than his master.’
If they persecuted me,
they will persecute you.
If they kept my word,
they will keep yours as well.
21 But they will do all these things to you
on account of my name,
because they do not know the one who sent me.
22 “If I had not come
and spoken to them,
they would not be guilty of sin,
but now they have no excuse for their sin.
23 Whoever hates me
hates my Father also.
24 If I had not done works among them
that no one else had ever done,
they would not be guilty of sin.
But now they have seen and hated
both me and my Father.
25 All this was to fulfill the word
that is inscribed in their Law:
‘They hated me without cause.’
26 “When the Advocate comes
whom I will send you from the Father,
the Spirit of truth who comes from the Father,
he will testify on my behalf.
27 And you also are my witnesses
because you have been with me from the beginning.
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