Book of Common Prayer
Prayer for help against persecutors.
For the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David; [a]to bring to remembrance.
70 Make haste, O God, to deliver me;
Make haste to help me, O Jehovah.
2 Let them be put to shame and confounded
That seek after my soul:
Let them be turned backward and brought to dishonor
That delight in my hurt.
3 Let them be turned back [b]by reason of their shame
That say, Aha, aha.
4 Let all those that seek thee rejoice and be glad in thee;
And let such as love thy salvation say continually,
Let God be magnified.
5 But I am poor and needy;
Make haste unto me, O God:
Thou art my help and my deliverer;
O Jehovah, make no tarrying.
Prayer of an old man for deliverance.
71 In thee, O Jehovah, do I take refuge:
Let me never be put to shame.
2 Deliver me in thy righteousness, and rescue me:
Bow down thine ear unto me, and save me.
3 Be thou to me a rock of habitation, whereunto I may continually resort:
Thou hast given commandment to save me;
For thou art my rock and my fortress.
4 Rescue me, O my God, out of the hand of the wicked,
Out of the hand of the unrighteous and cruel man.
5 For thou art my hope, O Lord Jehovah:
Thou art my trust from my youth.
6 By thee have I been holden up from the womb;
Thou [c]art he that took me out of my mother’s bowels:
My praise shall be continually of thee.
7 I am as a wonder unto many;
But thou art my strong refuge.
8 My mouth shall be filled with thy praise,
And with thy honor all the day.
9 Cast me not off in the time of old age;
Forsake me not when my strength faileth.
10 For mine enemies speak concerning me;
And they that watch for my soul take counsel together,
11 Saying, God hath forsaken him:
Pursue and take him; for there is none to deliver.
12 O God, be not far from me;
O my God, make haste to help me.
13 Let them be put to shame and consumed that are adversaries to my soul;
Let them be covered with reproach and dishonor that seek my hurt.
14 But I will hope continually,
And will praise thee yet more and more.
15 My mouth shall tell of thy righteousness,
And of thy salvation all the day;
For I know not the numbers thereof.
16 I will come [d]with the mighty acts of the Lord Jehovah:
I will make mention of thy righteousness, even of thine only.
17 O God, thou hast taught me from my youth;
And hitherto have I declared thy wondrous works.
18 Yea, even [e]when I am old and grayheaded, O God, forsake me not,
Until I have declared [f]thy strength unto the next generation,
Thy might to every one that is to come.
19 Thy righteousness also, O God, is very high;
Thou who hast done great things, O God, who is like unto thee?
20 Thou, who hast showed [g]us many and sore troubles,
Wilt quicken [h]us again,
And wilt bring [i]us up again from the depths of the earth.
21 Increase thou my greatness,
And turn again and comfort me.
22 I will also praise thee with the psaltery,
Even thy truth, O my God:
Unto thee will I sing praises with the harp,
O thou Holy One of Israel.
23 My lips shall shout for joy when I sing praises unto thee;
And my soul, which thou hast redeemed.
24 My tongue also shall talk of thy righteousness all the day long;
For they are put to shame, for they are confounded, that seek my hurt.
A complaint over the devastation of the land by the enemy.
Maschil of Asaph.
74 O God, why hast thou cast us off for ever?
Why doth thine anger smoke against the sheep of thy pasture?
2 Remember thy congregation, which thou hast gotten of old,
Which thou hast redeemed to be the tribe of thine inheritance;
And mount Zion, wherein thou hast dwelt.
3 Lift up thy feet unto the perpetual ruins,
[a]All the evil that the enemy hath done in the sanctuary.
4 Thine adversaries have roared in the midst of thine assembly;
They have set up their ensigns for signs.
5 They [b]seemed as men that lifted up
Axes upon a thicket of trees.
6 And now all the carved work thereof
They break down with hatchet and hammers.
7 They have set thy sanctuary on fire;
They have profaned the dwelling-place of thy name by casting it to the ground.
8 They said in their heart, Let us make havoc of them altogether:
They have burned up all the [c]synagogues of God in the land.
9 We see not our signs:
There is no more any prophet;
Neither is there among us any that knoweth how long.
10 How long, O God, shall the adversary reproach?
Shall the enemy blaspheme thy name for ever?
11 Why drawest thou back thy hand, even thy right hand?
Pluck it out of thy bosom and consume them.
12 Yet God is my King of old,
Working salvation in the midst of the earth.
13 Thou didst [d]divide the sea by thy strength:
Thou brakest the heads of the sea-monsters in the waters.
14 Thou brakest the heads of leviathan in pieces;
Thou gavest him to be food to the people inhabiting the wilderness.
15 Thou didst cleave fountain and flood:
Thou driedst up [e]mighty rivers.
16 The day is thine, the night also is thine:
Thou hast prepared the [f]light and the sun.
17 Thou hast set all the borders of the earth:
Thou hast made summer and winter.
18 Remember this, that the enemy [g]hath reproached, O Jehovah,
And that a foolish people hath blasphemed thy name.
19 Oh deliver not [h]the soul of thy turtle-dove unto the wild beast:
Forget not the [i]life of thy poor for ever.
20 Have respect unto the covenant;
For the dark places of the [j]earth are full of the habitations of violence.
21 Oh let not the oppressed return ashamed:
Let the poor and needy praise thy name.
22 Arise, O God, plead thine own cause:
Remember how the foolish man reproacheth thee all the day.
23 Forget not the voice of thine adversaries:
The tumult of those that rise up against thee [k]ascendeth continually.
26 Ye shall not eat anything with the blood: neither shall ye use enchantments, nor practise augury. 27 Ye shall not round the corners of your heads, neither shalt thou mar the corners of thy beard. 28 Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor print any marks upon you: I am Jehovah.
29 Profane not thy daughter, to make her a harlot; lest the land fall to whoredom, and the land become full of [a]wickedness. 30 Ye shall keep my sabbaths, and reverence my sanctuary: I am Jehovah.
31 Turn ye not unto them that have familiar spirits, nor unto the wizards; seek them not out, to be defiled by them: I am Jehovah your God.
32 Thou shalt rise up before the hoary head, and honor the face of the old man, and thou shalt fear thy God: I am Jehovah.
33 And if a stranger sojourn with thee in your land, ye shall not do him wrong. 34 The stranger that sojourneth with you shall be unto you as the home-born among you, and thou shalt love him as thyself; for ye were sojourners in the land of Egypt: I am Jehovah your God.
35 Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment, in measures of length, of weight, or of quantity. 36 Just balances, just weights, a just ephah, and a just hin, shall ye have: I am Jehovah your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt. 37 And ye shall observe all my statutes, and all mine ordinances, and do them: I am Jehovah.
1 Paul, and Silvanus, and Timothy, unto the church of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ; 2 Grace to you and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
3 We are bound to give thanks to God always for you, brethren, even as it is meet, for that your faith groweth exceedingly, and the love of each one of you all toward one another aboundeth; 4 so that we ourselves glory in you in the churches of God for your [a]patience and faith in all your persecutions and in the afflictions which ye endure; 5 which is a manifest token of the righteous judgment of God; to the end that ye may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which ye also suffer: 6 if so be that it is a righteous thing with God to recompense affliction to them that afflict you, 7 and to you that are afflicted rest with us, at the revelation of the Lord Jesus from heaven with the angels of his power in flaming fire, 8 rendering vengeance to them that know not God, and to them that obey not the [b]gospel of our Lord Jesus: 9 who shall suffer punishment, even eternal destruction from the face of the Lord and from the glory of his might, 10 when he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be marvelled at in all them that believed (because our testimony unto you was believed) in that day. 11 To which end we also pray always for you, that our God may count you worthy of your calling, and fulfil every [c]desire of goodness and every work of faith, with power; 12 that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and ye in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.
25 Therefore I say unto you, Be not anxious for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than the food, and the body than the raiment? 26 Behold the birds of the heaven, that they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; and your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are not ye of much more value than they? 27 And which of you by being anxious can add one cubit unto [a]the measure of his life? 28 And why are ye anxious concerning raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: 29 yet I say unto you, that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 But if God doth so clothe the grass of the field, which to-day is, and to-morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? 31 Be not therefore anxious, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? 32 For after all these things do the Gentiles seek; for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. 33 But seek ye first his kingdom, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. 34 Be not therefore anxious for the morrow: for the morrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.
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