Book of Common Prayer
Prayer for Help against Persecutors.
To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David, to bring to remembrance.
70 O God, come quickly to save me;
O Lord, come quickly to help me!
2
Let those be ashamed and humiliated
Who seek my life;
Let them be turned back and humiliated
Who delight in my hurt.
3
Let them be turned back because of their shame and disgrace
Who say, “Aha, aha!”
4
May all those who seek You [as life’s first priority] rejoice and be glad in You;
May those who love Your salvation say continually,
“Let God be magnified!”
5
But I am afflicted and needy;
Come quickly to me, O God!
You are my help and my rescuer;
O Lord, do not delay.
Prayer of an Old Man for Rescue.
71 In you, O Lord, I have put my trust and confidently taken refuge;
Let me never be [a]put to shame.
2
In Your righteousness deliver me and rescue me;
Incline Your ear to me and save me.
3
Be to me a rock of refuge and a sheltering stronghold to which I may continually come;
You have given the commandment to save me,
For You are my rock and my fortress.
4
Rescue me, O my God, from the hand of the wicked (godless),
From the grasp of the unrighteous and ruthless man.
5
For You are my hope;
O Lord God, You are my trust and the source of my confidence from my youth.
6
Upon You have I relied and been sustained from my birth;
You are He who took me from my mother’s womb and You have been my benefactor from that day.
My praise is continually of You.
7
I am as a wonder to many,
For You are my strong refuge.
8
My mouth is filled with Your praise
And with Your glory all day long.
9
Do not cast me off nor send me away in the time of old age;
Do not abandon me when my strength fails and I am weak.
10
For my enemies have spoken against me;
Those who watch for my life have consulted together,
11
Saying, “God has abandoned him;
Pursue and seize him, for there is no one to rescue him.”
12
O God, do not be far from me;
O my God, come quickly to help me!
13
Let those who attack my life be ashamed and consumed;
Let them be covered with reproach and dishonor, who seek to injure me.
14
But as for me, I will wait and hope continually,
And will praise You yet more and more.
15
My mouth shall tell of Your righteousness
And of Your [deeds of] salvation all day long,
For their number is more than I know.
16
I will come with the mighty acts of the Lord God [and in His strength];
I will make mention of Your righteousness, Yours alone.
17
O God, You have taught me from my youth,
And I still declare Your wondrous works and miraculous deeds.
18
And even when I am old and gray-headed, O God, do not abandon me,
Until I declare Your [mighty] strength to this generation,
Your power to all who are to come.
19
Your righteousness, O God, reaches to the [height of the] heavens,
You who have done great things;
O God, who is like You, [who is Your equal]?
20
You who have shown [b]me many troubles and distresses
Will revive and renew me again,
And will bring me up again from the depths of the earth.
21
May You increase my greatness (honor)
And turn to comfort me.
22
I will also praise You with the harp,
Your truth and faithfulness, O my God;
To You I will sing praises with the lyre,
O Holy One of Israel.
23
My lips will shout for joy when I sing praises to You,
And my soul, which You have redeemed.
24
My tongue also will speak of Your righteousness all day long;
For they are ashamed, for they are humiliated who seek my injury.
An Appeal against the Devastation of the Land by the Enemy.
A skillful song, or a didactic or reflective poem, of Asaph.
74 O God, why have You rejected us forever?
Why does Your anger smoke against the sheep of Your pasture?
2
Remember Your congregation, which You have purchased of old,
Which You have redeemed to be the tribe of Your inheritance;
Remember Mount Zion, where You have dwelt.
3
Turn your footsteps [quickly] toward the perpetual ruins;
The enemy has damaged everything within the sanctuary.
4
In the midst of Your meeting place Your enemies have roared [with their battle cry];
They have set up their own emblems for signs [of victory].
5
It seems as if one had lifted up
An axe in a forest of trees [to set a record of destruction].
6
And now all the carved work [of the meeting place]
They smash with hatchets and hammers.
7
They have burned Your sanctuary to the ground;
They have profaned the dwelling place of Your [a]name.
8
They said in their heart, “Let us completely subdue them.”
They have burned all the meeting places of God in the land.
9
We do not see our symbols;
There is no longer any prophet [to guide us],
Nor does any among us know for how long.
10
O God, how long will the adversary scoff?
Is the enemy to revile Your name forever?
11
Why do You withdraw Your hand, even Your right hand [from judging the enemy]?
Remove Your hand from Your chest, destroy them!
12
Yet God is my King of old,
Working salvation in the midst of the earth.
13
You divided the [Red] Sea by Your strength;
You broke the heads of the [b]sea monsters in the waters.(A)
14
You crushed the heads of [c]Leviathan (Egypt);
You gave him as food for the creatures of the wilderness.(B)
15
You broke open fountains and streams;
You dried up ever-flowing rivers.(C)
16
The day is Yours, the night also is Yours;
You have established and prepared the [heavenly] light and the sun.
17
You have defined and established all the borders of the earth [the divisions of land and sea and of the nations];
You have made summer and winter.(D)
18
Remember this, O Lord, the enemy has scoffed,
And a foolish and impious people has spurned Your name.
19
Oh, do not hand over the soul of your turtledove to the wild beast;
Do not forget the life of Your afflicted forever.
20
Consider the covenant [You made with Abraham],
For the dark places of the land are full of the habitations of violence.
21
Let not the oppressed return dishonored;
Let the afflicted and needy praise Your name.
22
Arise, O God, plead Your own cause;
Remember how the foolish man scoffs at You all day long.
23
Do not forget the [clamoring] voices of Your adversaries,
The uproar of those who rise against You, which ascends continually [to Your ears].
Cast Your Bread on the Waters
11 Cast your bread on the surface of the waters, [be diligently active, make thoughtful decisions], for you will [a]find it after many days. 2 Give a portion to seven, or even [divide it] to eight, for you do not know what misfortune may occur on the earth. 3 If the clouds are full [of rain], they empty themselves on the earth; and if a tree falls toward the south or toward the north, in the place where the tree falls, there it lies. 4 He who watches the wind [waiting for all conditions to be perfect] will not sow [seed], and he who looks at the clouds will not reap [a harvest]. 5 Just as you do not know the way and path of the wind or how the bones are formed in the womb of a pregnant woman, even so you do not know the activity of God who makes all things.
6 Sow your seed in the morning and do not be idle with your hands in the evening, for you do not know whether morning or evening planting will succeed, whether this or that, or whether both alike will be good.
7 The light is sweet and pleasant, and it is good for the eyes to see the sun. 8 Yes, if a man should live many years, let him rejoice in them all; yet let him remember the days of darkness, for they will be many. All that is to come will be futility.
16 But I say, walk habitually in the [Holy] Spirit [seek Him and be responsive to His guidance], and then you will certainly not carry out the desire of the [a]sinful nature [which responds impulsively without regard for God and His precepts]. 17 For the sinful nature has its desire which is opposed to the Spirit, and the [desire of the] Spirit opposes the [b]sinful nature; for these [two, the sinful nature and the Spirit] are in direct opposition to each other [continually in conflict], so that you [as believers] do not [always] do whatever [good things] you want to do. 18 But if you are guided and led by the Spirit, you are not subject to the Law. 19 Now the practices of the [c]sinful nature are clearly evident: they are sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality (total irresponsibility, lack of self-control), 20 [d]idolatry, [e]sorcery, hostility, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions [that promote heresies], 21 envy, drunkenness, riotous behavior, and other things like these. I warn you beforehand, just as I did previously, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. 22 But the fruit of the Spirit [the result of His presence within us] is love [unselfish concern for others], joy, [inner] peace, patience [not the ability to wait, but how we act while waiting], kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24 And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the [f]sinful nature together with its passions and appetites.
Peter’s Confession of Christ
13 Now when Jesus went into the [a]region of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?”(A) 14 And they answered, “Some say John the Baptist; others, Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah, or [just] one of the prophets.” 15 He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” 16 Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed), the Son of the living God.” 17 Then Jesus answered him, “Blessed [happy, spiritually secure, favored by God] are you, Simon son of Jonah, because flesh and blood (mortal man) did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. 18 And I say to you that you are [b]Peter, and on this [c]rock I will build My church; and the [d]gates of Hades (death) will not overpower it [by preventing the resurrection of the Christ].(B) 19 I will give you the keys (authority) of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you bind [forbid, declare to be improper and unlawful] on earth [e]will have [already] been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose [permit, declare lawful] on earth [f]will have [already] been loosed in heaven.”(C) 20 Then He gave the disciples strict orders to tell no one that He was the Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed).
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