Book of Common Prayer
Prayer for Deliverance from Enemies
To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David, for the memorial offering.
70 Be pleased, O God, to deliver me!
O Lord, make haste to help me!
2 Let them be put to shame and confusion
who seek my life!
Let them be turned back and brought to dishonor
who desire my hurt!
3 Let them be appalled because of their shame
who say, “Aha, Aha!”
4 May all who seek thee
rejoice and be glad in thee!
May those who love thy salvation
say evermore, “God is great!”
5 But I am poor and needy;
hasten to me, O God!
Thou art my help and my deliverer;
O Lord, do not tarry!
Prayer for Lifelong Protection and Help
71 In thee, O Lord, do I take refuge;
let me never be put to shame!
2 In thy righteousness deliver me and rescue me;
incline thy ear to me, and save me!
3 Be thou to me a rock of refuge,
a strong fortress,[a] to save me,
for thou art my rock and my fortress.
4 Rescue me, O my God, from the hand of the wicked,
from the grasp of the unjust and cruel man.
5 For thou, O Lord, art my hope,
my trust, O Lord, from my youth.
6 Upon thee I have leaned from my birth;
thou art he who took me from my mother’s womb.
My praise is continually of thee.
7 I have been as a portent to many;
but thou art my strong refuge.
8 My mouth is filled with thy praise,
and with thy glory all the day.
9 Do not cast me off in the time of old age;
forsake me not when my strength is spent.
10 For my enemies speak concerning me,
those who watch for my life consult together,
11 and say, “God has forsaken him;
pursue and seize him,
for there is none to deliver him.”
12 O God, be not far from me;
O my God, make haste to help me!
13 May my accusers be put to shame and consumed;
with scorn and disgrace may they be covered
who seek my hurt.
14 But I will hope continually,
and will praise thee yet more and more.
15 My mouth will tell of thy righteous acts,
of thy deeds of salvation all the day,
for their number is past my knowledge.
16 With the mighty deeds of the Lord God I will come,
I will praise thy righteousness, thine alone.
17 O God, from my youth thou hast taught me,
and I still proclaim thy wondrous deeds.
18 So even to old age and gray hairs,
O God, do not forsake me,
till I proclaim thy might
to all the generations to come.[b]
Thy power 19 and thy righteousness, O God,
reach the high heavens.
Thou who hast done great things,
O God, who is like thee?
20 Thou who hast made me see many sore troubles
wilt revive me again;
from the depths of the earth
thou wilt bring me up again.
21 Thou wilt increase my honor,
and comfort me again.
22 I will also praise thee with the harp
for thy faithfulness, O my God;
I will sing praises to thee with the lyre,
O Holy One of Israel.
23 My lips will shout for joy,
when I sing praises to thee;
my soul also, which thou hast rescued.
24 And my tongue will talk of thy righteous help
all the day long,
for they have been put to shame and disgraced
who sought to do me hurt.
Plea for Help in Time of National Humiliation
A Maskil of Asaph.
74 O God, why dost thou cast us off for ever?
Why does thy 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 thy heritage!
Remember Mount Zion, where thou hast dwelt.
3 Direct thy steps to the perpetual ruins;
the enemy has destroyed everything in the sanctuary!
4 Thy foes have roared in the midst of thy holy place;
they set up their own signs for signs.
5 At the upper entrance they hacked
the wooden trellis with axes.[a]
6 And then all its carved wood
they broke down with hatchets and hammers.
7 They set thy sanctuary on fire;
to the ground they desecrated the dwelling place of thy name.
8 They said to themselves, “We will utterly subdue them”;
they burned all the meeting places of God in the land.
9 We do not see our signs;
there is no longer any prophet,
and there is none among us who knows how long.
10 How long, O God, is the foe to scoff?
Is the enemy to revile thy name for ever?
11 Why dost thou hold back thy hand,
why dost thou keep thy right hand in[b] thy bosom?
12 Yet God my King is from of old,
working salvation in the midst of the earth.
13 Thou didst divide the sea by thy might;
thou didst break the heads of the dragons on the waters.
14 Thou didst crush the heads of Leviathan,
thou didst give him as food[c] for the creatures of the wilderness.
15 Thou didst cleave open springs and brooks;
thou didst dry up ever-flowing streams.
16 Thine is the day, thine also the night;
thou hast established the luminaries and the sun.
17 Thou hast fixed all the bounds of the earth;
thou hast made summer and winter.
18 Remember this, O Lord, how the enemy scoffs,
and an impious people reviles thy name.
19 Do not deliver the soul of thy dove to the wild beasts;
do not forget the life of thy poor for ever.
20 Have regard for thy[d] covenant;
for the dark places of the land are full of the habitations of violence.
21 Let not the downtrodden be put to shame;
let the poor and needy praise thy name.
22 Arise, O God, plead thy cause;
remember how the impious scoff at thee all the day!
23 Do not forget the clamor of thy foes,
the uproar of thy adversaries which goes up continually!
4 Now Deb′orah, a prophetess, the wife of Lap′pidoth, was judging Israel at that time. 5 She used to sit under the palm of Deb′orah between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of E′phraim; and the people of Israel came up to her for judgment. 6 She sent and summoned Barak the son of Abin′o-am from Kedesh in Naph′tali, and said to him, “The Lord, the God of Israel, commands you, ‘Go, gather your men at Mount Tabor, taking ten thousand from the tribe of Naph′tali and the tribe of Zeb′ulun. 7 And I will draw out Sis′era, the general of Jabin’s army, to meet you by the river Kishon with his chariots and his troops; and I will give him into your hand.’” 8 Barak said to her, “If you will go with me, I will go; but if you will not go with me, I will not go.” 9 And she said, “I will surely go with you; nevertheless, the road on which you are going will not lead to your glory, for the Lord will sell Sis′era into the hand of a woman.” Then Deb′orah arose, and went with Barak to Kedesh. 10 And Barak summoned Zeb′ulun and Naph′tali to Kedesh; and ten thousand men went up at his heels; and Deb′orah went up with him.
11 Now Heber the Ken′ite had separated from the Ken′ites, the descendants of Hobab the father-in-law of Moses, and had pitched his tent as far away as the oak in Za-anan′nim, which is near Kedesh.
12 When Sis′era was told that Barak the son of Abin′o-am had gone up to Mount Tabor, 13 Sis′era called out all his chariots, nine hundred chariots of iron, and all the men who were with him, from Haro′sheth-ha-goi′im to the river Kishon. 14 And Deb′orah said to Barak, “Up! For this is the day in which the Lord has given Sis′era into your hand. Does not the Lord go out before you?” So Barak went down from Mount Tabor with ten thousand men following him. 15 And the Lord routed Sis′era and all his chariots and all his army before Barak at the edge of the sword; and Sis′era alighted from his chariot and fled away on foot. 16 And Barak pursued the chariots and the army to Haro′sheth-ha-goi′im, and all the army of Sis′era fell by the edge of the sword; not a man was left.
17 But Sis′era fled away on foot to the tent of Ja′el, the wife of Heber the Ken′ite; for there was peace between Jabin the king of Hazor and the house of Heber the Ken′ite. 18 And Ja′el came out to meet Sis′era, and said to him, “Turn aside, my lord, turn aside to me; have no fear.” So he turned aside to her into the tent, and she covered him with a rug. 19 And he said to her, “Pray, give me a little water to drink; for I am thirsty.” So she opened a skin of milk and gave him a drink and covered him. 20 And he said to her, “Stand at the door of the tent, and if any man comes and asks you, ‘Is any one here?’ say, No.” 21 But Ja′el the wife of Heber took a tent peg, and took a hammer in her hand, and went softly to him and drove the peg into his temple, till it went down into the ground, as he was lying fast asleep from weariness. So he died. 22 And behold, as Barak pursued Sis′era, Ja′el went out to meet him, and said to him, “Come, and I will show you the man whom you are seeking.” So he went in to her tent; and there lay Sis′era dead, with the tent peg in his temple.
23 So on that day God subdued Jabin the king of Canaan before the people of Israel.
15 In those days Peter stood up among the brethren (the company of persons was in all about a hundred and twenty), and said, 16 “Brethren, the scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit spoke beforehand by the mouth of David, concerning Judas who was guide to those who arrested Jesus. 17 For he was numbered among us, and was allotted his share in this ministry. 18 (Now this man bought a field with the reward of his wickedness; and falling headlong[a] he burst open in the middle and all his bowels gushed out. 19 And it became known to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that the field was called in their language Akel′dama, that is, Field of Blood.) 20 For it is written in the book of Psalms,
‘Let his habitation become desolate,
and let there be no one to live in it’;
and
‘His office let another take.’
21 So one of the men who have accompanied us during all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, 22 beginning from the baptism of John until the day when he was taken up from us—one of these men must become with us a witness to his resurrection.”[b] 23 And they put forward two, Joseph called Barsab′bas, who was surnamed Justus, and Matthi′as. 24 And they prayed and said, “Lord, who knowest the hearts of all men, show which one of these two thou hast chosen 25 to take the place in this ministry and apostleship from which Judas turned aside, to go to his own place.” 26 And they cast lots for them, and the lot fell on Matthi′as; and he was enrolled with the eleven apostles.
55 There were also many women there, looking on from afar, who had followed Jesus from Galilee, ministering to him; 56 among whom were Mary Mag′dalene, and Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and the mother of the sons of Zeb′edee.
The Burial of Jesus
57 When it was evening, there came a rich man from Arimathe′a, named Joseph, who also was a disciple of Jesus. 58 He went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then Pilate ordered it to be given to him. 59 And Joseph took the body, and wrapped it in a clean linen shroud, 60 and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn in the rock; and he rolled a great stone to the door of the tomb, and departed. 61 Mary Mag′dalene and the other Mary were there, sitting opposite the sepulchre.
The Guard at the Tomb
62 Next day, that is, after the day of Preparation, the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered before Pilate 63 and said, “Sir, we remember how that imposter said, while he was still alive, ‘After three days I will rise again.’ 64 Therefore order the sepulchre to be made secure until the third day, lest his disciples go and steal him away, and tell the people, ‘He has risen from the dead,’ and the last fraud will be worse than the first.” 65 Pilate said to them, “You have a guard[a] of soldiers; go, make it as secure as you can.”[b] 66 So they went and made the sepulchre secure by sealing the stone and setting a guard.[c]
The Revised Standard Version of the Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1965, 1966 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.