Book of Common Prayer
20 In your day of trouble, may the Lord be with you! May the God of Jacob keep you from all harm. 2 May he send you aid from his sanctuary in Zion. 3 May he remember with pleasure the gifts you have given him, your sacrifices and burnt offerings. 4 May he grant you your heart’s desire and fulfill all your plans. 5 May there be shouts of joy when we hear the news of your victory, flags flying with praise to God for all that he has done for you. May he answer all your prayers!
6 “God save the king”—I know he does! He hears me from highest heaven and sends great victories. 7 Some nations boast of armies and of weaponry, but our boast is in the Lord our God. 8 Those nations will collapse and perish; we will arise to stand firm and sure!
9 Give victory to our king, O Lord; oh, hear our prayer.
21 How the king rejoices in your strength, O Lord! How he exults in your salvation. 2 For you have given him his heart’s desire, everything he asks you for!
3 You welcomed him to the throne with success and prosperity. You set a royal crown of solid gold upon his head. 4 He asked for a long, good life, and you have granted his request; the days of his life stretch on and on forever. 5 You have given him fame and honor. You have clothed him with splendor and majesty. 6 You have endowed him with eternal happiness. You have given him the unquenchable joy of your presence. 7 And because the king trusts in the Lord, he will never stumble, never fall; for he depends upon the steadfast love of the God who is above all gods.
8 Your hand, O Lord, will find your enemies, all who hate you. 9-10 When you appear, they will be destroyed in the fierce fire of your presence. The Lord will destroy them and their children. 11 For these men plot against you, Lord, but they cannot possibly succeed. 12 They will turn and flee when they see your arrows aimed straight at them.
13 Accept our praise, O Lord, for all your glorious power. We will write songs to celebrate your mighty acts!
23 Because the Lord is my Shepherd, I have everything I need!
2-3 He lets me rest in the meadow grass and leads me beside the quiet streams. He gives me new strength. He helps me do what honors him the most.
4 Even when walking through the dark valley of death I will not be afraid, for you are close beside me, guarding, guiding all the way.[a]
5 You provide delicious food for me in the presence of my enemies. You have welcomed me as your guest;[b] blessings overflow!
6 Your goodness and unfailing kindness shall be with me all of my life, and afterwards I will live with you forever in your home.
27 The Lord is my light and my salvation; he protects me from danger—whom shall I fear? 2 When evil men come to destroy me, they will stumble and fall! 3 Yes, though a mighty army marches against me, my heart shall know no fear! I am confident that God will save me.
4 The one thing I want from God, the thing I seek most of all, is the privilege of meditating in his Temple, living in his presence every day of my life, delighting in his incomparable perfections and glory. 5 There I’ll be when troubles come. He will hide me. He will set me on a high rock 6 out of reach of all my enemies. Then I will bring him sacrifices and sing his praises with much joy.
7 Listen to my pleading, Lord! Be merciful and send the help I need.
8 My heart has heard you say, “Come and talk with me, O my people.” And my heart responds, “Lord, I am coming.”
9 Oh, do not hide yourself when I am trying to find you. Do not angrily reject your servant. You have been my help in all my trials before; don’t leave me now. Don’t forsake me, O God of my salvation. 10 For if my father and mother should abandon me, you would welcome and comfort me.
11 Tell me what to do, O Lord, and make it plain because I am surrounded by waiting enemies. 12 Don’t let them get me, Lord! Don’t let me fall into their hands! For they accuse me of things I never did, and all the while are plotting cruelty. 13 I am expecting the Lord to rescue me again, so that once again I will see his goodness to me here in the land of the living.
14 Don’t be impatient. Wait for the Lord, and he will come and save you! Be brave, stouthearted, and courageous. Yes, wait and he will help you.
25 O Lord, I will honor and praise your name, for you are my God; you do such wonderful things! You planned them long ago, and now you have accomplished them, just as you said! 2 You turn mighty cities into heaps of ruins. The strongest forts are turned to rubble. Beautiful palaces in distant lands disappear and will never be rebuilt. 3 Therefore strong nations will shake with fear before you; ruthless nations will obey and glorify your name.
4 But to the poor, O Lord, you are a refuge from the storm, a shadow from the heat, a shelter from merciless men who are like a driving rain that melts down an earthen wall. 5 As a hot, dry land is cooled by clouds, you will cool the pride of ruthless nations. 6 Here on Mount Zion in Jerusalem, the Lord Almighty will spread a wondrous feast for everyone around the world—a delicious feast of good food, with clear, well-aged wine and choice beef. 7 At that time he will remove the cloud of gloom, the pall of death that hangs over the earth; 8 he will swallow up death forever. The Lord God will wipe away all tears and take away forever all insults and mockery against his land and people. The Lord has spoken—he will surely do it!
9 In that day the people will proclaim, “This is our God in whom we trust, for whom we waited. Now at last he is here.” What a day of rejoicing!
9 It is I, your brother John, a fellow sufferer for the Lord’s sake, who am writing this letter to you. I, too, have shared the patience Jesus gives, and we shall share his Kingdom!
I was on the island of Patmos, exiled there for preaching the Word of God and for telling what I knew about Jesus Christ. 10 It was the Lord’s Day and I was worshiping, when suddenly I heard a loud voice behind me, a voice that sounded like a trumpet blast, 11 saying, “I am A and Z, the First and Last!” And then I heard him say, “Write down everything you see, and send your letter to the seven churches in Turkey:[a] to the church in Ephesus, the one in Smyrna, and those in Pergamos, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea.”
12 When I turned to see who was speaking, there behind me were seven candlesticks of gold. 13 And standing among them was one who looked like Jesus, who called himself the Son of Man,[b] wearing a long robe circled with a golden band across his chest. 14 His hair was white as wool or snow,[c] and his eyes penetrated like flames of fire. 15 His feet gleamed like burnished bronze, and his voice thundered like the waves against the shore. 16 He held seven stars in his right hand and a sharp, double-bladed sword in his mouth,[d] and his face shone like the power of the sun in unclouded brilliance.
17-18 When I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead; but he laid his right hand on me and said, “Don’t be afraid! Though I am the First and Last, the Living One who died, who is now alive forevermore, who has the keys of hell and death—don’t be afraid! 19 Write down what you have just seen and what will soon be shown to you. 20 This is the meaning of the seven stars you saw in my right hand and the seven golden candlesticks: The seven stars are the leaders[e] of the seven churches, and the seven candlesticks are the churches themselves.
53 [a] Then the meeting broke up and everybody went home.
8 Jesus returned to the Mount of Olives, 2 but early the next morning he was back again at the Temple. A crowd soon gathered, and he sat down and talked to them. 3 As he was speaking, the Jewish leaders and Pharisees brought a woman caught in adultery and placed her out in front of the staring crowd.
4 “Teacher,” they said to Jesus, “this woman was caught in the very act of adultery. 5 Moses’ law says to kill her. What about it?”
6 They were trying to trap him into saying something they could use against him, but Jesus stooped down and wrote in the dust with his finger. 7 They kept demanding an answer, so he stood up again and said, “All right, hurl the stones at her until she dies. But only he who never sinned may throw the first!”
8 Then he stooped down again and wrote some more in the dust. 9 And the Jewish leaders slipped away one by one, beginning with the eldest, until only Jesus was left in front of the crowd with the woman.
10 Then Jesus stood up again and said to her, “Where are your accusers? Didn’t even one of them condemn you?”
11 “No, sir,” she said.
And Jesus said, “Neither do I. Go and sin no more.”
The Living Bible copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.