Book of Common Prayer
To the Director: A Davidic Psalm.
Prayer and Thanksgiving
31 In you, Lord, I have taken refuge.
Let me never be ashamed.
Because you are righteous, deliver me!
2 Listen to me,
and deliver me quickly.
Become a rock of safety for me,
a fortified citadel to deliver me;
3 For you are my rock and my fortress;
for the sake of your name guide me and lead me.
4 Rescue me from the net that they concealed to trap me;
for you are my strength.
5 Into your hands I commit my spirit;
for you have redeemed me,
Lord God of truth.
6 I despise those who trust vain idols;
but I have trusted in the Lord.
7 I will rejoice and be glad in your gracious love,
for you see my affliction
and take note that my soul is distressed.
8 You have not delivered me into the hand of the enemy,
but you have set my feet in a sturdy[a] place.
9 Be gracious to me, Lord,
for I am in distress.
My eyes have been consumed by my grief
along with my soul and my body.
10 My life is consumed by sorrow,
my years with groaning.
My strength has faltered because of my iniquity;[b]
my bones have been consumed.
11 I have become an object of reproach to all my enemies,
especially to my neighbors.
I have become an object of fear to my friends,
and whoever sees me outside runs away from me.
12 Like a dead man, I am forgotten in their thoughts[c]—
like broken pottery.
13 I have heard the slander of many;
it is like terror all around me,
as they conspire together and plot to take my life.
14 But I trust in you, Lord.
I say, “You are my God.”
15 My times are in your hands.
Deliver me from the hands of my enemies
and from those who pursue me.
16 May your face shine on your servant;
in your gracious love, deliver me.
17 Let me not be ashamed, Lord,
for I have called upon you.
Let the wicked be put to shame,
let them be silent in the next life.[d]
18 Let the lying lips be made still,
especially those who speak arrogantly
against the righteous with pride and contempt.
19 How great is your goodness
that you have reserved for those who fear you,
that you have set in place for those who take refuge in you,
in the presence of the children of men.
20 You will hide them in the secret place of your presence,
away from the conspiracies of men.
You will hide them in your tent,
away from their contentious tongues.
21 Blessed be the Lord!
In a marvelous way he demonstrated his gracious love to me,
when I was in a city under siege.
22 When I said in my panic,
“I have been cut off in your sight,”
then you surely heard the voice of my prayer
in my plea to you for help.
23 Love the Lord, all his godly ones!
The Lord preserves the faithful
and repays those who act with proud motives.
24 Be strong,
and let your heart be courageous,
all you who put your hope in the Lord.
Davidic
A Prayer for Deliverance
35 Argue my case,[a] Lord,
against those who argue against me.
Fight against those who fight against me.
2 Take up the buckler[b] and the shield,
and rise up to help me.
3 Take out the spear and the ax to confront the one who pursues me;
say to me, “I am your deliverer!”
4 Let those who seek my life be ashamed and disgraced;
let those who plot evil against me be driven back and confounded.
5 Make them like the chaff before the wind,
as the messenger of the Lord pushes them aside.
6 May their path be dark and slippery,
as the messenger of the Lord tracks them down.
7 Without justification they laid a snare for me;
without justification they dug a pit to trap me.
8 Let destruction come upon them[c] unawares,
and let the net that he hid catch him;
let him fall into destruction.
9 My soul will rejoice in the Lord
and be glad in his deliverance.
10 All my bones will say,
“Lord, who is like you?
Who delivers the weak from the one who is stronger than he,
and the weak and the needy from the one who wants to rob him?”
11 False witnesses stepped forward
and questioned me concerning things
about which I knew nothing.
12 They paid me back evil for good;
my soul mourns.
13 But when they were sick,
I wore sackcloth, humbled myself with fasting,
and prayed from my heart repeatedly for them.[d]
14 I paced about as for my friend or my brother,
and fell down mourning as one weeps for one’s mother.
15 But when I stumbled,
they rejoiced and gathered together.
They gathered together against me—
attackers whom I did not know.
They tore me apart and would not stop.
16 Malicious mockers[e]—
they gnashed[f] their teeth against me.
17 Lord, how long will you just watch?
Rescue me from their destruction,
my precious life from these young lions.
18 Then I will give you thanks in front of the great congregation;
in the midst of the mighty throng I will praise you.
19 Do not let my deceitful enemies gloat over me,
nor let those who hate me without justification mock me with their eyes.
20 For they do not speak peace;
they devise clever lies against the peaceful people of the land.
21 They open their mouth wide against me,
claiming, “Yes! Yes! We saw him do[g] it with our own eyes!”
22 You see this, Lord,
so do not be silent.
Lord, do not be far from me!
23 Wake up! Arouse yourself to vindicate me
and argue my case, my God and my Lord.
24 Judge me according to your righteousness, Lord my God!
But do not let them gloat over me.
25 Don’t let them say in their hearts,
“Yes! We got what we wanted.”
Don’t let them say,
“We have swallowed him up.”
26 Instead, let those who gloat over the evil directed against me
be ashamed and confounded together;
Let those who exalt themselves over me
be clothed with shame and dishonor.
27 Let those who delight in my vindication
shout for joy and rejoice!
Let them continuously say,
“Magnify the Lord, who delights in giving peace to[h] his servant.”
28 My tongue will declare your righteousness
and praise you all day long.
18 For this is what the Lord says,
who created the heavens—
he is God,
and[a] the one who formed the earth and made it,
and[b] he is the one who established it;
he didn’t create it for[c] chaos,
but formed it to be inhabited—
“I am the Lord and there is no other.
19 I didn’t speak in secret,
from somewhere in a land of darkness;
I didn’t say to Jacob’s descendants,
‘Seek me in chaos.’
I, the Lord, speak truth,
declaring what is right.
20 “Gather together and come;
draw near and enter,[d]
your fugitives from the nations.
Those who carry around their wooden idols
know nothing,
nor do those who keep praying to a god
that cannot save.
21 Explain and present a case!
Yes, let them take counsel together.
Who announced this long ago,
who declared it from the distant past?
Was it not I, the Lord?
And there is no other God besides me,
a righteous God and Savior;
and[e] there is none besides me.
22 Turn to me and be saved,
all you ends of the earth.
For I am God, and there is no other.
Every Knee will Bow
23 By myself I have sworn—
from my mouth has gone out integrity,
a promise[f] that won’t be revoked:
‘To me every knee will bow,
and[g] every tongue will swear.’
24 One will say of me,[h]
‘Only in the Lord are victories and might.’
All who raged against him will come[i] to him
and will be put to shame.
25 In the Lord all the descendants of Israel
will triumph and make their boast.”
Advice for Children and Parents
6 Children, obey your parents in the Lord,[a] for this is the right thing to do. 2 “Honor your father and mother…”[b] (This is a very important commandment with a promise.) 3 “…so that it may go well for you, and that you may have a long life on the earth.”[c]
4 Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up by training[d] and instructing them about the Lord.
Advice for Slaves and Masters
5 Slaves, obey your earthly masters with fear, trembling, and sincerity, as when you obey[e] the Messiah.[f] 6 Do not do this only while you’re being watched in order to please them, but be like slaves of the Messiah,[g] who are determined to obey God’s will. 7 Serve willingly, as if you were serving the Lord and not merely people,[h] 8 because you know that everyone will receive a reward from the Lord for whatever good he has done, whether he is a slave or free.
9 Masters, treat your slaves[i] the same way. Do not threaten them, for you know that both of you have the same Master in heaven, and there is no favoritism with him.
Jesus Calms the Sea(A)
35 That day, when evening had come, he told them, “Let’s cross to the other side.” 36 So they left the crowd and took him away in a boat without making any special preparations.[a] Other boats were with him. 37 A violent windstorm came up, and the waves began breaking into the boat, so that the boat was rapidly[b] becoming swamped.
38 But Jesus[c] was in the back of the boat, asleep on a cushion. So they woke him up and asked him, “Teacher, don’t you care that we’re going to die?”
39 Then he got up, rebuked the wind, and told the sea, “Calm down! Be still!” Then the wind stopped blowing, and there was a great calm. 40 He asked them, “Why are you such cowards? Don’t you have any faith yet?”
41 Overcome with fear, they kept saying to one another, “Who is this man? Even the wind and the sea obey him!”
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