Book of Common Prayer
A Cry for Help
For the director of music. To the tune of “Lilies.” A psalm of David.
69 God, save me,
because the water has risen to my neck.
2 I’m sinking down into the mud,
and there is nothing to stand on.
I am in deep water,
and the flood covers me.
3 I am tired from calling for help;
my throat is sore.
My eyes are tired from waiting
for God to help me.
4 There are more people who hate me for no reason than hairs on my head;
powerful enemies want to destroy me for no reason.
They make me pay back
what I did not steal.
5 God, you know what I have done wrong;
I cannot hide my guilt from you.
6 Lord God All-Powerful,
do not let those who hope in you be ashamed because of me.
God of Israel,
do not let your worshipers be disgraced because of me.
7 For you, I carry this shame,
and my face is covered with disgrace.
8 I am like a stranger to my closest relatives
and a foreigner to my mother’s children.
9 My strong love for your Temple completely controls me.
When people insult you, it hurts me.
10 When I cry and fast,
they make fun of me.
11 When I wear clothes of sadness,
they joke about me.
12 They make fun of me in public places,
and the drunkards make up songs about me.
13 But I pray to you, Lord, for favor.
God, because of your great love, answer me.
You are truly able to save.
14 Pull me from the mud,
and do not let me sink.
Save me from those who hate me
and from the deep water.
15 Do not let the flood drown me
or the deep water swallow me
or the grave close its mouth over me.
16 Lord, answer me because your love is so good.
Because of your great kindness, turn to me.
17 Do not hide from me, your servant.
I am in trouble. Hurry to help me!
18 Come near and save me;
rescue me from my enemies.
19 You see my shame and disgrace.
You know all my enemies and what they have said.
20 Insults have broken my heart
and left me weak.
I looked for sympathy, but there was none;
I found no one to comfort me.
21 They put poison in my food
and gave me vinegar to drink.
22 Let their own feasts cause their ruin;
let their feasts trap them and pay them back.
23 Let their eyes be closed so they cannot see
and their backs be forever weak from troubles.
24 Pour your anger out on them;
let your anger catch up with them.
25 May their place be empty;
leave no one to live in their tents.
26 They chase after those you have hurt,
and they talk about the pain of those you have wounded.
27 Charge them with crime after crime,
and do not let them have anything good.
28 Wipe their names from the book of life,
and do not list them with those who do what is right.
29 I am sad and hurting.
God, save me and protect me.
30 I will praise God in a song
and will honor him by giving thanks.
31 That will please the Lord more than offering him cattle,
more than sacrificing a bull with horns and hoofs.
32 Poor people will see this and be glad.
Be encouraged, you who worship God.
33 The Lord listens to those in need
and does not look down on captives.
34 Heaven and earth should praise him,
the seas and everything in them.
35 God will save Jerusalem
and rebuild the cities of Judah.
Then people will live there and own the land.
36 The descendants of his servants will inherit that land,
and those who love him will live there.
Should the Wicked Be Rich?
A psalm of Asaph.
73 God is truly good to Israel,
to those who have pure hearts.
2 But I had almost stopped believing;
I had almost lost my faith
3 because I was jealous of proud people.
I saw wicked people doing well.
4 They are not suffering;
they are healthy and strong.
5 They don’t have troubles like the rest of us;
they don’t have problems like other people.
6 They wear pride like a necklace
and put on violence as their clothing.
7 They are looking for profits
and do not control their selfish desires.
8 They make fun of others and speak evil;
proudly they speak of hurting others.
9 They brag to the sky.
They say that they own the earth.
10 So their people turn to them
and give them whatever they want.
11 They say, “How can God know?
What does God Most High know?”
12 These people are wicked,
always at ease, and getting richer.
13 So why have I kept my heart pure?
Why have I kept my hands from doing wrong?
14 I have suffered all day long;
I have been punished every morning.
15 God, if I had decided to talk like this,
I would have let your people down.
16 I tried to understand all this,
but it was too hard for me to see
17 until I went to the Temple of God.
Then I understood what will happen to them.
18 You have put them in danger;
you cause them to be destroyed.
19 They are destroyed in a moment;
they are swept away by terrors.
20 It will be like waking from a dream.
Lord, when you rise up, they will disappear.
21 When my heart was sad
and I was angry,
22 I was senseless and stupid.
I acted like an animal toward you.
23 But I am always with you;
you have held my hand.
24 You guide me with your advice,
and later you will receive me in honor.
25 I have no one in heaven but you;
I want nothing on earth besides you.
26 My body and my mind may become weak,
but God is my strength.
He is mine forever.
27 Those who are far from God will die;
you destroy those who are unfaithful.
28 But I am close to God, and that is good.
The Lord God is my protection.
I will tell all that you have done.
Judgment Against Jehoiakim
13 “How terrible it will be for one who builds his palace by doing evil,
who cheats people so he can build its upper rooms.
He makes his own people work for nothing
and does not pay them.
14 He says, ‘I will build a great palace for myself
with large upper rooms.’
So he builds it with large windows
and uses cedar wood for the walls,
which he paints red.
15 “Does having a lot of cedar in your house
make you a great king?
Your father was satisfied to have food and drink.
He did what was right and fair,
so everything went well for him.
16 He helped those who were poor and needy,
so everything went well for him.
That is what it means to know God,”
says the Lord.
17 “But you only look for and think about
what you can get dishonestly.
You are even willing to kill innocent people to get it.
You feel free to hurt people and to steal from them.”
18 So this is what the Lord says to Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah:
“The people of Judah will not cry when Jehoiakim dies,
saying: ‘Oh, my brother,’ or ‘Oh, my sister.’
They will not cry for him, saying:
‘Oh, master,’ or ‘Oh, my king.’
19 They will bury him like a donkey,
dragging his body away
and throwing it outside the gates of Jerusalem.
20 “Judah, go up to Lebanon and cry out.
Let your voice be heard in Bashan.
Cry out from Abarim,
because all your friends are destroyed!
21 Judah, when you were successful, I warned you,
but you said, ‘I won’t listen.’
You have acted like this since you were young;
you have not obeyed me.
22 Like a storm, my punishment will blow all your shepherds away
and send your friends into captivity.
Then you will really be ashamed and disgraced
because of all the wicked things you did.
23 King, you live in your palace,
cozy in your rooms of cedar.
But when your punishment comes, how you will groan
like a woman giving birth to a baby!
12 So, my brothers and sisters, we must not be ruled by our sinful selves or live the way our sinful selves want. 13 If you use your lives to do the wrong things your sinful selves want, you will die spiritually. But if you use the Spirit’s help to stop doing the wrong things you do with your body, you will have true life.
14 The true children of God are those who let God’s Spirit lead them. 15 The Spirit we received does not make us slaves again to fear; it makes us children of God. With that Spirit we cry out, “Father.”[a] 16 And the Spirit himself joins with our spirits to say we are God’s children. 17 If we are God’s children, we will receive blessings from God together with Christ. But we must suffer as Christ suffered so that we will have glory as Christ has glory.
Our Future Glory
18 The sufferings we have now are nothing compared to the great glory that will be shown to us. 19 Everything God made is waiting with excitement for God to show his children’s glory completely. 20 Everything God made was changed to become useless, not by its own wish but because God wanted it and because all along there was this hope: 21 that everything God made would be set free from ruin to have the freedom and glory that belong to God’s children.
22 We know that everything God made has been waiting until now in pain, like a woman ready to give birth. 23 Not only the world, but we also have been waiting with pain inside us. We have the Spirit as the first part of God’s promise. So we are waiting for God to finish making us his own children, which means our bodies will be made free. 24 We were saved, and we have this hope. If we see what we are waiting for, that is not really hope. People do not hope for something they already have. 25 But we are hoping for something we do not have yet, and we are waiting for it patiently.
26 Also, the Spirit helps us with our weakness. We do not know how to pray as we should. But the Spirit himself speaks to God for us, even begs God for us with deep feelings that words cannot explain. 27 God can see what is in people’s hearts. And he knows what is in the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit speaks to God for his people in the way God wants.
41 Some people began to complain about Jesus because he said, “I am the bread that comes down from heaven.” 42 They said, “This is Jesus, the son of Joseph. We know his father and mother. How can he say, ‘I came down from heaven’?”
43 But Jesus answered, “Stop complaining to each other. 44 The Father is the One who sent me. No one can come to me unless the Father draws him to me, and I will raise that person up on the last day. 45 It is written in the prophets, ‘They will all be taught by God.’[a] Everyone who listens to the Father and learns from him comes to me. 46 No one has seen the Father except the One who is from God; only he has seen the Father. 47 I tell you the truth, whoever believes has eternal life. 48 I am the bread that gives life. 49 Your ancestors ate the manna in the desert, but still they died. 50 Here is the bread that comes down from heaven. Anyone who eats this bread will never die. 51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Anyone who eats this bread will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give up so that the world may have life.”
The Holy Bible, New Century Version®. Copyright © 2005 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.