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.
The Ten Commandments(A)
5 Moses called all of Israel together and told them: “Listen, Israel! Today I’m going to announce God’s laws and regulations so that you will learn them and take care to obey them. 2 When the Lord our God made a covenant with us in Horeb, 3 it was not with our ancestors that the Lord made this covenant, but with us—we who are here today—all of us who are now living. 4 The Lord spoke to you face to face on the mountain from the fire. 5 I stood at that time as mediator[a] between the Lord and you to declare his[b] message to you, because you were afraid of the fire and would not go up the mountain. He said:
| א[c] | 6 “‘I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt—from the house of slavery. 7 You are to have no other gods as a substitute for me.[d] |
| ב | 8 “‘You are not to craft for yourselves an idol resembling what is in the skies above, or on earth beneath, or in the water sources under the earth. 9 You are not to bow down to them in worship or serve them, because I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the guilt of parents[e] on children, to the third and fourth generation[f] of those who hate me, 10 but showing gracious love to the thousands of those who love me and keep my[g] commandments. |
| ג | 11 “‘You are not to misuse the name of the Lord your God,[h] because the Lord will not leave unpunished the one who misuses his name.[i] |
| ד | 12 “‘Observe the Sabbath day, maintaining its holiness,[j] just as the Lord your God commanded. 13 Six days you are to labor and do all your work, 14 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. You are not to do any work—neither you, your son, nor your daughter,[k] your male and female servants, your oxen and donkeys, nor any of your livestock, nor any foreigner who lives among you—[l] so that your male and female servants may rest as you do. 15 You are to remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, but the Lord your God brought you out from there with great power and a show of force.[m] Therefore, the Lord your God has commanded you to observe the Sabbath day. |
| ה | 16 “‘Honor your father and your mother, just as the Lord your God commanded you, so that you will live long and things will go well for you in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. |
| ו | 17 “‘You are not to commit murder. |
| ז | 18 “‘You are not to commit adultery. |
| ח | 19 “‘You are not to steal. |
| ט | 20 “‘You are not to give false testimony against your neighbor. |
| י | 21 “‘You are not to desire[n] your neighbor’s wife nor crave your neighbor’s house,[o] his fields, his male and female servants, his ox, his donkey, nor anything else that pertains to your neighbor.’” |
Moses Recalls God’s Warnings
22 “The Lord declared these commands in a loud voice to your entire assembly on the mountain from out of the fire[p] and dark clouds,[q] and nothing more was added. He inscribed them on two tablets of stone and gave them to me.
Treasure in Clay Jars
4 Therefore, since we have this ministry through the mercy shown to us, we do not get discouraged. 2 Instead, we have renounced secret and shameful ways. We do not use trickery or pervert God’s word. By clear statements of the truth we commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience before God.
3 So if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are dying.[a] 4 In their case, the god of this world has blinded the minds of those who do not believe to keep them from seeing the light of the glorious gospel of the Messiah,[b] who is the image of God.
5 For we do not preach ourselves, but rather Jesus the Messiah[c] as Lord, and ourselves as merely your servants for Jesus’ sake. 6 For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,”[d] has shone in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory in the face of Jesus[e] the Messiah.[f]
7 But we have this treasure in clay jars to show that its extraordinary power comes from God and not from us. 8 In every way we’re troubled but not crushed, frustrated but not in despair, 9 persecuted but not abandoned, struck down but not destroyed. 10 We are always carrying around the death of Jesus in our bodies, so that the life of Jesus may be clearly shown in our bodies. 11 While we are alive, we are constantly being handed over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus may be clearly shown in our mortal bodies. 12 And so death is at work in us, but life is at work[g] in you.
10 Whoever is faithful with very little is also faithful with a lot, and whoever is dishonest with very little is also dishonest with a lot. 11 So if you haven’t been faithful with unrighteous wealth, who will trust you with true wealth? 12 And if you haven’t been faithful with what belongs to foreigners, who will give you what is your own?
13 “No servant can serve two masters, because either he will hate one and love the other, or be loyal to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and wealth!”
The Law and the Kingdom of God(A)
14 Now the Pharisees, who love money, had been listening to all this and began to ridicule Jesus.[a] 15 So he told them, “You try to justify yourselves in front of people, but God knows your hearts, because what is highly valued by people is detestable to God.
16 “The Law and the Prophets were fulfilled[b] with John. Since then, the good news about the kingdom of God is being proclaimed, and everybody enters it enthusiastically.[c] 17 However, it is easier for heaven and earth to disappear than for one stroke of a letter in the Law to be dropped. 18 Any man who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery, and the man who marries a woman divorced from her husband commits adultery.”
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