Book of Common Prayer
A Prayer for the King
For the director of music. A psalm of David.
20 May the Lord answer you in times of trouble.
May the God of Jacob protect you.
2 May he send you help from his Temple
and support you from Mount Zion.
3 May he remember all your offerings
and accept all your sacrifices. Selah
4 May he give you what you want
and make all your plans succeed,
5 and we will shout for joy when you succeed,
and we will raise a flag in the name of our God.
May the Lord give you all that you ask for.
6 Now I know the Lord helps his appointed king.
He answers him from his holy heaven
and saves him with his strong right hand.
7 Some trust in chariots, others in horses,
but we trust the Lord our God.
8 They are overwhelmed and defeated,
but we march forward and win.
9 Lord, save the king!
Answer us when we call for help.
Thanksgiving for the King
For the director of music. A psalm of David.
21 Lord, the king rejoices because of your strength;
he is so happy when you save him!
2 You gave the king what he wanted
and did not refuse what he asked for. Selah
3 You put good things before him
and placed a gold crown on his head.
4 He asked you for life,
and you gave it to him,
so his years go on and on.
5 He has great glory because you gave him victories;
you gave him honor and praise.
6 You always gave him blessings;
you made him glad because you were with him.
7 The king truly trusts the Lord.
Because God Most High always loves him,
he will not be overwhelmed.
8 Your hand is against all your enemies;
those who hate you will feel your power.
9 When you appear,
you will burn them as in a furnace.
In your anger you will swallow them up,
and fire will burn them up.
10 You will destroy their families from the earth;
their children will not live.
11 They made evil plans against you,
but their traps won’t work.
12 You will make them turn their backs
when you aim your arrows at them.
13 Be supreme, Lord, in your power.
We sing and praise your greatness.
The Lord Appoints a King
A psalm of David.
110 The Lord said to my Lord,
“Sit by me at my right side
until I put your enemies under your control.”
2 The Lord will enlarge your kingdom beyond Jerusalem,
and you will rule over your enemies.
3 Your people will join you on your day of battle.
You have been dressed in holiness from birth;
you have the freshness of a child.
4 The Lord has made a promise
and will not change his mind.
He said, “You are a priest forever,
a priest like Melchizedek.”
5 The Lord is beside you to help you.
When he becomes angry, he will crush kings.
6 He will judge those nations, filling them with dead bodies;
he will defeat rulers all over the world.
7 The king will drink from the brook on the way.
Then he will be strengthened.
Thanksgiving for Escaping Death
116 I love the Lord,
because he listens to my prayers for help.
2 He paid attention to me,
so I will call to him for help as long as I live.
3 The ropes of death bound me,
and the fear of the grave took hold of me.
I was troubled and sad.
4 Then I called out the name of the Lord.
I said, “Please, Lord, save me!”
5 The Lord is kind and does what is right;
our God is merciful.
6 The Lord watches over the foolish;
when I was helpless, he saved me.
7 I said to myself, “Relax,
because the Lord takes care of you.”
8 Lord, you saved me from death.
You stopped my eyes from crying;
you kept me from being defeated.
9 So I will walk with the Lord
in the land of the living.
10 I believed, so I said,
“I am completely ruined.”
11 In my distress I said,
“All people are liars.”
12 What can I give the Lord
for all the good things he has given to me?
13 I will lift up the cup of salvation,
and I will pray to the Lord.
14 I will give the Lord what I promised
in front of all his people.
15 The death of one that belongs to the Lord
is precious in his sight.
16 Lord, I am your servant;
I am your servant and the son of your female servant.
You have freed me from my chains.
17 I will give you an offering to show thanks to you,
and I will pray to the Lord.
18 I will give the Lord what I promised
in front of all his people,
19 in the Temple courtyards
in Jerusalem.
Praise the Lord!
A Hymn of Praise
117 All you nations, praise the Lord.
All you people, praise him
2 because the Lord loves us very much,
and his truth is everlasting.
Praise the Lord!
The Lord’s Day of Judging
18 How terrible it will be for you who want
the Lord’s day of judging to come.
Why do you want that day to come?
It will bring darkness for you, not light.
19 It will be like someone who runs from a lion
and meets a bear,
or like someone who goes into his house
and puts his hand on the wall,
and then is bitten by a snake.
20 So the Lord’s day of judging will bring darkness, not light;
it will be very dark, not light at all.
21 The Lord says, “I hate and reject your feasts;
I cannot stand your religious meetings.
22 If you offer me burnt offerings and grain offerings,
I won’t accept them.
You bring your best fellowship offerings of fattened cattle,
but I will ignore them.
23 Take the noise of your songs away from me!
I won’t listen to the music of your harps.
24 But let justice flow like a river,
and let goodness flow like a never-ending stream.
25 “People of Israel, you did not bring me sacrifices and offerings
while you traveled in the desert for forty years.
26 You have carried with you
your king, the god Sakkuth,
and Kaiwan your idol,
and the star gods you have made.
27 So I will send you away as captives beyond Damascus,”
says the Lord, whose name is the God All-Powerful.
A Warning and Things to Do
17 Dear friends, remember what the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ said before. 18 They said to you, “In the last times there will be people who laugh about God, following their own evil desires which are against God.” 19 These are the people who divide you, people whose thoughts are only of this world, who do not have the Spirit.
20 But dear friends, use your most holy faith to build yourselves up, praying in the Holy Spirit. 21 Keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the Lord Jesus Christ with his mercy to give you life forever.
22 Show mercy to some people who have doubts. 23 Take others out of the fire, and save them. Show mercy mixed with fear to others, hating even their clothes which are dirty from sin.
Praise God
24 God is strong and can help you not to fall. He can bring you before his glory without any wrong in you and can give you great joy. 25 He is the only God, the One who saves us. To him be glory, greatness, power, and authority through Jesus Christ our Lord for all time past, now, and forever. Amen.
Is It Right to Pay Taxes or Not?
15 Then the Pharisees left that place and made plans to trap Jesus in saying something wrong. 16 They sent some of their own followers and some people from the group called Herodians.[a] They said, “Teacher, we know that you are an honest man and that you teach the truth about God’s way. You are not afraid of what other people think about you, because you pay no attention to who they are. 17 So tell us what you think. Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not?”
18 But knowing that these leaders were trying to trick him, Jesus said, “You hypocrites! Why are you trying to trap me? 19 Show me a coin used for paying the tax.” So the men showed him a coin.[b] 20 Then Jesus asked, “Whose image and name are on the coin?”
21 The men answered, “Caesar’s.”
Then Jesus said to them, “Give to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and give to God the things that are God’s.”
22 When the men heard what Jesus said, they were amazed and left him and went away.
The Holy Bible, New Century Version®. Copyright © 2005 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.