Book of Common Prayer
A Prayer for Deliverance from Enemies
For the music director. Of David. To bring to remembrance.[a]
70 O God, make haste to deliver me.
O Yahweh, make haste to help me.
2 Let them be ashamed and abashed
who seek my life.
Let them be repulsed and humiliated
who desire my harm.
3 let them turn back because of their shame,
those who say, “Aha! Aha!”
4 Let them rejoice and be glad in you,
all those who seek you.
Let them say continually, “God is great!”
those who love your salvation.
5 But I am poor and needy;
O God hasten to me.
You are my help and my deliverer.
O Yahweh, do not delay.
A Prayer to God the Rock of Refuge
71 In you, O Yahweh, I have taken refuge;
let me never be put to shame.
2 In your righteousness deliver me and rescue me;
incline your ear to me and save me.
3 Be for me a rock of refuge to resort to always;
you have ordained[b] to save me,
because you are my rock and my fortress.
4 My God, rescue me from the hand of the wicked,
from the grasp[c] of the evildoer and the oppressor,
5 because you are my hope,
O Lord Yahweh, my confidence from my youth.
6 Upon you I have leaned from birth.[d]
It was you who took[e] me from the womb of my mother.
My praise is of you continually.
7 I have become a wonder to many,
but you are my strong refuge.
8 My mouth is filled with your praise,
with your glory all the day.
9 Do not cast me away in the time of old age;
when my strength fails do not abandon me.
10 For my enemies talk concerning me,
and those who watch for my life conspire together,
11 saying, “His God has abandoned him.
Pursue and seize him, because there is no deliverer.”
12 O God, do not be far from me.
My God, hurry to help me.
13 Let them be ashamed; let them perish
who are my adversaries.[f]
Let them wrap themselves with scorn and disgrace
who seek my harm.
14 But as for me, I will hope continually
and increase your praise.
15 My mouth will tell of your righteousness,
your salvation all day long,[g]
though I do not know the full sum of them.
16 I will come in to tell the mighty deeds of Lord Yahweh.
I will make known[h] your righteousness, yours only.
17 O God, you have taught me from my youth,
and up to now I have proclaimed your wonderful deeds.
18 And even when I am old and gray,
O God, do not abandon me
until I proclaim your strength[i] to this generation,
your power to every one that comes after.
19 And your righteousness, O God, is to the height of heaven.
You who have done great things,
O God, who is like you?
20 You who have caused me[j] to see many troubles and evils,
you will again revive me.[k]
And from the depths of the earth
you will again bring me up.
21 You will increase my greatness,
and you will comfort me all around.[l]
22 On my part, I will praise you with a stringed instrument,
and your faithfulness, O my God.
I will sing praises to you with a lyre,
O Holy One of Israel.
23 My lips will sing for joy when I sing praises to you,
and my soul, which you have redeemed.
24 My tongue also
will speak of your righteousness all the day,
because they have been put to shame, because they have been humiliated
who seek my harm.
A Lament in Time of National Defeat
A maskil of Asaph.[a]
74 Why, O God, have you rejected us forever?
Why does your anger smoke
against the sheep of your pasture?
2 Remember your congregation that you bought long ago,
when you redeemed the tribe of your inheritance.
Remember Mount Zion[b] where you have dwelt.
3 Lift your steps to the perpetual ruins,
to all that the enemy has ruined in the sanctuary.
4 Your enemies have roared in the midst of your meeting place;
they have set up their signs for signs.
5 They are[c] known to be like those who wield[d]
axes in a thicket of trees.
6 And now[e] its[f] carved works altogether
they have smashed with axe and hammer.
7 They have set fire to your sanctuary.
They have defiled to the ground,
the dwelling place for your name.
8 They have said in their heart,
“We will completely[g] oppress them.”
They burned all the meeting places of God in the land.
9 We do not see our signs,
and there is no longer a prophet.
No one with us knows how long.
10 How long, O God, will the adversary taunt?
Will the enemy treat your name with contempt forever?
11 Why do you draw back your hand, even your right hand?
Take it from your bosom;[h] destroy them!
12 But God has been my king from long ago,
working salvation in the midst of the earth.
13 You split open the sea by your strength;
You broke the heads of the sea monsters in the waters.
14 You crushed the heads of Leviathan;
you gave him as food to the desert dwelling creatures.
15 You split open spring and wadi.[i]
You dried up ever-flowing rivers.
16 Yours is the day, yours is the night also.
You established light and the sun.
17 You defined[j] all the boundaries of the earth;
Summer and winter—you formed them.
18 O Yahweh, remember this: the enemy taunts,
and foolish people treat your name with contempt.
19 Do not give to beasts the life of your dove;
do not ever forget the life of your afflicted ones.
20 Have regard for the covenant,
because the dark places of the land are full of
the haunts of violence.
21 Do not let the oppressed turn back humiliated;
let the poor and needy praise your name.
22 Rise up, O God, plead your cause;
remember the reproaching of you by the foolish all day long.[k]
23 Do not forget the sound of your adversaries,
the roar of those rising up against you ascending continually.
29 And when they came to Jacob their father in the land of Canaan they told him everything that had happened to them, saying, 30 “The man, the lord of the land, spoke harshly to us and treated us as if we were spying out the land. 31 But we said to him, ‘We are honest; we are not spies. 32 We are twelve brothers, the sons of our father. One is no more and the youngest is with our father now in the land of Canaan.’ 33 Then the man, the lord of the land, said to us, ‘By this I will know that you are honest. Leave one brother with me, and take food for the famine in your households and go. 34 And bring your youngest brother to me. Then I will know that you are not spies but you are honest. And I will give your brother back to you, and you will trade in the land.’” 35 And it happened that when they emptied their sacks, behold, each one’s pouch of money was in his sack. And when they and their father saw the pouches of their money, they were greatly distressed. 36 And Jacob their father said to them, “You have bereaved me—Joseph is no more and Simeon is no more, and Benjamin you would take! All of this is against me! 37 Then Reuben said to his father, “You may kill my two sons if I do not bring him back to you. Put him in my hand and I myself will return him to you.” 38 But he said, “My son shall not go down with you, for his brother is dead and he alone remains. If harm meets him on the journey that you would take, you would bring down my gray head in sorrow to Sheol.”
Avoid Sexual Immorality
12 All things are permitted for me, but not all things are profitable. All things are permitted for me, but I will not be controlled by anything. 13 Food is for the stomach, and the stomach for food, but God will abolish both of them[a]. Now the body is not for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. 14 And God both raised up the Lord and will raise us up by his power. 15 Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Therefore, shall I take away the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? May it never be! 16 Or do you not know that the one who joins himself to a prostitute is one body with her? For it says, “The two will become one flesh.”[b] 17 But the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with him. 18 Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a person commits is outside his body, but the one who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body. 19 Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? 20 For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God with your body.
The Parable of the Lamp
21 And he said to them, “Surely a lamp is not brought so that it may be put under a bushel basket or under a bed, is it?[a] Is it not[b] so that it may be put on a lampstand? 22 For nothing is secret except so that it may be revealed, nor has become hidden except so that it will come to light. 23 If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear!” 24 And he said to them, “Take care what you hear! With the measure by which you measure out, it will be measured out to you, and will be added to you. 25 For whoever has, more will be given to him, and whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him.”
The Parable of the Seed that Grows by Itself
26 And he said, “The kingdom of God is like this: like a man scatters seed on the ground. 27 And he sleeps and gets up, night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows—he does not know how.[c] 28 By itself the soil produces a crop: first the grass, then the head of grain, then the full grain in the head. 29 But when the crop permits, he sends in the sickle right away, because the harvest has come.”
The Parable of the Mustard Seed
30 And he said, “With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or by what parable can we present it? 31 It is like a mustard seed that when sown on the ground, although it[d] is the smallest of all the seeds that are on the ground, 32 but when it is sown it grows up and becomes the largest of all the garden herbs, and sends out large branches so that the birds of the sky are able to nest in its shade.” 33 And with many parables such as these he was speaking the word to them, as they were able to hear it.[e] 34 And he did not speak to them without a parable, but in private he explained everything to his own disciples.
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