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.
6 Some time later, Joseph and his brothers died, along with all the people who had lived at that same time. 7 But the people of Israel had many children, and their number grew greatly. They became very strong, and the country of Egypt was filled with them.
Trouble for the People of Israel
8 Then a new king began to rule Egypt, who did not know who Joseph was. 9 This king said to his people, “Look! The people of Israel are too many and too strong for us to handle! 10 If we don’t make plans against them, the number of their people will grow even more. Then if there is a war, they might join our enemies and fight us and escape from the country!”
11 So the Egyptians made life hard for the Israelites. They put slave masters over them, who forced the Israelites to build the cities Pithom and Rameses as supply centers for the king. 12 But the harder the Egyptians forced the Israelites to work, the more the Israelites grew in number and spread out. So the Egyptians became very afraid of them 13 and demanded even more of them. 14 They made their lives bitter. They forced the Israelites to work hard to make bricks and mortar and to do all kinds of work in the fields. The Egyptians were not merciful to them in all their painful work.
15 Two Hebrew nurses, named Shiphrah and Puah, helped the Israelite women give birth to their babies. The king of Egypt said to the nurses, 16 “When you are helping the Hebrew women give birth to their babies, watch! If the baby is a girl, let her live, but if it is a boy, kill him!” 17 But the nurses feared God, so they did not do as the king told them; they let all the boy babies live. 18 Then the king of Egypt sent for the nurses and said, “Why did you do this? Why did you let the boys live?”
19 The nurses said to him, “The Hebrew women are much stronger than the Egyptian women. They give birth to their babies before we can get there.” 20 God was good to the nurses. And the Hebrew people continued to grow in number, so they became even stronger. 21 Because the nurses feared God, he gave them families of their own.
22 So the king commanded all his people, “Every time a boy is born to the Hebrews, you must throw him into the Nile River, but let all the girl babies live.”
The Body of Christ Works Together
12 A person’s body is one thing, but it has many parts. Though there are many parts to a body, all those parts make only one body. Christ is like that also. 13 Some of us are Jews, and some are Greeks. Some of us are slaves, and some are free. But we were all baptized into one body through one Spirit. And we were all made to share in the one Spirit.
14 The human body has many parts. 15 The foot might say, “Because I am not a hand, I am not part of the body.” But saying this would not stop the foot from being a part of the body. 16 The ear might say, “Because I am not an eye, I am not part of the body.” But saying this would not stop the ear from being a part of the body. 17 If the whole body were an eye, it would not be able to hear. If the whole body were an ear, it would not be able to smell. 18-19 If each part of the body were the same part, there would be no body. But truly God put all the parts, each one of them, in the body as he wanted them. 20 So then there are many parts, but only one body.
21 The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the foot, “I don’t need you!” 22 No! Those parts of the body that seem to be the weaker are really necessary. 23 And the parts of the body we think are less deserving are the parts to which we give the most honor. We give special respect to the parts we want to hide. 24 The more respectable parts of our body need no special care. But God put the body together and gave more honor to the parts that need it 25 so our body would not be divided. God wanted the different parts to care the same for each other. 26 If one part of the body suffers, all the other parts suffer with it. Or if one part of our body is honored, all the other parts share its honor.
Peter Says Jesus Is the Christ
27 Jesus and his followers went to the towns around Caesarea Philippi. While they were traveling, Jesus asked them, “Who do people say I am?”
28 They answered, “Some say you are John the Baptist. Others say you are Elijah,[a] and others say you are one of the prophets.”
29 Then Jesus asked, “But who do you say I am?”
Peter answered, “You are the Christ.”
30 Jesus warned his followers not to tell anyone who he was.
31 Then Jesus began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and that he would be rejected by the Jewish elders, the leading priests, and the teachers of the law. He told them that the Son of Man must be killed and then rise from the dead after three days. 32 Jesus told them plainly what would happen. Then Peter took Jesus aside and began to tell him not to talk like that. 33 But Jesus turned and looked at his followers. Then he told Peter not to talk that way. He said, “Go away from me, Satan![b] You don’t care about the things of God, but only about things people think are important.”
34 Then Jesus called the crowd to him, along with his followers. He said, “If people want to follow me, they must give up the things they want. They must be willing even to give up their lives to follow me. 35 Those who want to save their lives will give up true life. But those who give up their lives for me and for the Good News will have true life. 36 It is worthless to have the whole world if they lose their souls. 37 They could never pay enough to buy back their souls. 38 The people who live now are living in a sinful and evil time. If people are ashamed of me and my teaching, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes with his Father’s glory and with the holy angels.”
9 Then Jesus said to the people, “I tell you the truth, some people standing here will see the kingdom of God come with power before they die.”
The Holy Bible, New Century Version®. Copyright © 2005 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.