Book of Common Prayer
God’s Faithfulness and Deliverance
For the music director. Of David. A psalm.[a]
40 I waited patiently for Yahweh,
And he inclined to me
and heard my cry for help.
2 And so he brought me up from the roaring pit,[b]
from the miry clay.
And he put my feet upon a rock;
he made my steps steady.
3 Then he put a new song in my mouth,
a praise to our God.
Many will see and fear,
and will trust Yahweh.
4 Blessed is the man who makes Yahweh his trust
and does not turn to the proud and to those who fall away to a lie.[c]
5 Many things, O Yahweh my God, you have done—
your wonderful deeds and your thoughts toward us.
There is none to compare with you.
If I tried to proclaim and tell of them,
they would be too numerous to count.
6 A sacrifice and offering you do not desire.
My ears you have opened.[d]
Burnt offering and sin offering you have not demanded.
7 Then I said, “Look, I come.
In the scroll of the book
it is written concerning me:
8 ‘I delight to do your will, O my God,
and your law is deep within me.’”[e]
9 I have brought good tidings of righteousness in the great congregation.
Look, I have not shut my lips.
O Yahweh, you surely know that.[f]
10 Your righteousness I have not hidden in the midst of my heart.
I have spoken of your faithfulness and your salvation.
I have not concealed your loyal love or your faithfulness
from the great congregation.
11 As for you, O Yahweh, do not withhold your mercies from me.
Let your loyal love and your faithfulness
continually preserve me.
12 For evils without number have encompassed me.
My iniquities have overtaken me, so that I am not able to see.
They are more than the hairs of my head,
and my heart fails me.
13 Be pleased, O Yahweh, to deliver me.
O Yahweh, hurry to help me.
14 Let them be shamed and abashed altogether
who seek to take away my life.[g]
Let them be repulsed and humiliated
who desire my harm.
15 Let them be appalled because of their shame,
those who say to me, “Aha! Aha!”
16 Let them rejoice and be glad in you,
all those who seek you.
Let them say continually, “Yahweh is great!”
—those who love your salvation.
17 But I am poor and needy.
Let my Lord consider me.
You are my help and my deliverer.
O my God, do not delay.
Answered Prayer for Deliverance from Adversaries
For the music director, with stringed instruments.
A maskil of David,
when the Ziphites went and said to Saul,
“Is not David hiding himself among us?”[a]
54 O God, by your name save me,
and by your power vindicate me.
2 O God, hear my prayer;
heed the words of my mouth.
3 For foreigners have risen against me,
and ruthless men seek my life.
They have not set God before them. Selah
4 See, God is my helper;
The Lord is with those who sustain my life.[b]
5 He will repay[c] my enemies for their[d] evil;
in your faithfulness destroy them.
6 I will freely sacrifice to you;
I will give thanks to your name,
O Yahweh, because it is good.
7 Because he has delivered me from all trouble,
and my eye has looked with satisfaction on my enemies.
A Prayer of Repentance and Plea for Mercy
For the music director. A psalm of David.
When Nathan the prophet came to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba.[a]
51 Be gracious to me, O God, according to your loyal love.
According to your abundant mercies,
blot out my transgressions.
2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
and from my sin cleanse me.
3 For I myself know[b] my transgressions,[c]
and my sin is ever before me.
4 Against you, only you, I have sinned
and have done this evil[d] in your eyes,
so that you are correct when you speak,
you are blameless when you judge.
5 Behold, in iniquity I was born,
and in sin my mother conceived me.
6 Behold, you delight in truth in the inward parts,
and in the hidden parts you make me to know wisdom.
7 Purify me with hyssop, and I shall be clean.
Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
8 Make me hear joy and gladness;
let the bones you have crushed rejoice.
9 Hide your face from my sins,
and all my iniquities blot out.
10 Create a clean heart for me, O God,
and renew a steadfast spirit within me.[e]
11 Do not cast me away from your presence,
and do not take your Holy Spirit from me.
12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation,
and with a willing spirit sustain me.
13 Then I will teach transgressors your ways,
and sinners will turn back to you.
14 Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God,
the God of my salvation;
then my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness.
15 O Lord, open my lips,
and my mouth will proclaim your praise.
16 For you do not delight in sacrifice or I would give it.
With a burnt offering you are not pleased.
17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;
A broken and contrite heart,
O God, you will not despise.
18 Do good in your favor toward Zion.
Build the walls of Jerusalem.
19 Then you will delight in righteous sacrifices,
burnt offering and whole burnt offering.
Then bulls will be offered on your altar.
18 “You will keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Seven days you will eat unleavened bread, which I commanded you, at the appointed time of the month of Abib, for in the month of Abib you came out from Egypt. 19 Every first offspring of a womb is for me—all of your male livestock, the first offspring of cattle and small livestock. 20 But the first offspring of a donkey you will redeem with small livestock, and if you will not redeem it, you will break its neck. Every firstborn of your sons you will redeem, and you will not appear before me empty-handed. 21 Six days you will work, and on the seventh day you will rest; in the time of plowing and in the time of harvest you will rest. 22 And you yourself[a] will observe the Feast of Weeks—the firstfruits of the wheat harvest—and the Feast of Harvest Gathering at the turn of the year. 23 Three times in the year all your males will appear before the Lord, Yahweh, the God of Israel, 24 because I will evict nations before you, and I will enlarge your territory, and no one will covet your land when you go up to appear before Yahweh your God three times in the year.
25 “You will not slaughter the blood of my sacrifice on food with yeast, and the sacrifice of the Feast of the Passover will not stay overnight to the morning. 26 The beginning of the firstfruits of your land you will bring to the house of Yahweh your God. You will not boil a young goat[b] in its mother’s milk.”
27 And Yahweh said to Moses, “Write for yourself these words, because according to[c] these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel.”
The Shining Face of Moses
28 And he was there with Yahweh forty days and forty nights. He ate no food and drank no water. And he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the ten words. 29 And[d] when Moses came down from Mount Sinai, the two tablets of the testimony were in the hand of Moses at his coming down from the mountain; and Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because of his speaking with him. 30 And Aaron and all the Israelites[e] saw Moses, and, to their amazement,[f] the skin of his face shone, and they were afraid of coming near to him. 31 And Moses called to them, and Aaron and all the leaders of the community returned to him, and Moses spoke to them. 32 And afterward all the Israelites[g] came near, and he commanded them all that Yahweh had spoken with him on Mount Sinai. 33 And Moses finished speaking with them, and he put a veil on his face. 34 And when Moses came before Yahweh to speak with him, he would remove the veil until he went out, and he would go out and would speak to the Israelites[h] what he had been commanded. 35 And the Israelites[i] would see the face of Moses, that the skin of the face of Moses shone, and Moses would put back the veil on his face until his coming to speak with him.
Paul Sends Timothy to Thessalonica
3 Therefore when we[a] could bear it no longer, we determined to be left behind in Athens alone, 2 and we sent Timothy, our brother and fellow worker for God in the gospel of Christ, in order to strengthen and to encourage you about your faith, 3 so that no one would be shaken by these afflictions. For you yourselves know that we are appointed for this, 4 for indeed when we were with you we told you beforehand that we were about to be afflicted, just as indeed it happened, and you know. 5 Because of this, I also, when I[b] could endure it no longer, sent in order to know your faith, lest somehow the tempter tempted you and our labor should be in vain.
Timothy’s Positive Report
6 But now, because[c] Timothy has come to us from you and has brought good news to us of your faith and love, and that you always think kindly of us[d], desiring to see us just as also we desire to see you, 7 because of this, brothers, we have been comforted because of you in all our distress and affliction through your faith, 8 because now we live, if you stand firm in the Lord. 9 For what thanks can we repay to God concerning you, because of all the joy with which we rejoice because of you before our God, 10 night and day praying beyond all measure that we may see your face and complete what is lacking in your faith?
11 Now may our God and Father himself and our Lord Jesus direct our way to you, 12 and may the Lord cause you to increase and to abound in love for one another and for all, just as also we do for you, 13 so that your hearts may be established blameless in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.[e]
The Sermon on the Mount: Adultery and Lust
27 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Do not commit adultery.’[a] 28 But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. 29 And if your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it from you! For it is better for you that one of your members be destroyed than your whole body be thrown into hell. 30 And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it from you! For it is better for you that one of your limbs be destroyed than your whole body go into hell.
The Sermon on the Mount: Divorce
31 “And it was said, ‘Whoever divorces his wife must give her a certificate of divorce.’[b] 32 But I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except for a matter of sexual immorality, causes her to commit adultery, and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.
The Sermon on the Mount: Taking Oaths
33 “Again you have heard that it was said to the people of old,[c] ‘Do not swear falsely,[d] but fulfill your oaths to the Lord.’[e] 34 But I say to you, do not swear at all, either by heaven, because it is the throne of God, 35 or by the earth, because it is the footstool of his feet, or by Jerusalem, because it is the city of the great king. 36 And do not swear by your head, because you are not able to make one hair white or black. 37 But let your statement be ‘Yes, yes; no, no,’ and anything beyond these is from the evil one.[f]
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