Book of Common Prayer
A Cry for God to Help Quickly
For the director of music. A psalm of David. To help people remember.
70 God, come quickly and save me.
Lord, hurry to help me.
2 Let those who are trying to kill me
be ashamed and disgraced.
Let those who want to hurt me
run away in disgrace.
3 Let those who make fun of me
stop because of their shame.
4 But let all those who worship you
rejoice and be glad.
Let those who love your salvation
always say, “Praise the greatness of God.”
5 I am poor and helpless;
God, hurry to me.
You help me and save me.
Lord, do not wait.
An Old Person’s Prayer
71 In you, Lord, is my protection.
Never let me be ashamed.
2 Because you do what is right, save and rescue me;
listen to me and save me.
3 Be my place of safety
where I can always come.
Give the command to save me,
because you are my rock and my strong, walled city.
4 My God, save me from the power of the wicked
and from the hold of evil and cruel people.
5 Lord, you are my hope.
Lord, I have trusted you since I was young.
6 I have depended on you since I was born;
you helped me even on the day of my birth.
I will always praise you.
7 I am an example to many people,
because you are my strong protection.
8 I am always praising you;
all day long I honor you.
9 Do not reject me when I am old;
do not leave me when my strength is gone.
10 My enemies make plans against me,
and they meet together to kill me.
11 They say, “God has left him.
Go after him and take him,
because no one will save him.”
12 God, don’t be far off.
My God, hurry to help me.
13 Let those who accuse me
be ashamed and destroyed.
Let those who are trying to hurt me
be covered with shame and disgrace.
14 But I will always have hope
and will praise you more and more.
15 I will tell how you do what is right.
I will tell about your salvation all day long,
even though it is more than I can tell.
16 I will come and tell about your powerful works, Lord God.
I will remind people that only you do what is right.
17 God, you have taught me since I was young.
To this day I tell about the miracles you do.
18 Even though I am old and gray,
do not leave me, God.
I will tell the children about your power;
I will tell those who live after me about your might.
19 God, your justice reaches to the skies.
You have done great things;
God, there is no one like you.
20 You have given me many troubles and bad times,
but you will give me life again.
When I am almost dead,
you will keep me alive.
21 You will make me greater than ever,
and you will comfort me again.
22 I will praise you with the harp.
I trust you, my God.
I will sing to you with the lyre,
Holy One of Israel.
23 I will shout for joy when I sing praises to you.
You have saved me.
24 I will tell about your justice all day long.
And those who want to hurt me
will be ashamed and disgraced.
A Nation in Trouble Prays
A maskil of Asaph.
74 God, why have you rejected us for so long?
Why are you angry with us, the sheep of your pasture?
2 Remember the people you bought long ago.
You saved us, and we are your very own.
After all, you live on Mount Zion.
3 Make your way through these old ruins;
the enemy wrecked everything in the Temple.
4 Those who were against you shouted in your meeting place
and raised their flags there.
5 They came with axes raised
as if to cut down a forest of trees.
6 They smashed the carved panels
with their axes and hatchets.
7 They burned your Temple to the ground;
they have made the place where you live unclean.
8 They thought, “We will completely crush them!”
They burned every place where God was worshiped in the land.
9 We do not see any signs.
There are no more prophets,
and no one knows how long this will last.
10 God, how much longer will the enemy make fun of you?
Will they insult you forever?
11 Why do you hold back your power?
Bring your power out in the open and destroy them!
12 God, you have been our king for a long time.
You bring salvation to the earth.
13 You split open the sea by your power
and broke the heads of the sea monster.
14 You smashed the heads of the monster Leviathan
and gave it to the desert creatures as food.
15 You opened up the springs and streams
and made the flowing rivers run dry.
16 Both the day and the night are yours;
you made the sun and the moon.
17 You set all the limits on the earth;
you created summer and winter.
18 Lord, remember how the enemy insulted you.
Remember how those foolish people made fun of you.
19 Do not give us, your doves, to those wild animals.
Never forget your poor people.
20 Remember the agreement you made with us,
because violence fills every dark corner of this land.
21 Do not let your suffering people be disgraced.
Let the poor and helpless praise you.
22 God, arise and defend yourself.
Remember the insults that come from those foolish people all day long.
23 Don’t forget what your enemies said;
don’t forget their roar as they rise against you always.
26 “‘You must not eat anything with the blood in it.
“‘You must not try to tell the future by signs or black magic.
27 “‘You must not cut the hair on the sides of your heads or cut the edges of your beard. 28 You must not cut your body to show sadness for someone who died or put tattoo marks on yourselves. I am the Lord.
29 “‘Do not dishonor your daughter by making her become a prostitute. If you do this, the country will be filled with all kinds of sin.
30 “‘Obey the laws about Sabbaths, and respect my Most Holy Place. I am the Lord.
31 “‘Do not go to mediums or fortune-tellers for advice, or you will become unclean. I am the Lord your God.
32 “‘Show respect to old people; stand up in their presence. Show respect also to your God. I am the Lord.
33 “‘Do not mistreat foreigners living in your country, 34 but treat them just as you treat your own citizens. Love foreigners as you love yourselves, because you were foreigners one time in Egypt. I am the Lord your God.
35 “‘Do not cheat when you measure the length or weight or amount of something. 36 Your weights and balances should weigh correctly, with your weighing baskets the right size and your jars holding the right amount of liquid. I am the Lord your God. I brought you out of the land of Egypt.
37 “‘Remember all my laws and rules, and obey them. I am the Lord.’”
1 From Paul, Silas, and Timothy.
To the church in Thessalonica in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ:
2 Grace and peace to you from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Paul Talks About God’s Judgment
3 We must always thank God for you, brothers and sisters. This is only right, because your faith is growing more and more, and the love that every one of you has for each other is increasing. 4 So we brag about you to the other churches of God. We tell them about the way you continue to be strong and have faith even though you are being treated badly and are suffering many troubles.
5 This is proof that God is right in his judgment. He wants you to be counted worthy of his kingdom for which you are suffering. 6 God will do what is right. He will give trouble to those who trouble you. 7 And he will give rest to you who are troubled and to us also when the Lord Jesus appears with burning fire from heaven with his powerful angels. 8 Then he will punish those who do not know God and who do not obey the Good News about our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 Those people will be punished with a destruction that continues forever. They will be kept away from the Lord and from his great power. 10 This will happen on the day when the Lord Jesus comes to receive glory because of his holy people. And all the people who have believed will be amazed at Jesus. You will be in that group, because you believed what we told you.
11 That is why we always pray for you, asking our God to help you live the kind of life he called you to live. We pray that with his power God will help you do the good things you want and perform the works that come from your faith. 12 We pray all this so that the name of our Lord Jesus Christ will have glory in you, and you will have glory in him. That glory comes from the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Don’t Worry
25 “So I tell you, don’t worry about the food or drink you need to live, or about the clothes you need for your body. Life is more than food, and the body is more than clothes. 26 Look at the birds in the air. They don’t plant or harvest or store food in barns, but your heavenly Father feeds them. And you know that you are worth much more than the birds. 27 You cannot add any time to your life by worrying about it.
28 “And why do you worry about clothes? Look at how the lilies in the field grow. They don’t work or make clothes for themselves. 29 But I tell you that even Solomon with his riches was not dressed as beautifully as one of these flowers. 30 God clothes the grass in the field, which is alive today but tomorrow is thrown into the fire. So you can be even more sure that God will clothe you. Don’t have so little faith! 31 Don’t worry and say, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’ 32 The people who don’t know God keep trying to get these things, and your Father in heaven knows you need them. 33 Seek first God’s kingdom and what God wants. Then all your other needs will be met as well. 34 So don’t worry about tomorrow, because tomorrow will have its own worries. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
The Holy Bible, New Century Version®. Copyright © 2005 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.