Book of Common Prayer
A Plea for Deliverance from Persecution
For the music director, according to The Lilies. Of David.[a]
69 Save me, O God,
because waters have come up to my neck.[b]
2 I sink in the mud of the deep, and there is no foothold.
I have come to watery depths,
and the torrent floods over me.
3 I am weary with my calling out; my throat is parched.
My eyes are exhausted in my waiting for my God.
4 More numerous than the hairs of my head
are those hating me without a cause.
Those who are destroying me—my enemies wrongfully[c]— are mighty.
What I did not steal, I then must restore.
5 O God, you yourself know[d] my foolishness,
and my guilty deeds are not hidden from you.
6 Let those who wait for you not be put to shame because of me,
O Lord Yahweh of hosts.
Let those who seek you not be disgraced because of me,
O God of Israel.
7 Because on account of you I have borne reproach;
disgrace has covered my face.
8 I have become a stranger to my brothers
and a foreigner to my mother’s sons,
9 because the zeal for your house[e] has consumed me,
and the reproaches of those reproaching you have fallen on me.
10 When I wept in the fasting of my soul,
it became reproaches for me.
11 When I made sackcloth my clothing,
I became for them a byword.
12 Those sitting at the gate talk about me
as also[f] the songs of the drunkards.
13 But as for me, my prayer is to you, O Yahweh, for a favorable time,
O God, according to the abundance of your loyal love.
Answer me with the faithfulness of your salvation.
14 Deliver me from the mud and do not let me sink.
Let me be delivered from those who hate me
and from the watery depths.
15 Do not let the torrent of waters flood over me,
or the deep swallow me,
or the pit close its mouth over me.
16 Answer me, O Yahweh, because your loyal love is good;
according to your abundant mercies, turn to me,
17 and do not hide your face from your servant.
Because I am in trouble, answer me quickly.
18 Draw near to my soul; redeem it.
Because of my enemies, ransom me.
19 You know my reproach, my shame and my disgrace.
Fully known[g] to you are all my adversaries.
20 Reproach has broken my heart and I am sick.
And I hoped for sympathy, but there was none,
and for comforters, but I found none.
21 They also gave me gall for food,[h]
and for my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.
22 Let their table before them be a trap,
and their times of peace a snare.
23 Let their eyes be dark so they cannot see,
and make their loins continually tremble.
24 Pour out your indignation on them,
and let your burning anger overtake them.
25 Let their camp be desolate.
Let none dwell in their tents,
26 because they persecute those whom you, yourself, have struck,
and they tell of the pain of those you have wounded.
27 Add guilt on top of their guilt,[i]
and do not let them be acquitted.[j]
28 Let them be blotted out of the book of the living,
and let them not be recorded with the righteous.
29 But as for me, though I am afflicted and pained,
your salvation will protect[k] me, O God.
30 I will praise the name of God in song,
and magnify him with thanksgiving.
31 For Yahweh it will be better than an ox or bull,
horned and hoofed.[l]
32 The afflicted will see and rejoice.
O God seekers, let your heart revive,[m]
33 because Yahweh hears the needy
and does not despise his own who are prisoners.
34 Let heavens and earth praise him,
the seas and all that moves in them,
35 because God will save Zion
and build the cities of Judah,
that they may dwell there and possess it.
36 And the offspring of his servants will inherit it,
and those who love his name will abide in it.
The Wicked and the Righteous Contrasted
A song of Asaph.[a]
73 Surely God is good to Israel,
to those pure of heart.
2 But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled.
My steps had nearly slipped,
3 because I envied the boastful
when I saw the well-being[b] of the wicked.
4 For there are no pains up to their death,
and their bodies are healthy.[c]
5 They do not have ordinary trouble,[d]
and they are not plagued as other people.[e]
6 Therefore pride is their necklace;
an outfit of violence covers them.
7 Their eye bulges from fat.[f]
Imaginings overflow their heart.
8 They mock and speak maliciously of oppression;
they speak as though from on high.
9 They set their mouth against the heavens,
and their tongue roams the earth.
10 Therefore his people turn there,[g]
and abundant waters are slurped up by them.
11 And they say, “How does God know?”
and, “Does the Most High have knowledge?”
12 See, these are the wicked,
and they increase wealth, ever carefree.
13 Surely in vain I have kept my heart pure,
and washed my hands in innocence.
14 And I have been plagued all day
and rebuked every morning.[h]
15 If I had said, “I will speak thus,”
behold, I would have acted treacherously
against your children’s generation.
16 When I thought about how to understand this,
it was troubling in my eyes
17 until I went into the sanctuary of God.
Then I understood their fate.
18 Surely you set them on slippery places.
You cause them to fall onto ruin.[i]
19 How they become a desolation in a moment!
They come to a complete end by terrors.
20 Like a dream upon awakening,
when you wake up, O Lord,
you will despise their fleeting form.[j]
21 When my heart was embittered
and I felt stabbed in my kidneys,
22 then I was brutish and ignorant.
With you I was like the beasts.
23 But I am continually with you;
you have hold of my right hand.
24 You will guide me with your advice,
and afterward you will take me into honor.[k]
25 Whom do I have in the heavens except you?
And with you I have no other desire on earth.
26 My flesh and heart failed,
but God is the strength[l] of my heart and my reward forever.
27 For indeed, those distancing themselves from you will be ruined.
You destroy each who abandons you for harlotry.
28 But as for me, the approach to God is for my good.
I have set the Lord Yahweh as my refuge,
in order to tell all your works.
The Song of Deborah and Barak
5 And Deborah and Barak son of Abinoam sang on that day:
2 “When long hair hangs loosely in Israel,
when the people willingly offer themselves,
bless Yahweh!
3 Hear, O kings! Give ear, O princes!
I will sing to Yahweh;
I will sing praise to Yahweh,
the God of Israel.
4 Yahweh, when you went down from Seir,
when you marched from the region of Edom,
the earth trembled, the heavens poured down,
the clouds poured down water.
5 The mountains trembled[a] before Yahweh,
this Sinai, at the presence of Yahweh, the God of Israel.
6 “In the days of Shamgar son of Anath,
in the days of Jael, the caravans had ceased,
the travelers,[b] they kept to the byways.[c]
7 The warriors[d] ceased;
they failed to appear in Israel,
until I,[e] Deborah, arose;
I[f] arose as a mother in Israel.
8 God chose new leaders,[g]
then war was at the gates;
a small shield or a spear was not seen
among forty thousand in Israel.
9 My heart goes out to the commanders of Israel,
those offering themselves willingly among the people;
bless Yahweh!
10 The riders of white female donkeys,
those sitting on saddle blankets,
and those going on the way, talk about it!
11 At the sound of those dividing[h] the sheep
among the watering places,
there they will recount the righteous deeds of Yahweh,
the righteous deeds for his warriors[i] in Israel.
Then the people of Yahweh went down to the gates.
12 “Wake up, wake up, Deborah!
Wake up, wake up, sing a song!
Get up, Barak!
Take captive your captives, O son of Abinoam.
13 Then the remnant went down to the nobles;
the people of Yahweh went down for him[j] against the mighty.
14 From Ephraim is their root into Amalek,
after you, Benjamin, with your family;
from Makir the commanders went down,
and from Zebulun those carrying the scepter
of the military commander.
15 And the chiefs[k] in Issachar were with Deborah;
and Issachar likewise was with Barak;
into the valley he was sent to get him from behind.[l]
Among the clans of Reuben
were great decisions of the heart.[m]
16 Why do you sit among the sheepfolds,
to hear the calling sounds of the herds?
For the clans of Reuben,
there were great searchings of the heart.
17 Gilead has remained[n] beyond the Jordan.
Why did Dan dwell as a foreigner with ships?
Asher sat at the coast of the waters,
and by his coves he has been settling down.
18 Zebulun is a people who scorned death,
and Naphtali, on the heights of the field.
Pentecost and the Coming of the Holy Spirit
2 And when the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in the same place. 2 And suddenly a sound like a violent rushing wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 And divided[a] tongues like fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. 4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages[b] as the Spirit gave them ability to speak out.
5 Now there were Jews residing in Jerusalem, devout men from every nation under heaven. 6 And when[c] this sound occurred, the crowd gathered and was in confusion, because each one was hearing them speaking in his own language. 7 And they were astounded and astonished, saying, “Behold, are not all these who are speaking Galileans? 8 And how do we hear, each one of us, in our own native language?[d] 9 Parthians and Medes and Elamites and those residing in Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia,[e] 10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya toward Cyrene, and the Romans who were in town, 11 both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs—we hear them speaking in our own languages the great deeds of God!” 12 And all were amazed and greatly perplexed, saying to one another,[f] “What can this mean?”[g] 13 But others jeered and[h] said, “They are full of sweet new wine!”
Peter’s Sermon on the Day of Pentecost
14 But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and declared to them, “Judean men, and all those who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and pay attention to my words! 15 For these men are not drunk, as you assume, because it is the third hour of the day. 16 But this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel:
17 ‘And it will be in the last days,’ God says,
‘I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh,
and your sons and your daughters will prophesy,
and your young men will see visions,
and your old men will dream dreams.
18 And even on my male slaves and on my female slaves
I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy.
19 And I will cause wonders in the heaven[i] above
and signs on the earth below,
blood and fire and vapor of smoke.
20 The sun will be changed to darkness
and the moon to blood,
before the great and glorious day of the Lord comes.
21 And it will be that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved.’[j]
Jesus Is Raised
28 Now after the Sabbath, at the dawning on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to view the tomb. 2 And behold, there was a great earthquake, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came up and[a] rolled away the stone and sat down[b] on it. 3 Now his appearance was like lightning and his clothing white as snow. 4 And the guards trembled from the fear of him and became like dead men. 5 But the angel answered and[c] said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. 6 He is not here, for he has been raised, just as he said. Come, see the place where he was lying. 7 And go quickly, tell his disciples, ‘He has been raised from the dead, and behold, he is going ahead of you into Galilee. You will see him there.’ Behold, I have told you.” 8 And they departed quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy, and[d] ran to tell his disciples. 9 And behold, Jesus met them, saying, “Greetings!” And they came up and[e] took hold of his feet and worshiped him. 10 Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid! Go tell my brothers that they should go to Galilee, and there they will see me.”
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