Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 18
Praise for Deliverance
For the choir director. Of the servant of the Lord, David, who spoke the words of this song to the Lord on the day the Lord rescued him from the grasp of all his enemies and from the power of Saul.(A) He said:
1 I love you, Lord, my strength.
2 The Lord is my rock,
my fortress, and my deliverer,(B)
my God, my rock where I seek refuge,
my shield(C) and the horn of my salvation,(D)
my stronghold.
3 I called to the Lord, who is worthy of praise,(E)
and I was saved from my enemies.(F)
4 The ropes of death were wrapped around me;
the torrents of destruction terrified me.(G)
5 The ropes of Sheol entangled me;
the snares of death confronted me.(H)
6 I called to the Lord in my distress,
and I cried to my God for help.
From his temple he heard my voice,(I)
and my cry to him reached his ears.(J)
7 Then the earth shook and quaked;
the foundations of the mountains trembled;(K)
they shook because he burned with anger.
8 Smoke rose from his nostrils,
and consuming fire came from his mouth;
coals were set ablaze by it.[a](L)
9 He bent the heavens and came down,(M)
total darkness beneath his feet.
10 He rode on a cherub and flew,
soaring on the wings of the wind.(N)
11 He made darkness his hiding place,
dark storm clouds his canopy around him.(O)
12 From the radiance of his presence,(P)
his clouds swept onward with hail and blazing coals.
13 The Lord thundered from[b] heaven;
the Most High made his voice heard.[c](Q)
14 He shot his arrows and scattered them;
he hurled[d] lightning bolts and routed them.(R)
15 The depths of the sea became visible,
the foundations of the world were exposed,
at your rebuke, Lord,
at the blast of the breath of your nostrils.(S)
16 He reached down from on high
and took hold of me;
he pulled me out of deep water.(T)
17 He rescued me from my powerful enemy
and from those who hated me,
for they were too strong for me.(U)
18 They confronted me in the day of my calamity,
but the Lord was my support.(V)
19 He brought me out to a spacious place;(W)
he rescued me because he delighted in me.(X)
20 The Lord rewarded me
according to my righteousness;(Y)
he repaid me
according to the cleanness of my hands.(Z)
21 For I have kept the ways of the Lord
and have not turned from my God to wickedness.(AA)
22 Indeed, I let all his ordinances guide me[e]
and have not disregarded his statutes.(AB)
23 I was blameless toward him(AC)
and kept myself from my iniquity.
24 So the Lord repaid me
according to my righteousness,(AD)
according to the cleanness of my hands in his sight.(AE)
25 With the faithful
you prove yourself faithful,
with the blameless
you prove yourself blameless,
26 with the pure
you prove yourself pure,
but with the crooked
you prove yourself shrewd.(AF)
27 For you rescue an oppressed people,(AG)
but you humble those with haughty eyes.(AH)
28 Lord, you light my lamp;
my God illuminates my darkness.(AI)
29 With you I can attack a barricade,[f]
and with my God I can leap over a wall.(AJ)
30 God—his way is perfect;(AK)
the word of the Lord is pure.(AL)
He is a shield to all who take refuge in him.(AM)
31 For who is God besides the Lord?(AN)
And who is a rock? Only our God.(AO)
32 God—he clothes me with strength(AP)
and makes my way perfect.
33 He makes my feet like the feet of a deer(AQ)
and sets me securely on the heights.[g](AR)
34 He trains my hands for war;(AS)
my arms can bend a bow of bronze.(AT)
35 You have given me the shield of your salvation;
your right hand upholds me,(AU)
and your humility exalts me.
36 You make a spacious place beneath me for my steps,(AV)
and my ankles do not give way.(AW)
37 I pursue my enemies and overtake them;
I do not turn back until they are wiped out.(AX)
38 I crush them, and they cannot get up;
they fall beneath my feet.(AY)
39 You have clothed me with strength for battle;(AZ)
you subdue my adversaries beneath me.(BA)
40 You have made my enemies retreat before me;[h](BB)
I annihilate those who hate me.(BC)
41 They cry for help, but there is no one to save them(BD)—
they cry to the Lord, but he does not answer them.(BE)
42 I pulverize them like dust before the wind;(BF)
I trample them[i] like mud in the streets.(BG)
43 You have freed me from the feuds among the people;
you have appointed me the head of nations;(BH)
a people I had not known serve me.(BI)
44 Foreigners submit to me cringing;
as soon as they hear they obey me.(BJ)
45 Foreigners lose heart
and come trembling from their fortifications.(BK)
46 The Lord lives—blessed be my rock!
The God of my salvation is exalted.(BL)
47 God—he grants me vengeance(BM)
and subdues peoples under me.(BN)
48 He frees me from my enemies.
You exalt me above my adversaries;
you rescue me from violent men.(BO)
49 Therefore I will give thanks to you among the nations, Lord;
I will sing praises about your name.(BP)
50 He gives great victories to his king;(BQ)
he shows loyalty to his anointed,
to David and his descendants forever.(BR)
Jonah’s Preaching
3 The word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time:(A) 2 “Get up! Go to the great city of Nineveh(B) and preach(C) the message that I tell you.” 3 Jonah got up and went to Nineveh according to the Lord’s command.
Now Nineveh was an extremely great city,[a](D) a three-day walk. 4 Jonah set out on the first day of his walk in the city and proclaimed,(E) “In forty days Nineveh will be demolished!” 5 Then the people of Nineveh believed God. They proclaimed a fast(F) and dressed in sackcloth—from the greatest of them to the least.
6 When word reached the king of Nineveh, he got up from his throne, took off his royal robe, covered himself with sackcloth,(G) and sat in ashes. 7 Then he issued a decree(H) in Nineveh:
By order of the king and his nobles: No person or animal, herd or flock, is to taste anything at all. They must not eat or drink water. 8 Furthermore, both people and animals must be covered with sackcloth, and everyone must call out earnestly to God.(I) Each must turn from his evil ways(J) and from his wrongdoing.[b] 9 Who knows?(K) God may turn and relent; he may turn from his burning anger so that we will not perish.(L)
10 God saw their actions—that they had turned from their evil ways(M)—so God relented from the disaster(N) he had threatened them with. And he did not do it.
Jonah’s Anger
4 Jonah was greatly displeased and became furious.(O) 2 He prayed to the Lord,(P) “Please, Lord, isn’t this what I said while I was still in my own country? That’s why I fled toward Tarshish in the first place.(Q) I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God,(R) slow to anger, abounding in faithful love, and one who relents from sending disaster.(S) 3 And now, Lord, take my life from me,(T) for it is better for me to die than to live.”(U)
4 The Lord asked, “Is it right for you to be angry?”
5 Jonah left the city and found a place east of it.(V) He made himself a shelter there and sat in its shade to see what would happen to the city. 6 Then the Lord God appointed a plant, and it grew over Jonah to provide shade for his head to rescue him from his trouble.[c] Jonah was greatly pleased with the plant. 7 When dawn came the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the plant, and it withered.(W)
8 As the sun was rising, God appointed a scorching east wind.(X) The sun beat down on Jonah’s head(Y) so much that he almost fainted, and he wanted to die. He said, “It’s better for me to die than to live.”(Z)
9 Then God asked Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry about the plant?”
“Yes, it’s right!” he replied. “I’m angry enough to die!”
10 And the Lord said, “You cared about the plant, which you did not labor over and did not grow. It appeared in a night and perished in a night. 11 So may I not care about the great city of Nineveh,(AA) which has more than a hundred twenty thousand people who cannot distinguish between their right and their left,(AB) as well as many animals?”(AC)
27 When the fourteenth night came, we were drifting in the Adriatic Sea, and about midnight the sailors thought they were approaching land. 28 They took soundings and found it to be a hundred twenty feet[a] deep; when they had sailed a little farther and sounded again, they found it to be ninety feet[b] deep. 29 Then, fearing we might run aground on the rocks, they dropped four anchors from the stern and prayed for daylight to come. 30 Some sailors tried to escape from the ship; they had let down the skiff into the sea, pretending that they were going to put out anchors from the bow. 31 Paul said to the centurion and the soldiers, “Unless these men stay in the ship, you cannot be saved.” 32 Then the soldiers cut the ropes holding the skiff and let it drop away.
33 When it was about daylight, Paul urged them all to take food, saying, “Today is the fourteenth day that you have been waiting and going without food, having eaten nothing. 34 So I urge you to take some food. For this is for your survival, since none of you will lose a hair from your head.”(A) 35 After he said these things and had taken some bread, he gave thanks to God in the presence of all of them, and after he broke it, he began to eat.(B) 36 They all were encouraged and took food themselves. 37 In all there were 276 of us on the ship.(C) 38 When they had eaten enough, they began to lighten the ship by throwing the grain overboard into the sea.
Shipwreck
39 When daylight came, they did not recognize the land but sighted a bay with a beach. They planned to run the ship ashore if they could.(D) 40 After cutting loose the anchors, they left them in the sea, at the same time loosening the ropes that held the rudders. Then they hoisted the foresail to the wind and headed for the beach. 41 But they struck a sandbar and ran the ship aground. The bow jammed fast and remained immovable, while the stern began to break up by the pounding of the waves. 42 The soldiers’ plan was to kill the prisoners so that no one could swim away and escape. 43 But the centurion kept them from carrying out their plan because he wanted to save Paul, and so he ordered those who could swim to jump overboard first and get to land. 44 The rest were to follow, some on planks and some on debris from the ship. In this way, everyone safely reached the shore.(E)
Peter’s Confession of the Messiah
18 While he was praying in private(A) and his disciples were with him, he asked them, “Who do the crowds say that I am?”
19 They answered, “John the Baptist; others, Elijah; still others, that one of the ancient prophets has come back.”[a](B)
20 “But you,” he asked them, “who do you say that I am?”
Peter answered, “God’s Messiah.”(C)
His Death and Resurrection Predicted
21 But he strictly warned and instructed them to tell this to no one,(D) 22 saying,(E) “It is necessary that the Son of Man(F) suffer many things(G) and be rejected(H) by the elders, chief priests, and scribes,(I) be killed, and be raised the third day.”(J)
Take Up Your Cross
23 Then he said to them all, “If anyone wants to follow after[b] me, let him deny himself,(K) take up his cross daily,[c] and follow me.(L) 24 For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life because of me will save it.(M) 25 For what does it benefit someone if he gains the whole world, and yet loses or forfeits himself?(N) 26 For whoever is ashamed of me and my words,(O) the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his glory(P) and that of the Father and the holy angels.(Q) 27 Truly I tell you, there are some standing here who will not taste death(R) until they see the kingdom of God.”(S)
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