Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 95
Worship and Warning
1 Come, let’s shout joyfully to the Lord,
shout triumphantly to the rock of our salvation!(A)
2 Let’s enter his presence with thanksgiving;
let’s shout triumphantly to him in song.(B)
3 For the Lord is a great God,
a great King above all gods.(C)
4 The depths of the earth are in his hand,
and the mountain peaks are his.(D)
5 The sea is his; he made it.
His hands formed the dry land.(E)
6 Come, let’s worship and bow down;
let’s kneel before the Lord our Maker.(F)
7 For he is our God,
and we are the people of his pasture,
the sheep under his care.[a](G)
Today, if you hear his voice:(H)
8 Do not harden your hearts as at Meribah,
as on that day at Massah in the wilderness(I)
9 where your ancestors tested me;
they tried me, though they had seen what I did.(J)
10 For forty years I was disgusted with that generation;
I said, “They are a people whose hearts go astray;
they do not know my ways.”(K)
11 So I swore in my anger,
“They will not enter my rest.”(L)
Psalm 32
The Joy of Forgiveness
Of David. A Maskil.
1 How joyful is the one
whose transgression is forgiven,
whose sin is covered!(A)
2 How joyful is a person whom
the Lord does not charge with iniquity(B)
and in whose spirit is no deceit!(C)
3 When I kept silent, my bones became brittle
from my groaning all day long.(D)
4 For day and night your hand was heavy on me;(E)
my strength was drained[a]
as in the summer’s heat.(F)Selah
5 Then I acknowledged my sin to you(G)
and did not conceal my iniquity.
I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,”
and you forgave the guilt of my sin.(H)Selah
6 Therefore let everyone who is faithful pray to you immediately.[b](I)
When great floodwaters come,
they will not reach him.(J)
7 You are my hiding place;(K)
you protect me from trouble.(L)
You surround me with joyful shouts of deliverance.Selah
Psalm 143
A Cry for Help
A psalm of David.
1 Lord, hear my prayer.
In your faithfulness listen to my plea,
and in your righteousness answer me.(A)
2 Do not bring your servant into judgment,(B)
for no one alive is righteous in your sight.(C)
3 For the enemy has pursued me,
crushing me to the ground,
making me live in darkness
like those long dead.(D)
4 My spirit is weak within me;
my heart is overcome with dismay.(E)
5 I remember the days of old;
I meditate on all you have done;
I reflect on the work of your hands.(F)
6 I spread out my hands to you;
I am like parched land before you.(G)Selah
7 Answer me quickly, Lord;
my spirit fails.(H)
Don’t hide your face from me,
or I will be like those
going down to the Pit.(I)
8 Let me experience
your faithful love in the morning,
for I trust in you.(J)
Reveal to me the way I should go
because I appeal to you.(K)
9 Rescue me from my enemies, Lord;
I come to you for protection.[a](L)
10 Teach me to do your will,
for you are my God.(M)
May your gracious Spirit
lead me on level ground.(N)
Psalm 102
Affliction in light of Eternity
A prayer of a suffering person who is weak and pours out his lament before the Lord.(A)
1 Lord, hear my prayer;
let my cry for help come before you.(B)
2 Do not hide your face from me in my day of trouble.
Listen closely to me;
answer me quickly when I call.(C)
3 For my days vanish like smoke,
and my bones burn like a furnace.(D)
4 My heart is suffering, withered like grass;(E)
I even forget to eat my food.(F)
5 Because of the sound of my groaning,
my flesh sticks to my bones.(G)
6 I am like an eagle owl,
like a little owl among the ruins.(H)
7 I stay awake;(I)
I am like a solitary bird on a roof.
8 My enemies taunt me all day long;
they ridicule and use my name as a curse.(J)
9 I eat ashes like bread
and mingle my drinks with tears(K)
10 because of your indignation and wrath;
for you have picked me up and thrown me aside.(L)
11 My days are like a lengthening shadow,
and I wither away like grass.(M)
12 But you, Lord, are enthroned forever;(N)
your fame endures to all generations.(O)
13 You will rise up and have compassion on Zion,
for it is time to show favor to her—
the appointed time has come.(P)
14 For your servants take delight in its stones
and favor its dust.(Q)
15 Then the nations will fear the name of the Lord,
and all the kings of the earth your glory,(R)
16 for the Lord will rebuild Zion;
he will appear in his glory.(S)
17 He will pay attention to the prayer of the destitute
and will not despise their prayer.(T)
18 This will be written for a later generation,
and a people who have not yet been created will praise the Lord:(U)
19 He looked down from his holy heights—
the Lord gazed out from heaven to earth(V)—
20 to hear a prisoner’s groaning,
to set free those condemned to die,[a](W)
21 so that they might declare
the name of the Lord in Zion
and his praise in Jerusalem(X)
22 when peoples and kingdoms are assembled
to serve the Lord.(Y)
23 He has broken my[b] strength in midcourse;
he has shortened my days.(Z)
24 I say, “My God, do not take me
in the middle of my life![c]
Your years continue through all generations.(AA)
25 Long ago you established the earth,
and the heavens are the work of your hands.(AB)
26 They will perish, but you will endure;
all of them will wear out like clothing.
You will change them like a garment,
and they will pass away.(AC)
27 But you are the same,
and your years will never end.(AD)
28 Your servants’ children will dwell securely,
and their offspring will be established before you.”(AE)
Psalm 130
Awaiting Redemption
A song of ascents.
1 Out of the depths I call to you, Lord!(A)
2 Lord, listen to my voice;
let your ears be attentive
to my cry for help.(B)
3 Lord, if you kept an account of iniquities,
Lord, who could stand?(C)
4 But with you there is forgiveness,
so that you may be revered.(D)
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)
The Call to Endurance
12 Therefore, since we also have such a large cloud of witnesses(A) surrounding us, let us lay aside every hindrance and the sin that so easily ensnares us. Let us run with endurance(B) the race that lies before us, 2 keeping our eyes on Jesus,[a] the pioneer and perfecter[b] of our faith. For the joy that lay before him,[c] he endured the cross, despising the shame,(C) and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Fatherly Discipline
3 For consider him who endured such hostility from sinners against himself, so that you won’t grow weary and give up.(D) 4 In struggling against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. 5 And you have forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons:
My son, do not take the Lord’s discipline lightly
or lose heart when you are reproved by him,
6 for the Lord disciplines the one he loves
and punishes every son he receives.[d](E)
7 Endure suffering as discipline: God is dealing with you as sons. For what son is there that a father does not discipline? 8 But if you are without discipline—which all receive[e]—then you are illegitimate children and not sons.(F) 9 Furthermore, we had human fathers discipline us, and we respected them. Shouldn’t we submit even more to the Father of spirits and live?(G) 10 For they disciplined us for a short time based on what seemed good to them, but he does it for our benefit, so that we can share his holiness.(H) 11 No discipline seems enjoyable at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it yields the peaceful fruit(I) of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.(J)
12 Therefore, strengthen your tired hands and weakened knees,(K) 13 and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be dislocated[f] but healed instead.(L)
Warning against Rejecting God’s Grace
14 Pursue peace with everyone, and holiness(M)—without it no one will see the Lord.(N)
The Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector
9 He(A) also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves(B) that they were righteous(C) and looked down(D) on everyone else: 10 “Two men went up to the temple to pray,(E) one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 The Pharisee was standing(F) and praying like this about himself: [a] ‘God, I thank you that I’m not like other people—greedy,(G) unrighteous,(H) adulterers,(I) or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast(J) twice a week; I give a tenth[b](K) of everything I get.’
13 “But the tax collector, standing far off,(L) would not even raise his eyes to heaven(M) but kept striking his chest(N) and saying, ‘God, have mercy on me,[c](O) a sinner!’ (P) 14 I tell you, this one went down to his house justified(Q) rather than the other, because everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”(R)
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