Book of Common Prayer
Trusting God for Help
For the director of music. To the tune of “The Dove in the Distant Oak.” A miktam of David when the Philistines captured him in Gath.
56 God, be merciful to me because people are chasing me;
the battle has pressed me all day long.
2 My enemies have chased me all day;
there are many proud people fighting me.
3 When I am afraid,
I will trust you.
4 I praise God for his word.
I trust God, so I am not afraid.
What can human beings do to me?
5 All day long they twist my words;
all their evil plans are against me.
6 They wait. They hide.
They watch my steps,
hoping to kill me.
7 God, do not let them escape;
punish the foreign nations in your anger.
8 You have recorded my troubles.
You have kept a list of my tears.
Aren’t they in your records?
9 On the day I call for help, my enemies will be defeated.
I know that God is on my side.
10 I praise God for his word to me;
I praise the Lord for his word.
11 I trust in God. I will not be afraid.
What can people do to me?
12 God, I must keep my promises to you.
I will give you my offerings to thank you,
13 because you have saved me from death.
You have kept me from being defeated.
So I will walk with God
in light among the living.
A Prayer in Troubled Times
For the director of music. To the tune of “Do Not Destroy.” A miktam of David when he escaped from Saul in the cave.
57 Be merciful to me, God; be merciful to me
because I come to you for protection.
Let me hide under the shadow of your wings
until the trouble has passed.
2 I cry out to God Most High,
to the God who does everything for me.
3 He sends help from heaven and saves me.
He punishes those who chase me. Selah
God sends me his love and truth.
4 Enemies, like lions, are all around me;
I must lie down among them.
Their teeth are like spears and arrows,
their tongues as sharp as swords.
5 God is supreme over the skies;
his majesty covers the earth.
6 They set a trap for me.
I am very worried.
They dug a pit in my path,
but they fell into it themselves. Selah
7 My heart is steady, God; my heart is steady.
I will sing and praise you.
8 Wake up, my soul.
Wake up, harp and lyre!
I will wake up the dawn.
9 Lord, I will praise you among the nations;
I will sing songs of praise about you to all the nations.
10 Your great love reaches to the skies,
your truth to the clouds.
11 God, you are supreme above the skies.
Let your glory be over all the earth.
Unfair Judges
For the director of music. To the tune of “Do Not Destroy.” A miktam of David.
58 Do you rulers really say what is right?
Do you judge people fairly?
2 No, in your heart you plan evil;
you think up violent crimes in the land.
3 From birth, evil people turn away from God;
they wander off and tell lies as soon as they are born.
4 They are like poisonous snakes,
like deaf cobras that stop up their ears
5 so they cannot hear the music of the snake charmer
no matter how well he plays.
6 God, break the teeth in their mouths!
Tear out the fangs of those lions, Lord!
7 Let them disappear like water that flows away.
Let them be cut short like a broken arrow.
8 Let them be like snails that melt as they move.
Let them be like a child born dead who never saw the sun.
9 His anger will blow them away alive
faster than burning thorns can heat a pot.
10 Good people will be glad when they see him get even.
They will wash their feet in the blood of the wicked.
11 Then people will say,
“There really are rewards for doing what is right.
There really is a God who judges the world.”
A Prayer Against Enemies
For the director of music. A psalm of David.
64 God, listen to my complaint.
I am afraid of my enemies;
protect my life from them.
2 Hide me from those who plan wicked things,
from that gang who does evil.
3 They sharpen their tongues like swords
and shoot bitter words like arrows.
4 From their hiding places they shoot at innocent people;
they shoot suddenly and are not afraid.
5 They encourage each other to do wrong.
They talk about setting traps,
thinking no one will see them.
6 They plan wicked things and say,
“We have a perfect plan.”
The mind of human beings is hard to understand.
7 But God will shoot them with arrows;
they will suddenly be struck down.
8 Their own words will be used against them.
All who see them will shake their heads.
9 Then everyone will fear God.
They will tell what God has done,
and they will learn from what he has done.
10 Good people will be happy in the Lord
and will find protection in him.
Let everyone who is honest praise the Lord.
A Hymn of Thanksgiving
For the director of music. A psalm of David. A song.
65 God, you will be praised in Jerusalem.
We will keep our promises to you.
2 You hear our prayers.
All people will come to you.
3 Our guilt overwhelms us,
but you forgive our sins.
4 Happy are the people you choose
and invite to stay in your court.
We are filled with good things in your house,
your holy Temple.
5 You answer us in amazing ways,
God our Savior.
People everywhere on the earth
and beyond the sea trust you.
6 You made the mountains by your strength;
you are dressed in power.
7 You stopped the roaring seas,
the roaring waves,
and the uproar of the nations.
8 Even those people at the ends of the earth fear your miracles.
You are praised from where the sun rises to where it sets.
9 You take care of the land and water it;
you make it very fertile.
The rivers of God are full of water.
Grain grows because you make it grow.
10 You send rain to the plowed fields;
you fill the rows with water.
You soften the ground with rain,
and then you bless it with crops.
11 You give the year a good harvest,
and you load the wagons with many crops.
12 The desert is covered with grass
and the hills with happiness.
13 The pastures are full of flocks,
and the valleys are covered with grain.
Everything shouts and sings for joy.
The Israelites Will Return
30 When all these blessings and curses I have described happen to you, and the Lord your God has sent you away to other nations, think about these things. 2 Then you and your children will return to the Lord your God, and you will obey him with your whole being in everything I am commanding you today. 3 Then the Lord your God will give you back your freedom. He will feel sorry for you, and he will bring you back again from the nations where he scattered you. 4 He may send you to the ends of the earth, but he will gather you and bring you back from there, 5 back to the land that belonged to your ancestors. It will be yours. He will give you success, and there will be more of you than there were of your ancestors. 6 The Lord your God will prepare you and your descendants to love him with your whole being so that you will live. 7 The Lord your God will put all these curses on your enemies, who hate you and are cruel to you. 8 And you will again obey the Lord, keeping all his commands that I give you today. 9 The Lord your God will make you successful in everything you do. You will have many children, your cattle will have many calves, and your fields will produce good crops, because the Lord will again be happy with you, just as he was with your ancestors. 10 But you must obey the Lord your God by keeping all his commands and rules that are written in this Book of the Teachings. You must return to the Lord your God with your whole being.
Paul Defends His Ministry
10 I, Paul, am begging you with the gentleness and the kindness of Christ. Some people say that I am easy on you when I am with you and bold when I am away. 2 They think we live in a worldly way, and I plan to be very bold with them when I come. I beg you that when I come I will not need to use that same boldness with you. 3 We do live in the world, but we do not fight in the same way the world fights. 4 We fight with weapons that are different from those the world uses. Our weapons have power from God that can destroy the enemy’s strong places. We destroy people’s arguments 5 and every proud thing that raises itself against the knowledge of God. We capture every thought and make it give up and obey Christ. 6 We are ready to punish anyone there who does not obey, but first we want you to obey fully.
7 You must look at the facts before you. If you feel sure that you belong to Christ, you must remember that we belong to Christ just as you do. 8 It is true that we brag freely about the authority the Lord gave us. But this authority is to build you up, not to tear you down. So I will not be ashamed. 9 I do not want you to think I am trying to scare you with my letters. 10 Some people say, “Paul’s letters are powerful and sound important, but when he is with us, he is weak. And his speaking is nothing.” 11 They should know this: We are not there with you now, so we say these things in letters. But when we are there with you, we will show the same authority that we show in our letters.
12 We do not dare to compare ourselves with those who think they are very important. They use themselves to measure themselves, and they judge themselves by what they themselves are. This shows that they know nothing. 13 But we will not brag about things outside the work that was given us to do. We will limit our bragging to the work that God gave us, and this includes our work with you. 14 We are not bragging too much, as we would be if we had not already come to you. But we have come to you with the Good News of Christ. 15 We limit our bragging to the work that is ours, not what others have done. We hope that as your faith continues to grow, you will help our work to grow much larger. 16 We want to tell the Good News in the areas beyond your city. We do not want to brag about work that has already been done in another person’s area. 17 But, “If people want to brag, they should brag only about the Lord.”[a] 18 It is not those who say they are good who are accepted but those the Lord thinks are good.
Jesus Will Rise from the Dead
31 Then Jesus took the twelve apostles aside and said to them, “We are going to Jerusalem. Everything the prophets wrote about the Son of Man will happen. 32 He will be turned over to those who are evil. They will laugh at him, insult him, spit on him, 33 beat him with whips, and kill him. But on the third day, he will rise to life again.” 34 The apostles did not understand this; the meaning was hidden from them, and they did not realize what was said.
Jesus Heals a Blind Man
35 As Jesus came near the city of Jericho, a blind man was sitting beside the road, begging. 36 When he heard the people coming down the road, he asked, “What is happening?”
37 They told him, “Jesus, from Nazareth, is going by.”
38 The blind man cried out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”
39 The people leading the group warned the blind man to be quiet. But the blind man shouted even more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!”
40 Jesus stopped and ordered the blind man to be brought to him. When he came near, Jesus asked him, 41 “What do you want me to do for you?”
He said, “Lord, I want to see.”
42 Jesus said to him, “Then see. You are healed because you believed.”
43 At once the man was able to see, and he followed Jesus, thanking God. All the people who saw this praised God.
The Holy Bible, New Century Version®. Copyright © 2005 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.