Book of Common Prayer
Prayer for Mercy, with Meditation on the Excellencies of the Lord
A Prayer of David.
86 Bow down Your ear, O Lord, hear me;
For I am poor and needy.
2 Preserve my [a]life, for I am holy;
You are my God;
Save Your servant who trusts in You!
3 Be merciful to me, O Lord,
For I cry to You all day long.
4 [b]Rejoice the soul of Your servant,
(A)For to You, O Lord, I lift up my soul.
5 For (B)You, Lord, are good, and ready to forgive,
And abundant in mercy to all those who call upon You.
6 Give ear, O Lord, to my prayer;
And attend to the voice of my supplications.
7 In the day of my trouble I will call upon You,
For You will answer me.
8 (C)Among the gods there is none like You, O Lord;
Nor are there any works like Your works.
9 All nations whom You have made
Shall come and worship before You, O Lord,
And shall glorify Your name.
10 For You are great, and (D)do wondrous things;
(E)You alone are God.
11 (F)Teach me Your way, O Lord;
I will walk in Your truth;
[c]Unite my heart to fear Your name.
12 I will praise You, O Lord my God, with all my heart,
And I will glorify Your name forevermore.
13 For great is Your mercy toward me,
And You have delivered my soul from the depths of [d]Sheol.
14 O God, the proud have risen against me,
And a mob of violent men have sought my life,
And have not set You before them.
15 But (G)You, O Lord, are a God full of compassion, and gracious,
Longsuffering and abundant in mercy and truth.
16 Oh, turn to me, and have mercy on me!
Give Your strength to Your servant,
And save the son of Your maidservant.
17 Show me a sign for good,
That those who hate me may see it and be ashamed,
Because You, Lord, have helped me and comforted me.
Jacob’s Vow at Bethel
10 Now Jacob (A)went out from Beersheba and went toward (B)Haran. 11 So he came to a certain place and stayed there all night, because the sun had set. And he took one of the stones of that place and put it at his head, and he lay down in that place to sleep. 12 Then he (C)dreamed, and behold, a ladder was set up on the earth, and its top reached to heaven; and there (D)the angels of God were ascending and descending on it.
13 (E)And behold, the Lord stood above it and said: (F)“I am the Lord God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; (G)the land on which you lie I will give to you and your descendants. 14 Also your (H)descendants shall be as the dust of the earth; you shall spread abroad (I)to the west and the east, to the north and the south; and in you and (J)in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed. 15 Behold, (K)I am with you and will (L)keep[a] you wherever you go, and will (M)bring you back to this land; for (N)I will not leave you (O)until I have done what I have spoken to you.”
16 Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, “Surely the Lord is in (P)this place, and I did not know it.” 17 And he was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven!”
Philip and Nathanael
43 The following day Jesus wanted to go to Galilee, and He found (A)Philip and said to him, “Follow Me.” 44 Now (B)Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. 45 Philip found (C)Nathanael and said to him, “We have found Him of whom (D)Moses in the law, and also the (E)prophets, wrote—Jesus (F)of Nazareth, the (G)son of Joseph.”
46 And Nathanael said to him, (H)“Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”
Philip said to him, “Come and see.”
47 Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward Him, and said of him, “Behold, (I)an Israelite indeed, in whom is no deceit!”
48 Nathanael said to Him, “How do You know me?”
Jesus answered and said to him, “Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.”
49 Nathanael answered and said to Him, “Rabbi, (J)You are the Son of God! You are (K)the King of Israel!”
50 Jesus answered and said to him, “Because I said to you, ‘I saw you under the fig tree,’ do you believe? You will see greater things than these.” 51 And He said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, (L)hereafter[a] you shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.”
The Character of Those Who May Dwell with the Lord
A Psalm of David.
2 He who walks uprightly,
And works righteousness,
And speaks the (B)truth in his heart;
3 He who (C)does not backbite with his tongue,
Nor does evil to his neighbor,
(D)Nor does he [b]take up a reproach against his friend;
4 (E)In whose eyes a vile person is despised,
But he honors those who fear the Lord;
He who (F)swears to his own hurt and does not change;
5 He who does not put out his money at usury,
Nor does he take a bribe against the innocent.
He who does these things (G)shall never be moved.
An Invocation and a Doxology
To the Chief Musician. On [a]stringed instruments. A Psalm. A Song.
67 God be merciful to us and bless us,
And (A)cause His face to shine upon us, Selah
2 That (B)Your way may be known on earth,
(C)Your salvation among all nations.
3 Let the peoples praise You, O God;
Let all the peoples praise You.
4 Oh, let the nations be glad and sing for joy!
For (D)You shall judge the people righteously,
And govern the nations on earth. Selah
Shepherd the Flock
5 The elders who are among you I exhort, I who am a fellow elder and a (A)witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the (B)glory that will be revealed: 2 (C)Shepherd the flock of God which is among you, serving as overseers, (D)not by compulsion but [a]willingly, (E)not for dishonest gain but eagerly; 3 nor as (F)being [b]lords over (G)those entrusted to you, but (H)being examples to the flock; 4 and when (I)the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive (J)the crown of glory that does not fade away.
Submit to God, Resist the Devil
5 Likewise you younger people, submit yourselves to your elders. Yes, (K)all of you be submissive to one another, and be clothed with humility, for
6 Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, 7 casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.
8 Be [c]sober, be [d]vigilant; [e]because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. 9 Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world. 10 But [f]may the God of all grace, (N)who called [g]us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, [h]perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you. 11 (O)To Him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.