Book of Common Prayer

Prayer for Help

70 O God, hurry to take me out of trouble. O Lord, hurry to help me! ² Let those who want to kill me be ashamed and brought low. Let those who want to hurt me be turned away in shame. ³ Let those who say, “O, O!” be turned back because of their shame.

⁴ Let all who look for You be full of joy and be glad in You. And let those who love Your saving power always say, “Let God be honored.” ⁵ But I am poor and in need. Hurry to me, O God! You are my help and the One Who takes me out of trouble. O Lord, do not wait.

A Prayer of an Old Man

71 I have a safe place in you, O Lord. Let me never be ashamed. ² Because You are right and good, take me out of trouble. Turn Your ear to me and save me. ³ Be a rock to me where I live, where I may always come and where I will be safe. For You are my rock and my safe place. ⁴ O my God, take me from the hand of the sinful, from the hand of the wrong-doer and the man without pity. ⁵ For You are my hope, O Lord God. You are my trust since I was young. ⁶ You have kept me safe from birth. It was You Who watched over me from the day I was born. My praise is always of You.

⁷ I have become a wonder and surprise to many. For You are my strong safe place. ⁸ My mouth is filled with Your praise and with Your honor all day long. ⁹ Do not let me fall by the way when I am old. Do not leave me alone when my strength is gone. ¹⁰ For those who hate me talk against me. Those who want to kill make plans together. ¹¹ They say, “God has turned away from him. Run and catch him, for there is no one to take him out of trouble.”

¹² O God, do not be far from me! O my God, hurry to help me! ¹³ Let those who are against me be ashamed and destroyed. Let those who want to hurt me be without honor and covered with shame. ¹⁴ But as for me, I will always have hope and I will praise You more and more. ¹⁵ My mouth will tell about how right and good You are and about Your saving acts all day long. For there are more than I can know. ¹⁶ I will come in the strength of the Lord God. I will tell about how right and good You are, and You alone.

¹⁷ O God, You have taught me from when I was young. And I still tell about Your great works. ¹⁸ Even when I am old and my hair is turning white, O God, do not leave me alone. Let me tell about Your strength to all the people living now, and about Your power to all who are to come. ¹⁹ O God, You are right and good, as the heavens are high. You have done great things, O God. Who is like You? ²⁰ You have shown me many troubles of all kinds. But You will make me strong again. And You will bring me up again from deep in the earth. ²¹ Add to my greatness, and turn to comfort me.

²² O my God, I will praise You with a harp. I will praise Your truth. I will sing praises to You with different kinds of harps, O Holy One of Israel. ²³ My lips will call out for joy when I sing praises to You. You have set my soul free. ²⁴ My tongue will tell about how right and good You are all day long. For those who want to hurt me are ashamed and troubled.

A Prayer for the Nation

74 O God, why have You turned away from us forever? Why does Your anger burn against the sheep in Your fields? ² Remember Your people that You bought a long time ago. You made them free to be the family of Your promise, and Mount Zion, where You have lived. ³ Turn Your steps toward this place that has been destroyed forever. Those who hate You have destroyed all that is in the holy place. ⁴ Those who hate You have called out in the center of Your meeting place. They have set up their flags to show that they have won. ⁵ They acted like men taking up axes against a group of trees. ⁶ All of its fine work has been broken with axes and sticks. ⁷ They have burned Your holy place to the dust. They have made dirty the house of Your name. ⁸ They said in their hearts, “Let us destroy all of these places!” They have burned all the meeting places where God was worshiped in the land. ⁹ We do not see any special things happening. There is no longer anyone who speaks for God. And none of us knows how long this will be. ¹⁰ O God, how long will those who hate You laugh at the truth? Will they speak against Your name forever? ¹¹ Why do You take Your hand away, even Your right hand? Put it out and destroy them!

¹² God is still my King from long ago. He does saving works upon the earth. ¹³ You divided the sea by Your power. You broke the heads of the large dragons in the waters. ¹⁴ You crushed the heads of the Leviathan. And You fed him to the animals of the desert. ¹⁵ It was You Who opened up the earth for water to flow out. And You dried up rivers that flow forever. ¹⁶ The day is Yours. And the night is Yours. You have set the light and the sun in their places. ¹⁷ You have divided all the lands and seas and nations of the earth. You have made summer and winter.

¹⁸ Remember how those who hate You have laughed at the truth, O Lord. Foolish people have spoken against Your name. ¹⁹ Do not give the life of Your dove over to the wild animal. Do not forget the lives of Your troubled people forever. ²⁰ Think about Your agreement. For the dark places of the land are full of fighting. ²¹ Do not let those who suffer under a bad power return without honor. Let those who suffer and those who are in need praise Your name.

²² Rise up, O God. Stand up for Your rights. Remember how the foolish man speaks against You all day long. ²³ Do not forget the voice of those who hate You, the noise that comes without stopping from those who rise against You.

The Death of Ahab

²⁹ So the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat king of Judah went up to Ramoth-gilead. ³⁰ The king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, “I will dress so no one will know who I am, and will go to battle. But you put on your king’s clothing.” So the king of Israel dressed so no one would know who he was, and went into battle. ³¹ Now the king of Syria had told the thirty-two captains of his war-wagons, “Do not fight with the small or strong. But only fight with the king of Israel.” ³² When the captains of the war-wagons saw Jehoshaphat, they said, “For sure this is the king of Israel.” And they turned to fight against him, and Jehoshaphat cried out. ³³ Then the captains of the war-wagons saw that it was not the king of Israel. So they returned from going after him.

³⁴ But a certain man happened to shoot an arrow and hit the king of Israel between the parts of his battle-clothes. So Ahab said to the driver of his war-wagon, “Turn around and take me out of the battle. For I am hurt.” ³⁵ The battle was hard that day, and the king was set up in his war-wagon in front of the Syrians. At evening he died. The blood from the cut flowed to the bottom of the war-wagon. ³⁶ Then a cry went through to his country!

³⁷ So the king died and was brought to Samaria. They buried the king in Samaria. ³⁸ And they washed the war-wagon by the pool of Samaria. The dogs drank up his blood. (The women who sold the use of their bodies washed themselves there.) It happened as the word of the Lord said it would. ³⁹ Now the rest of the acts of Ahab and all he did, the ivory house and cities he built, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel? ⁴⁰ Ahab died and his son Ahaziah became king in his place.

Jehoshaphat Rules Judah

⁴¹ Jehoshaphat the son of Asa became the king of Judah in the fourth year of Ahab king of Israel. ⁴² Jehoshaphat was thirty-five years old when he became king. And he ruled twenty-five years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Azubah the daughter of Shilhi. ⁴³ He walked in all the way of Asa his father. He did not turn aside from it. He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord. But the high places were not taken away. The people still gave gifts and burned special perfume on the high places. ⁴⁴ And Jehoshaphat made peace with the king of Israel.

⁴⁵ The rest of the acts of Jehoshaphat, the strength he showed and how he fought, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah?

¹⁴ But the person who is not a Christian does not understand these words from the Holy Spirit. He thinks they are foolish. He cannot understand them because he does not have the Holy Spirit to help him understand. ¹⁵ The full-grown Christian understands all things, and yet he is not understood. ¹⁶ For who has the thoughts of the Lord? Who can tell Him what to do? But we have the thoughts of Christ.

3 Christian brothers, I could not speak to you as to full-grown Christians. I spoke to you as men who have not obeyed the things you have been taught. I spoke to you as if you were baby Christians. ² My teaching was as if I were giving you milk to drink. I could not give you meat because you were not ready for it. Even yet you are not able to have anything but milk. ³ You still live as men who are not Christians. When you are jealous and fight with each other, you are still living in sin and acting like sinful men in the world. ⁴ When one says, “I am a follower of Paul,” and another says, “I am a follower of Apollos,” does not this sound like the talk of baby Christians? ⁵ Who is Apollos? Who is Paul? We are only servants owned by God. He gave us gifts to preach His Word. And because of that, you put your trust in Christ. ⁶ I planted the seed. Apollos watered it, but it was God Who kept it growing. ⁷ This shows that the one who plants or the one who waters is not the important one. God is the important One. He makes it grow. ⁸ The one who plants and the one who waters are alike. Each one will receive his own reward. ⁹ For we work together with God. You are God’s field.

You are God’s building also. ¹⁰ Through God’s loving-favor to me, I laid the stones on which the building was to be built. I did it like one who knew what he was doing. Now another person is building on it. Each person who builds must be careful how he builds on it. ¹¹ Jesus Christ is the Stone on which other stones for the building must be laid. It can be only Christ. ¹² Now if a man builds on the Stone with gold or silver or beautiful stones, or if he builds with wood or grass or straw, ¹³ each man’s work will become known. There will be a day when it will be tested by fire. The fire will show what kind of work it is. ¹⁴ If a man builds on work that lasts, he will receive his reward. ¹⁵ If his work is burned up, he will lose it. Yet he himself will be saved as if he were going through a fire.

Jesus Teaches on the Mountain ^(A)

5 Jesus saw many people. He went up on the mountain and sat down. His followers came to Him. ² He began to teach them, saying, ³ “Those who know there is nothing good in themselves are happy, because the holy nation of heaven is theirs. ⁴ Those who have sorrow are happy, because they will be comforted. ⁵ Those who have no pride in their hearts are happy, because the earth will be given to them. ⁶ Those who are hungry and thirsty to be right with God are happy, because they will be filled. ⁷ Those who show loving-kindness are happy, because they will have loving-kindness shown to them. ⁸ Those who have a pure heart are happy, because they will see God. ⁹ Those who make peace are happy, because they will be called the sons of God. ¹⁰ Those who have it very hard for doing right are happy, because the holy nation of heaven is theirs.