Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 102
Affliction in Light of Eternity
A prayer of an afflicted 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 afflicted, 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 a desert owl,[a]
like an 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 curse me.(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 Yahweh,
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 newly created people 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,[b](W)
21 so that they might declare
the name of Yahweh 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[c] strength in midcourse;
He has shortened my days.(Z)
24 I say: “My God, do not take me
in the middle of my life![d]
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)
BOOK V
(Psalms 107–150)
Psalm 107
Thanksgiving for God’s Deliverance
1 Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good;
His faithful love endures forever.(A)
2 Let the redeemed of the Lord proclaim
that He has redeemed them from the hand of the foe(B)
3 and has gathered them from the lands—
from the east and the west,
from the north and the south.(C)
4 Some[a] wandered in the desolate wilderness,
finding no way to a city where they could live.(D)
5 They were hungry and thirsty;
their spirits failed[b] within them.(E)
6 Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble;
He rescued them from their distress.(F)
7 He led them by the right path
to go to a city where they could live.(G)
8 Let them give thanks to the Lord
for His faithful love
and His wonderful works for all humanity.(H)
9 For He has satisfied the thirsty
and filled the hungry with good things.(I)
10 Others[c] sat in darkness and gloom[d]—
prisoners in cruel chains(J)—
11 because they rebelled against God’s commands
and despised the counsel of the Most High.(K)
12 He broke their spirits[e] with hard labor;
they stumbled, and there was no one to help.(L)
13 Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble;
He saved them from their distress.(M)
14 He brought them out of darkness and gloom[f]
and broke their chains apart.(N)
15 Let them give thanks to the Lord
for His faithful love
and His wonderful works for all humanity.(O)
16 For He has broken down the bronze gates
and cut through the iron bars.(P)
17 Fools suffered affliction
because of their rebellious ways and their sins.(Q)
18 They loathed all food
and came near the gates of death.(R)
19 Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble;
He saved them from their distress.(S)
20 He sent His word and healed them;
He rescued them from the Pit.(T)
21 Let them give thanks to the Lord
for His faithful love
and His wonderful works for all humanity.(U)
22 Let them offer sacrifices of thanksgiving
and announce His works with shouts of joy.(V)
23 Others[g] went to sea in ships,
conducting trade on the vast waters.(W)
24 They saw the Lord’s works,
His wonderful works in the deep.(X)
25 He spoke and raised a tempest
that stirred up the waves of the sea.[h](Y)
26 Rising up to the sky, sinking down to the depths,
their courage[i] melting away in anguish,(Z)
27 they reeled and staggered like drunken men,
and all their skill was useless.(AA)
28 Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble,
and He brought them out of their distress.(AB)
29 He stilled the storm to a murmur,
and the waves of the sea[j] were hushed.(AC)
30 They rejoiced when the waves[k] grew quiet.
Then He guided them to the harbor they longed for.(AD)
31 Let them give thanks to the Lord
for His faithful love
and His wonderful works for all humanity.(AE)
32 Let them exalt Him in the assembly of the people
and praise Him in the council of the elders.(AF)
20 and his wife was given to one of the men who had accompanied him.
Samson’s Revenge
15 Later on, during the wheat harvest,(A) Samson took a young goat as a gift and visited his wife. “I want to go to my wife in her room,” he said. But her father would not let him enter.
2 “I was sure you hated her,” her father said, “so I gave her to one of the men who accompanied you. Isn’t her younger sister more beautiful than she is? Why not take her instead?”
3 Samson said to them, “This time I won’t be responsible(B) when I harm the Philistines.” 4 So he went out and caught 300 foxes.(C) He took torches, turned the foxes tail-to-tail, and put a torch between each pair of tails. 5 Then he ignited the torches and released the foxes into the standing grain of the Philistines. He burned up the piles of grain and the standing grain as well as the vineyards and olive groves.(D)
6 Then the Philistines asked, “Who did this?”
They were told, “It was Samson, the Timnite’s son-in-law, because he has taken Samson’s wife and given her to another man.” So the Philistines went to her and her father and burned them to death.
7 Then Samson told them, “Because you did this, I swear that I won’t rest until I have taken vengeance on you.” 8 He tore them limb from limb[a] with a great slaughter, and he went down and stayed in the cave at the rock of Etam.
9 The Philistines went up, camped in Judah, and raided Lehi. 10 So the men of Judah said, “Why have you attacked us?”
They replied, “We have come to arrest Samson and pay him back for what he did to us.”
11 Then 3,000 men of Judah went to the cave at the rock of Etam, and they asked Samson, “Don’t you realize that the Philistines rule over us?(E) What have you done to us?”
“I have done to them what they did to me,” he answered.[b]
12 They said to him, “We’ve come to arrest you and hand you over to the Philistines.”
Then Samson told them, “Swear to me that you yourselves won’t kill me.”
13 “No,” they said,[c] “we won’t kill you, but we will tie you up securely and hand you over to them.” So they tied him up with two new ropes(F) and led him away from the rock.
14 When he came to Lehi, the Philistines came to meet him shouting. The Spirit of the Lord took control of[d] him, and the ropes that were on his arms became like burnt flax and his bonds fell off his wrists. 15 He found a fresh jawbone of a donkey, reached out his hand, took it, and killed 1,000 men with it. 16 Then Samson said:
With the jawbone of a donkey
I have piled them in a heap.
With the jawbone of a donkey
I have killed 1,000 men.
17 When he finished speaking, he threw away the jawbone and named that place Ramath-lehi.[e] 18 He became very thirsty and called out to the Lord: “You have accomplished this great victory through[f] Your servant. Must I now die of thirst and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised?” 19 So God split a hollow place in the ground at Lehi, and water came out of it. After Samson drank, his strength returned, and he revived.(G) That is why he named it En-hakkore,[g] which is in Lehi to this day. 20 And he judged Israel 20 years in the days of the Philistines.
Moses, a Rejected Savior
17 “As the time was drawing near to fulfill the promise that God had made to Abraham, the people flourished and multiplied in Egypt(A) 18 until a different king who did not know Joseph ruled over Egypt.[a] 19 He dealt deceitfully with our race and oppressed our ancestors by making them leave their infants outside, so they wouldn’t survive.[b](B) 20 At this time Moses was born, and he was beautiful in God’s sight. He was cared for in his father’s home three months, 21 and when he was left outside, Pharaoh’s daughter adopted and raised him as her own son.(C) 22 So Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was powerful in his speech and actions.(D)
23 “As he was approaching the age of 40, he decided[c] to visit his brothers, the Israelites. 24 When he saw one of them being mistreated, he came to his rescue and avenged the oppressed man by striking down the Egyptian. 25 He assumed his brothers would understand that God would give them deliverance through him, but they did not understand. 26 The next day he showed up while they were fighting and tried to reconcile them peacefully, saying, ‘Men, you are brothers. Why are you mistreating each other?’(E)
27 “But the one who was mistreating his neighbor pushed him[d] away, saying:
Who appointed you a ruler and a judge over us? 28 Do you want to kill me, the same way you killed the Egyptian yesterday?(F)[e]
29 “At this disclosure, Moses fled and became an exile in the land of Midian, where he fathered two sons.(G)
A Galilean Welcome
43 After two days He left there for Galilee.(A) 44 Jesus Himself testified(B) that a prophet has no honor in his own country.(C) 45 When(D) they entered Galilee, the Galileans(E) welcomed Him because they had seen everything He did in Jerusalem(F) during the festival.(G) For they also had gone to the festival.
The Second Sign: Healing an Official’s Son
46 Then He went again to Cana(H) of Galilee, where He had turned the water into wine. There was a certain royal official whose son was ill at Capernaum.(I) 47 When this man heard that Jesus had come from Judea(J) into Galilee, he went to Him and pleaded with Him to come down and heal his son, for he was about to die.
48 Jesus told him, “Unless you people see signs and wonders,(K) you will not believe.”(L)
49 “Sir,”(M) the official said to Him, “come down before my boy dies!”
50 “Go,” Jesus told him, “your son will live.” The man believed what[a] Jesus said to him and departed.
51 While he was still going down, his slaves met him saying that his boy was alive. 52 He asked them at what time he got better. “Yesterday at seven in the morning[b] the fever left him,” they answered. 53 The father(N) realized this was the very hour at which Jesus had told him, “Your son will live.” Then he himself believed, along with his whole household.
54 This, therefore, was the second sign(O) Jesus performed after He came from Judea to Galilee.(P)
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