Book of Common Prayer
A Call to Worship and Obey
95 Come, let us sing for joy to Yahweh;
let us shout joyfully to the rock of our salvation.
2 Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving;
with songs let us shout joyfully to him.
3 For Yahweh is the[a] great God,
and the great king over all gods,
4 in whose hand are the unexplored places[b] of the earth,
and the heights of the mountains are his,
5 to whom belongs the sea that he made, [c]
and the dry land that his hands formed.
6 Come in, let us worship and bow down;
let us kneel before Yahweh, our maker.
7 For he is our God,
and we are the people of his pasture
and the sheep of his hand.
Today[d] if you will hear his voice:[e]
8 “Do not harden your heart as at Meribah,
as in the day of Massah in the wilderness,
9 when your ancestors[f] tried me.
They put me to the test,
even though they had seen my work.
10 For forty years I loathed that generation,
and said, ‘They are a people whose heart wanders.
And my ways they do not know.’
11 Therefore I swore in my anger,
‘They shall surely not enter into my rest.’”
A Plea for Deliverance from Persecution
For the music director, according to The Lilies. Of David.[a]
69 Save me, O God,
because waters have come up to my neck.[b]
2 I sink in the mud of the deep, and there is no foothold.
I have come to watery depths,
and the torrent floods over me.
3 I am weary with my calling out; my throat is parched.
My eyes are exhausted in my waiting for my God.
4 More numerous than the hairs of my head
are those hating me without a cause.
Those who are destroying me—my enemies wrongfully[c]— are mighty.
What I did not steal, I then must restore.
5 O God, you yourself know[d] my foolishness,
and my guilty deeds are not hidden from you.
6 Let those who wait for you not be put to shame because of me,
O Lord Yahweh of hosts.
Let those who seek you not be disgraced because of me,
O God of Israel.
7 Because on account of you I have borne reproach;
disgrace has covered my face.
8 I have become a stranger to my brothers
and a foreigner to my mother’s sons,
9 because the zeal for your house[e] has consumed me,
and the reproaches of those reproaching you have fallen on me.
10 When I wept in the fasting of my soul,
it became reproaches for me.
11 When I made sackcloth my clothing,
I became for them a byword.
12 Those sitting at the gate talk about me
as also[f] the songs of the drunkards.
13 But as for me, my prayer is to you, O Yahweh, for a favorable time,
O God, according to the abundance of your loyal love.
Answer me with the faithfulness of your salvation.
14 Deliver me from the mud and do not let me sink.
Let me be delivered from those who hate me
and from the watery depths.
15 Do not let the torrent of waters flood over me,
or the deep swallow me,
or the pit close its mouth over me.
16 Answer me, O Yahweh, because your loyal love is good;
according to your abundant mercies, turn to me,
17 and do not hide your face from your servant.
Because I am in trouble, answer me quickly.
18 Draw near to my soul; redeem it.
Because of my enemies, ransom me.
19 You know my reproach, my shame and my disgrace.
Fully known[g] to you are all my adversaries.
20 Reproach has broken my heart and I am sick.
And I hoped for sympathy, but there was none,
and for comforters, but I found none.
21 They also gave me gall for food,[h]
and for my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.
22 Let their table before them be a trap,
and their times of peace a snare.
23 Let their eyes be dark so they cannot see,
and make their loins continually tremble.
24 Pour out your indignation on them,
and let your burning anger overtake them.
25 Let their camp be desolate.
Let none dwell in their tents,
26 because they persecute those whom you, yourself, have struck,
and they tell of the pain of those you have wounded.
27 Add guilt on top of their guilt,[i]
and do not let them be acquitted.[j]
28 Let them be blotted out of the book of the living,
and let them not be recorded with the righteous.
29 But as for me, though I am afflicted and pained,
your salvation will protect[k] me, O God.
30 I will praise the name of God in song,
and magnify him with thanksgiving.
31 For Yahweh it will be better than an ox or bull,
horned and hoofed.[l]
32 The afflicted will see and rejoice.
O God seekers, let your heart revive,[m]
33 because Yahweh hears the needy
and does not despise his own who are prisoners.
34 Let heavens and earth praise him,
the seas and all that moves in them,
35 because God will save Zion
and build the cities of Judah,
that they may dwell there and possess it.
36 And the offspring of his servants will inherit it,
and those who love his name will abide in it.
The Wicked and the Righteous Contrasted
A song of Asaph.[a]
73 Surely God is good to Israel,
to those pure of heart.
2 But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled.
My steps had nearly slipped,
3 because I envied the boastful
when I saw the well-being[b] of the wicked.
4 For there are no pains up to their death,
and their bodies are healthy.[c]
5 They do not have ordinary trouble,[d]
and they are not plagued as other people.[e]
6 Therefore pride is their necklace;
an outfit of violence covers them.
7 Their eye bulges from fat.[f]
Imaginings overflow their heart.
8 They mock and speak maliciously of oppression;
they speak as though from on high.
9 They set their mouth against the heavens,
and their tongue roams the earth.
10 Therefore his people turn there,[g]
and abundant waters are slurped up by them.
11 And they say, “How does God know?”
and, “Does the Most High have knowledge?”
12 See, these are the wicked,
and they increase wealth, ever carefree.
13 Surely in vain I have kept my heart pure,
and washed my hands in innocence.
14 And I have been plagued all day
and rebuked every morning.[h]
15 If I had said, “I will speak thus,”
behold, I would have acted treacherously
against your children’s generation.
16 When I thought about how to understand this,
it was troubling in my eyes
17 until I went into the sanctuary of God.
Then I understood their fate.
18 Surely you set them on slippery places.
You cause them to fall onto ruin.[i]
19 How they become a desolation in a moment!
They come to a complete end by terrors.
20 Like a dream upon awakening,
when you wake up, O Lord,
you will despise their fleeting form.[j]
21 When my heart was embittered
and I felt stabbed in my kidneys,
22 then I was brutish and ignorant.
With you I was like the beasts.
23 But I am continually with you;
you have hold of my right hand.
24 You will guide me with your advice,
and afterward you will take me into honor.[k]
25 Whom do I have in the heavens except you?
And with you I have no other desire on earth.
26 My flesh and heart failed,
but God is the strength[l] of my heart and my reward forever.
27 For indeed, those distancing themselves from you will be ruined.
You destroy each who abandons you for harlotry.
28 But as for me, the approach to God is for my good.
I have set the Lord Yahweh as my refuge,
in order to tell all your works.
5 “Roam about through the streets of Jerusalem,
and look please, and take note,
and search at its public squares,
if you can find a person who does justice,
who seeks honesty,
so that I may forgive it.
2 And though they say, ‘As Yahweh lives,’[a]
therefore[b] they swear falsely.”
3 O Yahweh, do not your eyes look for honesty?
You have struck them, but they felt no pain,
you have destroyed them, they refused to take discipline.
They have hardened their faces more than rock,
they have refused to turn back.
4 Then I said, “They are just simple people,
they are foolish,
for they know not the way of Yahweh,
the law[c] of their God.
5 Let me go to the great,
and let me speak with them,
for they know the way of Yahweh,
the law[d] of their God.”
However, they together have broken the yoke,
they have torn to pieces the bonds.
6 Therefore a lion from the forest will kill them,
A wolf from the desert plains[e] will devastate them.
A leopard is watching their cities,
everyone who goes out from there will be torn,
because their transgressions are many,
their apostasies are numerous.
7 “How[f] can I forgive you?
Your children have forsaken me,
and they have sworn by those who are not gods.
But I fed them to the full,
and they committed adultery,
and flocked to the house of a prostitute.
8 They were well-fed lusty horses,
they neighed each to the wife of his neighbor.
9 Because of these things shall I not punish?” declares[g] Yahweh,
“and on a nation who is like this, shall I not take revenge?
25 For circumcision is of value if you do the law, but if you should be a transgressor of the law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision. 26 Therefore, if the uncircumcised person follows the requirements of the law, will not his uncircumcision be credited for circumcision? 27 And the uncircumcised person by nature who carries out the law will judge you who, though provided with the precise written code[a] and circumcision are a transgressor of the law. 28 For the Jew is not one outwardly[b], nor is circumcision outwardly[c], in the flesh. 29 But the Jew is one inwardly[d], and circumcision is of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter, whose praise is not from people but from God.
Jews Still Have an Advantage
3 Therefore, what is the advantage of the Jew, or what is the use of circumcision? 2 Much in every way. For first, that they were entrusted with the oracles of God. 3 What is the result[e] if some refused to believe? Their unbelief will not nullify the faithfulness of God, will it? 4 May it never be! But let God be true but every human being a liar, just as it is written,
5 But if our unrighteousness demonstrates the righteousness of God, what shall we say? God, who inflicts wrath, is not unjust, is he? (I am speaking according to a human perspective.) 6 May it never be! For otherwise, how will God judge the world? 7 But if by my lying, the truth of God abounded to his glory, why am I also still condemned as a sinner? 8 And why not (as we are slandered, and as some affirm that we say), “Let us do evil, in order that good may come of it? Their[h] condemnation is just!
The Entire World Guilty of Sin
9 What then? Do we have an advantage? Not at all. For we have already charged both Jews and Greeks are all under sin, 10 just as it is written,
“There is no one righteous, not even one;
11 there is no one who understands;
there is no one who seeks God.
12 All have turned aside together; they have become worthless;
There is no one who practices kindness;
there is not even one.[i]
13 Their throat is an opened grave;
they deceive with their tongues;
the venom of asps is under their lips,[j]
14 whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.[k]
15 Their feet are swift to shed blood;
16 destruction and distress are in their paths,
17 and they have not known the way of peace.[l]
18 The fear of God is not before their eyes.”[m]
30 I am able to do nothing from myself. Just as I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, because I do not seek my own will, but the will of the one who sent me.
Further Testimony About the Son
31 “If I testify about myself, my testimony is not true. 32 There is another who testifies about me, and I know that the testimony which he testifies about me is true. 33 You have sent to John and he has testified to the truth. 34 (And I do not receive testimony from people, but I say these things in order that you may be saved.) 35 That one was the lamp which was burning and shining, and you wanted to rejoice for an hour in his light.
36 “But I have a testimony greater than John’s, for the works which the Father has given to me that I should complete them—the very works which I am doing—these testify about me, that the Father has sent me. 37 And the Father who sent me, that one has testified about me. You have neither heard his voice at any time nor seen his form. 38 And you do not have his word residing in yourselves, because the one whom that one sent, in this one you do not believe. 39 You search[a] the scriptures because you think that you have eternal life in them, and it is these that testify about me. 40 And you are not willing to come to me so that you may have life.
41 “I do not accept glory[b] from people, 42 but I know you, that you do not have the love of God in yourselves. 43 I have come in my Father’s name, and you do not accept me. If another should come in his own name, you would accept that one! 44 How are you able to believe, if you[c] accept glory from one another, and do not seek the glory which is from the only God? 45 Do not think that I will accuse you before the Father! The one who accuses you is Moses, in whom you have put your hope! 46 For if you had believed Moses, you would believe me, for that one wrote about me. 47 But if you do not believe that one’s writings, how will you believe my words?”
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