The Seventh Sunday after Epiphany (Ps) February 23rd

Psalm 53:1-6

¹  The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.”

They are corrupt, doing abominable iniquity;

there is none who does good.

²    God looks down from heaven

on the children of man

       to see if there are any who understand,

who seek after God.

³    They have all fallen away;

together they have become corrupt;

       there is none who does good,

not even one.

⁴    Have those who work evil no knowledge,

who eat up my people as they eat bread,

and do not call upon God?

⁵    There they are, in great terror,

where there is no terror!

       For God scatters the bones of him who encamps against you;

you put them to shame, for God has rejected them.

⁶    Oh, that salvation for Israel would come out of Zion!

When God restores the fortunes of his people,

let Jacob rejoice, let Israel be glad.

The Sixth Petition

And lead us not into temptation.

What is this? Answer:

It is true that God tempts no one, but we ask in this prayer that God would preserve and keep us, so that the devil, the world, and our flesh may not deceive us or mislead us into false belief, despair, and other great shame and vice, and that, although we may be attacked by them, we may finally prevail and gain the victory.

The Seventh Petition

But deliver us from evil.

What is this? Answer:

We ask in this prayer, as in a summary, that our Father in heaven may deliver us from all kinds of evil—affecting body or soul, property or reputation—and at last, when our final hour comes, may grant us a blessed end and take us by grace from this valley of tears to himself in heaven.

Amen.

What is this? Answer:

That I should be certain that such petitions are acceptable to and heard by our Father in heaven, for he himself commanded us to pray like this and has promised to hear us. “Amen, amen” means “Yes, yes, it is going to come about just like this.”

O Lord, absolve Your people from their offenses that from the bonds of our sins, which by reason of our frailty we have brought upon ourselves, we may be delivered by Your bountiful goodness; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.