Print Page Options
Previous Prev Day Next DayNext

Book of Common Prayer

Daily Old and New Testament readings based on the Book of Common Prayer.
Duration: 861 days
American Standard Version (ASV)
Version
Psalm 56-58

Supplication for deliverance, and grateful trust in God.

For the Chief Musician; set to [a]Jonath elem rehokim. A Psalm of David. Michtam; when the Philistines took him in Gath.

56 Be merciful unto me, O God; for man would swallow me up:
All the day long he fighting oppresseth me.
[b]Mine enemies would swallow me up all the day long;
For they are many that fight proudly against me.
What time I am afraid,
I will put my trust in thee.
In God (I will praise his word),
In God have I put my trust, I will not be afraid;
What can flesh do unto me?
All the day long they wrest my words:
All their thoughts are against me for evil.
They gather themselves together, they hide themselves,
They mark my steps,
[c]Even as they have waited for my soul.
[d]Shall they escape by iniquity?
In anger cast down the peoples, O God.
Thou numberest my wanderings:
Put thou my tears into thy bottle;
Are they not in thy [e]book?
Then shall mine enemies turn back in the day that I call:
This I know, [f]that God is for me.
10 In God (I will praise his word),
In Jehovah (I will praise his word),
11 In God have I put my trust, I will not be afraid;
What can man do unto me?
12 Thy vows are upon me, O God:
I will render thank-offerings unto thee.
13 For thou hast delivered my soul from death:
Hast thou not delivered my feet from falling,
That I may walk before God
In the light of [g]the living?

Prayer for rescue from persecutors.

For the Chief Musician; set to Al-tashheth. A Psalm of David. Michtam; when he fled from Saul, in the cave.

57 Be merciful unto me, O God, be merciful unto me;
For my soul taketh refuge in thee:
Yea, in the shadow of thy wings will I take refuge,
Until these [h]calamities be overpast.
I will cry unto God Most High,
Unto God that performeth all things for me.
He will send from heaven, and save me,
When he that would swallow me up reproacheth; Selah
God will send forth his lovingkindness and his truth.
My soul is among lions;
I [i]lie among them that are set on fire,
Even the sons of men, whose teeth are spears and arrows,
And their tongue a sharp sword.
Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens;
Let thy glory be above all the earth.

They have prepared a net for my steps;
My soul is bowed down:
They have digged a pit before me;
They are fallen into the midst thereof themselves. Selah
My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed:
I will sing, yea, I will sing praises.
Awake up, my glory; awake, psaltery and harp:
I myself [j]will awake right early.
I will give thanks unto thee, O Lord, among the peoples:
I will sing praises unto thee among the nations.
10 For thy lovingkindness is great unto the heavens,
And thy truth unto the skies.
11 Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens;
Let thy glory be above all the earth.

Prayer for the punishment of the wicked.

For the Chief Musician; set to Al-tashheth. A Psalm of David. Michtam.

[k]58 Do ye indeed [l]in silence speak righteousness?
Do ye [m]judge uprightly, O ye sons of men?
Nay, in heart ye work wickedness;
Ye weigh out the violence of your hands in the earth.
The wicked are estranged from the womb:
They go astray as soon as they are born, speaking lies.
Their poison is like the poison of a serpent:
They are like the deaf adder that stoppeth her ear,
Which hearkeneth not to the voice of [n]charmers,
Charming never so wisely.
Break their teeth, O God, in their mouth:
Break out the great teeth of the young lions, O Jehovah.
Let them melt away as water that runneth apace:
When he aimeth his arrows, let them be as though they were cut off.
Let them be as a snail which melteth and passeth away,
Like the untimely birth of a woman, [o]that hath not seen the sun.
Before your pots can feel the thorns,
[p]He will take them away with a whirlwind, the green and the burning alike.
10 The righteous shall rejoice when he seeth the vengeance:
He shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked;
11 So that men shall say, Verily there is [q]a reward for the righteous:
Verily there is a God that judgeth in the earth.

Psalm 64-65

Prayer for deliverance from secret enemies.

For the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David.

64 Hear my voice, O God, in my complaint:
Preserve my life from fear of the enemy.
Hide me from the secret counsel of evil-doers,
From the [a]tumult of the workers of iniquity;
Who have whet their tongue like a sword,
And have aimed their arrows, even bitter words,
That they may shoot in secret places at the perfect:
Suddenly do they shoot at him, and fear not.
They encourage themselves in an evil purpose;
They commune of laying snares privily;
They say, Who will see them?
They search out iniquities;
[b]We have accomplished, say they, a diligent search:
And the inward thought and the heart of every one is deep.
But God will shoot at them;
With an arrow suddenly shall they be wounded.
So [c]they shall be made to stumble, their own tongue being against them:
All that see them shall [d]wag the head.
And all men shall fear;
And they shall declare the work of God,
And shall wisely consider of his doing.
10 The righteous shall be glad in Jehovah, and shall take refuge in him;
And all the upright in heart shall glory.

God’s abundant favor to earth and man.

For the Chief Musician. A Psalm. A Song of David.

[e]65 Praise waiteth for thee, O God, in Zion;
And unto thee shall the vow be performed.
O thou that hearest prayer,
Unto thee shall all flesh come.
[f]Iniquities prevail against me:
As for our transgressions, thou wilt [g]forgive them.
Blessed is the man whom thou choosest, and causest to approach unto thee,
That he may dwell in thy courts:
We shall be satisfied with the goodness of thy house,
Thy holy temple.
By terrible things thou wilt answer us in righteousness,
O God of our salvation,
Thou that art the confidence of all the ends of the earth,
And [h]of them that are afar off upon the sea:
Who by his strength setteth fast the mountains,
Being girded about with might;
Who stilleth the roaring of the seas,
The roaring of their waves,
And the tumult of the peoples.
They also that dwell in the uttermost parts are afraid at thy tokens:
Thou makest the outgoings of the morning and evening to rejoice.
Thou visitest the earth, and waterest it,
Thou greatly enrichest it;
The river of God is full of water:
Thou providest them grain, [i]when thou hast so prepared [j]the earth.
10 Thou waterest its furrows abundantly;
Thou [k]settlest the ridges thereof:
Thou makest it soft with showers;
Thou blessest the springing thereof.
11 Thou crownest [l]the year with thy goodness;
And thy paths drop fatness.
12 [m]They drop upon the pastures of the wilderness;
And the hills are girded with joy.
13 The pastures are clothed with flocks;
The valleys also are covered over with grain;
They shout for joy, they also sing.

Genesis 41:46-57

46 And Joseph was thirty years old when he stood before Pharaoh king of Egypt. And Joseph went out from the presence of Pharaoh, and went throughout all the land of Egypt. 47 And in the seven plenteous years the earth brought forth by handfuls. 48 And he gathered up all the food of the seven years which were in the land of Egypt, and laid up the food in the cities: the food of the field, which was round about every city, laid he up in the same. 49 And Joseph laid up grain as the sand of the sea, very much, until he left off numbering; for it was without number. 50 And unto Joseph were born two sons before the year of famine came, whom Asenath, the daughter of Potiphera priest of On, bare unto him. 51 And Joseph called the name of the first-born [a]Manasseh: For, said he, God hath made me forget all my toil, and all my father’s house. 52 And the name of the second called he [b]Ephraim: For God hath made me fruitful in the land of my affliction. 53 And the seven years of plenty, that was in the land of Egypt, came to an end. 54 And the seven years of famine began to come, according as Joseph had said: and there was famine in all lands; but in all the land of Egypt there was bread. 55 And when all the land of Egypt was famished, the people cried to Pharaoh for bread: and Pharaoh said unto all the Egyptians, Go unto Joseph; what he saith to you, do. 56 And the famine was over all the face of the earth: and Joseph opened all the store-houses, and sold unto the Egyptians; and the famine was sore in the land of Egypt. 57 And all countries came into Egypt to Joseph to buy grain, because the famine was sore in all the earth.

1 Corinthians 4:8-21

Already are ye filled, already ye are become rich, ye have come to reign without us: yea and I would that ye did reign, that we also might reign with you. For, I think, God hath set forth us the apostles last of all, as men doomed to death: for we are made a spectacle unto the world, [a]both to angels and men. 10 We are fools for Christ’s sake, but ye are wise in Christ; we are weak, but ye are strong; ye have glory, but we have dishonor. 11 Even unto this present hour we both hunger, and thirst, and are naked, and are buffeted, and have no certain dwelling-place; 12 and we toil, working with our own hands: being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we endure; 13 being defamed, we entreat: we are made as the [b]filth of the world, the offscouring of all things, even until now.

14 I write not these things to shame you, but to admonish you as my beloved children. 15 For though ye have ten thousand tutors in Christ, yet have ye not many fathers; for in Christ Jesus I begat you through the [c]gospel. 16 I beseech you therefore, be ye imitators of me. 17 For this cause have I sent unto you Timothy, who is my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, who shall put you in remembrance of my ways which are in Christ, even as I teach everywhere in every church. 18 Now some are puffed up, as though I were not coming to you. 19 But I will come to you shortly, if the Lord will; and I will know, not the word of them that are puffed up, but the power. 20 For the kingdom of God is not in word, but in power. 21 What will ye? shall I come unto you with a rod, or in love and a spirit of gentleness?

Mark 3:7-19

And Jesus with his disciples withdrew to the sea: and a great multitude from Galilee followed; and from Judaea, and from Jerusalem, and from Idumaea, and beyond the Jordan, and about Tyre and Sidon, a great multitude, hearing [a]what great things he did, came unto him. And he spake to his disciples, that a little boat should wait on him because of the crowd, lest they should throng him: 10 for he had healed many; insomuch that as many as had [b]plagues [c]pressed upon him that they might touch him. 11 And the unclean spirits, whensoever they beheld him, fell down before him, and cried, saying, Thou art the Son of God. 12 And he charged them much that they should not make him known.

13 And he goeth up into the mountain, and calleth unto him whom he himself would; and they went unto him. 14 And he appointed twelve, [d]that they might be with him, and that he might send them forth to preach, 15 and to have authority to cast out demons: 16 [e]and Simon he surnamed Peter; 17 and [f]James the son of Zebedee, and John the brother of [g]James; and them he surnamed Boanerges, which is, Sons of thunder: 18 and Andrew, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and Matthew, and Thomas, and [h]James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus, and Simon the [i]Cananaean, 19 and Judas Iscariot, who also [j]betrayed him.

And he cometh [k]into a house.