Book of Common Prayer
A psalm of complaint and of praise.
For the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David.
31 In thee, O Jehovah, do I take refuge;
Let me never be put to shame:
Deliver me in thy righteousness.
2 Bow down thine ear unto me; deliver me speedily:
Be thou to me a strong rock,
A house of [a]defence to save me.
3 For thou art my rock and my fortress;
Therefore for thy name’s sake lead me and guide me.
4 Pluck me out of the net that they have laid privily for me;
For thou art my stronghold.
5 Into thy hand I commend my spirit:
Thou hast redeemed me, O Jehovah, thou God of truth.
6 I hate them that regard lying vanities;
But I trust in Jehovah.
7 I will be glad and rejoice in thy lovingkindness;
For thou hast seen my affliction:
Thou hast known [b]my soul in adversities;
8 And thou hast not shut me up into the hand of the enemy;
Thou hast set my feet in a large place.
9 Have mercy upon me, O Jehovah, for I am in distress:
Mine eye wasteth away with grief, yea, my soul and my body.
10 For my life is spent with sorrow,
And my years with sighing:
My strength faileth because of mine iniquity,
And my bones are wasted away.
11 Because of all mine adversaries I am become a reproach,
Yea, unto my neighbors exceedingly,
And a fear to mine acquaintance:
They that did see me without fled from me.
12 I am forgotten as a dead man out of mind:
I am like a broken vessel.
13 For I have heard the defaming of many,
Terror on every side:
While they took counsel together against me,
They devised to take away my life.
14 But I trusted in thee, O Jehovah:
I said, Thou art my God.
15 My times are in thy hand:
Deliver me from the hand of mine enemies, and from them that persecute me.
16 Make thy face to shine upon thy servant:
Save me in thy lovingkindness.
17 Let me not be put to shame, O Jehovah; for I have called upon thee:
Let the wicked be put to shame, let them be silent in Sheol.
18 Let the lying lips be dumb,
Which speak against the righteous insolently,
With pride and contempt.
19 Oh how great is thy goodness,
Which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee,
Which thou hast wrought for them that take refuge in thee,
Before the sons of men!
20 In the covert of thy presence wilt thou hide them from the plottings of man:
Thou wilt keep them secretly in a pavilion from the strife of tongues.
21 Blessed be Jehovah;
For he hath showed me his marvellous lovingkindness in a strong city.
22 As for me, I said in my [c]haste,
I am cut off from before thine eyes:
Nevertheless thou heardest the voice of my supplications,
When I cried unto thee.
23 Oh love Jehovah, all ye his saints:
Jehovah preserveth [d]the faithful,
And plentifully rewardeth him that dealeth proudly.
24 Be strong, and let your heart take courage,
All ye that [e]hope in Jehovah.
Prayer for rescue from enemies.
A Psalm of David.
35 Strive thou, O Jehovah, with them that strive with me:
Fight thou against them that fight against me.
2 Take hold of shield and buckler,
And stand up for my help.
3 Draw out also the spear, [a]and stop the way against them that pursue me:
Say unto my soul, I am thy salvation.
4 Let them be put to shame and brought to dishonor that seek after my soul:
Let them be turned back and confounded that devise my hurt.
5 Let them be as chaff before the wind,
And the angel of Jehovah driving them on.
6 Let their way be [b]dark and slippery,
And the angel of Jehovah pursuing them.
7 For without cause have they hid for me [c]their net in a pit;
Without cause have they digged a pit for my soul.
8 Let destruction come upon him unawares;
And let his net that he hath hid catch himself:
[d]With destruction let him fall therein.
9 And my soul shall be joyful in Jehovah:
It shall rejoice in his salvation.
10 All my bones shall say, Jehovah, who is like unto thee,
Who deliverest the poor from him that is too strong for him,
Yea, the poor and the needy from him that robbeth him?
11 [e]Unrighteous witnesses rise up;
They ask me of things that I know not.
12 They reward me evil for good,
To the bereaving of my soul.
13 But as for me, when they were sick, my clothing was sackcloth:
I afflicted my soul with fasting;
And my prayer [f]returned into mine own bosom.
14 I behaved myself as though it had been my friend or my brother:
I bowed down mourning, as one that bewaileth his mother.
15 But in [g]mine adversity they rejoiced, and gathered themselves together:
The [h]abjects gathered themselves together against me, and [i]I knew it not;
They did tear me, and ceased not:
16 [j]Like the profane mockers in feasts,
They gnashed upon me with their teeth.
17 Lord, how long wilt thou look on?
Rescue my soul from their destructions,
My [k]darling from the lions.
18 I will give thee thanks in the great assembly:
I will praise thee among [l]much people.
19 Let not them that are mine enemies [m]wrongfully rejoice over me;
Neither let them wink with the eye that hate me without a cause.
20 For they speak not peace;
But they devise deceitful words against them that are quiet in the land.
21 Yea, they opened their mouth wide against me;
They said, Aha, aha, our eye hath seen it.
22 Thou hast seen it, O Jehovah; keep not silence:
O Lord, be not far from me.
23 Stir up thyself, and awake to the justice due unto me,
Even unto my cause, my God and my Lord.
24 Judge me, O Jehovah my God, according to thy righteousness;
And let them not rejoice over me.
25 Let them not say in their heart, [n]Aha, so would we have it:
Let them not say, We have swallowed him up.
26 Let them be put to shame and confounded together that rejoice at my hurt:
Let them be clothed with shame and dishonor that magnify themselves against me.
27 Let them shout for joy, and be glad, that [o]favor my righteous cause:
Yea, let them say continually, Jehovah be magnified,
Who hath pleasure in the prosperity of his servant.
28 And my tongue shall talk of thy righteousness
And of thy praise all the day long.
24 Jehovah showed me, and, behold, two baskets of figs set before the temple of Jehovah, after that Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon had carried away captive Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, and the princes of Judah, with the craftsmen and smiths, from Jerusalem, and had brought them to Babylon. 2 One basket had very good figs, like the figs that are first-ripe; and the other basket had very bad figs, which could not be eaten, they were so bad. 3 Then said Jehovah unto me, What seest thou, Jeremiah? And I said, Figs; the good figs, very good; and the bad, very bad, that cannot be eaten, they are so bad.
4 And the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying, 5 Thus saith Jehovah, the God of Israel: Like these good figs, so will I regard the captives of Judah, whom I have sent out of this place into the land of the Chaldeans, for good. 6 For I will set mine eyes upon them for good, and I will bring them again to this land: and I will build them, and not pull them down; and I will plant them, and not pluck them up. 7 And I will give them a heart to know me, that I am Jehovah: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God; for they shall return unto me with their whole heart.
8 And as the bad figs, which cannot be eaten, they are so bad, surely thus saith Jehovah, So will I give up Zedekiah the king of Judah, and his princes, and the residue of Jerusalem, that remain in this land, and them that dwell in the land of Egypt, 9 I will even give them up to be [a]tossed to and fro among all the kingdoms of the earth for evil; to be a reproach and a proverb, a taunt and a curse, in all places whither I shall drive them. 10 And I will send the sword, the famine, and the pestilence, among them, till they be consumed from off the land that I gave unto them and to their fathers.
19 Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he still find fault? For who withstandeth his will? 20 Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why didst thou make me thus? 21 Or hath not the potter a right over the clay, from the same lump to make one part a vessel unto honor, and another unto dishonor? 22 What if God, [a]willing to show his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering vessels of wrath fitted unto destruction: 23 [b]and that he might make known the riches of his glory upon vessels of mercy, which he afore prepared unto glory, 24 even us, whom he also called, not from the Jews only, but also from the Gentiles? 25 As he saith also in Hosea,
[c]I will call that my people, which was not my people;
And her beloved, that was not beloved.
26 [d]And it shall be, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people,
There shall they be called sons of the living God.
27 And Isaiah crieth concerning Israel, [e]If the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, it is the remnant that shall be saved: 28 for the Lord will execute his word upon the earth, finishing it and cutting it short. 29 And, as Isaiah hath said before,
[f]Except the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed,
We had become as Sodom, and had been made like unto Gomorrah.
30 What shall we say then? That the Gentiles, who followed not after righteousness, attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith: 31 but Israel, following after a law of righteousness, did not arrive at that law. 32 Wherefore? [g]Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by works. They stumbled at the stone of stumbling; 33 even as it is written,
9 And as he passed by, he saw a man blind from his birth. 2 And his disciples asked him, saying, Rabbi, who sinned, this man, or his parents, that he should be born blind? 3 Jesus answered, Neither did this man sin, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him. 4 We must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work. 5 When I am in the world, I am the light of the world. 6 When he had thus spoken, he spat on the ground, and made clay of the spittle, [a]and anointed his eyes with the clay, 7 and said unto him, Go, wash in the pool of Siloam (which is by interpretation, Sent). He went away therefore, and washed, and came seeing. 8 The neighbors therefore, and they that saw him aforetime, that he was a beggar, said, Is not this he that sat and begged? 9 Others said, It is he: others said, No, but he is like him. He said, I am he. 10 They said therefore unto him, How then were thine eyes opened? 11 He answered, The man that is called Jesus made clay, and anointed mine eyes, and said unto me, Go to Siloam, and wash: so I went away and washed, and I received sight. 12 And they said unto him, Where is he? He saith, I know not.
13 They bring to the Pharisees him that aforetime was blind. 14 Now it was the sabbath on the day when Jesus made the clay, and opened his eyes. 15 Again therefore the Pharisees also asked him how he received his sight. And he said unto them, He put clay upon mine eyes, and I washed, and I see. 16 Some therefore of the Pharisees said, This man is not from God, because he keepeth not the sabbath. But others said, How can a man that is a sinner do such signs? And there was a division among them. 17 They say therefore unto the blind man again, What sayest thou of him, in that he opened thine eyes? And he said, He is a prophet.
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