Book of Common Prayer
ZAIN.
49 ¶ Remember the word unto thy slave, in which thou hast caused me to wait.
50 ¶ This is my comfort in my affliction; for thy spoken word has caused me to live.
51 ¶ The proud have had me greatly in derision; yet I have not deviated from thy law.
52 ¶ I remembered thy judgments of old, O LORD, and have consoled myself.
53 ¶ Horror has taken hold upon me because of the wicked that forsake thy law.
54 ¶ Thy statutes have been my songs in the house of my pilgrimage.
55 ¶ I have remembered thy name, O LORD, in the night, and have kept thy law.
56 This I had, because I kept thy precepts.
CHETH.
57 ¶ My portion, O LORD, I have said, will be to keep thy words.
58 ¶ I intreated thy presence with my whole heart; be merciful unto me according to thy word.
59 ¶ I considered my ways and turned my feet unto thy testimonies.
60 I made haste and did not delay to keep thy commandments.
61 ¶ The company of the wicked have robbed me, but I have not forgotten thy law.
62 ¶ At midnight I will rise to give thanks unto thee because of the judgments of thy righteousness.
63 ¶ I am a companion of all those that fear thee and of those that keep thy precepts.
64 ¶ The earth, O LORD, is full of thy mercy and teaches me thy statutes.
TETH.
65 ¶ Thou hast dealt well with thy slave, O LORD, according unto thy word,
66 which teaches me discernment and knowledge, for I have believed thy commandments.
67 ¶ Before I was humbled, I went into error, but now I keep thy spoken word.
68 ¶ Thou art good and doest good; teach me thy statutes.
69 ¶ The proud have forged a lie against me, but I will keep thy precepts with my whole heart.
70 Their heart became fat like grease, but I delight in thy law.
71 ¶ It was good for me that I have been humbled, that I might learn thy statutes.
72 ¶ The law of thy mouth is better unto me than thousands of gold and silver.
To the Overcomer: A Psalm for the sons of Korah.
1 ¶ Hear this, all ye people; give ear, all ye inhabitants of the world:
2 Both low and high, rich and poor, together.
3 My mouth shall speak wisdom; and the meditation of my heart intelligence.
4 I will incline mine ear to a parable; I will declare my enigma upon the harp.
5 Why should I fear in the days of adversity when the iniquity of my heels shall compass me about?
6 ¶ Those that trust in their wealth and boast themselves in the multitude of their riches;
7 none of them can by any means ransom his brother, nor give God an atonement for him;
8 (for the redemption of their soul is of great price, and they shall never pay it)
9 that he should still live for ever and not see corruption.
10 For he sees that all the wise men die, likewise the fool and the ignorant perish and leave their wealth to others.
11 Their inward thought is that their houses are eternal and their dwelling places to all generations; they call their lands after their own names.
12 Nevertheless man will not abide forever in honour; he is like the beasts that are cut off.
13 This their way is their folly; yet their posterity approve their sayings. Selah.
14 Like sheep they are laid in Sheol; death shall feed on them, and the upright shall have dominion over them in the morning, and their beauty shall be consumed in the grave from their dwelling.
15 ¶ Surely God will ransom my soul from the hand of Sheol when he shall take me. Selah.
16 Be not thou afraid when one is made rich, when the glory of his house is increased;
17 for in his death he shall carry nothing away; nor shall his glory descend after him.
18 Though while he lives, his life shall be blessed: and men will praise thee when thou art prosperous.
19 He shall enter into the generation of his fathers; they shall never see light forever.
20 Man that is in honour that does not understand is like the beasts that are cut off.
To the Overcomer upon Mahalath, Maschil, A Psalm of David.
1 ¶ The fool has said in his heart, There is no God. They have corrupted themselves and have done abominable iniquity; there is no one that does good.
2 God looked down from heaven upon the sons of Adam to see if there were any that did understand, that did seek God.
3 Every one of them is gone back; they are altogether become filthy; there is no one that does good, no, not one.
4 Have the workers of iniquity no knowledge? who eat up my people as they eat bread; they have not called upon God.
5 They were there in great fear where no fear was; for God has scattered the bones of him that encamps against thee: thou hast put them to shame because God has despised them.
6 Oh that the saving health of Israel were come out of Zion! When God brings back the captivity of his people, Jacob shall rejoice, and Israel shall be glad.
49 ¶ Listen, O isles, unto me, and hearken, ye peoples, from far, The LORD has called me from the womb; from the bowels of my mother he has remembered my name.
2 And he has made my mouth like a sharp sword; with the shadow of his hand he has covered me, and made me a clean arrow; in his quiver he has kept me.
3 And he said unto me, Thou art my slave, O Israel; in thee I will glory.
4 But I said, I have laboured in vain; I have spent my strength for nothing, and in vain; yet surely my judgment is before the LORD and my recompense with my God.
5 And now, saith the LORD, he that formed me from the womb to be his slave, so that Jacob might be converted unto him. But if Israel will not be gathered, even so, yet I shall be esteemed in the eyes of the LORD, and my God shall be my strength.
6 And he said, It is a light thing that thou should be my slave to wake up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the desolations of Israel; I have also given thee for a light to the Gentiles that thou may be my saving health unto the end of the earth.
7 ¶ Thus has the LORD said, the Redeemer of Israel, his Holy One, to him whom man despises, to him whom the Gentiles abhor, to the slave of the tyrants, Kings shall see and be raised up as princes and shall worship because of the LORD, for faithful is the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen thee.
8 Thus has the LORD said, In an acceptable time I have heard thee, and in the day of saving health I have helped thee; and I will preserve thee and give thee for a covenant of people, that thou might awaken the earth, that thou might inherit the desolate heritages;
9 that thou may say to the prisoners, Go forth; and unto those that are in darkness, Show yourselves. Upon the ways shall they be fed, and upon all the high places shall be their pastures.
10 They shall never hunger nor thirst; neither shall the heat nor sun smite them: for he that has mercy on them shall lead them, even by the springs of water he shall feed them.
11 And I will turn all my mountains into a way, and my highways shall be exalted.
12 Behold, these shall come from far; and, behold, these from the north and from the west; and these from the land of Sinim.
11 ¶ But when Peter was come to Antioch, I withstood him to the face because he was to be blamed.
12 For before certain ones came from James, he ate with the Gentiles, but when they were come, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing those who were of the circumcision.
13 And the other Jews dissembled likewise with him, insomuch that Barnabas also was carried away with their hypocrisy.
14 But when I saw that they did not walk uprightly according to the truth of the gospel, I said unto Peter before them all, If thou, being a Jew, dost live after the manner of Gentiles, and not as do the Jews, why dost thou compel the Gentiles to live as do the Jews?
15 We who are Jews by nature, and not sinners of the Gentiles,
16 knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law; for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.
17 But if, while we seek to be justified in Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, is therefore Christ the minister of our sin? No, in no wise.
18 For if I build again the things which I destroyed, I make myself a rebel.
19 For through the law I am dead to the law, that I might live unto God.
20 I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ lives in me, and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
21 I do not reject the grace of God, for if righteousness comes by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.
13 And they cast out many demons and anointed with oil many that were sick, and they were healed.
14 ¶ And king Herod heard of him (for his name was spread abroad), and he said, John the Baptist has risen from the dead, and therefore virtues operate in him.
15 Others said, It is Elijah. And others said, It is the prophet or one of the prophets.
16 But when Herod heard of it, he said, This is John, whom I beheaded: he is risen from the dead.
17 For Herod himself had sent forth and laid hold upon John and bound him in prison for Herodias’ sake, his brother Philip’s wife, for he had married her.
18 For John had said unto Herod, It is not lawful for thee to have thy brother’s wife.
19 Therefore Herodias had a quarrel against him and would have killed him, but she could not;
20 for Herod feared John, knowing that he was a just and holy man, and respected him; and when he heard him, he did many things and heard him gladly.
21 And when a convenient day was come, that Herod on his birthday made a supper to his princes and tribunes and to the principal people of Galilee;
22 and when the daughter of Herodias came in and danced and pleased Herod and those that sat with him, the king said unto the damsel, Ask of me whatsoever thou wilt, and I will give it unto thee.
23 And he swore unto her, Whatsoever thou shalt ask of me, I will give it unto thee, unto the half of my kingdom.
24 And she went forth, and said unto her mother, What shall I ask? And she said, The head of John the Baptist.
25 And she came in with haste unto the king and asked, saying, I will that thou give me immediately in a platter the head of John the Baptist.
26 And the king was exceeding sorry, yet for his oath’s sake and for the sakes of those who sat with him, he would not reject her.
27 And straightway the king sent an executioner and commanded his head to be brought, and he went and beheaded him in the prison
28 and brought his head in a platter and gave it to the damsel, and the damsel gave it to her mother.
29 And when his disciples heard of it, they came and took up his corpse and laid it in a tomb.
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