Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 5
For the Music Director. With the flutes. A Psalm of David.
1 Give ear to my words, O Lord;
consider my meditation.
2 Listen to the voice of my cry,
my King and my God,
for to You will I pray.
3 O Lord, in the morning You will hear my voice;
in the morning I will direct my prayer to You,
and I will watch expectantly.
4 For You are not a God who has pleasure in wickedness,
nor will evil dwell with You.
5 Those who boast will not stand in Your sight;
You hate all workers of iniquity.
6 You will destroy those who speak lies;
the Lord abhors
the bloodthirsty and deceitful man.
7 But as for me, in the abundance of Your mercy
I will enter Your house;
in fear of You I will worship
at Your holy temple.
8 Lead me, O Lord, in Your righteousness
because of my enemies;
make Your way straight before me.
9 For there is no uprightness in their mouth;
destruction is in their midst;
their throat is an open tomb;
they flatter with their tongue.
10 Declare them guilty, O God;
may they fall by their own counsels;
cast them out in the multitude of their transgressions,
for they have rebelled against You.
11 But may all those who seek refuge in You rejoice;
may they ever shout for joy,
because You defend them;
may those who love Your name be joyful in You.
12 For You, Lord, will bless the righteous;
You surround him with favor like a shield.
Psalm 6
For the Music Director. With stringed instruments. According to The Sheminith. A Psalm of David.
1 O Lord, do not rebuke me in Your anger,
nor discipline me in the heat of Your anger.
2 Be gracious to me, O Lord, for I am weak;
O Lord, heal me, for my bones are terrified.
3 My soul is greatly troubled,
but You, O Lord, how long?
4 Return, O Lord, rescue my soul.
Save me for the sake of Your lovingkindness.
5 For in death there is no remembrance of You;
in Sheol who will give You thanks?
6 I am weary with my groaning;
all night I flood my bed with weeping;
I drench my couch with my tears.
7 My eye wastes away from grief;
it grows weak because of all those hostile to me.
8 Depart from me, all you workers of iniquity;
for the Lord has heard the voice of my weeping.
9 The Lord has heard my supplication;
the Lord accepts my prayer.
10 May all my enemies be ashamed and greatly terrified;
may they turn back and be suddenly ashamed.
Psalm 10
1 Why do You stand far off, O Lord?
Why do You hide Yourself in times of trouble?
2 In arrogance the wicked persecutes the poor;
let them be caught in the devices they have planned.
3 For the wicked boasts of his soul’s desire;
he blesses the greedy and despises the Lord.
4 The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek God;
God is not in all his thoughts.
5 His ways are always prosperous;
Your judgments are high and distant from him;
as for all his enemies, they scoff at him.
6 He says in his heart, “I shall not be moved;
for generations I shall not meet adversity.”
7 His mouth is filled with cursing and deceit and oppression;
under his tongue is mischief and iniquity.
8 He sits in the lurking places of the villages;
in the secret places he murders the innocent;
his eyes lurk against the unfortunate.
9 He lies in wait secretly as a lion in his den;
he lies in wait to catch the poor;
he catches the poor, drawing them into his net.
10 He crouches; he lies low,
so that the unfortunate fall by his strength.
11 He says in his heart, “God has forgotten;
He hides His face; He will never see it.”
12 Arise, O Lord! O God, lift up Your hand!
Do not forget the humble.
13 Why do the wicked despise God?
He says in his heart,
“You will require an account.”
14 You have seen it, for You observe trouble and grief,
to repay it with Your hand.
The unfortunate one entrusts it to You;
You are the helper of the orphan.
15 Break the arm of the wicked and the evil man;
seek out his wickedness
until You find none.
16 The Lord is King forever and ever;
the nations perished from His land.
17 The desire of the humble You have heard, O Lord;
You make their heart attentive; You bend Your ear
18 to judge the orphan and the oppressed;
man on earth no longer trembles.
Psalm 11
For the Music Director. A Psalm of David.
1 In the Lord I seek refuge;
how do you say to my soul,
“Flee as a bird to your mountain,
2 for the wicked bend their bow;
they make ready their arrow on the string,
that they may treacherously shoot
the upright in heart.
3 If the foundations are broken,
what can the righteous do?”
4 The Lord is in His holy temple,
His throne is in heaven;
His eyes see,
His eyes examine mankind.
5 The Lord tests the righteous,
but the wicked and one who loves violence
His soul hates.
6 Upon the wicked He will rain
coals of fire and brimstone and a burning wind;
this will be the portion of their cup.
7 For the righteous Lord
loves righteousness;
His countenance beholds the upright.
Idolatry Forbidden
15 Give good care to yourselves, for you saw no form on the day that the Lord spoke to you in Horeb from the midst of the fire, 16 lest you corrupt yourselves and make a graven image for yourselves in the form of any figure, the likeness of male or female, 17 the likeness of any beast that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged fowl that flies in the air, 18 the likeness of anything that creeps on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the waters beneath the earth. 19 And beware, lest you lift up your eyes to heaven, and when you see the sun, and the moon, and the stars, even all the host of heaven, you are led astray and worship them, and serve them, that which the Lord your God has allotted to all nations under the whole heaven. 20 But the Lord has taken you and brought you out of the iron furnace, from Egypt, to be to Him a people of inheritance, as you are today.
21 Furthermore, the Lord was angry with me because of you and swore that I should not cross over the Jordan, and that I would not go into that good land which the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance. 22 So I must die in this land. I shall not cross over the Jordan, but you shall go over and possess that good land. 23 Watch yourselves, so that you do not forget the covenant of the Lord your God, which He made with you, and make yourself a graven image or the likeness of anything as the Lord your God has forbidden you. 24 For the Lord your God is a consuming fire. He is a jealous God.
Paul and the False Apostles
11 I would to God you could bear with me a little in my folly. Indeed, bear with me. 2 For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy. For I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. 3 But I fear that somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve through his trickery, so your minds might be led astray from the simplicity that is in Christ. 4 For if he who comes preaches another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if you receive another spirit, which you have not received, or another gospel, which you have not accepted, you might submit to it readily enough.
5 For I think I am not in any way inferior to the most eminent of the apostles. 6 Even though I am unpolished in speech, yet I am not in knowledge. All things about us have been thoroughly revealed to you. 7 Did I commit a sin in abasing myself that you might be exalted, because I preached to you the gospel of God free of charge? 8 I robbed other churches by accepting wages from them to serve you. 9 Furthermore, when I was present with you and was lacking, I was a burden to no one. For the brothers who came from Macedonia supplied what I lacked. In all things I have kept myself from being burdensome to you, and so will I keep myself. 10 As the truth of Christ is in me, no one shall stop me from this boasting in the regions of Achaia. 11 Why? Because I do not love you? God knows.
12 And I will continue doing what I am doing, that I may cut off the opportunity from those who desire an opportunity to be found equal to us in what they boast about. 13 For such are false apostles and deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. 14 And no wonder! For even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. 15 Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also disguise themselves as ministers of righteousness, whose end will be according to their works.
Paul’s Sufferings as an Apostle
16 I say again, let no one think that I am a fool. Otherwise, at least receive me as a fool, so that I also may boast a little. 17 What I speak, I speak not according to the Lord, but as it were foolishly, in this confidence of boasting. 18 Seeing that many boast according to the flesh, I also will boast. 19 For you tolerate fools gladly, seeing you yourselves are wise. 20 For you permit it if a man brings you into bondage, if a man devours you, if a man takes from you, if a man exalts himself, or if a man strikes you on the face. 21 I say to my reproach that we were too weak for that.
But whenever anyone is bold (I speak foolishly), I am bold also.
Teaching About Fasting
16 “Moreover, when you fast, do not be like the hypocrites with a sad countenance. For they disfigure their faces so they may appear to men to be fasting. Truly I say to you, they have their reward. 17 But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, 18 so that you will not appear to men to be fasting, but to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.
Treasures in Heaven(A)
19 “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal. 20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroy and where thieves do not break in nor steal, 21 for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
The Light of the Body(B)
22 “The light of the body is the eye. Therefore, if your eye is clear, your whole body will be full of light. 23 But if your eye is unclear, your whole body will be full of darkness. Therefore, if the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!
The Holy Bible, Modern English Version. Copyright © 2014 by Military Bible Association. Published and distributed by Charisma House.