Book of Common Prayer
A Prayer for Guidance
To the Chief Musician. With [a]flutes. A Psalm of David.
5 Give (A)ear to my words, O Lord,
Consider my [b]meditation.
2 Give heed to the voice of my cry,
My King and my God,
For to You I will pray.
3 My voice You shall hear in the morning, O Lord;
(B)In the morning I will direct it to You,
And I will look up.
4 For You are not a God who takes pleasure in wickedness,
Nor shall evil [c]dwell with You.
5 The (C)boastful shall not (D)stand in Your sight;
You hate all workers of iniquity.
6 You shall destroy those who speak falsehood;
The Lord abhors the (E)bloodthirsty and deceitful man.
7 But as for me, I will come into Your house in the multitude of Your mercy;
In fear of You I will worship toward [d]Your holy temple.
8 (F)Lead me, O Lord, in Your righteousness because of my enemies;
Make Your way straight before my face.
9 For there is no [e]faithfulness in their mouth;
Their inward part is destruction;
(G)Their throat is an open tomb;
They flatter with their tongue.
10 Pronounce them guilty, O God!
Let them fall by their own counsels;
Cast them out in the multitude of their transgressions,
For they have rebelled against You.
11 But let all those rejoice who put their trust in You;
Let them ever shout for joy, because You [f]defend them;
Let those also who love Your name
Be joyful in You.
12 For You, O Lord, will bless the righteous;
With favor You will surround him as with a shield.
A Prayer of Faith in Time of Distress
To the Chief Musician. With stringed instruments. (H)On [g]an eight-stringed harp. A Psalm of David.
6 O Lord, (I)do not rebuke me in Your anger,
Nor chasten me in Your hot displeasure.
2 Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I am weak;
O Lord, (J)heal me, for my bones are troubled.
3 My soul also is greatly (K)troubled;
But You, O Lord—how long?
4 Return, O Lord, deliver me!
Oh, save me for Your mercies’ sake!
5 (L)For in death there is no remembrance of You;
In the grave who will give You thanks?
A Song of Confidence in God’s Triumph over Evil
10 Why do You stand afar off, O Lord?
Why do You hide in times of trouble?
2 The wicked in his pride [a]persecutes the poor;
(A)Let them be caught in the plots which they have devised.
3 For the wicked (B)boasts of his heart’s desire;
[b]He (C)blesses the greedy and renounces the Lord.
4 The wicked in his proud countenance does not seek God;
[c]God is in none of his (D)thoughts.
5 His ways [d]are always prospering;
Your judgments are far above, out of his sight;
As for all his enemies, he sneers at them.
6 (E)He has said in his heart, “I shall not be moved;
(F)I shall never be in adversity.”
7 (G)His mouth is full of cursing and (H)deceit and oppression;
Under his tongue is trouble and iniquity.
8 He sits in the lurking places of the villages;
In the secret places he murders the innocent;
His eyes are secretly fixed on the helpless.
9 He lies in wait secretly, as a lion in his den;
He lies in wait to catch the poor;
He catches the poor when he draws him into his net.
10 So [e]he crouches, he lies low,
That the helpless may fall by his [f]strength.
11 He has said in his heart,
“God has forgotten;
He hides His face;
He will never see.”
12 Arise, O Lord!
O God, (I)lift up Your hand!
Do not forget the (J)humble.
13 Why do the wicked renounce God?
He has said in his heart,
“You will not require an account.”
14 But You have (K)seen, for You observe trouble and grief,
To repay it by Your hand.
The helpless (L)commits[g] himself to You;
(M)You are the helper of the fatherless.
15 Break the arm of the wicked and the evil man;
Seek out his wickedness until You find none.
16 (N)The Lord is King forever and ever;
The nations have perished out of His land.
17 Lord, You have heard the desire of the humble;
You will prepare their heart;
You will cause Your ear to hear,
18 To [h]do justice to the fatherless and the oppressed,
That the man of the earth may [i]oppress no more.
Faith in the Lord’s Righteousness
To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David.
11 In (O)the Lord I put my trust;
How can you say to my soul,
“Flee as a bird to your mountain”?
2 For look! (P)The wicked bend their bow,
They make ready their arrow on the string,
That they may shoot [j]secretly at the upright in heart.
3 (Q)If the foundations are destroyed,
What can the righteous do?
4 The Lord is in His holy temple,
The Lord’s (R)throne is in heaven;
(S)His eyes behold,
His eyelids test the sons of men.
5 The Lord (T)tests the righteous,
But the wicked and the one who loves violence His soul hates.
6 Upon the wicked He will rain coals;
Fire and brimstone and a burning wind
(U)Shall be [k]the portion of their cup.
Beware of Idolatry
15 (A)“Take careful heed to yourselves, for you saw no (B)form when the Lord spoke to you at Horeb out of the midst of the fire, 16 lest you (C)act corruptly and (D)make for yourselves a carved image in the [a]form of any figure: (E)the likeness of male or female, 17 the likeness of any animal that is on the earth or the likeness of any winged bird that flies in the air, 18 the likeness of anything that creeps on the ground or the likeness of any fish that is in the water beneath the earth. 19 And take heed, lest you (F)lift your eyes to heaven, and when you see the sun, the moon, and the stars, (G)all the host of heaven, you feel driven to (H)worship them and serve them, which the Lord your God has [b]given to all the peoples under the whole heaven as a heritage. 20 But the Lord has taken you and (I)brought you out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt, to be (J)His people, an inheritance, as you are this day. 21 Furthermore (K)the Lord was angry with me for your sakes, and swore that (L)I would not cross over the Jordan, and that I would not enter the good land which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance. 22 But (M)I must die in this land, (N)I must not cross over the Jordan; but you shall cross over and [c]possess (O)that good land. 23 Take heed to yourselves, lest you forget the covenant of the Lord your God which He made with you, (P)and make for yourselves a carved image in the form of anything which the Lord your God has forbidden you. 24 For (Q)the Lord your God is a consuming fire, (R)a jealous God.
Concern for Their Faithfulness
11 Oh, that you would bear with me in a little (A)folly—and indeed you do bear with me. 2 For I am (B)jealous for you with godly jealousy. For (C)I have betrothed you to one husband, (D)that I may present you (E)as a chaste virgin to Christ. 3 But I fear, lest somehow, as (F)the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds (G)may be corrupted from the [a]simplicity that is in Christ. 4 For if he who comes preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or if you receive a different spirit which you have not received, or a (H)different gospel which you have not accepted—you may well put up with it!
Paul and False Apostles
5 For I consider that (I)I am not at all inferior to the most eminent apostles. 6 Even though (J)I am untrained in speech, yet I am not (K)in knowledge. But (L)we have [b]been thoroughly manifested among you in all things.
7 Did I commit sin in [c]humbling myself that you might be exalted, because I preached the gospel of God to you (M)free of charge? 8 I robbed other churches, taking wages from them to minister to you. 9 And when I was present with you, and in need, (N)I was a burden to no one, for what I lacked (O)the brethren who came from Macedonia supplied. And in everything I kept myself from being burdensome to you, and so I will keep myself. 10 (P)As the truth of Christ is in me, (Q)no one shall stop me from this boasting in the regions of Achaia. 11 Why? (R)Because I do not love you? God knows!
12 But what I do, I will also continue to do, (S)that I may cut off the opportunity from those who desire an opportunity to be regarded just as we are in the things of which they boast. 13 For such (T)are false apostles, (U)deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ. 14 And no wonder! For Satan himself transforms himself into (V)an angel of light. 15 Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also transform themselves into ministers of righteousness, (W)whose end will be according to their works.
Reluctant Boasting
16 I say again, let no one think me a fool. If otherwise, at least receive me as a fool, that I also may boast a little. 17 What I speak, (X)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 put up with fools gladly, (Y)since you yourselves are wise! 20 For you put up with it (Z)if one brings you into bondage, if one devours you, if one takes from you, if one exalts himself, if one strikes you on the face. 21 To our shame (AA)I say that we were too weak for that! But (AB)in whatever anyone is bold—I speak foolishly—I am bold also.
Fasting to Be Seen Only by God
16 “Moreover, (A)when you fast, do not be like the [a]hypocrites, with a sad countenance. For they disfigure their faces that they may appear to men to be fasting. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. 17 But you, when you fast, (B)anoint your head and wash your face, 18 so that you do not appear to men to be fasting, but to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you [b]openly.
Lay Up Treasures in Heaven(C)
19 (D)“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; 20 (E)but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
The Lamp of the Body(F)
22 (G)“The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is [c]good, your whole body will be full of light. 23 But if your eye is [d]bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.