Book of Common Prayer
For the Chief Musician, with the flutes. A Psalm by David.
5 Give ear to my words, Yahweh.
Consider my meditation.
2 Listen to the voice of my cry, my King and my God,
for I pray to you.
3 Yahweh, in the morning you will hear my voice.
In the morning I will lay my requests before you, and will watch expectantly.
4 For you are not a God who has pleasure in wickedness.
Evil can’t live with you.
5 The arrogant will not stand in your sight.
You hate all workers of iniquity.
6 You will destroy those who speak lies.
Yahweh abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man.
7 But as for me, in the abundance of your loving kindness I will come into your house.
I will bow toward your holy temple in reverence of you.
8 Lead me, Yahweh, in your righteousness because of my enemies.
Make your way straight before my face.
9 For there is no faithfulness in their mouth.
Their heart is destruction.
Their throat is an open tomb.
They flatter with their tongue.
10 Hold them guilty, God.
Let them fall by their own counsels.
Thrust them out in the multitude of their transgressions,
for they have rebelled against you.
11 But let all those who take refuge in you rejoice.
Let them always shout for joy, because you defend them.
Let them also who love your name be joyful in you.
12 For you will bless the righteous.
Yahweh, you will surround him with favor as with a shield.
For the Chief Musician; on stringed instruments, upon the eight-stringed lyre. A Psalm by David.
6 Yahweh, don’t rebuke me in your anger,
neither discipline me in your wrath.
2 Have mercy on me, Yahweh, for I am faint.
Yahweh, heal me, for my bones are troubled.
3 My soul is also in great anguish.
But you, Yahweh—how long?
4 Return, Yahweh. Deliver my soul,
and save me for your loving kindness’ sake.
5 For in death there is no memory of you.
In Sheol,[a] who shall give you thanks?
6 I am weary with my groaning.
Every night I flood my bed.
I drench my couch with my tears.
7 My eye wastes away because of grief.
It grows old because of all my adversaries.
8 Depart from me, all you workers of iniquity,
for Yahweh has heard the voice of my weeping.
9 Yahweh has heard my supplication.
Yahweh accepts my prayer.
10 May all my enemies be ashamed and dismayed.
They shall turn back, they shall be disgraced suddenly.
10 Why do you stand far off, Yahweh?
Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?
2 In arrogance, the wicked hunt down the weak.
They are caught in the schemes that they devise.
3 For the wicked boasts of his heart’s cravings.
He blesses the greedy and condemns Yahweh.
4 The wicked, in the pride of his face,
has no room in his thoughts for God.
5 His ways are prosperous at all times.
He is arrogant, and your laws are far from his sight.
As for all his adversaries, he sneers at them.
6 He says in his heart, “I shall not be shaken.
For generations I shall have no trouble.”
7 His mouth is full of cursing, deceit, and oppression.
Under his tongue is mischief and iniquity.
8 He lies in wait near the villages.
From ambushes, he murders the innocent.
His eyes are secretly set against the helpless.
9 He lurks in secret as a lion in his ambush.
He lies in wait to catch the helpless.
He catches the helpless when he draws him in his net.
10 The helpless are crushed.
They collapse.
They fall under his strength.
11 He says in his heart, “God has forgotten.
He hides his face.
He will never see it.”
12 Arise, Yahweh!
God, lift up your hand!
Don’t forget the helpless.
13 Why does the wicked person condemn God,
and say in his heart, “God won’t call me into account”?
14 But you do see trouble and grief.
You consider it to take it into your hand.
You help the victim and the fatherless.
15 Break the arm of the wicked.
As for the evil man, seek out his wickedness until you find none.
16 Yahweh is King forever and ever!
The nations will perish out of his land.
17 Yahweh, you have heard the desire of the humble.
You will prepare their heart.
You will cause your ear to hear,
18 to judge the fatherless and the oppressed,
that man who is of the earth may terrify no more.
For the Chief Musician. By David.
11 In Yahweh, I take refuge.
How can you say to my soul, “Flee as a bird to your mountain”?
2 For, behold, the wicked bend their bows.
They set their arrows on the strings,
that they may shoot in darkness at the upright in heart.
3 If the foundations are destroyed,
what can the righteous do?
4 Yahweh is in his holy temple.
Yahweh is on his throne in heaven.
His eyes observe.
His eyes examine the children of men.
5 Yahweh examines the righteous,
but his soul hates the wicked and him who loves violence.
6 On the wicked he will rain blazing coals;
fire, sulfur, and scorching wind shall be the portion of their cup.
7 For Yahweh is righteous.
He loves righteousness.
The upright shall see his face.
15 Be very careful, for you saw no kind of form on the day that Yahweh spoke to you in Horeb out of the middle of the fire, 16 lest you corrupt yourselves, and make yourself a carved image in the form of any figure, the likeness of male or female, 17 the likeness of any animal that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged bird that flies in the sky, 18 the likeness of anything that creeps on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the water under the earth; 19 and lest you lift up your eyes to the sky, and when you see the sun and the moon and the stars, even all the army of the sky, you are drawn away and worship them, and serve them, which Yahweh your God has allotted to all the peoples under the whole sky. 20 But Yahweh has taken you, and brought you out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt, to be to him a people of inheritance, as it is today. 21 Furthermore Yahweh was angry with me for your sakes, and swore that I should not go over the Jordan, and that I should not go in to that good land which Yahweh your God gives you for an inheritance; 22 but I must die in this land. I must not go over the Jordan, but you shall go over and possess that good land. 23 Be careful, lest you forget the covenant of Yahweh your God, which he made with you, and make yourselves a carved image in the form of anything which Yahweh your God has forbidden you. 24 For Yahweh your God is a devouring fire, a jealous God.
11 I wish that you would bear with me in a little foolishness, but indeed you do bear with me. 2 For I am jealous over you with a godly jealousy. For I promised you in marriage to one husband, that I might present you as a pure virgin to Christ. 3 But I am afraid that somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve in his craftiness, so your minds might be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. 4 For if he who comes preaches another Jesus whom we didn’t preach, or if you receive a different spirit which you didn’t receive, or a different “good news” which you didn’t accept, you put up with that well enough. 5 For I reckon that I am not at all behind the very best apostles. 6 But though I am unskilled in speech, yet I am not unskilled in knowledge. No, in every way we have been revealed to you in all things.
7 Or did I commit a sin in humbling myself that you might be exalted, because I preached to you God’s Good News free of charge? 8 I robbed other assemblies, taking wages from them that I might serve you. 9 When I was present with you and was in need, I wasn’t a burden on anyone, for the brothers, when they came from Macedonia, supplied the measure of my need. In everything I kept myself from being burdensome to you, and I will continue to do so. 10 As the truth of Christ is in me, no one will stop me from this boasting in the regions of Achaia. 11 Why? Because I don’t love you? God knows.
12 But what I do, that I will continue to do, that I may cut off opportunity from those who desire an opportunity, that in which they boast, they may be recognized just like us. 13 For such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, masquerading as Christ’s apostles. 14 And no wonder, for even Satan masquerades as an angel of light. 15 It is no great thing therefore if his servants also masquerade as servants of righteousness, whose end will be according to their works.
16 I say again, let no one think me foolish. But if so, yet receive me as foolish, that I also may boast a little. 17 That which I speak, I don’t speak according to the Lord, but as in foolishness, in this confidence of boasting. 18 Seeing that many boast after the flesh, I will also boast. 19 For you bear with the foolish gladly, being wise. 20 For you bear with a man if he brings you into bondage, if he devours you, if he takes you captive, if he exalts himself, or if he strikes you on the face. 21 To my shame, I speak as though we had been weak. Yet in whatever way anyone is bold (I speak in foolishness), I am bold also.
16 “Moreover when you fast, don’t be like the hypocrites, with sad faces. For they disfigure their faces that they may be seen by men to be fasting. Most certainly I tell you, they have received their reward. 17 But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, 18 so that you are not seen by men to be fasting, but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father, who sees in secret, will reward you.
19 “Don’t lay up treasures for yourselves on the earth, where moth and rust consume, and where thieves break through and steal; 20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consume, and where thieves don’t break through and steal; 21 for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
22 “The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is sound, your whole body will be full of light. 23 But if your eye is evil, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!
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