Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 119
א Aleph
1 Blessed are those whose way is blameless,
who walk in the law of the Lord.
2 Blessed are those who keep His testimonies,
and who seek Him with all their heart.
3 They also do no wrong;
they walk in His ways.
4 You have commanded us
to keep Your precepts diligently.
5 Oh, that my ways were established
to keep Your statutes!
6 Then I shall not be ashamed,
when I have my focus on all Your commandments.
7 I will praise You with an upright heart,
when I have learned Your righteous judgments.
8 I will keep Your statutes;
do not completely abandon me.
ב Beth
9 How shall a young man keep his way pure?
By keeping it according to Your word.
10 With my whole heart I seek You;
do not allow me to wander from Your commandments.
11 Your word I have hidden in my heart,
that I might not sin against You.
12 Blessed are You, O Lord;
teach me Your statutes.
13 With my lips I declare
all the decrees of Your mouth.
14 I rejoice in the way of Your testimonies,
as much as in all riches.
15 I will meditate on Your precepts
and keep my eyes on Your ways.
16 I will delight in Your statutes;
I will not forget Your word.
ג Gimel
17 Deal kindly with Your servant, that I may live
and keep Your word.
18 Open my eyes, that I may behold
wondrous things from Your law.
19 I am a sojourner in the land;
do not hide Your commandments from me.
20 My soul is consumed all the time
with a longing for Your decrees.
21 You have rebuked the proud, those cursed,
who depart from Your commandments.
22 Remove from me reproach and contempt,
for I have kept Your testimonies.
23 Even if princes sit and conspire against me,
Your servant will meditate on Your statutes.
24 Your testimonies are my delight
and my counselors.
Psalm 12
For the Music Director. According to The Sheminith. A Psalm of David.
1 Help, Lord, for the godly man comes to an end,
for the faithful disappear from sons of men.
2 They speak empty words, each with his own neighbor;
they speak with flattering lips and a double heart.
3 The Lord will cut off all flattering lips,
and the tongue that speaks proud things,
4 who have said, “With our tongue will we prevail;
our lips are in our control, who is master over us?”
5 “Because the poor are plundered,
because the needy sigh,
now I will arise,” says the Lord;
“I will place him in the safety for which he yearns.”
6 The words of the Lord are pure words;
they are silver tried in an earthen furnace
refined seven times.
7 You will keep them, O Lord;
You will preserve them from this generation.
8 The wicked walk on every side,
when the worthless of mankind are exalted.
Psalm 13
For the Music Director. A Psalm of David.
1 How long, O Lord? Will You forget me for good?
How long will you hide Your face from me?
2 How long will I harbor cares in my soul
and sorrow in my heart by day?
How long will my enemy loom over me?
3 Take note and answer me, O Lord my God!
Brighten my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death,
4 lest my enemy say, “I have him,”
lest my foes exult when I stumble.
5 I for my part confide in Your kindness;
may my heart exult in Your salvation!
6 I will sing to the Lord,
because He has dealt bountifully with me.
Psalm 14(A)
For the Music Director. A Psalm of David.
1 The fool has said in his heart,
“There is no God.”
They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds,
there is none who does good.
2 The Lord looks down from heaven
on the children of men,
to see if there are any who understand,
who seek God.
3 They all turn aside,
together they become corrupt;
there is none who does good,
not even one.
4 Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge,
who eat my people as they eat bread,
but do not call on the Lord?
5 There they were in great fear,
for God is with the generation of the righteous.
6 You shame the counsel of the poor,
but the Lord is his refuge.
7 Oh, that the salvation of Israel would come from Zion!
When the Lord turns back the captivity of His people,
Jacob will rejoice, and Israel will be glad.
25 When you produce children and grandchildren and you have remained a long time in the land, and you corrupt yourselves and make a graven image, or the likeness of anything, and do evil in the sight of the Lord your God, to provoke Him to anger, 26 I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that you will surely and suddenly perish from off the land that you are going across the Jordan to possess. You will not prolong your days on it, but shall be completely destroyed. 27 The Lord shall scatter you among the peoples, and you shall be left few in number among the nations where the Lord shall lead you. 28 There you will serve gods, the work of men’s hands, wood and stone, which neither see nor hear nor eat nor smell. 29 But if from there you will seek the Lord your God, you will find Him, if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul. 30 When you are in distress and all these things come upon you, even in the latter days, if you turn to the Lord your God and shall be obedient to His voice 31 (for the Lord your God is a merciful God), He will not abandon you or destroy you or forget the covenant of your fathers which He swore to them.
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. 22 Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they the seed of Abraham? So am I. 23 Are they servants of Christ? I speak as a fool. I am more: in labors more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequently, in deaths often. 24 Five times I received from the Jews forty lashes minus one. 25 Three times I was beaten with rods; once I was stoned; three times I suffered shipwreck; a night and a day I have been in the deep; 26 in journeys often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by my own countrymen, in perils by the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brothers; 27 in weariness and painfulness, in sleeplessness often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, and in cold and nakedness. 28 Beside the external things, the care of all the churches pressures me daily. 29 Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is led into sin, and I am not distressed?
30 If I must boast, I will boast of the things which concern my weakness. 31 The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is blessed forevermore, knows that I am not lying. 32 In Damascus the governor under King Aretas secured the city of the Damascenes with a garrison, desiring to arrest me. 33 But I was let down by the wall through a window in a basket and escaped his hands.
God and Money
24 “No one can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will hold to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.
Care and Anxiety(A)
25 “Therefore, I say to you, take no thought about your life, what you will eat, or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body than clothing? 26 Look at the birds of the air, for they do not sow, nor do they reap, nor gather into barns. Yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much better than they? 27 Who among you by taking thought can add a cubit[a] to his stature?
28 “Why take thought about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: They neither work, nor do they spin. 29 Yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not dressed like one of these. 30 Therefore, if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is here and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31 Therefore, take no thought, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 (For the Gentiles seek after all these things.) For your heavenly Father knows that you have need of all these things. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be given to you. 34 Therefore, take no thought about tomorrow, for tomorrow will take thought about the things of itself. Sufficient to the day is the trouble thereof.
The Holy Bible, Modern English Version. Copyright © 2014 by Military Bible Association. Published and distributed by Charisma House.