Book of Common Prayer
א Aleph
119 Blessed are those who live without blame.
They live in keeping with the law of the Lord.
2 Blessed are those who obey his covenant laws.
They trust in him with all their hearts.
3 They don’t do anything wrong.
They live as he wants them to live.
4 You have given me rules
that I must obey completely.
5 I hope I will always stand firm
in following your orders.
6 Then I won’t be put to shame
when I think about all your commands.
7 I will praise you with an honest heart
as I learn about how fair your decisions are.
8 I will obey your orders.
Please don’t leave me all alone.
ב Beth
9 How can a young person keep their life pure?
By living according to your word.
10 I trust in you with all my heart.
Don’t let me wander away from your commands.
11 I have hidden your word in my heart
so that I won’t sin against you.
12 Lord, I give praise to you.
Teach me your orders.
13 With my lips I talk about
all the decisions you have made.
14 Following your covenant laws gives me joy
just as great riches give joy to others.
15 I spend time thinking about your rules.
I consider how you want me to live.
16 I take delight in your orders.
I won’t fail to obey your word.
ג Gimel
17 Be good to me while I am alive.
Do this so that I may obey your word.
18 Open my eyes so that I can see
the wonderful truths in your law.
19 I’m a stranger on earth.
Don’t hide your commands from me.
20 My heart is filled with longing
for your laws at all times.
21 You correct proud people. They are under your curse.
They wander away from your commands.
22 I obey your covenant laws.
So don’t let evil people laugh at me or hate me.
23 Even if rulers sit together and tell lies about me,
I will spend time thinking about your orders.
24 Your covenant laws are my delight.
They give me wise advice.
For the director of music. According to sheminith. A psalm of David.
12 Help, Lord! No one does what is right anymore.
Those who are faithful have disappeared from the human race.
2 Everyone tells lies to their neighbors.
With their lips they praise others, but they don’t really mean it.
3 May the Lord close all lips that don’t mean what they say.
May he stop every tongue that brags.
4 They say, “What we speak with our tongues will win the battle.
What we say with our lips will keep us safe. No one will have victory over us.”
5 The Lord says, “The poor are being robbed.
Those who are in need groan.
So I will stand up to help them.
I will keep them safe from those who tell lies about them.”
6 The words of the Lord are perfect.
They are like silver made pure in a clay furnace.
They are like gold made pure seven times over.
7 Lord, you will keep needy people safe.
You will always keep sinners from hurting us.
8 Proud and sinful people walk around openly
when the evil they do is praised by the human race.
For the director of music. A psalm of David.
13 Lord, how long must I wait? Will you forget me forever?
How long will you turn your face away from me?
2 How long must I struggle with my thoughts?
How long must my heart be sad day after day?
How long will my enemies keep winning the battle over me?
3 Lord my God, look at me and answer me.
Give me new life, or I will die.
4 Then my enemies will say, “We have beaten him.”
They will be filled with joy when I die.
5 But I trust in your faithful love.
My heart is filled with joy because you will save me.
6 I will sing praise to the Lord.
He has been so good to me.
For the director of music. A psalm of David.
14 Foolish people say in their hearts,
“There is no God.”
They do all kinds of horrible and evil things.
No one does anything good.
2 The Lord looks down from heaven
on all people.
He wants to see if there are any who understand.
He wants to see if there are any who trust in God.
3 All of them have turned away.
They have all become evil.
No one does anything good,
no one at all.
4 Do all these people who do evil know nothing?
They eat up my people as if they were eating bread.
They never call out to the Lord.
5 But just look at them! They are filled with terror
because God is among those who do right.
6 You who do evil keep poor people from succeeding.
But the Lord is their place of safety.
7 How I pray that the God who saves Israel will come out of Zion!
Then the Lord will bless his people with great success again.
So let the people of Jacob be filled with joy! Let Israel be glad!
25 So don’t make a statue of a god. Don’t commit that horrible sin. Don’t do it even after you have had children and grandchildren. Don’t do it even after you have lived in the land a long time. If you do, that will be an evil thing in the sight of the Lord your God. You will make him angry. 26 Today I’m calling out to the heavens and the earth to be witnesses against you. Suppose you do these things. Then you will quickly die in the land you are going across the Jordan River to take over. You won’t live there very long. You will certainly be destroyed. 27 The Lord will drive you out of your land. He will scatter you among the nations. Only a few of you will remain alive there. 28 There you will worship gods that men have made out of wood and stone. Those gods can’t see, hear, eat or smell. 29 Perhaps while you are 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 All the things I’ve told you about might happen to you. And you will be in trouble. But later you will return to the Lord your God. You will obey him. 31 The Lord your God is tender and loving. He won’t leave you or destroy you. He won’t forget the covenant he made with your people of long ago. He gave his word when he made it.
21 I’m ashamed to have to say that I was too weak for that!
Whatever anyone else dares to brag about, I also dare to brag about. I’m speaking like a fool! 22 Are they Hebrews? So am I. Do they belong to the people of Israel? So do I. Are they Abraham’s children? So am I. 23 Are they serving Christ? I am serving him even more. I’m out of my mind to talk like this! I have worked much harder. I have been in prison more often. I have suffered terrible beatings. Again and again I almost died. 24 Five times the Jews gave me 39 strokes with a whip. 25 Three times I was beaten with sticks. Once they tried to kill me by throwing stones at me. Three times I was shipwrecked. I spent a night and a day in the open sea. 26 I have had to keep on the move. I have been in danger from rivers. I have been in danger from robbers. I have been in danger from my fellow Jews and in danger from Gentiles. I have been in danger in the city, in the country, and at sea. I have been in danger from people who pretended they were believers. 27 I have worked very hard. Often I have gone without sleep. I have been hungry and thirsty. Often I have gone without food. I have been cold and naked. 28 Besides everything else, every day I am concerned about all the churches. It is a very heavy load. 29 If anyone is weak, I feel weak. If anyone is led into sin, I burn on the inside.
30 If I have to brag, I will brag about the things that show how weak I am. 31 I am not lying. The God and Father of the Lord Jesus knows this. May God be praised forever. 32 In Damascus the governor who served under King Aretas had their city guarded. He wanted to arrest me. 33 But I was lowered in a basket from a window in the wall. So I escaped from the governor.
24 “No one can serve two masters at the same time. You will hate one of them and love the other. Or you will be faithful to one and dislike the other. You can’t serve God and money at the same time.
Do Not Worry
25 “I tell you, do not worry. Don’t worry about your life and what you will eat or drink. And don’t worry about your body and what you will wear. Isn’t there more to life than eating? Aren’t there more important things for the body than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air. They don’t plant or gather crops. They don’t put away crops in storerooms. But your Father who is in heaven feeds them. Aren’t you worth much more than they are? 27 Can you add even one hour to your life by worrying?
28 “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the wild flowers grow. They don’t work or make clothing. 29 But here is what I tell you. Not even Solomon in all his royal robes was dressed like one of these flowers. 30 If that is how God dresses the wild grass, won’t he dress you even better? Your faith is so small! After all, the grass is here only today. Tomorrow it is thrown into the fire. 31 So don’t worry. Don’t say, ‘What will we eat?’ Or, ‘What will we drink?’ Or, ‘What will we wear?’ 32 People who are ungodly run after all those things. Your Father who is in heaven knows that you need them. 33 But put God’s kingdom first. Do what he wants you to do. Then all those things will also be given to you. 34 So don’t worry about tomorrow. Tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
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