Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 119
1 Blessed (happy, fortunate, to be envied) are the undefiled (the upright, truly sincere, and blameless) in the way [of the revealed will of God], who walk (order their conduct and conversation) in the law of the Lord (the whole of God’s revealed will).
2 Blessed (happy, fortunate, to be envied) are they who keep His testimonies, and who seek, inquire for and of Him and crave Him with the whole heart.
3 Yes, they do no unrighteousness [no willful wandering from His precepts]; they walk in His ways.(A)
4 You have commanded us to keep Your precepts, that we should observe them diligently.
5 Oh, that my ways were directed and established to observe Your statutes [hearing, receiving, loving, and obeying them]!
6 Then shall I not be put to shame [by failing to inherit Your promises] when I have respect to all Your commandments.
7 I will praise and give thanks to You with uprightness of heart when I learn [by sanctified experiences] Your righteous judgments [Your decisions against and punishments for particular lines of thought and conduct].
8 I will keep Your statutes; O forsake me not utterly.
9 How shall a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed and keeping watch [on himself] according to Your word [conforming his life to it].
10 With my whole heart have I sought You, inquiring for and of You and yearning for You; Oh, let me not wander or step aside [either in ignorance or willfully] from Your commandments.(B)
11 Your word have I laid up in my heart, that I might not sin against You.
12 Blessed are You, O Lord; teach me Your statutes.
13 With my lips have I declared and recounted all the ordinances of Your mouth.
14 I have rejoiced in the way of Your testimonies as much as in all riches.
15 I will meditate on Your precepts and have respect to Your ways [the paths of life marked out by Your law].(C)
16 I will delight myself in Your statutes; I will not forget Your word.
17 Deal bountifully with Your servant, that I may live; and I will observe Your word [hearing, receiving, loving, and obeying it].(D)
18 Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of Your law.
19 I am a stranger and a temporary resident on the earth; hide not Your commandments from me.(E)
20 My heart is breaking with the longing that it has for Your ordinances and judgments at all times.
21 You rebuke the proud and arrogant, the accursed ones, who err and wander from Your commandments.
22 Take away from me reproach and contempt, for I keep Your testimonies.
23 Princes also sat and talked against me, but Your servant meditated on Your statutes.
24 Your testimonies also are my delight and my counselors.
Psalm 12
To the Chief Musician; set [possibly] an octave below. A Psalm of David.
1 Help, Lord! For principled and godly people are here no more; faithfulness and the faithful vanish from among the sons of men.
2 To his neighbor each one speaks words without use or worth or truth; with flattering lips and double heart [deceitfully] they speak.
3 May the Lord cut off all flattering lips and the tongues that speak proud boasting,
4 Those who say, With our tongues we prevail; our lips are our own [to command at our will]—who is lord and master over us?
5 Now will I arise, says the Lord, because the poor are oppressed, because of the groans of the needy; I will set him in safety and in the salvation for which he pants.
6 The words and promises of the Lord are pure words, like silver refined in an earthen furnace, purified seven times over.
7 You will keep them and preserve them, O Lord; You will guard and keep us from this [evil] generation forever.
8 The wicked walk or prowl about on every side, as vileness is exalted [and baseness is rated high] among the sons of men.
Psalm 13
To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David.
1 How long will You forget me, O Lord? Forever? How long will You hide Your face from me?
2 How long must I lay up cares within me and have sorrow in my heart day after day? How long shall my enemy exalt himself over me?
3 Consider and answer me, O Lord my God; lighten the eyes [of my faith to behold Your face in the pitchlike darkness], lest I sleep the sleep of death,
4 Lest my enemy say, I have prevailed over him, and those that trouble me rejoice when I am shaken.
5 But I have trusted, leaned on, and been confident in Your mercy and loving-kindness; my heart shall rejoice and be in high spirits in Your salvation.
6 I will sing to the Lord, because He has dealt bountifully with me.
Psalm 14
To the Chief Musician. [A Psalm] of David.
1 The [empty-headed] fool has said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable deeds; there is none that does good or right.(A)
2 The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men to see if there were any who understood, dealt wisely, and sought after God, inquiring for and of Him and requiring Him [of vital necessity].
3 They are all gone aside, they have all together become filthy; there is none that does good or right, no, not one.(B)
4 Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge, who eat up my people as they eat bread and who do not call on the Lord?
5 There they shall be in great fear [literally—dreading a dread], for God is with the generation of the [uncompromisingly] righteous (those upright and in right standing with Him).
6 You [evildoers] would put to shame and confound the plans of the poor and patient, but the Lord is his safe refuge.
7 Oh, that the salvation of Israel would come out of Zion! When the Lord shall restore the fortunes of His people, then Jacob shall rejoice and Israel shall be glad.(C)
25 When children shall be born to you, and children’s children, and you have grown old in the land, if you corrupt yourselves by making a graven image in the form of anything, and do evil in the sight of the Lord your God, provoking Him to anger,
26 I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day that you shall soon utterly perish from the land which you are going over the Jordan to possess. You will not live long upon it but will be utterly destroyed.
27 And the Lord will scatter you among the peoples, and you will be left few in number among the nations to which the Lord will drive 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 (inquire for and require as necessity) the Lord your God, you will find Him if you [truly] seek Him with all your heart [and mind] and soul and life.
30 When you are in tribulation and all these things come upon you, in the latter days you will turn to the Lord your God and be obedient to His voice.
31 For the Lord your God is a merciful God; He will not fail you or destroy you or forget the covenant of your fathers, which He swore to them.
21 To my discredit, I must say, we have shown ourselves too weak [for you to show such tolerance of us and for us to do strong, courageous things like that to you]! But in whatever any person is bold and dares [to boast]—mind you, I am speaking in this foolish (witless) way—I also am bold and dare [to boast].
22 They are Hebrews? So am I! They are Israelites? So am I! They are descendants of Abraham? So am I!
23 Are they [ministering] servants of Christ (the Messiah)? I am talking like one beside himself, [but] I am more, with far more extensive and abundant labors, with far more imprisonments, [beaten] with countless stripes, and frequently [at the point of] death.
24 Five times I received from [the hands of] the Jews forty [lashes all] but one;(A)
25 Three times I have been beaten with rods; once I was stoned. Three times I have been aboard a ship wrecked at sea; a [whole] night and a day I have spent [adrift] on the deep;
26 Many times on journeys, [exposed to] perils from rivers, perils from bandits, perils from [my own] nation, perils from the Gentiles, perils in the city, perils in the desert places, perils in the sea, perils from those posing as believers [but destitute of Christian knowledge and piety];
27 In toil and hardship, watching often [through sleepless nights], in hunger and thirst, frequently driven to fasting by want, in cold and exposure and lack of clothing.
28 And besides those things that are without, there is the daily [inescapable pressure] of my care and anxiety for all the churches!
29 Who is weak, and I do not feel [his] weakness? Who is made to stumble and fall and have his faith hurt, and I am not on fire [with sorrow or indignation]?
30 If I must boast, I will boast of the things that [show] my infirmity [of the things by which I am made weak and contemptible in the eyes of my opponents].
31 The God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ knows, He Who is blessed and to be praised forevermore, that I do not lie.
32 In Damascus, the city governor acting under King Aretas guarded the city of Damascus [on purpose] to arrest me,
33 And I was [actually] let down in a [rope] basket or hamper through a window (a small door) in the wall, and I escaped through his fingers.
24 No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will stand by and be devoted to the one and despise and be [a]against the other. You cannot serve God and mammon ([b]deceitful riches, money, possessions, or [c]whatever is trusted in).
25 Therefore I tell you, stop being [d]perpetually uneasy (anxious and worried) about your life, what you shall eat or what you shall drink; or about your body, what you shall put on. Is not life greater [in quality] than food, and the body [far above and more excellent] than clothing?
26 Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father keeps feeding them. Are you not worth much more than they?
27 And who of you by worrying and being anxious can add one unit of measure (cubit) to his stature or to the [e]span of his life?(A)
28 And why should you be anxious about clothes? Consider the lilies of the field and [f]learn thoroughly how they grow; they neither toil nor spin.
29 Yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his [g]magnificence (excellence, dignity, and grace) was not arrayed like one of these.(B)
30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and green and tomorrow is tossed into the furnace, will He not much more surely clothe you, O you of little faith?
31 Therefore do not worry and be anxious, saying, What are we going to have to eat? or, What are we going to have to drink? or, What are we going to have to wear?
32 For the Gentiles (heathen) wish for and crave and diligently seek all these things, and your heavenly Father knows well that you need them all.
33 But seek ([h]aim at and strive after) first of all His kingdom and His righteousness ([i]His way of doing and being right), and then all these things [j]taken together will be given you besides.
34 So do not worry or be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will have worries and anxieties of its own. Sufficient for each day is its own trouble.
Copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation