Book of Common Prayer
Meditations on the Excellencies of the Word of God
א ALEPH
119 Blessed are the [a]undefiled in the way,
(A)Who walk in the law of the Lord!
2 Blessed are those who keep His testimonies,
Who seek Him with the (B)whole heart!
3 (C)They also do no iniquity;
They walk in His ways.
4 You have commanded us
To keep Your precepts diligently.
5 Oh, that my ways were directed
To keep Your statutes!
6 (D)Then I would not be ashamed,
When I look into all Your commandments.
7 I will praise You with uprightness of heart,
When I learn Your righteous judgments.
8 I will keep Your statutes;
Oh, do not forsake me utterly!
ב BETH
9 How can a young man cleanse his way?
By taking heed according to Your word.
10 With my whole heart I have (E)sought You;
Oh, let me not wander from Your commandments!
11 (F)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 have (G)declared
All the judgments 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 [b]contemplate Your ways.
16 I will (H)delight myself in Your statutes;
I will not forget Your word.
ג GIMEL
17 (I)Deal bountifully with Your servant,
That I may live and keep Your word.
18 Open my eyes, that I may see
Wondrous things from Your law.
19 (J)I am a stranger in the earth;
Do not hide Your commandments from me.
20 (K)My soul [c]breaks with longing
For Your judgments at all times.
21 You rebuke the proud—the cursed,
Who stray from Your commandments.
22 (L)Remove from me reproach and contempt,
For I have kept Your testimonies.
23 Princes also sit and speak against me,
But Your servant meditates on Your statutes.
24 Your testimonies also are my delight
And my counselors.
Man’s Treachery and God’s Constancy
To the Chief Musician. (A)On [a]an eight-stringed harp. A Psalm of David.
12 Help,[b] Lord, for the godly man (B)ceases!
For the faithful disappear from among the sons of men.
2 (C)They speak idly everyone with his neighbor;
With flattering lips and [c]a double heart they speak.
3 May the Lord [d]cut off all flattering lips,
And the tongue that speaks [e]proud things,
4 Who have said,
“With our tongue we will prevail;
Our lips are our own;
Who is lord over us?”
5 “For the oppression of the poor, for the sighing of the needy,
Now I will arise,” says the Lord;
“I will set him in the safety for which he yearns.”
6 The words of the Lord are (D)pure words,
Like silver tried in a furnace of earth,
Purified seven times.
7 You shall keep them, O Lord,
You shall preserve them from this generation forever.
8 The wicked prowl on every side,
When vileness is exalted among the sons of men.
Trust in the Salvation of the Lord
To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David.
13 How long, O Lord? Will You forget me forever?
(E)How long will You hide Your face from me?
2 How long shall I take counsel in my soul,
Having sorrow in my heart daily?
How long will my enemy be exalted over me?
3 Consider and hear me, O Lord my God;
(F)Enlighten my eyes,
(G)Lest I sleep the sleep of death;
4 Lest my enemy say,
“I have prevailed against him”;
Lest those who trouble me rejoice when I am moved.
5 But I have trusted in Your mercy;
My heart shall rejoice in Your salvation.
6 I will sing to the Lord,
Because He has dealt bountifully with me.
Folly of the Godless, and God’s Final Triumph(H)
To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David.
14 The (I)fool has said in his heart,
“There is no God.”
They are corrupt,
They have done abominable works,
There is none who does good.
2 (J)The Lord looks down from heaven upon the children of men,
To see if there are any who understand, who seek God.
3 (K)They have all turned aside,
They have together become corrupt;
There is none who does good,
No, not one.
25 “When you beget children and grandchildren and have grown old in the land, and act corruptly and make a carved image in the form of anything, and (A)do evil in the sight of the Lord your God to provoke Him to anger, 26 (B)I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that you will soon utterly perish from the land which you cross over the Jordan to possess; you will not [a]prolong your days in it, but will be utterly destroyed. 27 And the Lord (C)will scatter you among the peoples, and you will be left few in number among the nations where the Lord will drive you. 28 And (D)there you will serve gods, the work of men’s hands, wood and stone, (E)which neither see nor hear nor eat nor smell. 29 (F)But from there you will seek the Lord your God, and you will find Him if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul. 30 When you are in [b]distress, and all these things come upon you in the (G)latter days, when you (H)turn to the Lord your God and obey His voice 31 (for the Lord your God is a merciful God), He will not forsake you nor (I)destroy you, nor forget the covenant of your fathers which He swore to them.
21 To our shame (A)I say that we were too weak for that! But (B)in whatever anyone is bold—I speak foolishly—I am bold also.
Suffering for Christ
22 Are they (C)Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they the seed of Abraham? So am I. 23 Are they ministers of Christ?—I speak as a fool—I am more: (D)in labors more abundant, (E)in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequently, (F)in deaths often. 24 From the Jews five times I received (G)forty (H)stripes minus one. 25 Three times I was (I)beaten with rods; (J)once I was stoned; three times I (K)was shipwrecked; a night and a day I have been in the deep; 26 in journeys often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, (L)in perils of my own countrymen, (M)in perils of the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; 27 in weariness and toil, (N)in sleeplessness often, (O)in hunger and thirst, in (P)fastings often, in cold and nakedness— 28 besides the other things, what comes upon me daily: (Q)my deep concern for all the churches. 29 (R)Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is made to stumble, and I do not burn with indignation?
30 If I must boast, (S)I will boast in the things which concern my [a]infirmity. 31 (T)The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, (U)who is blessed forever, knows that I am not lying. 32 (V)In Damascus the governor, under Aretas the king, was guarding the city of the Damascenes with a garrison, desiring to arrest me; 33 but I was let down in a basket through a window in the wall, and escaped from his hands.
You Cannot Serve God and Riches
24 (A)“No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. (B)You cannot serve God and [a]mammon.
Do Not Worry(C)
25 “Therefore I say to you, (D)do not worry 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 more than clothing? 26 (E)Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27 Which of you by worrying can add one [b]cubit to his [c]stature?
28 “So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; 29 and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not [d]arrayed like one of these. 30 Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?
31 “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 33 But (F)seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.