Book of Common Prayer
ALEPH
1 Blessed are those who are upright in their way and walk in the Law of the LORD.
2 Blessed are those who keep His Testimonies and seek Him with their whole heart.
3 Surely, they work no iniquity, but walk in His ways.
4 You have commanded to keep Your Precepts diligently.
5 Oh that my ways were directed to keep Your Statutes!
6 Then I would not be confounded, with respect to all Your Commandments.
7 I will praise You with an upright heart, when I shall learn the Judgments of Your righteousness.
8 I will keep Your Statutes. Do not forsake me utterly.
BETH
9 How shall a young man correct his way? By living according to Your Word.
10 With my whole heart I have sought You. Do not let me wander from Your Commandments.
11 I have treasured Your Word 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 declared all the Judgments of Your Mouth.
14 I have had as much delight in the way of Your Testimonies, as in all riches.
15 I will meditate on Your Precepts and consider Your ways.
16 I will delight in Your Statutes, and I will not forget Your Word.
GIMEL
17 Be beneficial to Your servant, that I may live and keep Your Word.
18 Open my eyes, that I may see the wonders of Your Law.
19 I am a stranger upon Earth. Do not hide Your Commandments from me.
20 My heart breaks for the desire of Your Judgments always.
21 You have rebuked the proud. Cursed are those who stray from Your Commandments.
22 Remove from me shame and contempt, for I have kept Your Testimonies.
23 Princes also sat and spoke against me, but Your servant meditated on Your Statutes.
24 Also Your Testimonies are my delight and my counselors.
12 Help, LORD! For there is not a godly man left. For the faithful have failed from among the children of men.
2 They speak deceitfully, everyone with his neighbor; flattering with their lips, speaking with a double heart.
3 The LORD cut off all flattering lips, and the tongue that speaks proud things,
4 which have said, “With our tongue we will prevail. Our lips are our own. Who is lord over us?”
5 “Now, for the oppression of the needy, for the sighs of the poor, I will arise;” says the LORD, “and will speak their deliverance.”
6 The Words of the LORD are pure Words, as silver, tried in a furnace of earth; refined sevenfold.
7 You will keep them, O LORD. You will preserve him from this generation, forever.
8 The wicked walk on every side. When they are exalted, it is a shame for the sons of men. To him who excels: A Psalm of David.
13 How long will You forget me, O LORD? Forever? How long will You hide Your face from me?
2 How long shall I take counsel within myself, having weariness daily in my heart? How long shall my enemy be exalted above me?
3 Behold. Hear me, O LORD, my God. Enlighten my eyes, so that I do not sleep in death,
4 lest my enemy say, “I have prevailed against him.” And those who afflict me rejoice when I slide.
5 But I trust in Your mercy. My heart shall rejoice in Your salvation. I will sing to the LORD, because He has dealt lovingly with me. To him who excels: A Psalm of David.
14 The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God.” They have corrupted; and done an abominable work. There is no one who does good.
2 The LORD looked down from Heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any who would understand, and seek God.
3 All have gone out of the way. They are all corrupt. There is no one who does good; no, not one.
4 Do not all the workers of iniquity know that they eat up my people as they eat bread? They do not call upon the LORD.
5 There they shall be taken with fear, because God is in the generation of the just.
6 You have shamed the counsel of the poor. But the LORD is his refuge.
7 Oh, give salvation to Israel out of Zion. When the LORD turns the captivity of His people, Jacob shall rejoice and Israel shall be glad. Note that Psalm 14:5-7, which are put into the common translation (and may seem to some to be left out here) are not in the same Psalm in the Hebrew text. Rather, they are put in more fully to express the manners of the wicked. They are gathered out of Psalms 5, 10, 36, 140, and Isaiah 59. They are alleged by Saint Paul and placed together in Romans 3. A Psalm of David.
16 The LORD then said to Samuel, “How long will you mourn for Saul, seeing I have cast him away from reigning over Israel? Fill your horn with oil and come. I will send you to Jesse the Bethlehemite. For I have provided Myself a king among his sons.”
2 And Samuel said, “How can I go? For if Saul shall hear it, he will kill me.” Then the LORD answered, “Take a heifer with you, and say, ‘I have come to do Sacrifice to the LORD.’
3 “And call Jesse to the Sacrifice, and I will show you what you shall do. And you shall anoint to Me him whom I name for you.”
4 So Samuel did what the LORD told him and came to Bethlehem. And the elders of the town were astonished at his coming, and said, “Do you come peaceably?”
5 And he answered, “Yea, I have come to do Sacrifice to the LORD. Sanctify yourselves and come with me to the Sacrifice.” And he sanctified Jesse and his sons and called them to the Sacrifice.
6 And when they had come, he looked at Eliab, and said, “Surely the LORD’s anointed is before Him.”
7 But the LORD said to Samuel, “Do not look at his appearance, or at the height of his stature, because I have refused him. For I see not as man sees. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD beholds the heart.”
8 Then Jesse called Abinadab and made him come before Samuel. And he said, “Nor has the LORD chosen this one.”
9 Then Jesse made Shammah come. And he said, “Nor has the LORD chosen him.”
10 Again, Jesse made his seven sons come before Samuel. And Samuel said to Jesse, “The LORD has chosen none of these.”
11 Finally, Samuel said to Jesse, “Are there no more children?” And he said, “There remains yet a little one who keeps the sheep.” Then Samuel said to Jesse, “Send and fetch him; for we will not sit down until he has come here.”
12 And he sent and brought him in. And he was ruddy with beautiful eyes, and handsome. And the LORD said, “Arise! Anoint him. For this is he.”
13 Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brethren. And the Spirit of the LORD came upon David from that day forward. Then Samuel rose up and went to Ramah.
10 Furthermore, there was a certain man in Caesarea named Cornelius - a captain of the band called the ‘Italian’ -
2 a devout man, and one who feared God with all his household, who gave many alms to the people, and prayed to God continually.
3 Evidently, he saw an angel of God in a vision (about the ninth hour of the day) coming in to him and saying, “Cornelius.”
4 But when he looked at him, he was afraid, and said, “What is it, Lord?” And he said to him, “Your prayers and your alms have come up in remembrance before God.
5 “Now, therefore, send men to Joppa, and call for Simon, whose surname is Peter.
6 “He lodges with one Simon, a Tanner, whose house is by the seaside. He shall tell you what you ought to do.”
7 And when the angel who spoke to Cornelius had departed, he called two of his servants and a God-fearing soldier (one of those who waited on him continually).
8 And he told them all things and sent them to Joppa.
9 The next day, about the sixth hour, as they went on their journey and drew near to the city, Peter went up on the house to pray.
10 Then he became hungry and wished to eat. But while they prepared it, he fell into a trance.
11 And he saw the sky opened. And a certain vessel came down to him, like a great sheet, tied at the four corners, and being let down to the Earth.
12 Inside were all kinds of four-footed beasts of the Earth, and wild beasts and creeping things, and birds of the heaven.
13 And there came a voice to him, “Arise, Peter. Kill, and eat.”
14 But Peter said, “Not so, Lord. For I have never eaten anything that is polluted or unclean.”
15 And the voice spoke to him again a second time, “The things which God has cleansed, do not make common.”
16 This was done three times. And the vessel was drawn up again into Heaven.
12 Then Peter arose and ran to the sepulcher and looked in and saw the linen clothes laid by themselves. And he departed, wondering to himself what had happened.
13 And behold, that same day two of them went to a town called Emmaus, which was about sixty furlongs from Jerusalem.
14 And they talked together of all these things that had happened.
15 And it happened that as they talked together, and reasoned, that Jesus Himself drew near and went with them.
16 But their eyes were prevented from recognizing Him.
17 And He said to them, “What kind of conversations are these that you are having as you walk and are sad?”
18 And the one named Cleopas answered and said to Him, “Are You only a stranger in Jerusalem, and have not known the things which have happened there in these days?”
19 And He said to them, “What things?” And they said to Him, “Of Jesus of Nazareth, Who was a Prophet, mighty in deed and in word before God and all people.
20 “And how the chief priests and our rulers delivered Him to be condemned to death and have crucified Him.
21 “But we had hoped that it was He Who would deliver Israel. And today is the third day since all these things happened.
22 “Indeed, and some women among us (who came early to the sepulcher) astonished us.
23 “And when they did not find His body, they came, saying that they had also seen a vision of angels. Who said that He was alive.
24 “Therefore, some of them who were with us went to the sepulcher and found it just as the women had said. But they did not see Him.”
25 Then He said to them, “O fools! And slow of heart to believe all that the Prophets have spoken!
26 “Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into His Glory?”
27 And He began at Moses, and at all the Prophets, and interpreted for them the things which were written of Him in all the Scriptures.
28 And they drew near to the town where they were going. And He pretended like He was going further.
29 But they urged Him, saying, “Stay with us! For it is towards evening, and the day is far spent!” So, He went in to stay with them.
30 And it happened that as He sat at table with them, He took the bread, and blessed it and broke it, and gave it to them.
31 Then their eyes were opened. And they knew Him. And He vanished.
32 And they said among themselves, “Did not our hearts burn within us while He talked with us along the way and when He opened the Scriptures to us?”
33 And they rose up that same hour and returned to Jerusalem, and found the eleven and those who were with them gathered together,
34 who said, “The Lord has indeed risen and has appeared to Simon!”
35 Then they told them what had happened along the way, and how He was known by them in the breaking of bread.
© 2019, 2024 by Five Talents Audio. All rights reserved.