Book of Common Prayer
To the Overcomer: upon Shoshannim lilies, for the sons of Korah, Maschil, A Song of loves.
1 ¶ My heart is overflowing with a good word; I speak of the things which I have done concerning the king; my tongue is the pen of a ready writer.
2 Thou art fairer than the sons of men, grace is poured into thy lips; therefore God has blessed thee for ever.
3 Gird thy sword upon thy thigh, O most valiant, with thy glory and thy majesty.
4 And in thy majesty be prospered; ride upon the word of truth and of humility and of righteousness; and thy right hand shall teach thee terrible things.
5 Thine arrows, by which the peoples fall under thee, penetrate the heart of the enemies of the king.
6 ¶ Thy throne, O God, is eternal and for ever, the rod of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom.
7 Thou lovest righteousness, and hatest wickedness; therefore God, thy God, has anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows.
8 All thy garments smell of myrrh and aloes and cassia, out of the ivory palaces, by which they have made thee glad.
9 Kings’ daughters were among thy honourable women; the queen stands at thy right hand with a crown of gold from Ophir.
10 ¶ Hearken, O daughter, and consider and incline thine ear; forget also thine own people, and thy father’s house;
11 so shall the king greatly desire thy beauty; and bow before him, for he is thy Lord.
12 And the daughter of Tyre shall be there with a gift; even the rich among the people shall intreat thy favour.
13 The king’s daughter is all glorious within: her clothing is of wrought gold.
14 She shall be brought unto the king in raiment of needlework; the virgins her companions that follow her shall be brought unto thee.
15 With gladness and rejoicing shall they be brought; they shall enter into the king’s palace.
16 Instead of thy fathers shall be thy sons, whom thou shalt make princes in all the earth.
17 I will make thy name to be remembered in all generations; therefore shall the people praise thee eternally and for ever.
To the Overcomer: A Psalm for the sons of Korah.
1 ¶ O clap your hands, all ye people; shout unto God with the voice of triumph.
2 For the LORD most high is terrible; he is a great King over all the earth.
3 He shall guide the peoples under us, and the Gentiles under our feet.
4 He shall choose our inheritance for us, the excellency of Jacob whom he loved. Selah.
5 ¶ God is gone up with a shout of joy, the LORD with the sound of the shofar.
6 Sing praises to God, sing praises; sing praises unto our King, sing praises.
7 For God is the King of all the earth; sing ye praises with understanding.
8 God reigns over the Gentiles; God sits upon the throne of his holiness.
9 The princes of the peoples have joined the people of the God of Abraham; for the shields of the earth belong unto God; he is greatly exalted.
A Song and Psalm for the sons of Korah.
1 ¶ Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised in the city of our God, in the mountain of his holiness.
2 Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is Mount Zion, on the sides of the north, the city of the great King.
3 God is known in her palaces for a refuge.
4 For, behold, the kings were assembled, they passed by together.
5 They saw it, and so they marvelled; they were troubled and hasted away.
6 Fear took hold upon them there and pain as of a woman in travail.
7 Thou breakest the ships of Tarshish with an east wind.
8 ¶ As we have heard, so have we seen in the city of the LORD of the hosts, in the city of our God; God will establish it for ever. Selah.
9 We have conceived according to thy mercy, O God, in the midst of thy temple.
10 According to thy name, O God, so is thy praise unto the ends of the earth; thy right hand is full of righteousness.
11 Let Mount Zion rejoice, let the daughters of Judah be glad because of thy judgments.
12 Walk about Zion and go round about her; tell the towers thereof.
13 Mark ye well her bulwarks, consider her palaces that ye may tell it to the generation following.
14 For this God is our God eternally and for ever; he will be our guide even unto death.
25 ¶ And Samuel died, and all Israel gathered together and lamented him and buried him in his house at Ramah. And David arose and went down to the wilderness of Paran.
2 ¶ And there was a man in Maon whose possessions were in Carmel, and the man was very great, and he had three thousand sheep and a thousand goats, and he was shearing his sheep in Carmel.
3 Now the name of the man was Nabal; and the name of his wife Abigail. And she was a woman of good understanding and of a beautiful countenance, but the man was hard and evil in his doings, and he was of the lineage of Caleb.
4 And David heard in the wilderness that Nabal was shearing his sheep.
5 And David sent out ten young men, and David said unto the young men, Climb up to Carmel and go to Nabal and greet him in my name.
6 And thus shall ye say to him, May thou live and peace be unto thee and peace be unto thy house and peace be unto all that thou hast.
7 I have recently heard that thou hast shearers. Now thy shepherds who were with us, we did not hurt them, neither was there anything missing unto them all the while they were in Carmel.
8 Ask thy slaves, and they will tell thee. Therefore, let the young men find grace in thine eyes, for we come in a good day; give, I pray thee, whatever is in thy hand unto thy slaves and to thy son David.
9 And when David’s young men came, they spoke to Nabal according to all those words in the name of David and ceased.
10 And Nabal answered David’s slaves and said, Who is David? And who is the son of Jesse? There are many slaves nowadays that break from their masters.
11 Shall I then take my bread and my water and my slaughtered meat that I have killed for my shearers and give it unto men that I do not know where they are from?
12 ¶ So David’s young men left and returned and came and told him all those words.
13 Then David said unto his men, Gird ye on each man his sword. And each one girded on his sword, and David also girded on his sword; and about four hundred men went up after David, and they left two hundred with the stuff.
14 And one of the servants told Abigail, Nabal’s wife, saying, Behold, David sent messengers out of the wilderness to bless our master, and he railed on them.
15 But the men were very good unto us and never hurt us, neither did we miss anything all the time that we have been conversant with them when we were in the fields.
16 They were a wall unto us both by night and day all the time that we were feeding the sheep with them.
17 Now, therefore, know and consider what thou must do, for evil is determined against our master and against all his household, for he is such a son of Belial that no one can speak to him.
18 ¶ Then Abigail made haste and took two hundred loaves and two bottles of wine and five sheep ready dressed and five measures of parched flour and one hundred bunches of raisins and two hundred cakes of figs and laid them on asses.
19 And she said unto her servants, Go on before me; behold, I come after you. But she told nothing to her husband Nabal.
20 And it was so as she rode on the ass that she came down a secret part of the mountain, and, behold, David and his men came down against her, and she met them.
21 Now David had said, Surely in vain have I kept all that this fellow has in the wilderness so that nothing was missed of all that pertained unto him, and he has returned unto me evil for good.
22 Let God do so and more also unto the enemies of David if I leave of all that pertain to him by the morning light any that piss against the wall.
14 ¶ And it came to pass in Iconium that they went both together into the synagogue of the Jews and so spoke, that a great multitude both of the Jews and also of the Greeks believed.
2 But the disobedient Jews stirred up the Gentiles and corrupted their desire against the brethren.
3 With all this, they abode there a long time speaking with freedom in the Lord, who gave testimony unto the word of his grace and granted that signs and wonders be done by their hands.
4 But the multitude of the city was divided, and part held with the Jews, and part with the apostles.
5 And when there was an assault made both of the Gentiles and also of the Jews with their princes, to insult them and to stone them,
6 they were aware of it and fled unto Lystra and Derbe, cities of Lycaonia, and unto the region that lies round about.
7 And there they preached the gospel.
8 ¶ And a certain man sat at Lystra, impotent in his feet, being a cripple from his mother’s womb, who never had walked;
9 this man heard Paul speak, who steadfastly beholding him and perceiving that he had faith to be healed,
10 said with a loud voice, Stand upright on thy feet. And he leaped and walked.
11 And when the people saw what Paul had done, they lifted up their voices, saying in the speech of Lycaonia, The gods are come down to us in the likeness of men.
12 And they called Barnabas, Jupiter; and Paul, Mercurius because he was the chief speaker.
13 Then the priest of Jupiter, who was before their city, brought bulls and garlands unto the gates and would have done sacrifice unto them with the people.
14 Which when the apostles, Barnabas and Paul, heard of it, they rent their clothes and ran in among the people, crying out
15 and saying, Sirs, why do ye these things? We also are men of like passions with you and preach unto you that ye should turn from these vanities unto the living God, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all the things that are therein,
16 who in generations past suffered all the Gentiles to walk in their own ways.
17 Nevertheless he did not leave himself without witness, in that he did good and gave us rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness.
18 And with these words they scarcely restrained the people, that they not sacrifice unto them.
21 ¶ And he also said unto them, Is the lamp brought to be put under the bushel or under the bed? and not to be set in the lampstand?
22 For there is nothing hid which shall not be manifested; nor secret which shall not be exposed.
23 If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.
24 And he also said unto them, Take heed what ye hear; with the measure ye measure by, ye shall be measured by others, and unto you that hear shall more be added.
25 For he that has, to him shall be given; and he that has not, from him shall be taken even that which he has.
26 He also said, So is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed into the ground
27 and should sleep and rise night and day, and the seed should spring forth and grow up, he knows not how.
28 For the earth brings forth fruit of herself: first the blade, then the ear, after that the full grain in the ear.
29 But when the fruit is brought forth, immediately he puts in the sickle because the harvest is come.
30 He also said, Whereunto shall we liken the kingdom of God? Or with what parable shall we compare it?
31 It is like a grain of mustard seed, which, when it is sown in the earth, is less than all the seeds that are in the earth;
32 but when it is sown, it grows up and becomes greater than all herbs and shoots out great branches, so that the fowls of the air may lodge under the shadow of it.
33 And with many such parables he spoke the word unto them as they were able to hear it.
34 But without a parable he did not speak unto them; and when they were alone, he expounded all things to his disciples.
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