Book of Common Prayer
ZAIN.
49 ¶ Remember the word unto thy slave, in which thou hast caused me to wait.
50 ¶ This is my comfort in my affliction; for thy spoken word has caused me to live.
51 ¶ The proud have had me greatly in derision; yet I have not deviated from thy law.
52 ¶ I remembered thy judgments of old, O LORD, and have consoled myself.
53 ¶ Horror has taken hold upon me because of the wicked that forsake thy law.
54 ¶ Thy statutes have been my songs in the house of my pilgrimage.
55 ¶ I have remembered thy name, O LORD, in the night, and have kept thy law.
56 This I had, because I kept thy precepts.
CHETH.
57 ¶ My portion, O LORD, I have said, will be to keep thy words.
58 ¶ I intreated thy presence with my whole heart; be merciful unto me according to thy word.
59 ¶ I considered my ways and turned my feet unto thy testimonies.
60 I made haste and did not delay to keep thy commandments.
61 ¶ The company of the wicked have robbed me, but I have not forgotten thy law.
62 ¶ At midnight I will rise to give thanks unto thee because of the judgments of thy righteousness.
63 ¶ I am a companion of all those that fear thee and of those that keep thy precepts.
64 ¶ The earth, O LORD, is full of thy mercy and teaches me thy statutes.
TETH.
65 ¶ Thou hast dealt well with thy slave, O LORD, according unto thy word,
66 which teaches me discernment and knowledge, for I have believed thy commandments.
67 ¶ Before I was humbled, I went into error, but now I keep thy spoken word.
68 ¶ Thou art good and doest good; teach me thy statutes.
69 ¶ The proud have forged a lie against me, but I will keep thy precepts with my whole heart.
70 Their heart became fat like grease, but I delight in thy law.
71 ¶ It was good for me that I have been humbled, that I might learn thy statutes.
72 ¶ The law of thy mouth is better unto me than thousands of gold and silver.
To the Overcomer: A Psalm for the sons of Korah.
1 ¶ Hear this, all ye people; give ear, all ye inhabitants of the world:
2 Both low and high, rich and poor, together.
3 My mouth shall speak wisdom; and the meditation of my heart intelligence.
4 I will incline mine ear to a parable; I will declare my enigma upon the harp.
5 Why should I fear in the days of adversity when the iniquity of my heels shall compass me about?
6 ¶ Those that trust in their wealth and boast themselves in the multitude of their riches;
7 none of them can by any means ransom his brother, nor give God an atonement for him;
8 (for the redemption of their soul is of great price, and they shall never pay it)
9 that he should still live for ever and not see corruption.
10 For he sees that all the wise men die, likewise the fool and the ignorant perish and leave their wealth to others.
11 Their inward thought is that their houses are eternal and their dwelling places to all generations; they call their lands after their own names.
12 Nevertheless man will not abide forever in honour; he is like the beasts that are cut off.
13 This their way is their folly; yet their posterity approve their sayings. Selah.
14 Like sheep they are laid in Sheol; death shall feed on them, and the upright shall have dominion over them in the morning, and their beauty shall be consumed in the grave from their dwelling.
15 ¶ Surely God will ransom my soul from the hand of Sheol when he shall take me. Selah.
16 Be not thou afraid when one is made rich, when the glory of his house is increased;
17 for in his death he shall carry nothing away; nor shall his glory descend after him.
18 Though while he lives, his life shall be blessed: and men will praise thee when thou art prosperous.
19 He shall enter into the generation of his fathers; they shall never see light forever.
20 Man that is in honour that does not understand is like the beasts that are cut off.
To the Overcomer upon Mahalath, Maschil, A Psalm of David.
1 ¶ The fool has said in his heart, There is no God. They have corrupted themselves and have done abominable iniquity; there is no one that does good.
2 God looked down from heaven upon the sons of Adam to see if there were any that did understand, that did seek God.
3 Every one of them is gone back; they are altogether become filthy; there is no one that does good, no, not one.
4 Have the workers of iniquity no knowledge? who eat up my people as they eat bread; they have not called upon God.
5 They were there in great fear where no fear was; for God has scattered the bones of him that encamps against thee: thou hast put them to shame because God has despised them.
6 Oh that the saving health of Israel were come out of Zion! When God brings back the captivity of his people, Jacob shall rejoice, and Israel shall be glad.
17 ¶ Then Elijah, the Tishbite, who was of the inhabitants of Gilead, said unto Ahab, As the LORD God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word.
2 And the word of the LORD came unto him, saying,
3 Leave this place and turn to the east and hide thyself by the brook Cherith, that is before the Jordan,
4 and thou shalt drink of the brook, and I have commanded the ravens to feed thee there.
5 So he went and did according unto the word of the LORD; for he went and dwelt by the brook Cherith, that is before the Jordan.
6 And the ravens brought him bread and flesh in the morning and bread and flesh in the evening, and he drank from the brook.
7 And it came to pass after a while that the brook dried up because there had been no rain in the land.
8 ¶ And the word of the LORD came unto him, saying,
9 Arise, go to Zarephath of Zidon, and thou shalt dwell there; behold, I have commanded a widow woman there to sustain thee.
10 So he arose and went to Zarephath. And when he came to the gate of the city, behold, the widow woman was there gathering of sticks; and he called to her and said, Bring me, I pray thee, a little water in a vessel, that I may drink.
11 And as she was going to fetch it, he called to her again and said, Bring me also, I pray thee, a morsel of bread in thy hand.
12 And she said, As the LORD thy God lives, I have no baked bread, but only a handful of meal in a pitcher and a little oil in a cruse; and now I was gathering two sticks that I may go in and prepare it for me and my son, that we may eat it and die.
13 And Elijah said unto her, Fear not; go and do as thou hast said; but first make me a little cake of bread baked under the ashes and bring it unto me, and afterwards thou shalt make for thee and for thy son.
14 For thus hath said the LORD God of Israel, The pitcher of meal shall not be consumed, neither shall the cruse of oil fail until that day when the LORD shall send rain upon the earth.
15 And she went and did as Elijah told her; and he and she and her house ate for many days.
16 And the pitcher of meal was not consumed, neither did the cruse of oil fail, according to the word of the LORD which he spoke by Elijah.
17 ¶ And it came to pass after these things that the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, fell sick; and his sickness was so severe that there was no breath left in him.
18 And she said unto Elijah, What have I to do with thee, O thou man of God? Art thou come unto me to call my iniquity to remembrance and to cause my son to die?
19 And he said unto her, Give me thy son. And he took him out of her bosom and carried him up into the chamber where he abode and laid him upon his own bed.
20 And he cried unto the LORD and said, O LORD my God, hast thou even brought evil upon the widow, with whom I sojourn, by killing her son?
21 And he stretched himself upon the child three times and cried unto the LORD and said, O LORD my God, I pray thee, let this child’s soul come into him again.
22 And the LORD heard the voice of Elijah, and the soul of the child came into him again, and he revived.
23 And Elijah took the child and brought him down out of the chamber into the house and delivered him unto his mother, and Elijah said, See, thy son lives.
24 Then the woman said to Elijah, Now by this I know that thou art a man of God and that the word of the LORD is true in thy mouth.
2 ¶ Therefore if there is any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of charity, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies,
2 fulfil ye my joy, that ye be likeminded, having the same charity, unanimous, minding the one thing.
3 Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory, but in humility let each esteem others better than themselves,
4 with each one not looking to their own things, but also to the things of others.
5 Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus,
6 who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God,
7 but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, made in the likeness of men,
8 and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. {Gr. stauros – stake}
9 Therefore, God also has highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name,
10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven and things in earth and things under the earth,
11 and that every tongue should confess that the Lord Jesus Christ is Lord in the glory of God the Father.
2 ¶ Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem,
2 saying, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? We have seen his star in the east and are come to worship him.
3 When Herod the king had heard these things, he was troubled and all Jerusalem with him.
4 And when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he asked them where the Christ should be born.
5 And they said unto him, In Bethlehem of Judaea, for thus it is written by the prophet,
6 And thou Bethlehem, in the land of Juda, art not the least among the princes of Juda, for out of thee shall come a Leader that shall shepherd my people Israel.
7 Then Herod, calling the wise men unto him secretly, understood of them with diligence the time of the appearing of the star;
8 and sending them to Bethlehem, he said, Go there and search diligently for the young child; and when ye have found him, bring me word again that I may come and worship him also.
9 ¶ When they had heard the king, they departed; and, behold, the star, which they had seen in the east, went before them until it arrived and stood over where the young child was.
10 Seeing the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy.
11 And entering into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother; and falling down, they worshipped him; and opening their treasures, they offered him gifts: gold and frankincense and myrrh.
12 And being warned by divine revelation in dreams that they should not return to Herod, they departed into their own country another way.
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