Book of Common Prayer
To the Overcomer upon Shoshannim, {lilies} A testimony of Asaph: A Psalm.
1 ¶ Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, thou that leadest Joseph like a flock; thou that dwellest between the cherubim, shine forth.
2 In the presence of Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh stir up thy strength and come and save us.
3 Turn us again, O God, and cause thy face to shine; and we shall be saved.
4 O LORD God of the hosts, how long wilt thou be angry against the prayer of thy people?
5 Thou dost feed them with the bread of tears and give them tears to drink in great measure.
6 Thou dost make us a strife unto our neighbours, and our enemies laugh at us among themselves.
7 Turn us again, O God of the hosts, and cause thy face to shine; and we shall be saved.
8 ¶ Thou hast brought a vine out of Egypt; thou hast cast out the Gentiles and planted it.
9 Thou didst prepare room before it and didst cause it to take deep root, and it filled the earth.
10 The hills were covered with the shadow of it, and its boughs were like the cedars of God.
11 She sent out her boughs unto the sea and her branches unto the river.
12 Why hast thou then broken down her hedges, so that all those who pass by the way pluck her?
13 The boar out of the wood wastes it, and the wild beast of the field devours it.
14 Return, we beseech thee, O God of the hosts: look down from heaven and behold and visit this vine
15 and the vineyard which thy right hand has planted and the branch that thou didst make strong for thyself.
16 It is burned with fire; it is cut down; they perish at the rebuke of thy countenance.
17 Let thy hand be upon the man of thy right hand, upon the son of man whom thou didst make strong for thyself,
18 so we will not go back from thee. Thou shalt quicken us, and we will call upon thy name.
19 Turn us again, O LORD God of the hosts, cause thy face to shine; and we shall be saved.
To the Overcomer, to Jeduthun, A Psalm of Asaph.
1 ¶ I cried unto God with my voice, even unto God with my voice; and he gave ear unto me.
2 In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord; my sore bled in the night and ceased not; my soul refused to be comforted.
3 I remembered God and cried out; I complained, and my spirit was overwhelmed. Selah.
4 Thou didst hold my eyelids open; I am broken and did not speak.
5 I have considered the days from the beginning, the years of the ages.
6 I call to remembrance my songs of the night; I commune with my own heart, and my spirit made diligent search.
7 Will the Lord cast off for ever? and will he be favourable no more?
8 Is his mercy gone for ever? does his word fail from generation to generation?
9 Has God forgotten to have mercy? has he in anger shut up his tender mercies? Selah.
10 And I said, This is my infirmity, but I will remember the years of the right hand of the most High.
11 ¶ I remembered the works of JAH; therefore I shall remember thy wonders of old.
12 I meditated also on all thy works and spoke of thy doings.
13 Thy way, O God, is in holiness; who is so great a God as our God?
14 Thou art the God that doest wonders; thou hast declared thy strength among the peoples.
15 Thou hast with thine arm redeemed thy people, the sons of Jacob and Joseph. Selah.
16 The waters saw thee, O God, the waters saw thee; they were afraid; the depths also were troubled.
17 The clouds poured out floods of waters; the heavens thundered; thy bolts of lightning also went forth.
18 The voice of thy thunder was all around; the lightnings lightened the world; the earth trembled and shook.
19 Thy way was in the sea, and thy path in the great waters, and thy footsteps were not known.
20 Thou didst lead thy people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron.
A Psalm of Asaph.
1 ¶ O God, the Gentiles are come into thine inheritance; they have defiled the temple of thy holiness; they have laid Jerusalem on heaps.
2 The dead bodies of thy slaves they have given to be food unto the fowls of the heavens, the flesh of thy saints unto the beasts of the earth.
3 They have shed their blood like water round about Jerusalem, and there was no one to bury them.
4 We are reproached by our neighbours, scorned, and derided by those that are round about us.
5 How long, LORD? wilt thou be angry for ever? shall thy jealousy burn like fire?
6 ¶ Pour out thy wrath upon the Gentiles that do not know thee and upon the kingdoms that do not call upon thy name.
7 For they have devoured Jacob and laid waste his dwelling place.
8 O remember not against us former iniquities; let thy tender mercies speedily meet us on the way, for we are very poor.
9 Help us, O God, our saving health, for the honor of thy name and deliver us and purge away our sins, for thy name’s sake.
10 Why should the Gentiles say, Where is their God? let him be known among the Gentiles in our sight by the revenging of the blood of thy slaves which is shed.
11 Let the sighing of the prisoners come before thee; according to the greatness of thy power preserve those that are appointed to die
12 and render unto our neighbours sevenfold into their bosom their reproach, with which they have reproached thee, O Lord.
13 So we thy people and sheep of thy pasture will give thee thanks for ever: from generation to generation we will sing thy praises.
5 ¶ Now Naaman, captain of the host of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master and in high esteem because by him the LORD had given salvation unto Syria; he was also a mighty man in valour, but he was a leper.
2 And the Syrians had gone out by companies and had brought away captive out of the land of Israel a little maid, and she waited on Naaman’s wife.
3 And she said unto her mistress, If my lord would ask the prophet that is in Samaria, he would remove his leprosy.
4 And Naaman went in and told his lord, saying, Thus and thus said the maid that is of the land of Israel.
5 And the king of Syria said, Go, depart, and I will send a letter unto the king of Israel. And he departed, and took with him ten talents of silver and six thousand pieces of gold, and ten changes of raiment.
6 And he also took the letter to the king of Israel, which said, Now when this letter is come unto thee, behold, I have therewith sent Naaman, my slave, to thee, that thou may remove his leprosy.
7 And when the king of Israel read the letter, he rent his clothes and said, Am I God, to kill and to give life, that this man sends unto me to remove the leprosy of this man? Therefore now consider and see how he seeks a quarrel against me.
8 And when Elisha, the man of God, heard that the king of Israel had rent his clothes, he sent to the king, saying, Why hast thou rent thy clothes? Let him come now to me, and he shall know that there is a prophet in Israel.
9 ¶ So Naaman came with his horses and with his chariot and stood at the door of the house of Elisha.
10 And Elisha sent a messenger unto him, saying, Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and thy flesh shall be restored, and thou shalt be clean.
11 But Naaman went away angry and said, Behold, I thought, He will surely come out to me and stand and call on the name of the LORD, his God, and strike his hand over the place and remove the leprosy.
12 Are not Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? May I not wash in them and be clean? So he turned and went away in a rage.
13 Then his slaves came near and spoke unto him, and said, My father, if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, would thou not have done it? How much rather then, when he saith to thee, Wash and be clean?
14 Then went he down and dipped himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the word of the man of God; and his flesh came again like unto the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.
15 ¶ And he returned to the man of God, he and all his company, and came and stood before him, and he said, Behold, now I know that there is no God in all the earth, but in Israel. Now therefore, I pray thee, take a blessing from thy slave.
16 But he said, As the LORD lives, before whom I stand, I will receive none. And he urged him to take it, but he refused.
17 Then Naaman said, Shall there not then, I pray thee, be given to thy slave two mules’ burden of earth? For from now on thy slave will offer neither burnt offering nor sacrifice unto other gods, but unto the LORD.
18 In this thing may the LORD pardon thy slave, that when my master goes into the house of Rimmon to worship there, and he leans on my hand, if I also bow myself in the house of Rimmon, that the LORD pardon thy slave in this thing, if I bow down myself in the house of Rimmon.
19 And he said unto him, Go in peace. So he departed from him a little way.
8 Now ye are full, now ye are rich, ye reign as kings without us, and I wish ye did reign, that we also might reign with you.
9 For I think that God has set forth us the apostles last, as it were appointed to death; for we are made a spectacle unto the world and to angels and to men.
10 We are fools for Christ’s sake, but ye are prudent in Christ; we are weak, but ye are strong; ye are honourable, but we are despised.
11 Even unto this present hour we both hunger and thirst and are ill clad and are buffeted and have no certain dwelling place
12 and labour, working with our own hands; being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we suffer it;
13 being blasphemed, we intreat; we are made as the filth of this world and are the offscouring of all things unto this day.
14 ¶ I do not write these things to shame you, but to warn you, as to my beloved sons.
15 For though ye may have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet ye shall not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel.
16 Therefore, I beseech you that ye imitate me.
17 ¶ For this cause I have sent Timothy unto you, who is my beloved son and faithful in the Lord, who shall bring you into remembrance of my ways which are in Christ, as I teach everywhere in every congregation. {Gr. ekklesia – called out ones}
18 Now some are puffed up as though I will never come to you.
19 But I will come to you shortly, if the Lord wills, and will know not the words of those who are puffed up, but the virtue.
20 For the kingdom of God is not in words, but in virtue.
21 What will ye? Shall I come unto you with a rod or in charity and in the spirit of meekness?
21 ¶ Ye have heard that it was said to the ancients, Thou shalt not commit murder, and whosoever shall commit murder shall be guilty of the judgment;
22 but I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother out of control shall be in danger of the judgment, and whosoever shall insult his brother shall be in danger of the council, but whosoever shall say, Thou art impious, shall be in danger of hell.
23 Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there remember that thy brother has something against thee;
24 leave thy gift there before the altar, and go; first restore friendship with thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift.
25 Conciliate with thine adversary quickly, whiles thou art in the way with him; lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison.
26 Verily I say unto thee, Thou shalt by no means come out of there, until thou hast paid the uttermost farthing.
Copyright © 2013, 2020 by Ransom Press International