Book of Common Prayer
ALEPH.
1 ¶ Blessed are those who walk in the perfect way, who walk in the law of the LORD.
2 Blessed are those that keep his testimonies and that seek him with their whole heart.
3 For those who do no iniquity walk in his ways.
4 ¶ Thou hast commanded us to keep thy precepts diligently.
5 O that my ways were ordered to keep thy statutes!
6 Then I shall not be ashamed, when I have insight unto all thy commandments.
7 ¶ I will praise thee with uprightness of heart when I shall have learned thy righteous judgments.
8 I will keep thy statutes; O do not utterly forsake me.
BETH.
9 ¶ With what shall a young man cleanse his way? when he shall keep thy word.
10 ¶ With my whole heart I have sought thee; O let me not err from thy commandments.
11 ¶ Thy spoken word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against thee.
12 ¶ Blessed art thou, O LORD: teach me thy statutes.
13 ¶ With my lips I have declared all the judgments of thy mouth.
14 I have rejoiced in the way of thy testimonies as above all riches.
15 I will meditate in thy precepts and consider thy ways.
16 I will delight myself in thy statutes; I will not forget thy words.
GIMEL.
17 ¶ Deal bountifully with thy slave that I may live and keep thy word.
18 ¶ Open my eyes, and I shall behold the wonders of thy law.
19 ¶ I am a stranger in the earth; hide not thy commandments from me.
20 ¶ My soul is broken from desiring thy judgments at all times.
21 ¶ Thou hast reprehended the proud; cursed are those who err from thy commandments.
22 ¶ Remove from me reproach and contempt, for I have kept thy testimonies.
23 ¶ Princes also sat and spoke against me as thy slave spoke according to thy statutes.
24 ¶ For thy testimonies are my delight and my counsellors.
To the Overcomer upon Sheminith, A Psalm of David.
1 ¶ Help, LORD; for the merciful man ceases, for the faithful fail from among the children of men.
2 Each one speaks vanity with his neighbour: they speak with flattering lips and with a double heart.
3 The LORD shall cut off all flattering lips and the tongue that speaks 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, saith the LORD; I will set in safety the one whom the wicked one has ensnared.
6 The words of the LORD are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times.
7 Thou shalt keep them, O LORD, thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever.
8 The wicked press in on every side when the vilest men are exalted.
To the Overcomer, A Psalm of David.
1 ¶ How long wilt thou forget me, O LORD? for ever? how long wilt thou hide thy face from me?
2 How long shall I take counsel in my soul, having sorrow in my heart daily? how long shall my enemy be exalted over me?
3 Consider and hear me, O LORD my God: lighten mine eyes lest I sleep the sleep of death,
4 lest mine enemy say, I have prevailed against him; and those that trouble me rejoice when I am moved.
5 But I have trusted in thy mercy; my heart shall rejoice in thy salvation.
6 I will sing unto the LORD because he has dealt bountifully with me.
To the Overcomer, A Psalm of David.
1 ¶ The fool has said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is no one that does good.
2 The LORD looked down from heaven upon the children of men to see if there were any that did understand and seek God.
3 They are all gone aside, they are all together become filthy: there is no one that does good, no, not one.
4 ¶ The workers of iniquity certainly know this; those who eat up my people as they eat bread and do not call upon the LORD.
5 There they were in great fear: for God is with the nation of the righteous.
6 Ye have shamed the counsel of the poor because the LORD is his hope.
7 Oh that the saving health of Israel were come out of Zion! When the LORD turns back the captivity of his people, Jacob shall rejoice, and Israel shall be glad.
3 And Zedekiah the king sent Jehucal the son of Shelemiah and Zephaniah the son of Maaseiah the priest to the prophet Jeremiah, saying, Pray now unto the LORD our God for us.
4 (Now Jeremiah came in and went out among the people: for they had not put him into prison.
5 And as Pharaoh’s army was come forth out of Egypt; and when the Chaldeans that besieged Jerusalem heard tidings of them, they departed from Jerusalem.)
6 Then came the word of the LORD unto the prophet Jeremiah, saying,
7 Thus hath the LORD, the God of Israel said; Thus shall ye say to the king of Judah, that sent you unto me to enquire of me: Behold, Pharaoh’s army, which had come forth to help you, has returned to Egypt into their own land.
8 And the Chaldeans shall come again and fight against this city and take it and burn it with fire.
9 Thus hath the LORD said; Do not deceive yourselves, saying, The Chaldeans have surely departed from us; for they shall not depart.
10 For though ye had smitten the whole army of the Chaldeans that fight against you and there remained but wounded men among them, yet should they rise up each man from his tent and burn this city with fire.
11 ¶ And it came to pass, that when the army of the Chaldeans was broken up from Jerusalem for fear of Pharaoh’s army,
12 then Jeremiah went forth out of Jerusalem to go into the land of Benjamin to separate himself there in the midst of the people.
13 And when he was in the gate of Benjamin, a captain of the ward was there, whose name was Irijah, the son of Shelemiah, the son of Hananiah; and he took Jeremiah the prophet, saying, Thou fallest away to the Chaldeans.
14 Then said Jeremiah It is false; I do not fall away to the Chaldeans. But he did not hearken to him: so Irijah took Jeremiah, and brought him to the princes.
15 Therefore the princes were wroth with Jeremiah and smote him and put him in prison in the house of Jonathan the scribe; for they had made that the prison.
16 When Jeremiah was entered into the dungeon and into the cabins, and Jeremiah had remained there many days;
17 then Zedekiah the king sent and took him out: and the king asked him secretly in his house and said, Is there any word from the LORD? And Jeremiah said, There is: for, said he, thou shalt be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon.
18 Moreover Jeremiah said unto king Zedekiah, In what have I sinned against thee or against thy slaves or against this people that ye have put me in prison?
19 Where are now your prophets which prophesied unto you, saying, The king of Babylon shall not come against you nor against this land?
20 Therefore hear now, I pray thee, O my lord the king: let my supplication, I pray thee, be accepted before thee that thou cause me not to return to the house of Jonathan the scribe, lest I die there.
21 Then Zedekiah the king commanded that they should commit Jeremiah into the court of the guard and that they should give him daily a piece of bread out of the bakers’ street until all the bread in the city was spent. Thus Jeremiah remained in the court of the guard.
13 Therefore, let him that speaks in an unknown tongue pray that he may interpret.
14 For if I pray in an unknown tongue, my spirit prays, but my understanding is unfruitful.
15 ¶ What is it then? I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray with the understanding also; I will sing with the spirit, and I will sing with the understanding also.
16 Else when thou shalt bless with the spirit, how shall he that occupies the place of the ignorant say, Amen, at thy giving of thanks, seeing he understands not what thou sayest?
17 For thou verily givest thanks well, but the other is not edified.
18 I thank my God, I speak with tongues more than ye all;
19 yet in the congregation {Gr. ekklesia – called out ones} I would rather speak five words with my understanding, that I might teach others also, than ten thousand words in an unknown tongue.
20 Brothers, be not children in understanding, howbeit in malice be ye children; but in understanding be perfect.
21 ¶ In the law it is written, In other tongues and with other lips I will speak unto this people; and yet for all that, they will not hear me, saith the Lord.
22 Therefore, tongues are for a sign, not to those that believe, but to those that do not believe; but prophecy is not for those that do not believe, but for those who believe.
23 If, therefore, the whole congregation {Gr. ekklesia – called out ones} is come together into one place and all speak with tongues, and there come in those that are unlearned or unbelievers, will they not say that ye are mad?
24 But if all prophesy, and there come in one that does not believe or one unlearned, he is convinced of all, he is judged of all;
25 for the secrets of his heart are made manifest; and so falling down on his face, he will worship God, declaring that God is indeed in you.
24 The disciple is not above his master, nor the slave above his lord.
25 It is enough for the disciple that he be as his master, and the slave as his lord. If they have called the husband of the house Beelzebub, how much more shall they call those of his household?
26 Fear them not therefore, for there is nothing covered that shall not be revealed, nor hid that shall not be known.
27 What I tell you in darkness, that speak ye in light, and what ye hear in the ear, that preach ye from the housetops.
28 And fear not those who kill the body but are not able to kill the soul, but rather fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.
29 Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? And one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father.
30 But the very hairs of your head are all numbered.
31 Fear ye not, therefore; ye are of more value than many sparrows.
32 Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I also confess before my Father who is in the heavens.
33 But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father who is in the heavens.
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