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.
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 to the LORD our God for us.”
4 Now Jeremiah went in and out among the people, for they had not put him in prison.
5 Then Pharaoh’s army came out of Egypt. And when the Chaldeans who besieged Jerusalem heard news of them, they departed from Jerusalem.
6 Then came the Word of the LORD to the Prophet Jeremiah, saying,
7 “Thus says the LORD God of Israel: ‘Thus shall you say to the king of Judah who sent you to Me to inquire of Me, “Behold, Pharaoh’s army, which came forth to help you, shall return to Egypt, into their own land.
8 “And the Chaldeans shall come back and fight against this city, and take it, and burn it with fire.”’
9 “Thus says the LORD: ‘Do not deceive yourselves, saying, “The Chaldeans shall surely depart from us.” For they shall not depart.
10 ‘For even if you had defeated the whole army of the Chaldeans that fights against you, and there only remained wounded men among them, every man would still rise up in his tent and burn this city with fire.’”
11 When the army of the Chaldeans withdrew from Jerusalem because they feared Pharaoh’s army,
12 then Jeremiah went out of Jerusalem to go into the land of Benjamin, to claim property there among the people.
13 And when he was at the gate of Benjamin, there was a chief officer whose name was Irijah, the son of Shelemiah, the son of Hananiah. And he took Jeremiah the Prophet, saying, “You flee to the Chaldeans!”
14 Then Jeremiah said, “That is false. I do not flee to the Chaldeans.” But he would not listen to him. So, Irijah took Jeremiah and brought him to the princes.
15 Therefore, the princes were angry with Jeremiah and struck him and put him in prison in the house of Jehonathan the scribe (for they had made that the prison).
16 After Jeremiah had entered into the dungeon, and into the prisons, and had remained there a long time,
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, “Indeed.” he said. “For you shall be delivered into the hand of the king of Babel.
18 Moreover, Jeremiah said to King Zedekiah, “What offense have I committed against you, or against your servants, or against this people, that you have put me in prison?
19 “Where are your prophets, now, who prophesied to you, saying, ‘The king of Babel shall not come against you or against this land?’
20 “Therefore, please hear now, O my lord the king. Let my prayer be acceptable before you, so that you cause me not to return to the house of Jehonathan the scribe, lest I die there.”
21 Then Zedekiah the king commanded that they should put Jeremiah in the court of the prison, and that they should give him a piece of daily bread out of the baker’s street until all the bread in the city was eaten up. Thus Jeremiah remained in the court of the prison.
13 Therefore, let him who speaks a tongue, pray that he may interpret.
14 For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my understanding is without fruit.
15 What is it then? I will pray with the spirit, but I will pray with the understanding also. I will sing with the spirit. but I will sing with the understanding also.
16 Or else, when you bless with the spirit, how shall the one who fills the place of the unlearned say, ‘Amen’, at your giving of thanks, seeing he does not know what you say?
17 For truly you give thanks well, but the other is not edified.
18 I thank my God I speak languages more than you all.
19 Yet I would rather speak five words in my own understanding while also instructing others in the Church, than speak ten thousand words in a tongue.
20 Brothers, do not be children in understanding, but concerning wickedness be children; in understanding be of a ripe age.
21 In the Law it is written, “‘By other tongues, and by other languages, will I speak to this people. Yet so shall they not hear me’, says the Lord.”
22 Therefore, tongues are for a sign, not to those who believe, but to those who do not believe. And prophesying is not for unbelievers, but for believers.
23 If therefore, when the whole church comes together as one, and all speak tongues, and there come in those who are unlearned, or those who do not believe, will they not say that you are out of your wits?
24 But if all prophesy, and there comes in one who does not believe, or one unlearned, he is rebuked by all and is examined by all.
25 And so are the secrets of his heart made manifest. And so he will fall down on his face and worship God, and say plainly that God is in you indeed.
24 “The disciple is not above his master, nor the servant above his Lord.
25 “It is enough for the disciple to be as his master is, and the servant as his Lord. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more those of his household?
26 “Therefore do not fear them. For there is nothing covered that shall not be disclosed, nor hid, that shall not be known.
27 “What I tell you in darkness, speak in light. And what you hear in the ear, preach on the housetops.
28 “And do not fear them 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 pittance, and yet not one of them shall fall to the ground apart from your Father?
30 “Indeed. And all the hairs of your head are numbered.
31 “Therefore, do not fear. You are of more value than many sparrows.
32 “Whoever, then, shall confess Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father Who is in Heaven.
33 “But whoever shall deny Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father Who is in Heaven.
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