Book of Common Prayer

Michtam of David.

¹ ¶ Preserve me, O God: for in thee I have put my trust.

² I said unto the LORD, Thou art my goodness: I have no goodness apart from thee;

³ to the saints that are in the earth and to the excellent: all my delight is towards them.

⁴ The sorrows of those that hasten after another god shall be multiplied; their drink offerings of blood I will not offer, nor take up their names into my lips.

⁵ The LORD is the portion of my inheritance and of my cup; thou dost maintain my lot.

⁶ The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; yea, I have a beautiful inheritance.

⁷ I will bless the LORD, who gives me counsel: my kidneys also instruct me in the night seasons.

⁸ ¶ I have set the LORD always before me: because when he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.

⁹ Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoices: my flesh also shall rest secure.

¹⁰ For thou wilt not leave my soul in Sheol; neither wilt thou suffer thy Merciful One to see corruption.

¹¹ Thou wilt show me the path of life: in thy presence is fullness of joy; in thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.

A Prayer of David.

¹ ¶ Hear righteousness, O LORD, attend unto my cry, give ear unto my prayer, that does not go out of feigned lips.

² Let my sentence come forth from thy presence; let thine eyes behold uprightness.

³ Thou hast proved my heart; thou hast visited me in the night; thou hast refined me and hast found no iniquity; that which I thought did not pass through my mouth.

⁴ Concerning the works of men, by the word of thy lips I have observed the ways of the violent.

⁵ Sustain my steps in thy ways that my footsteps not slip.

⁶ I have called upon thee, because thou dost hear me, O God: incline thine ear unto me and hear my speech.

⁷ Show thy mercy to be marvellous, O Saviour of those who put their trust in thee, from those that rise up against thy right hand.

⁸ ¶ Keep me as the apple of the eye; hide me with the shadow of thy wings,

⁹ from the wicked that oppress me, from my deadly enemies, who compass me about.

¹⁰ They are closed in with their own fat; with their mouth they speak proudly.

¹¹ They have now compassed us in our steps: they have set their eyes upon throwing us down to the earth

¹² like as a lion that is greedy of his prey, and as it were a young lion lurking in secret places.

¹³ Arise, O LORD, disappoint him, cast him down: deliver my soul from the wicked, with thy sword;

¹⁴ from men, with thy hand, O LORD, from men of the world, who have their portion in this life and whose belly thou dost fill with thy provision: they satisfy their sons and leave the rest to their family.

¹⁵ As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness; I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness.

To the Overcomer upon Aijeleth Shahar, A Psalm of David.

¹ ¶ My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? why art thou so far from helping me and from the words of my cry?

² O my God, I cry in the daytime, but thou hearest not; and in the night season, and am not silent.

³ But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest in the midst of the praises of Israel.

⁴ Our fathers trusted in thee: they trusted, and thou didst deliver them.

⁵ They cried unto thee and were delivered: they trusted in thee and were not confounded.

⁶ But I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men and despised of the people.

⁷ All those that see me laugh me to scorn: they shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying,

⁸ Turn him over to the LORD, let him deliver him, let him save him, seeing he delighted in him.

⁹ But thou art he that took me out of the womb; thou hast made me wait upon thee since I was upon my mother’s breasts.

¹⁰ I was cast upon thee from the womb; thou art my God from my mother’s belly.

¹¹ ¶ Be not far from me; for trouble is near; for there is no one to help.

¹² Many bulls have compassed me: strong bulls of Bashan have beset me round about.

¹³ They opened their mouth upon me as a ravening and a roaring lion.

¹⁴ I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint: my heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels.

¹⁵ My strength is dried up like a potsherd; and my tongue cleaves to my jaws; and thou hast brought me into the dust of death.

¹⁶ For dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have inclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet.

¹⁷ I may count all my bones: they look and stare upon me.

¹⁸ They part my garments among them and cast lots upon my vesture.

¹⁹ But be not thou far from me, O LORD: O my strength, haste thee to help me.

²⁰ Deliver my soul from the sword; my life from the power of the dog.

²¹ Save me from the lion’s mouth and from the horns of the unicorns.

²² ¶ I will declare thy name unto my brethren; in the midst of the congregation I will praise thee.

²³ Ye that fear the LORD, praise him; all ye the seed of Jacob, glorify him; and fear him, all ye the seed of Israel.

²⁴ For he has not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the poor in spirit; neither has he hid his face from him, but when he cried unto him, he heard.

²⁵ My praise shall be of thee in the great congregation; I will pay my vows before those that fear him.

²⁶ The poor shall eat and be satisfied: those that seek him shall praise the LORD; your heart shall live for ever.

²⁷ All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn unto the LORD; and all the families of the Gentiles shall worship before thee.

²⁸ For the kingdom is the LORD’s, and he shall have dominion over the Gentiles.

²⁹ All those that are fat upon earth shall eat and worship; all those that go down to the dust shall bow before him; and no one can keep his own soul alive.

³⁰ A seed shall serve him; it shall be accounted to the Lord for a generation.

³¹ They shall come and shall declare his righteousness unto a people that shall be born, that he has done this.

¹⁴ ¶ Then Zedekiah the king sent and took Jeremiah the prophet unto him into the third entry that is in the house of the LORD: and the king said unto Jeremiah, I will ask thee a word; hide nothing from me.

¹⁵ Then Jeremiah said unto Zedekiah, If I declare it unto thee, wilt thou not surely put me to death? and if I give thee counsel, thou wilt not hearken unto me.

¹⁶ So Zedekiah the king swore secretly unto Jeremiah, saying, As the LORD lives, that made us this soul, I will not put thee to death, neither will I give thee into the hand of these men that seek thy life.

¹⁷ Then said Jeremiah unto Zedekiah, Thus hath the LORD, the God of the hosts, the God of Israel said: If thou wilt assuredly go forth unto the king of Babylon’s princes, then thy soul shall live, and this city shall not be burned with fire; and thou shalt live, and thine house:

¹⁸ but if thou wilt not go forth to the king of Babylon’s princes, then this city shall be given into the hand of the Chaldeans, and they shall burn it with fire, and thou shalt not escape out of their hand.

¹⁹ And Zedekiah the king said unto Jeremiah, I am afraid of the Jews that are fallen to the Chaldeans, lest they deliver me into their hand, and they mock me.

²⁰ But Jeremiah said, They shall not deliver thee. Hear now the voice of the LORD, which I speak unto thee: so it shall be well unto thee, and thy soul shall live.

²¹ But if thou refuse to go forth, this is the word that the LORD hath showed me:

²² and, behold, all the women that are left in the king of Judah’s house shall be brought forth to the king of Babylon’s princes, and those women shall say, Thy friends have deceived thee and have prevailed against thee; thy feet are sunk in the mire, and they are turned away back.

²³ So they shall bring out all thy wives and thy children to the Chaldeans; and thou shalt not escape out of their hand but shalt be taken by the hand of the king of Babylon; and thou shalt cause this city to be burned with fire.

²⁴ Then said Zedekiah unto Jeremiah, Let no man know of these words, and thou shalt not die.

²⁵ But if the princes hear that I have talked with thee, and they come unto thee, and say unto thee, Declare unto us now what thou hast said unto the king, hide it not from us, and we will not put thee to death; also what the king said unto thee:

²⁶ then thou shalt say unto them, I presented my supplication before the king, that he would not cause me to return to Jonathan’s house, to die there.

²⁷ Then all the princes came unto Jeremiah, and asked him: and he told them according to all those words that the king had commanded. So they left off speaking with him; for the matter was not perceived.

²⁸ So Jeremiah abode in the court of the guard until the day that Jerusalem was taken; and he was there when Jerusalem was taken.

15 ¶ Moreover, brothers, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received and in which ye stand;

² by which also ye are being saved if ye retain the word that I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain.

³ For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received: how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures

⁴ and that he was buried and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures

⁵ and that he appeared to Cephas and then to the twelve;

⁶ after that, he appeared unto more than five hundred brothers at once, of whom the greater part remain unto now, but some are fallen asleep.

⁷ After that, he appeared unto James; then to all the apostles.

⁸ And last of all he appeared unto me also, as of one born out of due time.

⁹ For I am the least of the apostles, for I am not worthy to be called an apostle because I persecuted the congregation {Gr. ekklesia – called out ones} of God.

¹⁰ But by the grace of God I am what I am; and his grace towards me was not in vain, for I laboured more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.

¹¹ Therefore, whether it were I or they, so we preach, and so ye believed.

11 ¶ And it came to pass, when Jesus had finished giving commandments to his twelve disciples, he departed from there to teach and to preach in their cities.

² Now when John had heard in the prison the works of the Christ, he sent two of his disciples,

³ and said unto him, Art thou he that should come, or do we look for another?

⁴ Jesus answered and said unto them, Go and tell John those things which you hear and see:

⁵ The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk; the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear; the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them.

⁶ And blessed is he who is not offended in me.