Book of Common Prayer
To the Overcomer on Neginoth, Maschil, A Psalm of David.
1 ¶ Give ear to my prayer, O God, and do not hide thyself from my supplication.
2 Attend unto me and hear me: I mourn in my complaint and make a noise
3 because of the voice of the enemy because of the oppression of the wicked; for they cast iniquity upon me, and in wrath they hate me.
4 My heart is sore pained within me, and the terrors of death are fallen upon me.
5 Fearfulness and trembling are come upon me, and horror has overwhelmed me.
6 And I said, Oh that I had wings like a dove! for then I would fly away and be at rest.
7 Behold, then I would flee far away and dwell in the wilderness. Selah.
8 I would hasten my escape from the windy storm and tempest.
9 ¶ Destroy, O Lord, and divide their tongues, for I have seen violence and strife in the city.
10 Day and night they go about it upon the walls thereof; iniquity also and sorrow are in the midst of it.
11 Wickedness is in the midst thereof; deceit and guile depart not from her streets.
12 For it was not an enemy that reproached me; then I could have borne it, neither was it he that hated me that did magnify himself against me; then I would have hid myself from him:
13 But it was thou, who in my estimation was, my lord, and of my own family.
14 We took sweet counsel together and walked unto the house of God in company.
15 Let them be condemned unto death, and let them go down alive into Sheol for wickedness is in their dwellings and among them.
16 ¶ As for me, I will call upon God, and the LORD shall save me.
17 Evening and morning and at noon I will pray and cry aloud, and he shall hear my voice.
18 He has ransomed my soul in peace from the battle that was against me, for there were many against me.
19 God shall hear and bring them down, even he that abides from of old. Selah. Because they do not change, nor do they fear God.
20 He has put forth his hands against such as be at peace with him; he has defiled his covenant.
21 The words of his mouth were smoother than butter, but war was in his heart; his words were softer than oil, yet they were drawn swords.
22 Cast thy burden upon the LORD, and he shall sustain thee; he shall never suffer the righteous to be moved.
23 But thou, O God, shalt bring them down into the pit of the grave; bloody and deceitful men shall not live out half their days, but I will trust in thee.
A Psalm of David.
1 ¶ I will praise thee with my whole heart: before the gods I will sing praises unto thee.
2 I will worship the temple of thy holiness and praise thy name above thy mercy and thy truth; for thou hast made thy name to be magnificent and raised up thy spoken word above all things.
3 In the day when I called, thou didst answer me and strengthen me with strength in my soul.
4 All the kings of the earth shall praise thee, O LORD, when they hearken unto the spoken words from thy mouth.
5 Yea, they shall sing in the ways of the LORD: for great is the glory of the LORD.
6 ¶ For the LORD, who is high and lifted up, looks upon the humble, but the proud he does not know.
7 Though I walk in the midst of trouble, thou wilt revive me; thou shalt stretch forth thy hand against the wrath of my enemies, and thy right hand shall save me.
8 The LORD will perfect that which concerns me; thy mercy, O LORD, endures for ever; forsake not the works of thine own hands.
To the Overcomer, A Psalm of David.
1 ¶ O LORD, thou hast searched me and known me.
2 Thou knowest my sitting down and my rising up, thou dost understand my thoughts from afar.
3 Thou hast girded my walk and my rest, and hast prepared all my ways.
4 For the word is not even upon my tongue, and, behold, O LORD, thou dost know it altogether.
5 Thou hast formed my face and my insides and laid thine hand upon me.
6 Thy knowledge is wonderful beyond my ability to comprehend; it is high, I cannot understand it.
7 ¶ Where shall I go from thy spirit? or where shall I flee from thy presence?
8 If I ascend to the heavens, thou art there: if I make my bed in Sheol, behold, thou art there.
9 If I take the wings of the dawn and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
10 even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me.
11 If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me; even the night shall shine because of me.
12 Even the darkness does not hide from thee; but the night shines as the day; the darkness is as the light.
13 For thou hast possessed my kidneys: thou hast covered me in my mother’s womb.
14 I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; marvellous are thy works, and that, my soul knows right well.
15 My body was not hid from thee, even though I was made in secret and brought together in the lowest parts of the earth.
16 Thine eyes did see my substance yet being imperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which were then formed, without lacking one of them.
17 ¶ Therefore, how precious are thy thoughts unto me, O God! How great is the sum of them!
18 If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand; when I awake, I am still with thee.
19 Surely thou wilt slay the wicked, O God; depart from me therefore, ye bloodthirsty men.
20 For they speak against thee wickedly, and thine enemies take thy name in vain.
21 Do I not hate all those, O LORD, that hate thee? and am not I grieved with those that rise up against thee?
22 I hate them with perfect hatred; I count them mine enemies.
23 Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me and know my thoughts
4 ¶ But it came to pass that when Sanballat heard that we were building the wall, he was wroth and took great indignation and mocked the Jews.
2 And he spoke before his brethren and the army of Samaria and said, What are these feeble Jews doing? Is this to be permitted them? Will they sacrifice? Will they finish on time? Will they resurrect the stones out of the heaps of the rubbish which were burned?
3 Now Tobiah, the Ammonite, was by him, and he said, Even that which they build, if a fox were to go up it, he would break down their stone wall.
4 Hear, O our God; for we are despised; and turn their reproach upon their own head, and give them for a prey in the land of their captivity.
5 And do not cover their iniquity, nor let their sin be blotted out from before thee, for they have become angry against the builders.
6 But we built the wall, and all the wall was joined together unto the half thereof, for the people were motivated to work.
7 ¶ And it came to pass when Sanballat and Tobiah and the Arabians and the Ammonites and the Ashdodites heard that the walls of Jerusalem were sound and that the breaches began to be stopped, then they were very wroth
8 and conspired all of them together to come and to fight against Jerusalem and to hinder it.
9 Nevertheless, we made our prayer unto our God and set a watch over the builders day and night because of them.
10 And Judah said, The strength of the bearers of burdens is decayed, and there is much rubbish so that we are not able to build the wall.
11 And our adversaries said, They shall not know or see until we come in the midst among them and slay them and cause the work to cease.
12 But it came to pass, that when the Jews who dwelt among them came, they advised us ten times of all the places from which they would come upon us.
13 Therefore, I set in the lower places behind the wall, and on the higher places, I set the people by families with their swords, their spears, and their bows.
14 Then I looked and rose up and said unto the nobles and to the rulers and to the rest of the people, Do not be afraid of them: remember the Lord, who is great and terrible, and fight for your brethren, your sons, and your daughters, your wives, and your houses.
15 And it came to pass when our enemies heard that we had understood it, God brought their counsel to nought, and we returned all of us to the wall, each one unto his work.
16 ¶ And it came to pass from that time forth that half of the young men wrought in the work, and the other half of them held spears, shields, bows, and coats of mail; and the princes were behind all the house of Judah.
17 Those that built on the wall and those that bore burdens and those that laded wrought with one hand in the work and with the other held a weapon.
18 For the builders, each one had his sword girded by his side, and so they built. And he that sounded the shofar was by me.
19 And I said unto the principals and to the rulers and to the rest of the people, The work is great and large, and we are separated upon the wall, one far from another.
20 In whatever place that you hear the voice of the shofar, join us there; our God shall fight for us.
21 So we laboured in the work, and half of them held the spears from the rising of the morning until the stars appeared.
22 Likewise at the same time said I unto the people, Let each one with his servant lodge within Jerusalem, that by night they may be a guard to us, and labour by day.
23 So neither I nor my brethren nor my servants nor the men of the guard who followed me, none of us put off our clothes, each one put them off only for washing.
4 And I heard the number of those that were sealed: and there were sealed a hundred and forty-four thousand of all the tribes of the sons of Israel.
5 Of the tribe of Juda were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Reuben were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Gad were sealed twelve thousand.
6 Of the tribe of Aser were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Naphtali were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Manasses were sealed twelve thousand.
7 Of the tribe of Simeon were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Levi were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Issachar were sealed twelve thousand.
8 Of the tribe of Zebulon were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Joseph were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Benjamin were sealed twelve thousand.
9 After this I saw, and, behold, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations and kindreds and peoples and tongues stood before the throne and before the Lamb clothed with long white robes and palms in their hands
10 and cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation unto him who is seated upon the throne of our God and unto the Lamb.
11 And all the angels stood round about the throne and about the elders and the four animals; and they fell upon their faces before the throne and worshipped God,
12 saying, Amen: The blessing and the glory and the wisdom and the thanksgiving and the honour and the power and the might, be unto our God for ever and ever. Amen.
13 ¶ And one of the elders responded and asked me, Who are these who are arrayed in long white robes? and where did they come from?
14 And I said unto him, lord, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are those who came out of great tribulation and have washed their long robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
15 Therefore, they are before the throne of God and serve him day and night in his temple, and he that is seated on the throne shall dwell among them.
16 They shall hunger no more neither thirst anymore; neither shall the sun be thrust upon them nor any other heat.
17 For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall govern them and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters, and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.
31 He put forth another parable unto them, saying, The kingdom of the heavens is like unto a grain of mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field;
32 which indeed is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it is grown, it is the greatest among herbs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the heaven come and make their nests in its branches.
33 He spoke another parable unto them: The kingdom of the heavens is like unto leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal until the whole was leavened.
34 Jesus spoke all these things unto the multitude in parables and said nothing unto them without parables
35 that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying, I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter things which have been kept secret from the foundation of the world.
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