Book of Common Prayer

42 A psalm for David. Judge me, O God, and distinguish my cause from the nation that is not holy: deliver me from the unjust and deceitful man.

² For thou art God my strength: why hast thou cast me off? and why do I go sorrowful whilst the enemy afflicteth me?

³ Send forth thy light and thy truth: they have conducted me, and brought me unto thy holy hill, and into thy tabernacles.

⁴ And I will go in to the altar of God: to God who giveth joy to my youth.

⁵ To thee, O God my God, I will give praise upon the harp: why art thou sad, O my soul? and why dost thou disquiet me?

⁶ Hope in God, for I will still give praise to him: the salvation of my countenance, and my God.

43 Unto the end, for the sons of Core, to give understanding.

² We have heard, O God, with our ears: our fathers have declared to us, The work, thou hast wrought in their days, and in the days of old.

³ Thy hand destroyed the Gentiles, and thou plantedst them: thou didst afflict the people and cast them out.

⁴ For they got not the possession of the land by their own sword: neither did their own arm save them. But thy right hand and thy arm, and the light of thy countenance: because thou wast pleased with them.

⁵ Thou art thyself my king and my God, who commandest the saving of Jacob.

⁶ Through thee we will push down our enemies with the horn: and through thy name we will despise them that rise up against us.

⁷ For I will not trust in my bow: neither shall my sword save me.

⁸ But thou hast saved us from them that afflict us: and hast put them to shame that hate us.

⁹ In God shall we glory all the day long: and in thy name we will give praise for ever.

¹⁰ But now thou hast cast us off, and put us to shame: and thou, O God, wilt not go out with our armies.

¹¹ Thou hast made us turn our back to our enemies: and they that hated us plundered for themselves.

¹² Thou hast given us up like sheep to be eaten: thou hast scattered us among the nations.

¹³ Thou hast sold thy people for no price: and there was no reckoning in the exchange of them.

¹⁴ Thou hast made us a reproach to our neighbours, a scoff and derision to them that are round about us.

¹⁵ Thou hast made us a byword among the Gentiles: a shaking of the head among the people.

¹⁶ All the day long my shame is before me: and the confusion of my face hath covered me,

¹⁷ At the voice of him that reproacheth and detracteth me: at the face of the enemy and persecutor.

¹⁸ All these things have come upon us, yet we have not forgotten thee: and we have not done wickedly in they covenant.

¹⁹ And our heart hath not turned back: neither hast thou turned aside our steps from thy way.

²⁰ For thou hast humbled us in the place of affliction: and the shadow of death hath covered us.

²¹ If we have forgotten the name of our God, and if we have spread forth our hands to a strange god:

²² Shall not God search out these things: for he knoweth the secrets of the heart. Because for thy sake we are killed all the day long: we are counted as sheep for the slaughter.

²³ Arise, why sleepest thou, O Lord? arise, and cast us not off to the end.

²⁴ Why turnest thou face away? and forgettest our want and our trouble?

²⁵ For our soul is humbled down to the dust: our belly cleaveth to the earth.

²⁶ Arise, O Lord, help us and redeem us for thy name's sake.

2 My heart hath rejoiced in the Lord, and my horn is exalted in my God: my mouth is enlarged over my enemies: because I have joyed in thy salvation.

² There is none holy as the Lord is: for there is no other beside thee, and there is none strong like our God.

³ Do not multiply to speak lofty things, boasting: let old matters depart from your mouth: for the Lord is a God of all knowledge, and to him are thoughts prepared.

⁴ The bow of the mighty is overcome, and the weak are girt with strength.

⁵ They that were full before have hired out themselves for bread: and the hungry are filled, so that the barren hath borne many: and she that had many children is weakened.

⁶ The Lord killeth and maketh alive, he bringeth down to hell and bringeth back again.

⁷ The Lord maketh poor and maketh rich, he humbleth and he exalteth.

⁸ He raiseth up the needy from the dust, and lifteth up the poor from the dunghill: that he may sit with princes, and hold the throne of glory. For the poles of the earth are the Lord's, and upon them he hath set the world.

⁹ He will keep the feet of his saints, and the wicked shall be silent in darkness, because no man shall prevail by his own strength.

¹⁰ The adversaries of the Lord shall fear him: and upon them shall he thunder in the heavens. The Lord shall judge the ends of the earth, and he shall give empire to his king, and shall exalt the horn of his Christ.

³¹ Then Jesus said to those Jews, who believed him: If you continue in my word, you shall be my disciples indeed.

³² And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.

³³ They answered him: We are the seed of Abraham, and we have never been slaves to any man: how sayest thou: you shall be free?

³⁴ Jesus answered them: Amen, amen I say unto you: that whosoever committeth sin, is the servant of sin.

³⁵ Now the servant abideth not in the house for ever; but the son abideth for ever.

³⁶ If therefore the son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed.

48 Unto the end, a psalm for the sons of Core.

² Hear these things, all ye nations: give ear, all ye inhabitants of the world.

³ All you that are earthborn, and you sons of men: both rich and poor together.

⁴ My mouth shall speak wisdom: and the meditation of my heart understanding.

⁵ I will incline my ear to a parable; I will open my proposition on the psaltery.

⁶ Why shall I fear in the evil day? the iniquity of my heel shall encompass me.

⁷ They that trust in their own strength, and glory in the multitude of their riches,

⁸ No brother can redeem, nor shall man redeem: he shall not give to God his ransom,

⁹ Nor the price of the redemption of his soul: and shall labour for ever,

¹⁰ And shall still live unto the end.

¹¹ He shall not see destruction, when he shall see the wise dying: the senseless and the fool shall perish together: And they shall leave their riches to strangers:

¹² And their sepulchres shall be their houses for ever. Their dwelling places to all generations: they have called their lands by their names.

¹³ And man when he was in honour did not understand; he is compared to senseless beasts, and is become like to them.

¹⁴ This way of theirs is a stumblingblock to them: and afterwards they shall delight in their mouth.

¹⁵ They are laid in hell like sheep: death shall feed upon them. And the just shall have dominion over them in the morning; and their help shall decay in hell from their glory.

¹⁶ But God will redeem my soul from the hand of hell, when he shall receive me.

¹⁷ Be not thou afraid, when a man shall be made rich, and when the glory of his house shall be increased.

¹⁸ For when he shall die he shall take nothing away; nor shall his glory descend with him.

¹⁹ For in his lifetime his soul will be blessed: and he will praise thee when thou shalt do well to him.

²⁰ He shall go in to the generations of his fathers: and he shall never see light.

²¹ Man when he was in honour did not understand: he hath been compared to senseless beasts, and made like to them.

87 A canticle of a psalm for the sons of Core: unto the end, for Maheleth, to answer understanding of Eman the Ezrahite.

² O Lord, the God of my salvation: I have cried in the day, and in the night before thee.

³ Let my prayer come in before thee: incline thy ear to my petition.

⁴ For my soul is filled with evils: and my life hath drawn nigh to hell.

⁵ I am counted among them that go down to the pit: I am become as a man without help,

⁶ Free among the dead. Like the slain sleeping in the sepulchres, whom thou rememberest no more: and they are cast off from thy hand.

⁷ They have laid me in the lower pit: in the dark places, and in the shadow of death.

⁸ Thy wrath is strong over me: and all thy waves thou hast brought in upon me.

⁹ Thou hast put away my acquaintance far from me: they have set me an abomination to themselves. I was delivered up, and came not forth:

¹⁰ My eyes languished through poverty. All the day I cried to thee, O Lord: I stretched out my hands to thee.

¹¹ Wilt thou shew wonders to the dead? or shall physicians raise to life, and give praise to thee?

¹² Shall any one in the sepulchre declare thy mercy: and thy truth in destruction?

¹³ Shall thy wonders be known in the dark; and thy justice in the land of forgetfulness?

¹⁴ But I, O Lord, have cried to thee: and in the morning my prayer shall prevent thee.

¹⁵ Lord, why castest thou off my prayer: why turnest thou away thy face from me?

¹⁶ I am poor, and in labours from my youth: and being exalted have been humbled and troubled.

¹⁷ Thy wrath hath come upon me: and thy terrors have troubled me.

¹⁸ They have come round about me like water all the day: they have compassed me about together.

¹⁹ Friend and neighbour thou hast put far from me: and my acquaintance, because of misery.

3 Behold what manner of charity the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called, and should be the sons of God. Therefore the world knoweth not us, because it knew not him.

² Dearly beloved, we are now the sons of God; and it hath not yet appeared what we shall be. We know, that, when he shall appear, we shall be like to him: because we shall see him as he is.

³ And every one that hath this hope in him, sanctifieth himself, as he also is holy.

⁴ Whosoever committeth sin committeth also iniquity; and sin is iniquity.

⁵ And you know that he appeared to take away our sins, and in him there is no sin.

⁶ Whosoever abideth in him, sinneth not; and whosoever sinneth, hath not seen him, nor known him.

⁷ Little children, let no man deceive you. He that doth justice is just, even as he is just.

⁸ He that committeth sin is of the devil: for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose, the Son of God appeared, that he might destroy the works of the devil.