Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 6
To the Chief Musician; on stringed instruments, set [possibly] an octave below. A Psalm of David.
1 O Lord, rebuke me not in Your anger nor discipline and chasten me in Your hot displeasure.
2 Have mercy on me and be gracious to me, O Lord, for I am weak (faint and withered away); O Lord, heal me, for my bones are troubled.
3 My [inner] self [as well as my body] is also exceedingly disturbed and troubled. But You, O Lord, how long [until You return and speak peace to me]?
4 Return [to my relief], O Lord, deliver my life; save me for the sake of Your steadfast love and mercy.
5 For in death there is no remembrance of You; in Sheol (the place of the dead) who will give You thanks?
6 I am weary with my groaning; all night I soak my pillow with tears, I drench my couch with my weeping.
7 My eye grows dim because of grief; it grows old because of all my enemies.
8 Depart from me, all you workers of iniquity, for the Lord has heard the voice of my weeping.(A)
9 The Lord has heard my supplication; the Lord receives my prayer.
10 Let all my enemies be ashamed and sorely troubled; let them turn back and be put to shame suddenly.
Psalm 12
To the Chief Musician; set [possibly] an octave below. A Psalm of David.
1 Help, Lord! For principled and godly people are here no more; faithfulness and the faithful vanish from among the sons of men.
2 To his neighbor each one speaks words without use or worth or truth; with flattering lips and double heart [deceitfully] they speak.
3 May the Lord cut off all flattering lips and the tongues that speak proud boasting,
4 Those who say, With our tongues we prevail; our lips are our own [to command at our will]—who is lord and master over us?
5 Now will I arise, says the Lord, because the poor are oppressed, because of the groans of the needy; I will set him in safety and in the salvation for which he pants.
6 The words and promises of the Lord are pure words, like silver refined in an earthen furnace, purified seven times over.
7 You will keep them and preserve them, O Lord; You will guard and keep us from this [evil] generation forever.
8 The wicked walk or prowl about on every side, as vileness is exalted [and baseness is rated high] among the sons of men.
Psalm 94
1 O Lord God, You to Whom vengeance belongs, O God, You to Whom vengeance belongs, shine forth!
2 Rise up, O Judge of the earth; render to the proud a fit compensation!
3 Lord, how long shall the wicked, how long shall the wicked triumph and exult?
4 They pour out arrogant words, speaking hard things; all the evildoers boast loftily.(A)
5 They crush Your people, O Lord, and afflict Your heritage.
6 They slay the widow and the transient stranger and murder the unprotected orphan.
7 Yet they say, The Lord does not see, neither does the God of Jacob notice it.
8 Consider and understand, you stupid ones among the people! And you [self-confident] fools, when will you become wise?
9 He Who planted the ear, shall He not hear? He Who formed the eye, shall He not see?
10 He Who disciplines and instructs the nations, shall He not punish, He Who teaches man knowledge?
11 The Lord knows the thoughts of man, that they are vain (empty and futile—only a breath).(B)
12 Blessed (happy, fortunate, to be envied) is the man whom You discipline and instruct, O Lord, and teach out of Your law,
13 That You may give him power to keep himself calm in the days of adversity, until the [inevitable] pit of corruption is dug for the wicked.
14 For the Lord will not cast off nor spurn His people, neither will He abandon His heritage.
15 For justice will return to the [uncompromisingly] righteous, and all the upright in heart will follow it.
16 Who will rise up for me against the evildoers? Who will stand up for me against the workers of iniquity?
17 Unless the Lord had been my help, I would soon have dwelt in [the land where there is] silence.
18 When I said, My foot is slipping, Your mercy and loving-kindness, O Lord, held me up.
19 In the multitude of my [anxious] thoughts within me, Your comforts cheer and delight my soul!
20 Shall the throne of iniquity have fellowship with You—they who frame and hide their unrighteous doings under [the sacred name of] law?
21 They band themselves together against the life of the [consistently] righteous and condemn the innocent to death.
22 But the Lord has become my High Tower and Defense, and my God the Rock of my refuge.
23 And He will turn back upon them their own iniquity and will wipe them out by means of their own wickedness; the Lord our God will wipe them out.
17 Zion stretches forth her hands, but there is no comforter for her. The Lord has commanded concerning and against Jacob that his neighbors should be his adversaries; Jerusalem has become a filthy thing among them [an object of contempt].
18 The Lord is righteous (just and in the right); for I have rebelled against His commandment (His word). Hear, I pray you, all you peoples, and look at my sorrow and suffering; my maidens and my young men have gone into captivity.
19 I [Jerusalem] called to my lovers [allies], but they deceived me. My priests and my elders expired in the city while they sought food to save their lives.
20 Behold, O Lord, how distressed I am! My vital parts (emotions) are in tumult and are deeply disturbed; my heart cannot rest and is violently agitated within me, for I have grievously rebelled. Outside the house the sword bereaves, at home there is [famine, pestilence] death!
21 [My foes] have heard that I [Jerusalem] sigh and groan, that I have no comforter [in You]. All my enemies have heard of my trouble; they are glad [O Lord] that You have done it. You will bring the day [of Judah’s punishment] that you have foretold and proclaimed; [it involves also my foes’ punishment] and they will become like me.(A)
22 Let all their wickedness come before You; and deal with them as You have dealt with me because of all my transgressions; for my sighs and groans are many and my heart is faint.
8 For we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about the affliction and oppressing distress which befell us in [the province of] Asia, how we were so utterly and unbearably weighed down and crushed that we despaired even of life [itself].
9 Indeed, we felt within ourselves that we had received the [very] sentence of death, but that was to keep us from trusting in and depending on ourselves instead of on God Who raises the dead.
10 [For it is He] Who rescued and saved us from such a perilous death, and He will still rescue and save us; in and on Him we have set our hope (our joyful and confident expectation) that He will again deliver us [from danger and destruction and [a]draw us to Himself],
11 While you also cooperate by your prayers for us [helping and laboring together with us]. Thus [the lips of] many persons [turned toward God will eventually] give thanks on our behalf for the grace (the blessing of deliverance) granted us at the request of the many who have prayed.
12 It is a reason for pride and exultation to which our conscience testifies that we have conducted ourselves in the world [generally] and especially toward you, with devout and pure motives and godly sincerity, not in fleshly wisdom but by the grace of God (the unmerited favor and [b]merciful kindness by which God, exerting His holy influence upon souls, turns them to Christ, and keeps, strengthens, and increases them in Christian virtues).
13 For we write you nothing else but simply what you can read and understand [there is no double meaning to what we say], and I hope that you will become thoroughly acquainted [with [c]divine things] and know and understand [them] accurately and well to the end,
14 [Just] as you have [already] partially known and understood and acknowledged us and recognized that you can [honestly] be proud of us, even as we [can be proud] of you on the day of our Lord Jesus.
15 It was with assurance of this that I wanted and planned to visit you first [of all], so that you might have a double favor and token of grace (goodwill).
16 [I wanted] to visit you on my way to Macedonia, and [then] to come again to you [on my return trip] from Macedonia and have you send me forward on my way to Judea.
17 Now because I changed my original plan, was I being unstable and capricious? Or what I plan, do I plan according to the flesh [like a worldly man], ready to say Yes, yes, [when it may mean] No, no?
18 As surely as God is trustworthy and faithful and means what He says, our speech and message to you have not been Yes [that might mean] No.
19 For the Son of God, Christ Jesus (the Messiah), Who has been preached among you by us, by myself, Silvanus, and Timothy, was not Yes and No; but in Him it is [always the divine] Yes.
20 For as many as are the promises of God, they all find their Yes [answer] in Him [Christ]. For this reason we also utter the Amen (so be it) to God through Him [in His Person and by His agency] to the glory of God.
21 But it is God Who confirms and makes us steadfast and establishes us [in joint fellowship] with you in Christ, and has consecrated and anointed us [[d]enduing us with the gifts of the Holy Spirit];
22 [He has also appropriated and acknowledged us as His by] putting His seal upon us and giving us His [Holy] Spirit in our hearts as the security deposit and guarantee [of the fulfillment of His promise].
27 And they came again to Jerusalem. And when Jesus was walking about in the [[a]courts and porches of the] temple, the chief priests and the scribes and the elders came to Him,
28 And they kept saying to Him, By what [sort of] authority are You doing these things, or who gave You this authority to do them?
29 Jesus told them, I will ask you a question. Answer Me, and then I will tell you by what [sort of] authority I do these things.
30 Was the baptism of John from heaven or from men? Answer Me.
31 And they reasoned and argued with one another, If we say, From heaven, He will say, Why then did you not believe him?
32 But [on the other hand] can we say, From men? For they were afraid of the people, because everybody considered and held John actually to be a prophet.
33 So they replied to Jesus, We do not know. And Jesus said to them, Neither am I going to tell you what [sort of] authority I have for doing these things.
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