Book of Common Prayer

Psalm 119

¹ Blessed (happy, fortunate, to be envied) are the undefiled (the upright, truly sincere, and blameless) in the way [of the revealed will of God], who walk (order their conduct and conversation) in the law of the Lord (the whole of God’s revealed will).

² Blessed (happy, fortunate, to be envied) are they who keep His testimonies, and who seek, inquire for and of Him and crave Him with the whole heart.

³ Yes, they do no unrighteousness [no willful wandering from His precepts]; they walk in His ways.^(A)

⁴ You have commanded us to keep Your precepts, that we should observe them diligently.

⁵ Oh, that my ways were directed and established to observe Your statutes [hearing, receiving, loving, and obeying them]!

⁶ Then shall I not be put to shame [by failing to inherit Your promises] when I have respect to all Your commandments.

⁷ I will praise and give thanks to You with uprightness of heart when I learn [by sanctified experiences] Your righteous judgments [Your decisions against and punishments for particular lines of thought and conduct].

⁸ I will keep Your statutes; O forsake me not utterly.

⁹ How shall a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed and keeping watch [on himself] according to Your word [conforming his life to it].

¹⁰ With my whole heart have I sought You, inquiring for and of You and yearning for You; Oh, let me not wander or step aside [either in ignorance or willfully] from Your commandments.^(B)

¹¹ Your word have I laid up in my heart, that I might not sin against You.

¹² Blessed are You, O Lord; teach me Your statutes.

¹³ With my lips have I declared and recounted all the ordinances of Your mouth.

¹⁴ I have rejoiced in the way of Your testimonies as much as in all riches.

¹⁵ I will meditate on Your precepts and have respect to Your ways [the paths of life marked out by Your law].^(C)

¹⁶ I will delight myself in Your statutes; I will not forget Your word.

¹⁷ Deal bountifully with Your servant, that I may live; and I will observe Your word [hearing, receiving, loving, and obeying it].^(D)

¹⁸ Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of Your law.

¹⁹ I am a stranger and a temporary resident on the earth; hide not Your commandments from me.^(E)

²⁰ My heart is breaking with the longing that it has for Your ordinances and judgments at all times.

²¹ You rebuke the proud and arrogant, the accursed ones, who err and wander from Your commandments.

²² Take away from me reproach and contempt, for I keep Your testimonies.

²³ Princes also sat and talked against me, but Your servant meditated on Your statutes.

²⁴ Your testimonies also are my delight and my counselors.

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 13

To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David.

¹ How long will You forget me, O Lord? Forever? How long will You hide Your face from me?

² How long must I lay up cares within me and have sorrow in my heart day after day? How long shall my enemy exalt himself over me?

³ Consider and answer me, O Lord my God; lighten the eyes [of my faith to behold Your face in the pitchlike darkness], lest I sleep the sleep of death,

⁴ Lest my enemy say, I have prevailed over him, and those that trouble me rejoice when I am shaken.

⁵ But I have trusted, leaned on, and been confident in Your mercy and loving-kindness; my heart shall rejoice and be in high spirits in Your salvation.

⁶ I will sing to the Lord, because He has dealt bountifully with me.

Psalm 14

To the Chief Musician. [A Psalm] of David.

¹ The [empty-headed] fool has said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable deeds; there is none that does good or right.^(A)

² The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men to see if there were any who understood, dealt wisely, and sought after God, inquiring for and of Him and requiring Him [of vital necessity].

³ They are all gone aside, they have all together become filthy; there is none that does good or right, no, not one.^(B)

⁴ Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge, who eat up my people as they eat bread and who do not call on the Lord?

⁵ There they shall be in great fear [literally—dreading a dread], for God is with the generation of the [uncompromisingly] righteous (those upright and in right standing with Him).

⁶ You [evildoers] would put to shame and confound the plans of the poor and patient, but the Lord is his safe refuge.

⁷ Oh, that the salvation of Israel would come out of Zion! When the Lord shall restore the fortunes of His people, then Jacob shall rejoice and Israel shall be glad.^(C)

²² Then Moses led Israel onward from the Red Sea and they went into the Wilderness of Shur; they went three days [thirty-three miles] in the wilderness and found no water.

²³ When they came to Marah, they could not drink its waters for they were bitter; therefore it was named Marah [bitterness].

²⁴ The people murmured against Moses, saying, What shall we drink?

²⁵ And he cried to the Lord, and the Lord showed him a tree which he cast into the waters, and the waters were made sweet. There [the Lord] made for them a statute and an ordinance, and there He proved them,

²⁶ Saying, If you will diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord your God and will do what is right in His sight, and will listen to and obey His commandments and keep all His statutes, I will put none of the diseases upon you which I brought upon the Egyptians, for I am the Lord Who heals you.

²⁷ And they came to Elim, where there were twelve springs of water and seventy palm trees; and they encamped there by the waters.

16 They set out from Elim, and all the congregation of Israel came to the Wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after they left the land of Egypt.

² And the whole congregation of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness,

³ And said to them, Would that we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the fleshpots and ate bread to the full; for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.

⁴ Then the Lord said to Moses, Behold, I will rain bread from the heavens for you; and the people shall go out and gather a day’s portion every day, that I may prove them, whether they will walk in My law or not.

⁵ On the sixth day they shall prepare to bring in twice as much as they gather daily.

⁶ So Moses and Aaron said to all Israel, At evening you shall know that the Lord has brought you out from the land of Egypt,

⁷ And in the morning you shall see the glory of the Lord, for He hears your murmurings against the Lord. For what are we, that you murmur against us?

⁸ And Moses said, [This will happen] when the Lord gives you in the evening flesh to eat and in the morning bread to the full, because the Lord has heard your grumblings which you murmur against Him; what are we? Your murmurings are not against us, but against the Lord.

⁹ And Moses said to Aaron, Say to all the congregation of Israel, Come near before the Lord, for He has heard your murmurings.

¹⁰ And as Aaron spoke to the whole congregation of Israel, they looked toward the wilderness, and behold, the glory of the Lord appeared in the cloud!

2 So be done with every trace of wickedness (depravity, malignity) and all deceit and insincerity (pretense, hypocrisy) and grudges (envy, jealousy) and slander and evil speaking of every kind.

² Like newborn babies you should crave (thirst for, earnestly desire) the pure (unadulterated) spiritual milk, that by it you may be nurtured and grow unto [completed] salvation,

³ Since you have [already] tasted the goodness and kindness of the Lord.^(A)

⁴ Come to Him [then, to that] Living Stone which men ^[a]tried and threw away, but which is chosen [and] precious in God’s sight.^(B)

⁵ [Come] and, like living stones, be yourselves built [into] a spiritual house, for a holy (dedicated, consecrated) priesthood, to offer up [those] spiritual sacrifices [that are] acceptable and pleasing to God through Jesus Christ.

⁶ For thus it stands in Scripture: Behold, I am laying in Zion a chosen (^[b]honored), precious chief Cornerstone, and he who believes in Him [who adheres to, trusts in, and relies on Him] shall never be ^[c]disappointed or put to shame.^(C)

⁷ To you then who believe (who adhere to, trust in, and rely on Him) is the preciousness; but for those who disbelieve [it is true], The [very] Stone which the builders rejected has become the main Cornerstone,^(D)

⁸ And, A Stone that will cause stumbling and a Rock that will give [men] offense; they stumble because they disobey and disbelieve [God’s] Word, as those [who reject Him] were destined (appointed) to do.

⁹ But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a dedicated nation, [God’s] own ^[d]purchased, special people, that you may set forth the wonderful deeds and display the virtues and perfections of Him Who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.^(E)

¹⁰ Once you were not a people [at all], but now you are God’s people; once you were unpitied, but now you are pitied and have received mercy.^(F)

15 I am the True Vine, and My Father is the Vinedresser.

² Any branch in Me that does not bear fruit [that stops bearing] He cuts away (trims off, takes away); and He cleanses and repeatedly prunes every branch that continues to bear fruit, to make it bear more and richer and more excellent fruit.

³ You are cleansed and pruned already, because of the word which I have given you [the teachings I have discussed with you].

⁴ Dwell in Me, and I will dwell in you. [Live in Me, and I will live in you.] Just as no branch can bear fruit of itself without abiding in (being vitally united to) the vine, neither can you bear fruit unless you abide in Me.

⁵ I am the Vine; you are the branches. Whoever lives in Me and I in him bears much (abundant) fruit. However, apart from Me [cut off from vital union with Me] you can do nothing.

⁶ If a person does not dwell in Me, he is thrown out like a [broken-off] branch, and withers; such branches are gathered up and thrown into the fire, and they are burned.

⁷ If you live in Me [abide vitally united to Me] and My words remain in you and continue to live in your hearts, ask whatever you will, and it shall be done for you.

⁸ When you bear (produce) much fruit, My Father is honored and glorified, and you show and prove yourselves to be true followers of Mine.

⁹ I have loved you, [just] as the Father has loved Me; abide in My love [^[a]continue in His love with Me].

¹⁰ If you keep My commandments [if you continue to obey My instructions], you will abide in My love and live on in it, just as I have obeyed My Father’s commandments and live on in His love.

¹¹ I have told you these things, that My joy and delight may be in you, and that your joy and gladness may be of full measure and complete and overflowing.