Book of Common Prayer
To the Overcomer upon: The silent dove in a distant land, Michtam of David, when the Philistines took him in Gath.
1 ¶ Be merciful unto me, O God, for man would swallow me up; he oppresses me fighting me daily.
2 My enemies would daily swallow me up, for they are many that fight against me, O thou most High.
3 When I am afraid, I will trust in thee.
4 In God I will praise his word, in God I have put my trust; I will not fear what flesh can do unto me.
5 Every day my life is filled with sorrow; all their thoughts are against me for evil.
6 They gather themselves together, they hide themselves, they mark my steps when they wait for my soul.
7 Shall they escape by iniquity? in thine anger cast down the peoples, O God.
8 ¶ Thou tellest my wanderings; put my tears into thy bottle; are they not in thy book?
9 When I cry unto thee, then shall my enemies be turned back; in this I know that God is for me.
10 In God I will praise his word; in the LORD I will praise his word.
11 In God I have put my trust; I will not be afraid of what man can do unto me.
12 Thy promises are upon me, O God; I will render praises unto thee.
13 For thou hast delivered my life from death; thou hast kept my feet from falling, that I may walk before God in the light of the living.
To the Overcomer upon, Do not destroy, Michtam of David, when he fled from the presence of Saul in the cave.
1 ¶ Be merciful unto me, O God, be merciful unto me: for my soul trusts in thee; and in the shadow of thy wings I will make my refuge until these calamities are overpast.
2 I will cry unto God most high, unto God that performs all things for me.
3 He shall send from the heavens and save me from the reproach of him that would swallow me up. Selah. God shall send forth his mercy and his truth.
4 My soul is among lions, and I lie even among those that are set on fire, even the sons of men, whose teeth are spears and arrows and their tongue a sharp sword.
5 Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens; let thy glory be above all the earth.
6 They have prepared a net for my steps; my soul is bowed down; they have dug a pit before me, into the midst of which they are fallen themselves. Selah.
7 ¶ My heart is ready, O God, my heart is willing; I will sing and give praise.
8 Awake, my glory; awake, psaltery and harp; I myself will arise early.
9 I will praise thee, O Lord, among the peoples; I will sing unto thee among the nations.
10 For thy mercy is great unto the heavens, and thy truth unto the clouds.
11 Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens; let thy glory be above all the earth.
To the Overcomer upon, Do not destroy, Michtam of David.
1 ¶ Do ye indeed speak righteousness, O congregation? do ye judge uprightly, O ye sons of Adam?
2 Yea, in heart ye work iniquity; ye weigh the violence of your hands in the earth.
3 The wicked are estranged from the womb; they go astray as soon as they are born, speaking lies.
4 Their poison is like the poison of a serpent; they are like the deaf adder that stops her ear,
5 which will not hearken to the voice of charmers, charming never so wisely.
6 ¶ Break their teeth, O God, in their mouth; break out the great teeth of the young lions, O LORD.
7 Let them melt away as waters which run continually; when he bends his bow to shoot his arrows, let them be as cut in pieces.
8 As a snail which melts, let them pass away, like the untimely birth of a woman, that they may not see the sun.
9 Before your pots can feel the fire of the thorns, he shall take them away as with a whirlwind, both living, and in his wrath.
10 The righteous shall rejoice when he sees the vengeance; he shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked.
11 So that a man shall say, Verily there is a reward for the righteous; verily there is a God that judges in the earth.
To the Overcomer, A Psalm of David.
1 ¶ Hear my voice, O God, in my prayer; preserve my life from fear of the enemy.
2 Hide me from the secret counsel of the wicked, from the insurrection of the workers of iniquity:
3 Who whet their tongue like a sword and bend their bows to shoot their arrows, even bitter words
4 That they may shoot in secret at the perfect; suddenly do they shoot at him and fear not.
5 They encourage themselves in an evil matter; they attempt to hide the snares; they say, Who shall see them?
6 They search out iniquities; they perfect and put into effect that which they have invented in the inward thought of each one of them and that which they have devised in their heart.
7 ¶ But God shall shoot at them with an arrow; suddenly shall they be wounded.
8 So they shall make their own council and agreements to fall upon themselves; all that see them shall flee away.
9 And all men shall fear and shall declare the work of God, for they shall understand his doing.
10 The righteous shall be glad in the LORD and shall become secure in him, and all the upright in heart shall glory in him.
To the Overcomer, A Psalm and Song of David.
1 ¶ Praise doth rest in thee, O God, in Sion and unto thee shall the vow be performed.
2 O thou that hearest prayer, unto thee shall all flesh come.
3 Words of iniquity overwhelmed me, but thou shalt purge away our rebellion.
4 Blessed is the man whom thou dost choose and cause to approach unto thee that he may dwell in thy courts: we shall be satisfied with the goodness of thy house even of thy holy temple.
5 With tremendous things in righteousness wilt thou answer us, O God of our saving health, who art the hope of all the ends of the earth and of those that are afar off upon the sea:
6 ¶ Thou art he who doth establish the mountains by thy strength, being girded with valour:
7 He who stills the noise of the seas, the noise of their waves and the tumult of the Gentiles.
8 They also that dwell in the uttermost parts are afraid at thy wonders; thou makest the outgoings of the morning and evening to rejoice.
9 Thou dost visit the earth, and when thou hast caused it to want, thou dost greatly enrich it with the river of God, which is full of water; thou dost prepare their grain, according to thy will.
10 Thou dost water its rows abundantly; thou dost settle its furrows; thou dost make it soft with showers of rain; thou dost bless its sprouting.
11 Thou dost crown the year with thy goodness, and thy clouds distill fatness.
12 They fall upon the habitations of the wilderness; and the hills gird themselves with happiness.
13 The plains clothe themselves with sheep, and the valleys cover themselves with grain; they give shouts of triumph, they even sing.
16 ¶ And the LORD spoke unto Moses after the death of the two sons of Aaron, when they came near before the LORD and died;
2 and the LORD said unto Moses, Speak unto Aaron, thy brother, that he not enter at all times into the sanctuary inside the veil before the seat of reconciliation, which is upon the ark, that he not die; for I will appear in the cloud above the seat of reconciliation.
3 Thus shall Aaron come into the holy place: with a young bullock as sin and a ram as a burnt offering.
4 He shall put on the holy linen coat, and he shall have the linen underwear upon his flesh and shall be girded with a linen girdle, and with the linen mitre shall he cover himself. These are holy garments; and he shall wash his flesh with water and put them on.
5 ¶ And he shall take of the congregation of the sons of Israel two he goats as the sin and one ram as a burnt offering.
6 And Aaron shall cause the bullock of his sin to be brought, and make reconciliation for himself and for his house.
7 After that, he shall take the two goats and present them before the LORD at the door of the tabernacle of the testimony.
8 And Aaron shall cast lots upon the two he goats, one lot for the LORD and the other lot for Azazel. {Heb. entire removal}
9 And Aaron shall cause the he goat upon which the LORD’s lot fell to be brought and offer him for the sin.
10 But the he goat on which the lot fell for Azazel shall be presented alive before the LORD, to make the reconciliation upon him and to send him to Azazel into the wilderness.
11 And Aaron shall cause the bullock of his own sin to be brought and shall make the reconciliation for himself and for his house and shall kill the bullock of his own sin.
12 After that he shall take the censer full of burning coals of fire from off the altar before the LORD and his hands full of aromatic incense beaten small and bring it inside the veil.
13 And he shall put the incense upon the fire before the LORD, and the cloud of the incense shall cover the seat of reconciliation that is upon the testimony, and he shall not die.
14 Then he shall take of the blood of the bullock and sprinkle it with his finger towards the seat of reconciliation eastward; towards the seat of reconciliation he shall sprinkle of the blood with his finger seven times.
15 ¶ After that, he shall kill the goat of the sin of the people and bring its blood inside the veil and do with that blood as he did with the blood of the bullock and sprinkle it upon the seat of reconciliation and before the seat of reconciliation;
16 and he shall cleanse the sanctuary of the uncleanness of the sons of Israel and of their rebellions and of all their sins; in the same manner so shall he do for the tabernacle of the testimony, which dwells among them in the midst of their uncleanness.
17 And no man shall be in the tabernacle of the testimony when he enters in to make reconciliation in the sanctuary until he comes out and has made reconciliation for himself and for his household and for all the congregation of Israel.
18 And he shall go out unto the altar that is before the LORD and reconcile it and shall take of the blood of the bullock and of the blood of the he goat and put it upon the horns of the altar round about.
19 And he shall sprinkle of the blood upon it with his finger seven times and cleanse it and sanctify it from the uncleanness of the sons of Israel.
13 ¶ But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as the others who have no hope.
14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so those who sleep in Jesus will God also bring with him.
15 For this, we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not precede those who are asleep.
16 For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first;
17 then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
18 Therefore comfort one another with these words.
6 ¶ Take heed not to do your alms {lit. acts of mercy} before men, to be seen of them; otherwise, ye have no reward of your Father who is in the heavens.
2 Therefore, when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you, They already have their reward.
3 But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth
4 that thine alms may be in secret; and thy Father who sees in secret, he shall reward thee openly.
5 ¶ And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They already have their reward.
6 But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy chamber, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father who is in secret; and thy Father who sees in secret shall reward thee openly.
16 ¶ Moreover when ye fast, be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance, for they disfigure their faces that they may appear unto men to fast. Verily I say unto you, They already have their reward.
17 But thou, when thou dost fast, anoint thine head, and wash thy face
18 that thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father who is in secret; and thy Father, who sees in secret, shall reward thee openly.
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