Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 101
A Psalm of David.
1 I will sing of mercy and loving-kindness and justice; to You, O Lord, will I sing.
2 I will behave myself wisely and give heed to the blameless way—O when will You come to me? I will walk within my house in integrity and with a blameless heart.
3 I will set no base or wicked thing before my eyes. I hate the work of them who turn aside [from the right path]; it shall not grasp hold of me.
4 A perverse heart shall depart from me; I will know no evil person or thing.
5 Whoso privily slanders his neighbor, him will I cut off [from me]; he who has a haughty look and a proud and arrogant heart I cannot and I will not tolerate.
6 My eyes shall [look with favor] upon the faithful of the land, that they may dwell with me; he who walks blamelessly, he shall minister to me.
7 He who works deceit shall not dwell in my house; he who tells lies shall not continue in my presence.
8 Morning after morning I will root up all the wicked in the land, that I may eliminate all the evildoers from the city of the Lord.
Psalm 109
To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David.
1 O God of my praise! Keep not silence,
2 For the mouths of the wicked and the mouth of deceit are opened against me; they have spoken to me and against me with lying tongues.
3 They have compassed me about also with words of hatred and have fought against me without a cause.
4 In return for my love they are my adversaries, but I resort to prayer.
5 And they have rewarded and laid upon me evil for good, and hatred for my love.
6 Set a wicked man over him [as a judge], and let [a malicious] accuser stand at his right hand.
7 When [the wicked] is judged, let him be condemned, and let his prayer [for leniency] be turned into a sin.
8 Let his days be few; and let another take his office and charge.(A)
9 Let his children be fatherless and his wife a widow.
10 Let his children be continual vagabonds [as was Cain] and beg; let them seek their bread and be driven far from their ruined homes.(B)
11 Let the creditor and extortioner seize all that he has; and let strangers (barbarians and foreigners) plunder the fruits of his labor.
12 Let there be none to extend or continue mercy and kindness to him, neither let there be any to have pity on his fatherless children.
13 Let his posterity be cut off, and in the generation following let their names be blotted out.
14 Let the iniquity of his fathers be remembered by the Lord; and let not the sin of his mother be blotted out.
15 Let them be before the Lord continually, that He may cut off the memory of them from the earth!—
16 Because the man did not [earnestly] remember to show mercy, but pursued and persecuted the poor and needy man, and the broken in heart [he was ready] to slay.
17 Yes, he loved cursing, and it came [back] upon him; he delighted not in blessing, and it was far from him.
18 He clothed himself also with cursing as with his garment, and it seeped into his inward [life] like water, and like oil into his bones.
19 Let it be to him as the raiment with which he covers himself and as the girdle with which he is girded continually.
20 Let this be the reward of my adversaries from the Lord, and of those who speak evil against my life.
21 But You deal with me and act for me, O God the Lord, for Your name’s sake; because Your mercy and loving-kindness are good, O deliver me.
22 For I am poor and needy, and my heart is wounded and stricken within me.
23 I am gone like the shadow when it lengthens and declines; I toss up and down and am shaken off as the locust.
24 My knees are weak and totter from fasting; and my body is gaunt and has no fatness.
25 I have become also a reproach and a taunt to others; when they see me, they shake their heads.(C)
26 Help me, O Lord my God; O save me according to Your mercy and loving-kindness!—
27 That they may know that this is Your hand, that You, Lord, have done it.
28 Let them curse, but do You bless. When adversaries arise, let them be put to shame, but let Your servant rejoice.
29 Let my adversaries be clothed with shame and dishonor, and let them cover themselves with their own disgrace and confusion as with a robe.
30 I will give great praise and thanks to the Lord with my mouth; yes, and I will praise Him among the multitude.
121 I have done justice and righteousness; leave me not to those who would oppress me.
122 Be surety for Your servant for good [as Judah was surety for the safety of Benjamin]; let not the proud oppress me.(A)
123 My eyes fail, watching for Your salvation and for the fulfillment of Your righteous promise.
124 Deal with Your servant according to Your mercy and loving-kindness, and teach me Your statutes.
125 I am Your servant; give me understanding (discernment and comprehension), that I may know (discern and be familiar with the character of) Your testimonies.
126 It is time for the Lord to act; they have frustrated Your law.
127 Therefore I love Your commandments more than [resplendent] gold, yes, more than [perfectly] refined gold.
128 Therefore I esteem as right all, yes, all Your precepts; I hate every false way.
129 Your testimonies are wonderful [far exceeding anything conceived by man]; therefore my [penitent] self keeps them [hearing, receiving, loving, and obeying them].
130 The entrance and unfolding of Your words give light; their unfolding gives understanding (discernment and comprehension) to the simple.
131 I opened my mouth and panted [with eager desire], for I longed for Your commandments.
132 Look upon me, be merciful unto me, and show me favor, as is Your way to those who love Your name.
133 Establish my steps and direct them by [means of] Your word; let not any iniquity have dominion over me.
134 Deliver me from the oppression of man; so will I keep Your precepts [hearing, receiving, loving, and obeying them].(B)
135 Make Your face shine [with pleasure] upon Your servant, and teach me Your statutes.(C)
136 Streams of water run down my eyes, because men do not keep Your law [they hear it not, nor receive it, love it, or obey it].
137 [Rigidly] righteous are You, O Lord, and upright are Your judgments and all expressions of Your will.
138 You have commanded and appointed Your testimonies in righteousness and in great faithfulness.
139 My zeal has consumed me and cut me off, because my adversaries have forgotten Your words.
140 Your word is very pure (tried and well refined); therefore Your servant loves it.
141 I am small (insignificant) and despised, but I do not forget Your precepts.
142 Your righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, and Your law is truth.(D)
143 Trouble and anguish have found and taken hold on me, yet Your commandments are my delight.
144 Your righteous testimonies are everlasting and Your decrees are binding to eternity; give me understanding and I shall live [give me discernment and comprehension and I shall not die].
2 In that day the Branch of the Lord shall be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the land shall be excellent and lovely to those of Israel who have escaped.(A)
3 And he who is left in Zion and remains in Jerusalem will be called holy, everyone who is recorded for life in Jerusalem and for [a]eternal life,(B)
4 After the Lord has washed away the [moral] filth of the daughters of Zion [pride, vanity, haughtiness] and has purged the bloodstains of Jerusalem from the midst of it by the spirit and blast of judgment and by the spirit and blast of burning and sifting.
5 And the Lord will create over the whole site, over every dwelling place of Mount Zion and over her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day and the shining of a flaming fire by night; for over all the glory shall be a canopy (a defense of divine love and protection).
6 And there shall be a pavilion for shade in the daytime from the heat, and for a place of refuge and a shelter from storm and from rain.
4 I therefore, the prisoner for the Lord, appeal to and beg you to walk (lead a life) worthy of the [divine] calling to which you have been called [with behavior that is a credit to the summons to God’s service,
2 Living as becomes you] with complete lowliness of mind (humility) and meekness (unselfishness, gentleness, mildness), with patience, bearing with one another and making allowances because you love one another.
3 Be eager and strive earnestly to guard and keep the harmony and oneness of [and produced by] the Spirit in the binding power of peace.
4 [There is] one body and one Spirit—just as there is also one hope [that belongs] to the calling you received—
5 [There is] one Lord, one faith, one baptism,
6 One God and Father of [us] all, Who is above all [Sovereign over all], pervading all and [living] in [us] all.
7 Yet grace (God’s unmerited favor) was given to each of us individually [not indiscriminately, but in different ways] in proportion to the measure of Christ’s [rich and bounteous] gift.
8 Therefore it is said, When He ascended on high, He led captivity captive [He led a train of [a]vanquished foes] and He bestowed gifts on men.(A)
9 [But He ascended?] Now what can this, He ascended, mean but that He had previously descended from [the heights of] heaven into [the depths], the lower parts of the earth?
10 He Who descended is the [very] same as He Who also has ascended high above all the heavens, that He [His presence] might fill all things (the whole universe, from the lowest to the highest).
11 And His gifts were [varied; He Himself appointed and gave men to us] some to be apostles (special messengers), some prophets (inspired preachers and expounders), some evangelists (preachers of the Gospel, traveling missionaries), some pastors (shepherds of His flock) and teachers.
12 His intention was the perfecting and the full equipping of the saints (His consecrated people), [that they should do] the work of ministering toward building up Christ’s body (the church),
13 [That it might develop] until we all attain oneness in the faith and in the comprehension of the [[b]full and accurate] knowledge of the Son of God, that [we might arrive] at really mature manhood (the completeness of personality which is nothing less than the standard height of Christ’s own perfection), the measure of the stature of the fullness of the Christ and the completeness found in Him.
14 So then, we may no longer be children, tossed [like ships] to and fro between chance gusts of teaching and wavering with every changing wind of doctrine, [the prey of] the cunning and cleverness of [c]unscrupulous men, [gamblers engaged] in every shifting form of trickery in inventing errors to mislead.
15 Rather, let our lives lovingly [d]express truth [in all things, speaking truly, dealing truly, living truly]. Enfolded in love, let us grow up in every way and in all things into Him Who is the Head, [even] Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One).
16 For because of Him the whole body (the church, in all its various parts), closely joined and firmly knit together by the joints and ligaments with which it is supplied, when each part [with power adapted to its need] is working properly [in all its functions], grows to full maturity, building itself up in love.
28 And when He arrived at the other side in the country of the Gadarenes, two men under the control of demons went to meet Him, coming out of the tombs, so fierce and savage that no one was able to pass that way.
29 And behold, they shrieked and screamed, What have You to do with us, Jesus, Son of God? Have You come to torment us before the appointed time?(A)
30 Now at some distance from there a drove of many hogs was grazing.
31 And the demons begged Him, If You drive us out, send us into the drove of hogs.
32 And He said to them, Begone! So they came out and went into the hogs, and behold, the whole drove rushed down the steep bank into the sea and died in the water.
33 The herdsmen fled and went into the town and reported everything, including what had happened to the men under the power of demons.
34 And behold, the whole town went out to meet Jesus; and as soon as they saw Him, they begged Him to depart from their locality.
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