Book of Common Prayer
Promised Faithfulness to the Lord
A Psalm of David.
101 I will sing of mercy and justice;
To You, O Lord, I will sing praises.
2 I will behave wisely in a [a]perfect way.
Oh, when will You come to me?
I will (A)walk within my house with a perfect heart.
3 I will set nothing [b]wicked before my eyes;
(B)I hate the work of those (C)who fall away;
It shall not cling to me.
4 A perverse heart shall depart from me;
I will not (D)know wickedness.
5 Whoever secretly slanders his neighbor,
Him I will destroy;
(E)The one who has a haughty look and a proud heart,
Him I will not endure.
6 My eyes shall be on the faithful of the land,
That they may dwell with me;
He who walks in a [c]perfect way,
He shall serve me.
7 He who works deceit shall not dwell within my house;
He who tells lies shall not [d]continue in my presence.
8 (F)Early I will destroy all the wicked of the land,
That I may cut off all the evildoers (G)from the city of the Lord.
Plea for Judgment of False Accusers
To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David.
109 Do(A) not keep silent,
O God of my praise!
2 For the mouth of the wicked and the mouth of the deceitful
Have opened against me;
They have spoken against me with a (B)lying tongue.
3 They have also surrounded me with words of hatred,
And fought against me (C)without a cause.
4 In return for my love they are my accusers,
But I give myself to prayer.
5 Thus (D)they have rewarded me evil for good,
And hatred for my love.
6 Set a wicked man over him,
And let (E)an [a]accuser stand at his right hand.
7 When he is judged, let him be found guilty,
And (F)let his prayer become sin.
8 Let his days be (G)few,
And (H)let another take his office.
9 (I)Let his children be fatherless,
And his wife a widow.
10 Let his children [b]continually be vagabonds, and beg;
Let them [c]seek their bread also from their desolate places.
11 (J)Let the creditor seize all that he has,
And let strangers plunder his labor.
12 Let there be none to extend mercy to him,
Nor let there be any to favor his fatherless children.
13 (K)Let his [d]posterity be cut off,
And in the generation following let their (L)name be blotted out.
14 (M)Let the iniquity of his fathers be remembered before the Lord,
And let not the sin of his mother (N)be blotted out.
15 Let them be continually before the Lord,
That He may (O)cut off the memory of them from the earth;
16 Because he did not remember to show mercy,
But persecuted the poor and needy man,
That he might even slay the (P)broken in heart.
17 (Q)As he loved cursing, so let it come to him;
As he did not delight in blessing, so let it be far from him.
18 As he clothed himself with cursing as with his garment,
So let it (R)enter his body like water,
And like oil into his bones.
19 Let it be to him like the garment which covers him,
And for a belt with which he girds himself continually.
20 Let this be the Lord’s reward to my accusers,
And to those who speak evil against my person.
21 But You, O God the Lord,
Deal with me for Your name’s sake;
Because Your mercy is good, deliver me.
22 For I am poor and needy,
And my heart is wounded within me.
23 I am gone (S)like a shadow when it lengthens;
I am shaken off like a locust.
24 My (T)knees are weak through fasting,
And my flesh is feeble from lack of fatness.
25 I also have become (U)a reproach to them;
When they look at me, (V)they shake their heads.
26 Help me, O Lord my God!
Oh, save me according to Your mercy,
27 (W)That they may know that this is Your hand—
That You, Lord, have done it!
28 (X)Let them curse, but You bless;
When they arise, let them be ashamed,
But let (Y)Your servant rejoice.
29 (Z)Let my accusers be clothed with shame,
And let them cover themselves with their own disgrace as with a mantle.
30 I will greatly praise the Lord with my mouth;
Yes, (AA)I will praise Him among the multitude.
ע AYIN
121 I have done justice and righteousness;
Do not leave me to my oppressors.
122 Be (A)surety[a] for Your servant for good;
Do not let the proud oppress me.
123 My eyes fail from seeking Your salvation
And Your righteous word.
124 Deal with Your servant according to Your mercy,
And teach me Your statutes.
125 (B)I am Your servant;
Give me understanding,
That I may know Your testimonies.
126 It is time for You to act, O Lord,
For they have [b]regarded Your law as void.
127 (C)Therefore I love Your commandments
More than gold, yes, than fine gold!
128 Therefore all Your precepts concerning all things
I consider to be right;
I hate every false way.
פ PE
129 Your testimonies are wonderful;
Therefore my soul keeps them.
130 The entrance of Your words gives light;
(D)It gives understanding to the (E)simple.
131 I opened my mouth and (F)panted,
For I longed for Your commandments.
132 (G)Look upon me and be merciful to me,
(H)As Your custom is toward those who love Your name.
133 (I)Direct my steps by Your word,
And (J)let no iniquity have dominion over me.
134 (K)Redeem me from the oppression of man,
That I may keep Your precepts.
135 (L)Make Your face shine upon Your servant,
And teach me Your statutes.
136 (M)Rivers of water run down from my eyes,
Because men do not keep Your law.
צ TSADDE
137 (N)Righteous are You, O Lord,
And upright are Your judgments.
138 (O)Your testimonies, which You have commanded,
Are righteous and very faithful.
139 (P)My zeal has [c]consumed me,
Because my enemies have forgotten Your words.
140 (Q)Your word is very [d]pure;
Therefore Your servant loves it.
141 I am small and despised,
Yet I do not forget Your precepts.
142 Your righteousness is an everlasting righteousness,
And Your law is (R)truth.
143 Trouble and anguish have [e]overtaken me,
Yet Your commandments are my delights.
144 The righteousness of Your testimonies is everlasting;
Give me understanding, and I shall live.
The Renewal of Zion
2 In that day (A)the Branch of the Lord shall be beautiful and glorious;
And the fruit of the earth shall be excellent and appealing
For those of Israel who have escaped.
3 And it shall come to pass that he who is left in Zion and remains in Jerusalem (B)will be called holy—everyone who is (C)recorded among the living in Jerusalem. 4 When (D)the Lord has washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and purged the [a]blood of Jerusalem from her midst, by the spirit of judgment and by the spirit of burning, 5 then the Lord will create above every dwelling place of Mount Zion, and above her assemblies, (E)a cloud and smoke by day and (F)the shining of a flaming fire by night. For over all the glory there will be a [b]covering. 6 And there will be a tabernacle for shade in the daytime from the heat, (G)for a place of refuge, and for a shelter from storm and rain.
Walk in Unity
4 I, therefore, the prisoner [a]of the Lord, [b]beseech you to (A)walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, 2 with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, 3 endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit (B)in the bond of peace. 4 (C)There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; 5 (D)one Lord, (E)one faith, (F)one baptism; 6 (G)one God and Father of all, who is above all, and (H)through all, and in [c]you all.
Spiritual Gifts
7 But (I)to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift. 8 Therefore He says:
(J)“When He ascended on high,
He led captivity captive,
And gave gifts to men.”
9 (K)(Now this, “He ascended”—what does it mean but that He also [d]first descended into the lower parts of the earth? 10 He who descended is also the One (L)who ascended far above all the heavens, (M)that He might fill all things.)
11 And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, 12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, (N)for the [e]edifying of (O)the body of Christ, 13 till we all come to the unity of the faith (P)and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to (Q)a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; 14 that we should no longer be (R)children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of (S)deceitful plotting, 15 but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the (T)head—Christ— 16 (U)from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.
Two Demon-Possessed Men Healed(A)
28 (B)When He had come to the other side, to the country of the [a]Gergesenes, there met Him two demon-possessed men, coming out of the tombs, exceedingly fierce, so that no one could pass that way. 29 And suddenly they cried out, saying, “What have we to do with You, Jesus, You Son of God? Have You come here to torment us before the time?”
30 Now a good way off from them there was a herd of many swine feeding. 31 So the demons begged Him, saying, “If You cast us out, [b]permit us to go away into the herd of swine.”
32 And He said to them, “Go.” So when they had come out, they went into the herd of swine. And suddenly the whole herd of swine ran violently down the steep place into the sea, and perished in the water.
33 Then those who kept them fled; and they went away into the city and told everything, including what had happened to the demon-possessed men. 34 And behold, the whole city came out to meet Jesus. And when they saw Him, (C)they begged Him to depart from their region.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.