Book of Common Prayer

To the Overcomer, A Psalm of David.

¹ ¶ In thee, O LORD, have I waited; let me never be ashamed; deliver me in thy righteousness.

² Incline thine ear unto me; deliver me speedily; be thou my strong rock, for a house of defence to save me.

³ For thou art my rock and my fortress; therefore for thy name’s sake thou shalt lead me and guide me.

⁴ Thou shalt pull me out of the net that they have laid in secret for me; for thou art my strength.

⁵ Into thy hand shall I commit my spirit; thou shalt ransom me, O LORD God of truth.

⁶ I have hated those that regard lying vanities; but I wait in the LORD.

⁷ I will be glad and rejoice in thy mercy, for thou hast considered my trouble; thou hast known my soul in adversities

⁸ and hast not shut me up into the hand of the enemy; thou hast set my feet in a wide place.

⁹ ¶ Have mercy upon me, O LORD, for I am in trouble: my eye is consumed with grief, yea, my soul and my belly.

¹⁰ For my life is spent with grief and my years with sighing: my strength fails because of my iniquity, and my bones are consumed.

¹¹ I was a reproach among all my enemies, but especially among my neighbours, and a fear to my acquaintances: those that see me without flee from me.

¹² I am forgotten as a dead man out of mind: I have become like a lost vessel.

¹³ For I have heard the slander of many; fear was on every side; while they took counsel together against me, they devised to take away my life.

¹⁴ But I trusted in thee, O LORD; I said, Thou art my God.

¹⁵ My times are in thy hand: deliver me from the hand of my enemies and from those that persecute me.

¹⁶ Make thy face to shine upon thy slave; save me for thy mercies’ sake.

¹⁷ Let me not be ashamed, O LORD, for I have called upon thee; let the wicked be ashamed, and let them be cut off for Sheol.

¹⁸ Let the lying lips be put to silence; which speak grievous things proudly and contemptuously against the righteous.

¹⁹ ¶ Oh how great is thy goodness, which thou hast laid up for those that fear thee; which thou hast wrought for those that wait in thee before the sons of men!

²⁰ Thou shalt keep them in the secret place of thy face from the pride of man; thou shalt keep them in the tabernacle protected from the strife of tongues.

²¹ Blessed be the LORD, for he has shown me his marvellous mercy in a strong city.

²² For I said in my haste, I am cut off from before thine eyes; nevertheless thou hast heard the voice of my supplications when I cried unto thee.

²³ O love the LORD, all ye his merciful ones, for the LORD preserves the faithful and plentifully rewards the proud doer.

²⁴ Be of good courage and strengthen your hearts, all ye that wait in the LORD.

A Psalm of David.

¹ ¶ Plead my cause, O LORD, with those that strive with me; fight against those that fight against me.

² Take hold of shield and buckler, and stand up in my help.

³ Draw out also the spear, and stop the way against those that persecute me; say unto my soul; I am thy saving health.

⁴ Let them be confounded and put to shame that seek after my soul; let them be turned back and brought to confusion that devise my hurt.

⁵ Let them be as chaff before the wind, and let the angel of the LORD chase them.

⁶ Let their way be dark and slippery, and let the angel of the LORD persecute them.

⁷ For without cause they have hid their net for me in a pit, which without cause they have dug for my soul.

⁸ Let destruction come upon him at unawares, and let his net that he has hid catch himself; into that very destruction let him fall.

⁹ And my soul shall be joyful in the LORD; it shall rejoice in his saving health.

¹⁰ All my bones shall say, LORD, who is like unto thee, who delivers the poor from him that is too strong for him, yea, the poor and the needy from him that spoils him?

¹¹ ¶ False witnesses rose up; they laid to my charge things that I knew not.

¹² They rewarded me evil for good until my soul was alone.

¹³ But as for me, when they were sick, my clothing was sackcloth; I humbled my soul with fasting, and my prayer rose up in my bosom.

¹⁴ I behaved myself as though he had been my friend or brother; I bowed down heavily, as one that mourns for his mother.

¹⁵ But in my adversity they rejoiced and gathered themselves together; yea, the smiters gathered themselves together against me, and I knew it not; they tore me apart and did not cease:

¹⁶ With immature hypocritical mockers, they gnashed upon me with their teeth.

¹⁷ ¶ Lord, how long wilt thou look on? Restore my soul from their destructions, my life from the lions.

¹⁸ I will give thee thanks in the great congregation; I will praise thee among many people.

¹⁹ Let not those that are my enemies wrongfully rejoice over me; neither let those that hate me wink with the eye without a cause.

²⁰ For they do not speak peace, but they devise deceitful matters against those that are meek in the land.

²¹ Yea, they opened their mouth wide against me and said, Aha, aha, our eye has seen it.

²² This thou hast seen, O LORD; do not keep silence; O Lord, do not be far from me.

²³ Stir up thyself and awake to my judgment, even unto my cause, my God and my Lord.

²⁴ Judge me, O LORD my God, according to thy righteousness; and let them not rejoice over me.

²⁵ Let them not say in their hearts, Ah, so would we have it; let them not say, We have swallowed him up.

²⁶ Let them be ashamed and brought to confusion together that rejoice at my hurt; let them be clothed with shame and dishonour that magnify themselves against me.

²⁷ Let them shout for joy and be glad that favour my righteous cause; let them say continually, Let the LORD be magnified, who has pleasure in the peace of his slave.

²⁸ And my tongue shall speak of thy righteousness and of thy praise all the day long.

¹⁹ ¶ Hear thou, my son, and be wise, and straighten thy heart in the way.

²⁰ Do not be among those who are drunk with wine; nor among gluttonous eaters of food;

²¹ for the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty, and drowsiness shall cause them to wear rags.

²⁹ ¶ For who shall be the woe? for who shall be the woe? for who contention? for who quarrels? for who the wounds without cause? who shall have redness of eyes?

³⁰ For those that tarry long at the wine; those that go to seek mixed wine.

³¹ Do not look upon the wine when it is red, when it gives its colour in the cup, it goes down smoothly.

³² At the last it bites like a serpent and stings like an adder.

³³ Thine eyes shall behold strange women, and thine heart shall utter perverse things.

³⁴ Yea, thou shalt be as he that lies down in the midst of the sea or as he that sleeps at the rudder.

³⁵ They have stricken me, thou shalt say, and I was not sick; they have beaten me, and I felt it not; when I shall awake, I will seek it yet again.

24 ¶ Do not be envious of evil men, neither desire to be with them.

² For their heart studies robbery, and their lips speak evil.

¹⁷ ¶ Let the elders that govern well be counted worthy of double honour, especially those who labour in the word and doctrine.

¹⁸ For the scripture saith, Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treads out the grain. And, The labourer is worthy of his reward.

¹⁹ Against an elder do not receive an accusation, unless there are two or three witnesses.

²⁰ Those that persist in sin rebuke before all, that the others may also fear.

²¹ I charge thee before God and the Lord Jesus Christ and the elect angels, that thou observe these things without preferring one before another, doing nothing by partiality.

²² Lay hands suddenly on no one, neither be partaker of the sins of others; keep thyself pure.

²³ Drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy stomach’s sake and thine often infirmities.

²⁴ Some men’s sins are manifest beforehand, before they come unto judgment, but to others they follow after.

²⁵ Likewise also the good works of some are manifest beforehand, and those that are otherwise cannot be hid.

³¹ He put forth another parable unto them, saying, The kingdom of the heavens is like unto a grain of mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field;

³² which indeed is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it is grown, it is the greatest among herbs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the heaven come and make their nests in its branches.

³³ He spoke another parable unto them: The kingdom of the heavens is like unto leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal until the whole was leavened.

³⁴ Jesus spoke all these things unto the multitude in parables and said nothing unto them without parables

³⁵ that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying, I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter things which have been kept secret from the foundation of the world.