Book of Common Prayer
To the Overcomer upon Shoshannim, {lilies} A testimony of Asaph: A Psalm.
1 ¶ Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, thou that leadest Joseph like a flock; thou that dwellest between the cherubim, shine forth.
2 In the presence of Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh stir up thy strength and come and save us.
3 Turn us again, O God, and cause thy face to shine; and we shall be saved.
4 O LORD God of the hosts, how long wilt thou be angry against the prayer of thy people?
5 Thou dost feed them with the bread of tears and give them tears to drink in great measure.
6 Thou dost make us a strife unto our neighbours, and our enemies laugh at us among themselves.
7 Turn us again, O God of the hosts, and cause thy face to shine; and we shall be saved.
8 ¶ Thou hast brought a vine out of Egypt; thou hast cast out the Gentiles and planted it.
9 Thou didst prepare room before it and didst cause it to take deep root, and it filled the earth.
10 The hills were covered with the shadow of it, and its boughs were like the cedars of God.
11 She sent out her boughs unto the sea and her branches unto the river.
12 Why hast thou then broken down her hedges, so that all those who pass by the way pluck her?
13 The boar out of the wood wastes it, and the wild beast of the field devours it.
14 Return, we beseech thee, O God of the hosts: look down from heaven and behold and visit this vine
15 and the vineyard which thy right hand has planted and the branch that thou didst make strong for thyself.
16 It is burned with fire; it is cut down; they perish at the rebuke of thy countenance.
17 Let thy hand be upon the man of thy right hand, upon the son of man whom thou didst make strong for thyself,
18 so we will not go back from thee. Thou shalt quicken us, and we will call upon thy name.
19 Turn us again, O LORD God of the hosts, cause thy face to shine; and we shall be saved.
To the Overcomer, to Jeduthun, A Psalm of Asaph.
1 ¶ I cried unto God with my voice, even unto God with my voice; and he gave ear unto me.
2 In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord; my sore bled in the night and ceased not; my soul refused to be comforted.
3 I remembered God and cried out; I complained, and my spirit was overwhelmed. Selah.
4 Thou didst hold my eyelids open; I am broken and did not speak.
5 I have considered the days from the beginning, the years of the ages.
6 I call to remembrance my songs of the night; I commune with my own heart, and my spirit made diligent search.
7 Will the Lord cast off for ever? and will he be favourable no more?
8 Is his mercy gone for ever? does his word fail from generation to generation?
9 Has God forgotten to have mercy? has he in anger shut up his tender mercies? Selah.
10 And I said, This is my infirmity, but I will remember the years of the right hand of the most High.
11 ¶ I remembered the works of JAH; therefore I shall remember thy wonders of old.
12 I meditated also on all thy works and spoke of thy doings.
13 Thy way, O God, is in holiness; who is so great a God as our God?
14 Thou art the God that doest wonders; thou hast declared thy strength among the peoples.
15 Thou hast with thine arm redeemed thy people, the sons of Jacob and Joseph. Selah.
16 The waters saw thee, O God, the waters saw thee; they were afraid; the depths also were troubled.
17 The clouds poured out floods of waters; the heavens thundered; thy bolts of lightning also went forth.
18 The voice of thy thunder was all around; the lightnings lightened the world; the earth trembled and shook.
19 Thy way was in the sea, and thy path in the great waters, and thy footsteps were not known.
20 Thou didst lead thy people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron.
A Psalm of Asaph.
1 ¶ O God, the Gentiles are come into thine inheritance; they have defiled the temple of thy holiness; they have laid Jerusalem on heaps.
2 The dead bodies of thy slaves they have given to be food unto the fowls of the heavens, the flesh of thy saints unto the beasts of the earth.
3 They have shed their blood like water round about Jerusalem, and there was no one to bury them.
4 We are reproached by our neighbours, scorned, and derided by those that are round about us.
5 How long, LORD? wilt thou be angry for ever? shall thy jealousy burn like fire?
6 ¶ Pour out thy wrath upon the Gentiles that do not know thee and upon the kingdoms that do not call upon thy name.
7 For they have devoured Jacob and laid waste his dwelling place.
8 O remember not against us former iniquities; let thy tender mercies speedily meet us on the way, for we are very poor.
9 Help us, O God, our saving health, for the honor of thy name and deliver us and purge away our sins, for thy name’s sake.
10 Why should the Gentiles say, Where is their God? let him be known among the Gentiles in our sight by the revenging of the blood of thy slaves which is shed.
11 Let the sighing of the prisoners come before thee; according to the greatness of thy power preserve those that are appointed to die
12 and render unto our neighbours sevenfold into their bosom their reproach, with which they have reproached thee, O Lord.
13 So we thy people and sheep of thy pasture will give thee thanks for ever: from generation to generation we will sing thy praises.
4 So Esther’s maids and her eunuchs came and told her. Then the queen was grieved exceedingly, and she sent raiment to clothe Mordecai and to take away his sackcloth from him; but he did not receive it.
5 ¶ Then Esther called for Hatach, one of the king’s eunuchs, whom he had appointed to attend her, and sent him to Mordecai, to know what it was and why it was.
6 So Hatach went forth to Mordecai unto the plaza of the city, which was before the king’s gate.
7 And Mordecai told him of all that had happened unto him and of the sum of the money that Haman had promised to pay to the king’s treasuries for the Jews, to destroy them.
8 Also he gave him the copy of the writing of the decree that was given at Shushan to destroy them, to show it unto Esther and to declare it unto her and to charge her that she should go in unto the king to make supplication unto him and to make request before him for her people.
9 And Hatach came and told Esther the words of Mordecai.
10 Again Esther spoke unto Hatach and sent him to say unto Mordecai,
11 All the king’s slaves and the people of the king’s provinces do know that anyone, whether man or woman, who shall come unto the king into the inner court without being called, by one law shall be put to death, unless the king shall hold out the golden sceptre, that they may live; but I have not been called to come in unto the king these thirty days.
12 And they told to Mordecai Esther’s words.
13 Then Mordecai told them to answer Esther, Do not think in thy soul that thou shalt escape in the king’s house, more than all the Jews.
14 For if thou art silent at this time, then enlargement and deliverance shall arise to the Jews from another place, but thou and thy father’s house shall be destroyed; and who knows whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?
15 Then Esther told them to return Mordecai this answer,
16 Go, gather together all the Jews that are present in Shushan and fast for me, and neither eat nor drink for three days, night or day; I also and my maidens will fast likewise; and so I will go in unto the king, even though this is not according to the law; and if I perish, I perish.
17 So Mordecai went and did according to all that Esther had commanded him.
18 ¶ After these things Paul departed from Athens and came to Corinth
2 and found a certain Jew named Aquila, born in Pontus, lately come from Italy, with his wife Priscilla (for Claudius had commanded all Jews to depart from Rome) and came unto them.
3 And because he was of the same craft, he abode with them and worked, for by their occupation they were tentmakers.
4 And he reasoned in the synagogue every sabbath and persuaded Jews and Greeks.
5 And when Silas and Timothy were come from Macedonia, Paul was impressed by the Spirit and testified to the Jews that Jesus was the Christ.
6 And when they opposed themselves and blasphemed, he shook his raiment and said unto them, Your blood be upon your own heads; I am clean; from now on I will go unto the Gentiles.
7 ¶ And he departed from there and entered into a certain man’s house, named Titus the Just, one that feared God, whose house was next to the synagogue.
8 And Crispus, the chief ruler of the synagogue, believed on the Lord with all his house; and many of the Corinthians, hearing, believed and were baptized.
9 Then the Lord spoke to Paul in the night by a vision, Do not be afraid, but speak and do not be silent,
10 For I am with thee, and no one shall be able to hurt thee, for I have many people in this city.
11 And he continued there a year and six months, teaching them the word of God.
1 ¶ Forasmuch as many have attempted to set forth in order the history of those things which among us have been most certain,
2 even as those who were eyewitnesses from the beginning taught us and thus were ministers of the word,
3 it seemed good also to me, after having understood all the things from the beginning with great diligence, to write them unto thee in order, most excellent Theophilus,
4 that thou mightest know the security of those things in which thou hast been instructed.
3 ¶ Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judaea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of Ituraea and of the region of Trachonitis, and Lysanias the tetrarch of Abilene,
2 Annas and Caiaphas being the high priests, the word of God came upon John the son of Zachariah in the wilderness.
3 And he came into all the country about Jordan, preaching the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins;
4 as it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord; make his paths straight.
5 Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low, and the crooked ways shall be made straight, and the rough ways shall be made smooth;
6 and all flesh shall see the saving health of God.
7 Then said he to the multitude that came forth to be baptized of him, O generation of vipers, who taught you to flee from the wrath to come?
8 Bring forth therefore fruits worthy of repentance and begin not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham for our father; for I say unto you, That God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham.
9 And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees; every tree therefore which does not bring forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire.
10 And the people asked him, saying, What shall we do then?
11 He answered and said unto them, He that has two coats, let him impart to him that has none; and he that has food, let him do likewise.
12 Then the publicans also came to be baptized and said unto him, Master, what shall we do?
13 And he said unto them, Exact no more than that which is appointed you.
14 And the soldiers likewise demanded of him, saying, And what shall we do? And he said unto them, Oppress no one, neither accuse anyone falsely; and be content with your wages.
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