Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 31
To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David.
1 In You, O Lord, do I put my trust and seek refuge; let me never be put to shame or [have my hope in You] disappointed; deliver me in Your righteousness!
2 Bow down Your ear to me, deliver me speedily! Be my Rock of refuge, a strong Fortress to save me!
3 Yes, You are my Rock and my Fortress; therefore for Your name’s sake lead me and guide me.
4 Draw me out of the net that they have laid secretly for me, for You are my Strength and my Stronghold.
5 Into Your hands I commit my spirit; You have redeemed me, O Lord, the God of truth and faithfulness.(A)
6 [You and] I abhor those who pay regard to vain idols; but I trust in, rely on, and confidently lean on the Lord.
7 I will be glad and rejoice in Your mercy and steadfast love, because You have seen my affliction, You have taken note of my life’s distresses,
8 And You have not given me into the hand of the enemy; You have set my feet in a broad place.
9 Have mercy and be gracious unto me, O Lord, for I am in trouble; with grief my eye is weakened, also my inner self and my body.
10 For my life is spent with sorrow and my years with sighing; my strength has failed because of my iniquity, and even my bones have wasted away.
11 To all my enemies I have become a reproach, but especially to my neighbors, and a dread to my acquaintances, who flee from me on the street.
12 I am forgotten like a dead man, and out of mind; like a broken vessel am I.
13 For I have heard the slander of many; terror is on every side! While they schemed together against me, they plotted to take my life.
14 But I trusted in, relied on, and was confident in You, O Lord; I said, You are my God.
15 My times are in Your hands; deliver me from the hands of my foes and those who pursue me and persecute me.
16 Let Your face shine on Your servant; save me for Your mercy’s sake and in Your loving-kindness.
17 Let me not be put to shame, O Lord, or disappointed, for I am calling upon You; let the wicked be put to shame, let them be silent in Sheol (the place of the dead).
18 Let the lying lips be silenced, which speak insolently against the [consistently] righteous with pride and contempt.
19 Oh, how great is Your goodness, which You have laid up for those who fear, revere, and worship You, goodness which You have wrought for those who trust and take refuge in You before the sons of men!
20 In the secret place of Your presence You hide them from the plots of men; You keep them secretly in Your pavilion from the strife of tongues.
21 Blessed be the Lord! For He has shown me His marvelous loving favor when I was beset as in a besieged city.
22 As for me, I said in my haste and alarm, I am cut off from before Your eyes. But You heard the voice of my supplications when I cried to You for aid.
23 O love the Lord, all you His saints! The Lord preserves the faithful, and plentifully pays back him who deals haughtily.
24 Be strong and let your heart take courage, all you who wait for and hope for and expect the Lord!
Psalm 35
[A Psalm] of David.
1 Contend, O Lord, with those who contend with me; fight against those who fight against me!
2 Take hold of shield and buckler, and stand up for my help!
3 Draw out also the spear and javelin and close up the way of those who pursue and persecute me. Say to me, I am your deliverance!
4 Let them be put to shame and dishonor who seek and require my life; let them be turned back and confounded who plan my hurt!
5 Let them be as chaff before the wind, with the [a]Angel of the Lord driving them on!
6 Let their way be through dark and slippery places, with the Angel of the Lord pursuing and afflicting them.
7 For without cause they hid for me their net; a pit of destruction without cause they dug for my life.
8 Let destruction befall [my foe] unawares; let the net he hid for me catch him; let him fall into that very destruction.
9 Then I shall be joyful in the Lord; I shall rejoice in His deliverance.
10 All my bones shall say, Lord, who is like You, You Who deliver the poor and the afflicted from him who is too strong for him, yes, the poor and the needy from him who snatches away his goods?
11 Malicious and unrighteous witnesses rise up; they ask me of things that I know not.
12 They reward me evil for good to my personal bereavement.
13 But as for me, when they were sick, my clothing was sackcloth; I afflicted myself with fasting, and I prayed with head bowed on my breast.
14 I behaved as if grieving for my friend or my brother; I bowed down in sorrow, as one who bewails his mother.
15 But in my stumbling and limping they rejoiced and gathered together [against me]; the smiters (slanderers and revilers) gathered against me, and I knew them not; they ceased not to slander and revile me.
16 Like profane mockers at feasts [making sport for the price of a cake] they gnashed at me with their teeth.
17 Lord, how long will You look on [without action]? Rescue my life from their destructions, my dear and only life from the lions!
18 I will give You thanks in the great assembly; I will praise You among a mighty throng.
19 Let not those who are wrongfully my foes rejoice over me; neither let them wink with the eye who hate me without cause.(A)
20 For they do not speak peace, but they devise deceitful matters against those who are quiet in the land.
21 Yes, they open their mouths wide against me; they say, Aha! Aha! Our eyes have seen it!
22 You have seen this, O Lord; keep not silence! O Lord, be not far from me!
23 Arouse Yourself, awake to the justice due me, even to my cause, my God and my Lord!
24 Judge and vindicate me, O Lord my God, according to Your righteousness (Your rightness and justice); and let [my foes] not rejoice over me!
25 Let them not say in their hearts, Aha, that is what we wanted! Let them not say, We have swallowed him up and utterly destroyed him.
26 Let them be put to shame and confusion together who rejoice at my calamity! Let them be clothed with shame and dishonor who magnify and exalt themselves over me!
27 Let those who favor my righteous cause and have pleasure in my uprightness shout for joy and be glad and say continually, Let the Lord be magnified, Who takes pleasure in the prosperity of His servant.
28 And my tongue shall talk of Your righteousness, rightness, and justice, and of [my reasons for] Your praise all the day long.
13 Then the sixth angel blew [his] trumpet, and from the four horns of the golden altar which stands before God I heard a solitary voice,
14 Saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, Liberate the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates.
15 So the four angels who had been in readiness for that hour in the appointed day, month, and year were liberated to destroy a third of mankind.
16 The number of their troops of cavalry was twice ten thousand times ten thousand (200,000,000); I heard what their number was.
17 And in [my] vision the horses and their riders appeared to me like this: the riders wore breastplates the color of fiery red and sapphire blue and sulphur (brimstone) yellow. The heads of the horses looked like lions’ heads, and from their mouths there poured fire and smoke and sulphur (brimstone).
18 A third of mankind was killed by these three plagues—by the fire and the smoke and the sulphur (brimstone) that poured from the mouths of the horses.
19 For the power of the horses to do harm is in their mouths and also in their tails. Their tails are like serpents, for they have heads, and it is by means of them that they wound people.
20 And the rest of humanity who were not killed by these plagues even then did not repent of [the worship of] the works of their [own] hands, so as to cease paying homage to the demons and idols of gold and silver and bronze and stone and wood, which can neither see nor hear nor move.(A)
21 And they did not repent of their murders or their practice of magic (sorceries) or their sexual vice or their thefts.
38 Now while they were on their way, it occurred that Jesus entered a certain village, and a woman named Martha received and welcomed Him into her house.
39 And she had a sister named Mary, who seated herself at the Lord’s feet and was listening to His teaching.
40 But Martha [overly occupied and too busy] was distracted with much serving; and she came up to Him and said, Lord, is it nothing to You that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me [to lend a hand and do her part along with me]!
41 But the Lord replied to her by saying, Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things;
42 There is need of only one or but [a]a few things. Mary has chosen the good portion [[b]that which is to her advantage], which shall not be taken away from her.
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