Book of Common Prayer

119 Happy are all who perfectly follow the laws of God. ² Happy are all who search for God and always do his will, ³ rejecting compromise with evil and walking only in his paths. ⁴ You have given us your laws to obey— ⁵ oh, how I want to follow them consistently. ⁶ Then I will not be disgraced, for I will have a clean record.

⁷ After you have corrected me,^[a] I will thank you by living as I should! ⁸ I will obey! Oh, don’t forsake me and let me slip back into sin again.^[b]

⁹ How can a young man stay pure? By reading your Word and following its rules. ¹⁰ I have tried my best to find you—don’t let me wander off from your instructions. ¹¹ I have thought much about your words and stored them in my heart so that they would hold me back from sin.

¹² Blessed Lord, teach me your rules. ¹³ I have recited your laws ¹⁴ and rejoiced in them more than in riches. ¹⁵ I will meditate upon them and give them my full respect. ¹⁶ I will delight in them and not forget them.

¹⁷ Bless me with life^[c] so that I can continue to obey you. ¹⁸ Open my eyes to see wonderful things in your Word. ¹⁹ I am but a pilgrim here on earth: how I need a map—and your commands are my chart and guide. ²⁰ I long for your instructions more than I can tell.

²¹ You rebuke those cursed proud ones who refuse your commands— ²² don’t let them scorn me for obeying you. ²³ For even princes sit and talk against me, but I will continue in your plans. ²⁴ Your laws are both my light and my counselors.

12 Lord! Help! Godly men are fast disappearing. Where in all the world can dependable men be found? ² Everyone deceives and flatters and lies. There is no sincerity left.

^3-4 But the Lord will not deal gently with people who act like that; he will destroy those proud liars who say, “We will lie to our heart’s content. Our lips are our own; who can stop us?”

⁵ The Lord replies, “I will arise and defend the oppressed, the poor, the needy. I will rescue them as they have longed for me to do.” ⁶ The Lord’s promise is sure. He speaks no careless word; all he says is purest truth, like silver seven times refined. ⁷ O Lord, we know that you will forever preserve your own from the reach of evil men, ⁸ although they prowl on every side and vileness is praised throughout the land.

13 How long will you forget me, Lord? Forever? How long will you look the other way when I am in need? ² How long must I be hiding daily anguish in my heart? How long shall my enemy have the upper hand?

³ Answer me, O Lord my God; give me light in my darkness lest I die. ⁴ Don’t let my enemies say, “We have conquered him!” Don’t let them gloat that I am down.

⁵ But I will always trust in you and in your mercy and shall rejoice in your salvation. ⁶ I will sing to the Lord because he has blessed me so richly.

14 That man is a fool who says to himself, “There is no God!” Anyone who talks like that is warped and evil and cannot really be a good person at all.

² The Lord looks down from heaven on all mankind to see if there are any who are wise, who want to please God. ³ But no, all have strayed away; all are rotten with sin. Not one is good, not one! ⁴ They eat my people like bread and wouldn’t think of praying! Don’t they really know any better?

⁵ Terror shall grip them, for God is with those who love him. ⁶ He is the refuge of the poor and humble when evildoers are oppressing them. ⁷ Oh, that the time of their rescue were already here, that God would come from Zion now to save his people. What gladness when the Lord has rescued Israel!

¹⁴ At lunchtime Boaz called to her, “Come and eat with us.”

So she sat with his reapers and he gave her food,^[a] more than she could eat. ¹⁵ And when she went back to work again, Boaz told his young men to let her glean right among the sheaves without stopping her, ¹⁶ and to snap off some heads of barley and drop them on purpose for her to glean, and not to make any remarks. ¹⁷ So she worked there all day, and in the evening when she had beaten out the barley she had gleaned, it came to a whole bushel! ¹⁸ She carried it back into the city and gave it to her mother-in-law, with what was left of her lunch.

¹⁹ “So much!” Naomi exclaimed. “Where in the world did you glean today? Praise the Lord for whoever was so kind to you.” So Ruth told her mother-in-law all about it and mentioned that the owner of the field was Boaz.

²⁰ “Praise the Lord for a man like that! God has continued his kindness to us as well as to your dead husband!” Naomi cried excitedly. “Why, that man is one of our closest relatives!”^[b]

²¹ “Well,” Ruth told her, “he said to come back and stay close behind his reapers until the entire field is harvested.”

²² “This is wonderful!” Naomi exclaimed. “Do as he has said. Stay with his girls right through the whole harvest; you will be safer there than in any other field!”

²³ So Ruth did and gleaned with them until the end of the barley harvest, and then the wheat harvest too.

3 It is a true saying that if a man wants to be a pastor^[a] he has a good ambition. ² For a pastor must be a good man whose life cannot be spoken against. He must have only one wife, and he must be hard working and thoughtful, orderly, and full of good deeds. He must enjoy having guests in his home and must be a good Bible teacher. ³ He must not be a drinker or quarrelsome, but he must be gentle and kind and not be one who loves money. ⁴ He must have a well-behaved family, with children who obey quickly and quietly. ⁵ For if a man can’t make his own little family behave, how can he help the whole church?

⁶ The pastor must not be a new Christian because he might be proud of being chosen so soon, and pride comes before a fall. (Satan’s downfall is an example.) ⁷ Also, he must be well spoken of by people outside the church—those who aren’t Christians—so that Satan can’t trap him with many accusations and leave him without freedom to lead his flock.

⁸ The deacons must be the same sort of good, steady men as the pastors. They must not be heavy drinkers and must not be greedy for money. ⁹ They must be earnest, wholehearted followers of Christ, who is the hidden Source of their faith. ¹⁰ Before they are asked to be deacons, they should be given other jobs in the church as a test of their character and ability, and if they do well, then they may be chosen as deacons.

¹¹ Their wives must be thoughtful, not heavy drinkers, not gossipers, but faithful in everything they do. ¹² Deacons should have only one wife, and they should have happy, obedient families. ¹³ Those who do well as deacons will be well rewarded both by respect from others and also by developing their own confidence and bold trust in the Lord.

¹⁴ I am writing these things to you now, even though I hope to be with you soon, ¹⁵ so that if I don’t come for a while, you will know what kind of men you should choose as officers for the church of the living God, which contains and holds high the truth of God.

¹⁶ It is quite true that the way to live a godly life is not an easy matter. But the answer lies in Christ, who came to earth as a man, was proved spotless and pure in his Spirit, was served by angels, was preached among the nations, was accepted by men everywhere, and was received up again to his glory in heaven.

¹⁸ Now he began teaching them again about the Kingdom of God: “What is the Kingdom like?” he asked. “How can I illustrate it? ¹⁹ It is like a tiny mustard seed planted in a garden; soon it grows into a tall bush and the birds live among its branches.

^20-21 “It is like yeast kneaded into dough, which works unseen until it has risen high and light.”

²² He went from city to city and village to village, teaching as he went, always pressing onward toward Jerusalem.

²³ Someone asked him, “Will only a few be saved?”

And he replied, ^24-25 “The door to heaven is narrow. Work hard to get in, for the truth is that many will try to enter but when the head of the house has locked the door, it will be too late. Then if you stand outside knocking, and pleading, ‘Lord, open the door for us,’ he will reply, ‘I do not know you.’

²⁶ “‘But we ate with you, and you taught in our streets,’ you will say.

²⁷ “And he will reply, ‘I tell you, I don’t know you. You can’t come in here, guilty as you are. Go away.’

²⁸ “And there will be great weeping and gnashing of teeth as you stand outside and see Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and all the prophets within the Kingdom of God— ²⁹ for people will come from all over the world to take their places there. ³⁰ And note this: some who are despised now will be greatly honored then; and some who are highly thought of now will be least important then.”