Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 31(A)
For the Music Director. A Psalm of David.
1 In You, O Lord, do I seek refuge;
may I never be ashamed;
deliver me in Your righteousness.
2 Incline Your ear to me;
deliver me speedily;
be my strong rock,
a strong fortress to save me.
3 For You are my rock and my fortress;
for Your name’s sake lead me and guide me.
4 Lead me out of the net that they have hidden for me,
for You are my strength.
5 Into Your hand I commit my spirit;
You have redeemed me, O Lord, God of truth.
6 I have hated those who regard worthless vanity,
but I trust in the Lord.
7 I will be glad and rejoice in Your lovingkindness,
for You have seen my trouble;
You have known my soul in adversities,
8 and have not delivered me up into the hand of the enemy;
You have set my feet in a broad place.
9 Be gracious to me, O Lord, for I am in trouble;
my eye wastes away with grief,
yes, my soul and my body.
10 For my life is spent with grief,
and my years with sighing;
my strength fails because of my iniquity,
and my bones waste away.
11 I became a reproach among all my enemies,
but especially among my neighbors,
and a dread to my acquaintances;
those who saw me outside fled from me.
12 I am forgotten as a dead man out of mind;
I am like a broken vessel.
13 For I have heard the slander of many;
fear was on every side;
while they took counsel together against me,
they planned to take away my life.
14 But I trusted in You, O Lord;
I said, “You are my God.”
15 My times are in Your hand;
deliver me from the hand of my enemies
and my pursuers.
16 Make Your face to shine on Your servant;
save me by Your lovingkindness.
17 Do not let me be ashamed, O Lord,
for I have called on You;
let the wicked be ashamed,
and let them be silent in the grave.
18 Let the lying lips be put to silence,
who speak arrogantly
in pride and contempt against the righteous.
19 Oh, how great is Your goodness,
which You have laid up for those who fear You,
which You have done for those
seeking refuge in You before people!
20 You will hide them in the secret of Your presence
from conspirators;
You will keep them secretly in a shelter
from the strife of tongues.
21 Blessed be the Lord,
for He has shown me His marvelous lovingkindness
in a fortified city.
22 For I said in my haste,
“I am cut off from before Your eyes.”
Nevertheless You heard the voice of my supplications
when I cried to You.
23 Oh, love the Lord, all you His saints,
for the Lord preserves the faithful,
but amply repays the one who acts in pride.
24 Be strong, and He will strengthen your heart,
all you who wait for the Lord.
Psalm 35
A Psalm of David.
1 Plead my cause, O Lord, with my adversaries;
fight those who fight me.
2 Take hold of the large shield and small shield,
and rise up for my help.
3 Draw the spear and javelin
against those who pursue me.
Say to my soul,
“I am Your salvation.”
4 May those who seek my life
be ashamed and humiliated;
may those who plan my injury
be turned back and put to shame.
5 May they be as chaff before the wind,
and may the angel of the Lord cast them down.
6 May their way be dark and slippery,
and may the angel of the Lord pursue them.
7 For without cause they have hidden their net for me in a pit,
which they have dug without cause for my soul.
8 Let destruction come on him without warning,
and let the net that he hid ensnare him;
let him fall into it, to his destruction.
9 My soul will be joyful in the Lord;
it will rejoice in His salvation.
10 All my bones will say,
“Lord, who is like You,
who delivers the poor from a stronger one,
the poor and the needy from the one who robs them?”
11 Witnesses intent on violence rose up;
they accused me of things I knew nothing about.
12 They rewarded me evil for good,
the bereavement of my soul.
13 But as for me, when they were sick, my clothing was sackcloth;
I humbled my soul with fasting;
and my prayer returns to my own heart.
14 I paced as though he were my friend or brother;
I bowed down lamenting,
as one who mourns for a mother.
15 But in my adversity they rejoiced and gathered together;
assailants gathered together against me, though I was unaware;
they tore me apart and did not stop;
16 with hypocritical mockers in feasts,
they gnashed on me with their teeth.
17 Lord, how long will You look on?
Rescue my soul from their destructions,
my life from the lions.
18 I will give You thanks in the great congregation;
I will praise You among a mighty people.
19 May my deceitful enemies
not rejoice over me;
nor may those who hate me without cause
wink with their eye.
20 For they do not speak peace,
but they devise deceitful matters
against the restful ones in the land.
21 They opened their mouth wide against me,
and said, “Aha, aha, our eye has seen it.”
22 This You have seen, O Lord; do not be silent;
O Lord, be not far from me.
23 Rouse Yourself and awake for my judgment,
for my cause, my God and my Lord.
24 Judge me, O Lord my God, according to Your righteousness,
and may they not rejoice over me.
25 May they not say in their hearts, “Ah, we have our soul’s desire.”
May they not say, “We have swallowed him up.”
26 May those who rejoice at my harm be ashamed
and altogether put to shame;
may they be clothed with shame and dishonor
who magnify themselves against me.
27 May those who favor my righteous cause
shout for joy and be glad;
may they say continually, “The Lord be magnified,
who delights in the peace of His servant.”
28 My tongue will speak of Your righteousness
and of Your praise all the day long.
Terah’s Descendants
27 These are the generations of Terah.
Terah became the father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran, and Haran became the father of Lot. 28 Haran died before his father Terah in the land of his birth, in Ur of the Chaldeans. 29 Abram and Nahor took wives. The name of Abram’s wife was Sarai, and the name of Nahor’s wife, Milkah, the daughter of Haran, the father of Milkah and the father of Iskah. 30 But Sarai was barren; she had no child.
31 Terah took his son Abram and his grandson Lot, son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, his son Abram’s wife, and they went out together from Ur of the Chaldeans to go into the land of Canaan; but when they came to Harran, they settled there.
32 The days of Terah were two hundred and five years, and Terah died in Harran.
The Call of Abram
12 Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country, your family, and your father’s house to the land that I will show you.
2 I will make of you a great nation;
I will bless you
and make your name great,
so that you will be a blessing.
3 I will bless them who bless you
and curse him who curses you,[a]
and in you all families of the earth
will be blessed.”
4 So Abram departed, as the Lord had spoken to him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Harran. 5 Abram took Sarai his wife, Lot his brother’s son, and all their possessions that they had accumulated, and the people that they had acquired in Harran, and they set out for the land of Canaan. They came to the land of Canaan.
6 Then Abram passed through the land to the place of Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. The Canaanites were in the land at that time. 7 The Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your descendants I will give this land.” So he built an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him.
8 From there he continued on to a mountain to the east of Bethel and pitched his tent, having Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. There he built an altar to the Lord and called on the name of the Lord.
The Priestly Order of Melchizedek
7 For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the Most High God, met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him. 2 To him Abraham also gave a tenth part of everything. In the first place, his name is translated “king of righteousness,” and then also he is king of Salem, which means “king of peace.” 3 Without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but made like the Son of God, he continually remains a priest.
4 Now consider how great this man was, to whom even the patriarch Abraham gave a tenth of the spoils. 5 Surely the sons of Levi, who receive the office of the priesthood, have a command to take tithes of the people according to the law, that is, from their brothers, though they also come from the seed of Abraham. 6 But this man, whose descent is not numbered among them, received tithes from Abraham and blessed him who had the promises. 7 Without question, the inferior is blessed by the superior. 8 In the one case mortal men receive tithes, but in the other he of whom it is witnessed that he is alive receives them. 9 One might say that Levi also, who receives tithes, paid tithes through Abraham, 10 for he was still in the loins of his father when Melchizedek met Abraham.
11 If perfection were attained through the Levitical priesthood (for through it the people received the law), what further need was there that another priest should rise in the order of Melchizedek, rather than established in the order of Aaron? 12 For a change in the priesthood necessitates a change in the law. 13 For the One concerning whom these things are spoken pertains to another tribe, from which no man served at the altar. 14 For it is evident that our Lord descended from Judah, a tribe concerning which Moses said nothing about priests. 15 This is far more evident when another priest arises in the likeness of Melchizedek, 16 who becomes a priest not by a law pertaining to ancestry, but by the power of an endless life. 17 For He testifies:
“You are a priest forever,
in the order of Melchizedek.”[a]
16 Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.”
17 The woman answered, “I have no husband.”
Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband,’ 18 for you have had five husbands, and he whom you now have is not your husband. So you have spoken truthfully.”
19 The woman said to Him, “Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet. 20 Our fathers worshipped on this mountain, but you all say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.”
21 Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. 22 You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. 23 Yet the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth. For the Father seeks such to worship Him. 24 God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and truth.”
25 The woman said to Him, “I know that Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ). “When He comes, He will tell us all things.”
26 Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am He.”
The Holy Bible, Modern English Version. Copyright © 2014 by Military Bible Association. Published and distributed by Charisma House.