Book of Common Prayer

Psalm 8

To the Chief Musician; set to a Philistine lute, or [possibly] to a particular Hittite tune. A Psalm of David.

¹ O Lord, our Lord, how excellent (majestic and glorious) is Your name in all the earth! You have set Your glory on [or above] the heavens.

² Out of the mouths of babes and unweaned infants You have established strength because of Your foes, that You might silence the enemy and the avenger.^(A)

³ When I view and consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have ordained and established,

⁴ What is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of [earthborn] man that You care for him?

⁵ Yet You have made him but a little lower than God [or heavenly beings], and You have crowned him with glory and honor.

⁶ You made him to have dominion over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet:^(B)

⁷ All sheep and oxen, yes, and the beasts of the field,

⁸ The birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatever passes along the paths of the seas.

⁹ O Lord, our Lord, how excellent (majestic and glorious) is Your name in all the earth!

Psalm 138

[A Psalm] of David.

¹ I will confess and praise You [O God] with my whole heart; before the gods will I sing praises to You.

² I will worship toward Your holy temple and praise Your name for Your loving-kindness and for Your truth and faithfulness; for You have exalted above all else Your name and Your word and You have magnified Your word above all Your name!

³ In the day when I called, You answered me; and You strengthened me with strength (might and inflexibility to temptation) in my inner self.

⁴ All the kings of the land shall give You credit and praise You, O Lord, for they have heard of the promises of Your mouth [which were fulfilled].

⁵ Yes, they shall sing of the ways of the Lord and joyfully celebrate His mighty acts, for great is the glory of the Lord.

⁶ For though the Lord is high, yet has He respect to the lowly [bringing them into fellowship with Him]; but the proud and haughty He knows and recognizes [only] at a distance.^(A)

⁷ Though I walk in the midst of trouble, You will revive me; You will stretch forth Your hand against the wrath of my enemies, and Your right hand will save me.^(B)

⁸ The Lord will perfect that which concerns me; Your mercy and loving-kindness, O Lord, endure forever—forsake not the works of Your own hands.^(C)

3 Now the serpent was more subtle and crafty than any living creature of the field which the Lord God had made. And he [Satan] said to the woman, Can it really be that God has said, You shall not eat from every tree of the garden?^(A)

² And the woman said to the serpent, We may eat the fruit from the trees of the garden,

³ Except the fruit from the tree which is in the middle of the garden. God has said, You shall not eat of it, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.

⁴ But the serpent said to the woman, You shall not surely die,^(B)

⁵ For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing the difference between good and evil and blessing and calamity.

⁶ And when the woman saw that the tree was good (suitable, pleasant) for food and that it was delightful to look at, and a tree to be desired in order to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate; and she gave some also to her husband, and he ate.

⁷ Then the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves apronlike girdles.

⁸ And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.

⁹ But the Lord God called to Adam and said to him, Where are you?

¹⁰ He said, I heard the sound of You [walking] in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself.

¹¹ And He said, Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you that you should not eat?

¹² And the man said, The woman whom You gave to be with me—she gave me [fruit] from the tree, and I ate.

¹³ And the Lord God said to the woman, What is this you have done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled (cheated, outwitted, and deceived) me, and I ate.

¹⁴ And the Lord God said to the serpent, Because you have done this, you are cursed above all [domestic] animals and above every [wild] living thing of the field; upon your belly you shall go, and you shall eat dust [and what it contains] all the days of your life.

¹⁵ And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her ^[a]Offspring; He will bruise and tread your head underfoot, and you will lie in wait and bruise His heel.^(C)

¹² Therefore, as sin came into the world through one man, and death as the result of sin, so death spread to all men, [^[a]no one being able to stop it or to escape its power] because all men sinned.

¹³ [To be sure] sin was in the world before ever the Law was given, but sin is not charged to men’s account where there is no law [to transgress].

¹⁴ Yet death held sway from Adam to Moses [the Lawgiver], even over those who did not themselves transgress [a positive command] as Adam did. Adam was a type (prefigure) of the One Who was to come [in reverse, ^[b]the former destructive, the Latter saving].^(A)

¹⁵ But God’s free gift is not at all to be compared to the trespass [His grace is out of all proportion to the fall of man]. For if many died through one man’s falling away (his lapse, his offense), much more profusely did God’s grace and the free gift [that comes] through the undeserved favor of the one Man Jesus Christ abound and overflow to and for [the benefit of] many.

¹⁶ Nor is the free gift at all to be compared to the effect of that one [man’s] sin. For the sentence [following the trespass] of one [man] brought condemnation, whereas the free gift [following] many transgressions brings justification (^[c]an act of righteousness).

¹⁷ For if because of one man’s trespass (lapse, offense) death reigned through that one, much more surely will those who receive [God’s] overflowing grace (unmerited favor) and the free gift of righteousness [putting them into right standing with Himself] reign as kings in life through the one Man Jesus Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One).

¹⁸ Well then, as one man’s trespass [one man’s false step and falling away led] to condemnation for all men, so one Man’s act of righteousness [leads] to acquittal and right standing with God and life for all men.

¹⁹ For just as by one man’s disobedience (failing to hear, ^[d]heedlessness, and carelessness) the many were constituted sinners, so by one Man’s obedience the many will be constituted righteous (made acceptable to God, brought into right standing with Him).

²⁰ But then Law came in, [only] to expand and increase the trespass [making it more apparent and exciting opposition]. But where sin increased and abounded, grace (God’s unmerited favor) has surpassed it and increased the more and superabounded,

²¹ So that, [just] as sin has reigned in death, [so] grace (His unearned and undeserved favor) might reign also through righteousness (right standing with God) which issues in eternal life through Jesus Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One) our Lord.