Book of Common Prayer
ALEPH
119 Blessed are those whose ways are blameless,
who walk according to Yahweh’s law.
2 Blessed are those who keep his statutes,
who seek him with their whole heart.
3 Yes, they do nothing wrong.
They walk in his ways.
4 You have commanded your precepts,
that we should fully obey them.
5 Oh that my ways were steadfast
to obey your statutes!
6 Then I wouldn’t be disappointed,
when I consider all of your commandments.
7 I will give thanks to you with uprightness of heart,
when I learn your righteous judgments.
8 I will observe your statutes.
Don’t utterly forsake me.
BETH
9 How can a young man keep his way pure?
By living according to your word.
10 With my whole heart I have sought you.
Don’t let me wander from your commandments.
11 I have hidden your word in my heart,
that I might not sin against you.
12 Blessed are you, Yahweh.
Teach me your statutes.
13 With my lips,
I have declared all the ordinances of your mouth.
14 I have rejoiced in the way of your testimonies,
as much as in all riches.
15 I will meditate on your precepts,
and consider your ways.
16 I will delight myself in your statutes.
I will not forget your word.
GIMEL
17 Do good to your servant.
I will live and I will obey your word.
18 Open my eyes,
that I may see wondrous things out of your law.
19 I am a stranger on the earth.
Don’t hide your commandments from me.
20 My soul is consumed with longing for your ordinances at all times.
21 You have rebuked the proud who are cursed,
who wander from your commandments.
22 Take reproach and contempt away from me,
for I have kept your statutes.
23 Though princes sit and slander me,
your servant will meditate on your statutes.
24 Indeed your statutes are my delight,
and my counselors.
For the Chief Musician; upon an eight-stringed lyre. A Psalm of David.
12 Help, Yahweh; for the godly man ceases.
For the faithful fail from among the children of men.
2 Everyone lies to his neighbor.
They speak with flattering lips, and with a double heart.
3 May Yahweh cut off all flattering lips,
and the tongue that boasts,
4 who have said, “With our tongue we will prevail.
Our lips are our own.
Who is lord over us?”
5 “Because of the oppression of the weak and because of the groaning of the needy,
I will now arise,” says Yahweh;
“I will set him in safety from those who malign him.”
6 Yahweh’s words are flawless words,
as silver refined in a clay furnace, purified seven times.
7 You will keep them, Yahweh.
You will preserve them from this generation forever.
8 The wicked walk on every side,
when what is vile is exalted among the sons of men.
For the Chief Musician. A Psalm by David.
13 How long, Yahweh?
Will you forget me forever?
How long will you hide your face from me?
2 How long shall I take counsel in my soul,
having sorrow in my heart every day?
How long shall my enemy triumph over me?
3 Behold, and answer me, Yahweh, my God.
Give light to my eyes, lest I sleep in death;
4 lest my enemy say, “I have prevailed against him;”
lest my adversaries rejoice when I fall.
5 But I trust in your loving kindness.
My heart rejoices in your salvation.
6 I will sing to Yahweh,
because he has been good to me.
For the Chief Musician. By David.
14 The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God.”
They are corrupt.
They have done abominable deeds.
There is no one who does good.
2 Yahweh looked down from heaven on the children of men,
to see if there were any who understood,
who sought after God.
3 They have all gone aside.
They have together become corrupt.
There is no one who does good, no, not one.
4 Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge,
who eat up my people as they eat bread,
and don’t call on Yahweh?
5 There they were in great fear,
for God is in the generation of the righteous.
6 You frustrate the plan of the poor,
because Yahweh is his refuge.
7 Oh that the salvation of Israel would come out of Zion!
When Yahweh restores the fortunes of his people,
then Jacob shall rejoice, and Israel shall be glad.
6 Then Job answered,
7 “Isn’t a man forced to labor on earth?
Aren’t his days like the days of a hired hand?
2 As a servant who earnestly desires the shadow,
as a hireling who looks for his wages,
3 so I am made to possess months of misery,
wearisome nights are appointed to me.
4 When I lie down, I say,
‘When will I arise, and the night be gone?’
I toss and turn until the dawning of the day.
5 My flesh is clothed with worms and clods of dust.
My skin closes up, and breaks out afresh.
6 My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle,
and are spent without hope.
7 Oh remember that my life is a breath.
My eye will no more see good.
8 The eye of him who sees me will see me no more.
Your eyes will be on me, but I will not be.
9 As the cloud is consumed and vanishes away,
so he who goes down to Sheol[a] will come up no more.
10 He will return no more to his house,
neither will his place know him any more.
11 “Therefore I will not keep silent.
I will speak in the anguish of my spirit.
I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.
12 Am I a sea, or a sea monster,
that you put a guard over me?
13 When I say, ‘My bed will comfort me.
My couch will ease my complaint,’
14 then you scare me with dreams
and terrify me through visions,
15 so that my soul chooses strangling,
death rather than my bones.
16 I loathe my life.
I don’t want to live forever.
Leave me alone, for my days are but a breath.
17 What is man, that you should magnify him,
that you should set your mind on him,
18 that you should visit him every morning,
and test him every moment?
19 How long will you not look away from me,
nor leave me alone until I swallow down my spittle?
20 If I have sinned, what do I do to you, you watcher of men?
Why have you set me as a mark for you,
so that I am a burden to myself?
21 Why do you not pardon my disobedience, and take away my iniquity?
For now will I lie down in the dust.
You will seek me diligently, but I will not be.”
10 Now there was a certain man in Caesarea, Cornelius by name, a centurion of what was called the Italian Regiment, 2 a devout man, and one who feared God with all his house, who gave gifts for the needy generously to the people, and always prayed to God. 3 At about the ninth hour of the day,[a] he clearly saw in a vision an angel of God coming to him and saying to him, “Cornelius!”
4 He, fastening his eyes on him and being frightened, said, “What is it, Lord?”
He said to him, “Your prayers and your gifts to the needy have gone up for a memorial before God. 5 Now send men to Joppa, and get Simon, who is also called Peter. 6 He is staying with a tanner named Simon, whose house is by the seaside.[b]
7 When the angel who spoke to him had departed, Cornelius called two of his household servants and a devout soldier of those who waited on him continually. 8 Having explained everything to them, he sent them to Joppa.
9 Now on the next day as they were on their journey and got close to the city, Peter went up on the housetop to pray at about noon. 10 He became hungry and desired to eat, but while they were preparing, he fell into a trance. 11 He saw heaven opened and a certain container descending to him, like a great sheet let down by four corners on the earth, 12 in which were all kinds of four-footed animals of the earth, wild animals, reptiles, and birds of the sky. 13 A voice came to him, “Rise, Peter, kill and eat!”
14 But Peter said, “Not so, Lord; for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean.”
15 A voice came to him again the second time, “What God has cleansed, you must not call unclean.” 16 This was done three times, and immediately the thing was received up into heaven.
7 After these things, Jesus was walking in Galilee, for he wouldn’t walk in Judea, because the Jews sought to kill him. 2 Now the feast of the Jews, the Feast of Booths, was at hand. 3 His brothers therefore said to him, “Depart from here and go into Judea, that your disciples also may see your works which you do. 4 For no one does anything in secret while he seeks to be known openly. If you do these things, reveal yourself to the world.” 5 For even his brothers didn’t believe in him.
6 Jesus therefore said to them, “My time has not yet come, but your time is always ready. 7 The world can’t hate you, but it hates me, because I testify about it, that its works are evil. 8 You go up to the feast. I am not yet going up to this feast, because my time is not yet fulfilled.”
9 Having said these things to them, he stayed in Galilee. 10 But when his brothers had gone up to the feast, then he also went up, not publicly, but as it were in secret. 11 The Jews therefore sought him at the feast, and said, “Where is he?” 12 There was much murmuring among the multitudes concerning him. Some said, “He is a good man.” Others said, “Not so, but he leads the multitude astray.” 13 Yet no one spoke openly of him for fear of the Jews.
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