Book of Common Prayer
To the Overcomer upon Shoshannim (lilies), A Psalm of David.
1 ¶ Save me, O God; for the waters are come in unto my soul.
2 I sink in deep mire where there is no standing; I am come into deep waters, where the floods overflow me.
3 I am weary of my crying; my throat is dried; my eyes fail while I wait for my God.
4 Those that hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of my head; those that would destroy me, being my enemies wrongfully, are mighty; then I restored that which I did not take away.
5 O God, thou knowest my foolishness, and my guiltiness is not hid from thee.
6 Do not let those that wait on thee, O Lord GOD of the hosts, be ashamed for my sake; do not let those that seek thee be confounded for my sake, O God of Israel.
7 Because for thy sake I have borne reproach; shame has covered my face.
8 I am become a stranger unto my brethren and an alien unto my mother’s sons.
9 For the zeal of thy house has consumed me, and the reproaches of those that reproached thee are fallen upon me.
10 When I wept with fasting of my soul, thou hast been a reproach unto me.
11 I made sackcloth also my garment, and I became a proverb to them.
12 They that sat in the gate spoke against me, and I was the song of the drunkards.
13 ¶ But I corrected my prayer unto thee, O LORD, in the time of thy good pleasure; O God, in the multitude of thy mercy hear me, in the truth of thy saving health.
14 Deliver me out of the mire, and let me not drown; let me be delivered from those that hate me and out of the deep waters.
15 Let not the violent force of the waters overcome me, neither let the deep swallow me up, and let not the pit shut her mouth upon me.
16 Hear me, O LORD, for thy mercy is perceptible, look upon me according to the multitude of thy acts of compassion
17 And hide not thy face from thy slave, for I am in trouble; hear me speedily.
18 Draw near unto my soul and redeem it; deliver me because of my enemies.
19 Thou hast known my reproach and my shame and my dishonour; my adversaries are all before thee.
20 Reproach has broken my heart, and I am full of heaviness, and I looked for some to take pity, but there was no one, and for comforters, but I found none.
21 They also gave me gall for my food; and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.
22 ¶ Let their table become a snare before them, and that which should have been for their prosperity, let it become a stumbling block.
23 Let their eyes be darkened that they see not and make their loins continually to shake.
24 Pour out thine indignation upon them, and let thy wrathful anger take hold of them.
25 Let their palace be desolate, and let no one dwell in their tents.
26 For they persecute him whom thou hast smitten, and they boast that thou hast slain their enemies.
27 Add iniquity unto their iniquity, and let them not come into thy righteousness.
28 Let them be blotted out of the book of the living and not be written with the righteous.
29 But I am poor and sorrowful; let thy saving health, O God, set me up on high.
30 ¶ I will praise the name of God with a song and will magnify him with praises.
31 This also shall please the LORD better than the sacrifice of an ox or bullock that struggles with horns and hoofs.
32 The humble shall see this and be glad; seek God and thy heart shall live.
33 For the LORD hears the destitute and does not despise his prisoners.
34 Let the heavens and the earth praise him, the seas, and every thing that moves in them.
35 For God will protect Zion and will rebuild the cities of Judah; they shall dwell there and inherit it.
36 The seed of his slaves shall inherit it, and those that love his name shall dwell therein.
1 ¶ Truly God is good to Israel, even to such as are pure in heart.
2 But as for me, my feet almost departed from the way; my steps had almost slipped.
3 For I became angry against the foolish when I saw the peace of the wicked.
4 Because there is no restraint that would bring about their death, but their strength is firm.
5 They are not in trouble as other men; neither are they plagued like other men.
6 Therefore they are crowned with pride; they cover themselves with violence as a garment.
7 Their eyes stand out with fatness; they easily obtain the desires of their heart.
8 They are lawless and speak wickedly of doing violence; they speak loftily.
9 They set their mouth against heaven, and their tongue walks through the earth.
10 Therefore his people shall return here; and waters of a full cup are wrung out to them.
11 And they say, How does God know? and is there knowledge in the most High?
12 Behold, these ungodly men, without being troubled by the world obtain riches.
13 Verily, in vain have I cleansed my heart and washed my hands in innocency
14 and been plagued all day long and chastened every morning:
15 ¶ If I should say, I will speak as they do; behold, I should deny the generation of thy sons.
16 I shall meditate that I might understand this; it is very hard for me to see.
17 When I come into the sanctuary of God, then I shall understand their end.
18 Surely thou didst set them in slippery places; in desolation thou shalt cause them to fall.
19 How they are brought into desolation, as in a moment! They have come to an end; they are utterly consumed with terrors.
20 As the dream of one who awakes; so, O Lord, when thou shalt rise up, thou shalt despise their appearances.
21 ¶ Truly my heart was grieved, and I was pricked in my kidneys.
22 But I was ignorant and did not understand; I was as a beast before thee.
23 Nevertheless I was continually with thee; thou hast apprehended me by my right hand.
24 Thou hast guided me with thy counsel, and afterward thou shalt receive me unto glory.
25 Whom have I in heaven but thee? And apart from thee there is nothing upon the earth that I desire.
26 My flesh and my heart fail; the strength of my heart is that God is my portion for ever.
27 For, behold, those that stray from thee shall perish; thou dost cut off all those that go a whoring from thee.
28 But as for me, to draw near to God is good; I have put my hope in the Lord GOD, that I may declare all thy works.
1 ¶ Now it came to pass in the days of Ahasuerus (this is Ahasuerus who reigned from India even unto Ethiopia over one hundred and twenty-seven provinces)
2 That in those days, when the King Ahasuerus sat on the throne of his kingdom, which was in Shushan, the palace,
3 In the third year of his reign, he made a banquet unto all his princes and his slaves, having before him the power of Persia and Media, the governors and princes of the provinces,
4 to show them the riches of the glory of his kingdom and the honour of beauty of his greatness for many days, even one hundred and eighty days.
10 ¶ On the seventh day, when the heart of the king was merry with wine, he commanded Mehuman, Biztha, Harbona, Bigtha, Abagtha, Zethar, and Carcas, the seven eunuchs that served in the presence of Ahasuerus, the king,
11 to bring Vashti, the queen, before the king with the crown of the kingdom, to show the people and the princes her beauty, for she was fair to behold.
12 But Queen Vashti refused to come at the king’s word by his eunuchs; therefore, the king was very wroth, and his anger burned in him.
13 Then the king asked the wise men, who knew the times, (for so was the king’s manner toward all that knew about the law and rights,
14 and the next to him was Carshena, Shethar, Admatha, Tarshish, Meres, Marsena, and Memucan, seven princes of Persia and Media, who saw the king’s face, and who sat first in the kingdom;)
15 What shall we do unto Queen Vashti according to law because she has not performed the decree of King Ahasuerus by the eunuchs?
16 And Memucan answered before the king and the princes, Vashti, the queen, has not only committed iniquity against the king, but also against all the princes and against all the people that are in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus.
17 For this deed of the queen shall be known abroad unto all the women so that they shall despise their husbands, saying, King Ahasuerus commanded Vashti, the queen, to be brought in before him, but she did not come.
18 And now the princesses of Persia and Media who have heard of the deed of the queen shall say this unto all the king’s princes, and there shall be much contempt and wrath.
19 If it pleases the king, let there go forth a royal commandment from him, and let it be written among the laws of the Persians and the Medes, that it not be altered, That Vashti come no more before King Ahasuerus, and let the king give her royal estate unto another that is better than she.
17 ¶ Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where the synagogue of the Jews was.
2 And Paul, as his manner was, went in unto them, and three sabbath days reasoned with them out of the scriptures,
3 declaring openly and proposing that it behooved the Christ to have suffered and risen again from the dead and that this Jesus, whom I preach unto you, is the Christ.
4 And some of them believed and consorted with Paul and Silas; and of the devout Greeks a great multitude, and of the noble women not a few.
5 But the disobedient Jews, moved with envy, took unto them certain lewd fellows of the baser sort and gathered a company and set all the city on an uproar and assaulted the house of Jason and sought to bring them out to the people.
6 And when they did not find them, they brought Jason and certain brethren unto the rulers of the city, crying, These that have turned the world upside down have come here also,
7 whom Jason has received, and these all do contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, one Jesus.
8 And they troubled the people and the rulers of the city when they heard these things.
9 And when they had taken security of Jason and of the others, they let them go.
10 ¶ And the brethren immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night unto Berea, who when they got there went into the synagogue of the Jews.
11 These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all diligence and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.
12 Therefore many of them believed, also of honourable women who were Greeks and of men, not a few.
13 But when the Jews of Thessalonica had knowledge that the word of God was preached by Paul at Berea, they came there also and stirred up the people.
14 And then immediately the brethren sent Paul to go away towards the sea, but Silas and Timothy abode there still.
15 And those that conducted Paul brought him unto Athens; and receiving an order from him unto Silas and Timothy to come unto him as soon as possible, they departed.
36 While ye have the Light, believe in the Light that ye may be the sons of light. Jesus spoke these things and departed and hid himself from them.
37 ¶ But although he had done so many signs before them, yet they did not believe in him,
38 that the word of Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled, which he spoke, Lord, who shall believe our report? and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
39 Therefore they could not believe, because Isaiah said again,
40 He has blinded their eyes and hardened their heart, that they should not see with their eyes nor understand with their heart and be converted, and I should heal them.
41 Isaiah said these things when he saw his glory and spoke of him.
42 ¶ Nevertheless, even among the princes many believed in him, but because of the Pharisees they did not confess him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue;
43 for they loved the glory of men more than the glory of God.
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