Book of Common Prayer
75 Unto Thee, O God, do we give thanks, unto Thee do we give thanks. For that Thy name is near, Thy wondrous works declare.
2 When I shall receive the congregation, I will judge uprightly.
3 When the earth and all the inhabitants thereof are dissolved, I bear up the pillars of it. Selah
4 I said unto the fools, “Deal not foolishly,” and to the wicked, “Lift not up the horn.
5 Lift not up your horn on high; speak not with a stiff neck.”
6 For promotion cometh neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the south,
7 but God is the Judge: He putteth down one, and setteth up another.
8 For in the hand of the Lord there is a cup, and the wine is red and fully mixed; and He poureth out the same. But as for the dregs thereof, all the wicked of the earth shall wring them out and drink them.
9 But I will declare it for ever; I will sing praises to the God of Jacob.
10 All the horns of the wicked will I also cut off, but the horns of the righteous shall be exalted.
76 In Judah is God known; His name is great in Israel.
2 In Salem also is His tabernacle, and His dwelling place in Zion.
3 There broke He the arrows of the bow, the shield and the sword and the battle. Selah
4 Thou art more glorious and excellent than the mountains of prey.
5 The stouthearted are despoiled; they have slept their sleep, and none of the men of might have found their hands.
6 At Thy rebuke, O God of Jacob, both the chariot and horse are cast into a dead sleep.
7 Thou, Thou alone, art to be feared; and who may stand in Thy sight when once Thou art angry?
8 Thou didst cause judgment to be heard from heaven; the earth feared and was still,
9 when God arose to judgment, to save all the meek of the earth. Selah
10 Surely the wrath of man shall praise Thee; the remainder of wrath shalt Thou restrain.
11 Make vows, and pay them unto the Lord your God; let all that be round about Him bring presents unto Him that ought to be feared.
12 He shall cut off the spirit of princes; He is fearsome to the kings of the earth.
23 The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
2 He maketh me to lie down in green pastures; He leadeth me beside the still waters.
3 He restoreth my soul; He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.
4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for Thou art with me; Thy rod and Thy staff, they comfort me.
5 Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies; Thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.
6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life; and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.
27 The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?
2 When the wicked, even mine enemies and my foes, came upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumbled and fell.
3 Though an army should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear; though war should rise against me, even in this will I be confident.
4 One thing have I desired of the Lord; that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in His temple.
5 For in the time of trouble He shall hide me in His pavilion; in the secret places of His tabernacle shall He hide me; He shall set me upon a rock.
6 And then shall mine head be lifted up above mine enemies round about me; therefore I will offer in His tabernacle sacrifices of joy; I will sing, yea, I will sing praises unto the Lord.
7 Hear, O Lord, when I cry with my voice! Have mercy also upon me and answer me.
8 When Thou saidst, “Seek ye My face,” my heart said unto Thee, “Thy face, Lord, will I seek.”
9 Hide not Thy face far from me; put not Thy servant away in anger. Thou hast been my help; leave me not, neither forsake me, O God of my salvation.
10 When my father and my mother forsake me, then the Lord will take me up.
11 Teach me Thy way, O Lord, and lead me in a level path because of mine enemies.
12 Deliver me not over unto the will of mine enemies; for false witnesses have risen up against me, and such as breathe out cruelty.
13 I would have fainted, unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.
14 Wait on the Lord; be of good courage, and He shall strengthen thine heart. Wait, I say, on the Lord!
5 Now in the palace at Shushan there was a certain Jew whose name was Mordecai, the son of Jair, the son of Shimei, the son of Kish, a Benjamite,
6 who had been carried away from Jerusalem with the captives who had been carried away with Jeconiah king of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had carried away.
7 And he brought up Hadassah (that is, Esther), his uncle’s daughter; for she had neither father nor mother, and the maid wasfair and beautiful, whom Mordecai, when her father and mother were dead, took for his own daughter.
8 So it came to pass, when the king’s commandment and his decree were heard, and when many maidens were gathered together unto the palace at Shushan under the custody of Hegai, that Esther was brought also unto the king’s house into the custody of Hegai, keeper of the women.
15 Now when the turn of Esther, the daughter of Abihail the uncle of Mordecai, who had taken her for his daughter, had come to go in unto the king, she required nothing but what Hegai the king’s chamberlain, the keeper of the women, appointed. And Esther obtained favor in the sight of all those who looked upon her.
16 So Esther was taken unto King Ahasuerus into his royal house in the tenth month, which is the month of Tebeth, in the seventh year of his reign.
17 And the king loved Esther above all the women, and she obtained grace and favor in his sight more than all the virgins, so that he set the royal crown upon her head, and made her queen instead of Vashti.
18 Then the king made a great feast unto all his princes and his servants, even Esther’s feast; and he made a release to the provinces, and gave gifts according to the state of the king.
19 And when the virgins were gathered together the second time, then Mordecai sat at the king’s gate.
20 Esther had not yet shown her kindred nor her people, as Mordecai had charged her, for Esther did the commandment of Mordecai as when she was brought up by him.
21 In those days, while Mordecai sat at the king’s gate, two of the king’s chamberlains, Bigthan and Teresh, of those who kept the door, were wroth and sought to lay hands on King Ahasuerus.
22 And the thing was known to Mordecai, who told it unto Esther the queen, and Esther informed the king thereof in Mordecai’s name.
23 And when inquisition was made of the matter, it was found out. Therefore they were both hanged on a tree, and it was written in the book of the chronicles before the king.
16 Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was stirred within him when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry.
17 Therefore he disputed in the synagogue with the Jews, and with the devout persons, and in the marketplace daily with those who met with him.
18 Then certain philosophers of the Epicureans and of the Stoics encountered him. And some said, “What will this babbler say?” And some others said, “He seemeth to be a proclaimer of strange gods,” because he preached unto them Jesus and the resurrection.
19 And they took him and brought him unto the Areopagus, saying, “May we know what this new doctrine is whereof thou speakest?
20 For thou bringest certain strange things to our ears, and we would know therefore what these things mean.”
21 (For all the Athenians and strangers who were there spent their time in nothing else than either telling or hearing some new thing.)
22 Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars’ Hill and said, “Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious.
23 For as I passed by and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription: ‘To the Unknown God’. Whom therefore ye worship in ignorance, Him I declare unto you.
24 God who made the world and all things therein, seeing that He is Lord of Heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands.
25 Neither is He worshiped with men’s hands, as though He needed anything, seeing He giveth to all life, and breath, and all things.
26 And He hath made of one blood all nations of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation,
27 that they should seek the Lord, if perhaps they might feel after Him and find Him, though He be not far from every one of us.
28 For in Him we live, and move, and have our being; as also certain of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also His offspring.’
29 “For inasmuch, then, as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold or silver or stone, graven by art and of man’s devising.
30 The times of this ignorance God overlooked, but now He commandeth all men everywhere to repent,
31 because He hath appointed a Day in which He will judge the world in righteousness by that Man whom He hath ordained. Of this He hath given assurance unto all men, in that He hath raised Him from the dead.”
32 But when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked and others said, “We will hear thee again on this matter.”
33 So Paul departed from among them.
34 However, certain men cleaved unto him and believed, among whom were Dionysius the Areopagite, and a woman named Damaris, and others with them.
44 Jesus cried out and said, “He that believeth in Me, believeth not in Me, but in Him that sent Me.
45 And he that seeth Me, seeth Him that sent Me.
46 I am come a light into the world, that whosoever believeth in Me should not abide in darkness.
47 And if any man hear My words and believe not, I judge him not; for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world.
48 He that rejecteth Me and receiveth not My words, hath One that judgeth him; the Word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the Last Day.
49 For I have not spoken of Myself; but the Father who sent Me, He gave Me a commandment, what I should say and what I should speak.
50 And I know that His commandment is life everlasting. Whatsoever I speak therefore, even as the Father said unto Me, so I speak.”
Copyright © 1994 by Deuel Enterprises, Inc.