Book of Common Prayer
A Psalm of David.
1 ¶ I will sing of mercy and judgment; unto thee, O LORD, will I sing.
2 When thou shalt come unto me, I will walk in the way of perfection and understand. I will walk in the midst of my house in the perfection of my heart.
3 I will set nothing of Belial before my eyes: I hate the work of those that betray; it shall not cleave to me.
4 A perverse heart shall depart from me; I will not know a wicked person.
5 Whosoever secretly slanders his neighbour, I will cut off; he that has a high look and a proud heart I will not suffer.
6 My eyes shall be upon the faithful of the land, that they may dwell with me; he that walks in the way of perfection, he shall serve me.
7 He that works deceit shall not dwell within my house; he that tells lies shall not tarry in my sight.
8 I will early destroy all the wicked of the land, that I may cut off all the workers of iniquity from the city of the LORD.
To the Overcomer, A Psalm of David.
1 ¶ Do not hold thy peace, O God of my praise;
2 for the mouth of the wicked and the mouth of the deceitful are opened against me; they have spoken of me with a lying tongue.
3 They compassed me about with words of hatred and fought against me without a cause.
4 They have responded to my love by becoming my adversaries, but I give myself unto prayer.
5 And they have rewarded me evil for good, and hatred for my love.
6 ¶ Set thou the wicked man over him, and let Satan stand at his right hand.
7 When he shall be judged, let him be condemned, and let his prayer become sin.
8 Let his days be few, and let another take his office.
9 Let his children be fatherless and his wife a widow.
10 Let his children be continually vagabonds and beg; let them seek their bread out of their desolate places.
11 Let the extortioner catch all that he has, and let the strangers spoil his labour.
12 Let there be no one to extend mercy unto him: neither let there be any to favour his fatherless children.
13 Let his posterity be cut off, and in the generation following let their name be blotted out.
14 Let the iniquity of his fathers be remembered with the LORD, and let not the sin of his mother be blotted out.
15 Let them be before the LORD continually, that he may cut off the memory of them from the earth.
16 Because he did not remember to show mercy but persecuted the man who is poor in spirit and destitute and broken in heart, that he might slay him.
17 As he loved the curse, so let it come unto him; as he delighted not in the blessing, so let it be far from him.
18 As he clothed himself with the curse like as with his garment, and it entered into his bowels like water and like oil into his bones.
19 Let it be unto him as the garment which covers him and for a girdle wherewith he is girded continually.
20 Let this be the reward from the LORD of those who spoke falsely against me and of those that speak evil against my soul.
21 ¶ And thou, O GOD the Lord, do unto me for thy name’s sake; because thy mercy is good, deliver me.
22 For I am poor and needy, and my heart is wounded within me.
23 I am gone like the shadow when it declines; I am tossed up and down by the wind as the locust.
24 My knees are weak through fasting, and my flesh fails for lack of fatness.
25 I have become a reproach unto them; when they looked upon me they shook their heads.
26 Help me, O LORD my God; O save me according to thy mercy,
27 that they may know that this is thy hand, that thou, O LORD, hast done it.
28 Let them curse, but bless thou; when they arise, let them be ashamed, but let thy slave rejoice.
29 Let those who speak evil against me falsely be clothed with shame, and let them cover themselves with their own confusion as with a mantle.
30 I will greatly praise the LORD with my mouth; yea, I will praise him among the multitude.
AIN.
121 ¶ I have complied with judgment and righteousness; do not leave me to my oppressors.
122 Be surety for thy slave for good; do not let the proud do violence unto me.
123 ¶ Mine eyes fail for thy saving health and for the spoken word of thy righteousness.
124 ¶ Deal with thy slave according to thy mercy, and teach me thy statutes.
125 I am thy slave; give me understanding, that I may know thy testimonies.
126 ¶ It is time for thee, O LORD, to act; for they have dissipated thy law.
127 ¶ Therefore I have loved thy commandments above gold, yea, above fine gold.
128 Therefore I have esteemed all thy precepts concerning all things to be right and I have hated every false way.
PE.
129 ¶ Thy testimonies are wonderful; therefore does my soul keep them.
130 ¶ The exposition of thy words gives light; it gives understanding unto the simple.
131 ¶ I opened my mouth and panted; for I longed for thy commandments.
132 ¶ Look thou upon me and be merciful unto me, as thou didst use to do unto those that love thy name.
133 ¶ Order my steps with thy word; and let not any iniquity have dominion over me.
134 ¶ Ransom me from the violence of men, and I will keep thy precepts.
135 ¶ Make thy face to shine upon thy slave and teach me thy statutes.
136 ¶ Rivers of waters ran down my eyes because they did not keep thy law.
TZADDI.
137 ¶ Righteous art thou, O LORD, and upright are thy judgments.
138 Thou hast commanded righteousness, which consists of thy testimonies and thy truth.
139 ¶ My zeal has consumed me, because my enemies have forgotten thy words.
140 ¶ Thy word is very pure; therefore thy slave loves it.
141 ¶ I am small and despised; yet I have not forgotten thy precepts.
142 ¶ Thy righteousness is eternal righteousness, and thy law is the truth.
143 ¶ Trouble and anguish found me; but thy commandments were my delights.
144 Thy testimonies are eternal righteousness; give me understanding, and I shall live.
11 Whoredom and wine and new wine take away the heart.
12 ¶ My people ask counsel of their wooden idol, and their stick declares unto them; for the spirit of whoredoms has caused them to err, and they have gone a whoring under their gods.
13 They sacrifice upon the tops of the mountains and burn incense upon the hills, under oaks and poplars and elms, that had good shade; therefore your daughters shall commit whoredom, and your daughters-in-law shall commit adultery.
14 I will not visit upon your daughters when they commit whoredom, nor upon your daughters-in-law when they commit adultery: for they offer with whores, and they sacrifice with cult prostitutes; therefore the people without understanding shall fall.
15 Though thou, Israel, play the harlot, yet let not Judah be guilty; and do not come unto Gilgal, neither go up to Bethaven, nor swear, The LORD lives,
16 for Israel has turned away as a wild heifer; shall the LORD now feed them as rams in a large place?
17 Ephraim is given over to idols; leave him.
18 Their drink has become corrupted; they have committed whoredom continually; her princes love gifts, shamefully.
19 The wind has bound her up in her wings, and they shall be ashamed because of their sacrifices.
15 ¶ And after those days we packed our baggage and went up to Jerusalem.
16 There went with us also certain of the disciples of Caesarea and brought with them one Mnason of Cyprus, an old disciple, with whom we should lodge.
17 And when we arrived at Jerusalem, the brethren received us gladly.
18 And the day following, Paul went in with us to see James, and all the elders were gathered.
19 And when he had saluted them, he declared particularly what things God had wrought among the Gentiles by his ministry.
20 And when they heard it, they glorified the Lord and said unto him, Thou seest, brother, how many thousands of Jews there are who have believed, and they are all zealous of the law;
21 and they are informed of thee that thou teachest all the Jews who are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, saying that they ought not to circumcise their children, neither to walk after the customs.
22 What is it therefore? The multitude must needs come together, for they will hear that thou art come.
23 Do therefore this that we say to thee: We have four men among us who have a vow on them;
24 them take, and purify thyself with them, and pay their expenses, that they may shave their heads, and all may know that those things, of which they were informed concerning thee, are nothing, but that thou thyself dost also walk orderly and keep the law.
25 As touching the Gentiles who believe, we have written and concluded that they observe no such thing, except only that they keep themselves from things offered to idols and from blood and from that which has been strangled and from fornication.
26 Then Paul took the men and the next day, purifying himself with them, entered into the temple to signify the accomplishment of the days of purification until an offering should be offered for each one of them.
27 ¶ And after these things he went forth and saw a publican, named Levi, sitting at the receipt of custom, and he said unto him, Follow me.
28 And he left all, rose up, and followed him.
29 And Levi made a great banquet in his own house and there was a great company of publicans and of others that sat down at the table with them.
30 But their scribes and Pharisees murmured against his disciples, saying, Why do ye eat and drink with publicans and sinners?
31 And Jesus answering said unto them, Those that are whole have no need of a physician, but those that are sick.
32 I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.
33 Then they said unto him, Why do the disciples of John fast often and make prayers and likewise the disciples of the Pharisees, but thine eat and drink?
34 And he said unto them, Can ye make the sons of the bridechamber fast while the bridegroom is with them?
35 But the days will come when the bridegroom shall be taken away from them, and then shall they fast in those days.
36 And he also spoke a parable unto them: No one takes a piece of a new garment to mend an old one; if otherwise, then the new one is rent, and the piece that was taken out of the new does not agree with the old.
37 And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; or else the new wine will burst the wineskins and be spilled and the wineskins shall perish.
38 But new wine must be put into new wineskins, and both are preserved.
39 No one also having drunk of the old straightway desires the new, for he says, The old is better.
Copyright © 2013, 2020 by Ransom Press International