Book of Common Prayer
ALEPH.
1 ¶ Blessed are those who walk in the perfect way, who walk in the law of the LORD.
2 Blessed are those that keep his testimonies and that seek him with their whole heart.
3 For those who do no iniquity walk in his ways.
4 ¶ Thou hast commanded us to keep thy precepts diligently.
5 O that my ways were ordered to keep thy statutes!
6 Then I shall not be ashamed, when I have insight unto all thy commandments.
7 ¶ I will praise thee with uprightness of heart when I shall have learned thy righteous judgments.
8 I will keep thy statutes; O do not utterly forsake me.
BETH.
9 ¶ With what shall a young man cleanse his way? when he shall keep thy word.
10 ¶ With my whole heart I have sought thee; O let me not err from thy commandments.
11 ¶ Thy spoken word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against thee.
12 ¶ Blessed art thou, O LORD: teach me thy statutes.
13 ¶ With my lips I have declared all the judgments of thy mouth.
14 I have rejoiced in the way of thy testimonies as above all riches.
15 I will meditate in thy precepts and consider thy ways.
16 I will delight myself in thy statutes; I will not forget thy words.
GIMEL.
17 ¶ Deal bountifully with thy slave that I may live and keep thy word.
18 ¶ Open my eyes, and I shall behold the wonders of thy law.
19 ¶ I am a stranger in the earth; hide not thy commandments from me.
20 ¶ My soul is broken from desiring thy judgments at all times.
21 ¶ Thou hast reprehended the proud; cursed are those who err from thy commandments.
22 ¶ Remove from me reproach and contempt, for I have kept thy testimonies.
23 ¶ Princes also sat and spoke against me as thy slave spoke according to thy statutes.
24 ¶ For thy testimonies are my delight and my counsellors.
To the Overcomer upon Sheminith, A Psalm of David.
1 ¶ Help, LORD; for the merciful man ceases, for the faithful fail from among the children of men.
2 Each one speaks vanity with his neighbour: they speak with flattering lips and with a double heart.
3 The LORD shall cut off all flattering lips and the tongue that speaks proud things:
4 Who have said, With our tongue we will prevail; our lips are our own: who is lord over us?
5 For the oppression of the poor, for the sighing of the needy, now I will arise, saith the LORD; I will set in safety the one whom the wicked one has ensnared.
6 The words of the LORD are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times.
7 Thou shalt keep them, O LORD, thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever.
8 The wicked press in on every side when the vilest men are exalted.
To the Overcomer, A Psalm of David.
1 ¶ How long wilt thou forget me, O LORD? for ever? how long wilt thou hide thy face from me?
2 How long shall I take counsel in my soul, having sorrow in my heart daily? how long shall my enemy be exalted over me?
3 Consider and hear me, O LORD my God: lighten mine eyes lest I sleep the sleep of death,
4 lest mine enemy say, I have prevailed against him; and those that trouble me rejoice when I am moved.
5 But I have trusted in thy mercy; my heart shall rejoice in thy salvation.
6 I will sing unto the LORD because he has dealt bountifully with me.
To the Overcomer, A Psalm of David.
1 ¶ The fool has said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is no one that does good.
2 The LORD looked down from heaven upon the children of men to see if there were any that did understand and seek God.
3 They are all gone aside, they are all together become filthy: there is no one that does good, no, not one.
4 ¶ The workers of iniquity certainly know this; those who eat up my people as they eat bread and do not call upon the LORD.
5 There they were in great fear: for God is with the nation of the righteous.
6 Ye have shamed the counsel of the poor because the LORD is his hope.
7 Oh that the saving health of Israel were come out of Zion! When the LORD turns back the captivity of his people, Jacob shall rejoice, and Israel shall be glad.
2 ¶ The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.
2 And it shall come to pass in the last of the days or times, that the mountain of the LORD’s house shall be confirmed as the head of the mountains and shall be exalted above the hills; and all the Gentiles shall flow unto it.
3 And many peoples shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths; for out of Zion shall go forth the law and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.
4 And he shall judge among the Gentiles and shall rebuke many peoples; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruninghooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.
5 O house of Jacob, come and let us walk in the light of the LORD.
6 ¶ Therefore thou hast forsaken thy people the house of Jacob, because they are replenished from the east and are soothsayers like the Philistines, and they please themselves in the children of strangers.
7 Their land is full of silver and gold, neither is there any end of their treasures; their land is also full of horses, neither is there any end of their chariots:
8 Their land also is full of idols; they worship the work of their own hands, that which their own fingers have made:
9 And the mean man bows down, and the great man humbles himself; therefore thou shalt not forgive them.
10 ¶ Enter into the rock, and hide thee in the dust from the terrible presence of the LORD and from the glory of his majesty.
11 The lofty looks of man shall be humbled, and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, and the LORD alone shall be exalted in that day.
13 ¶ For this cause also we thank God without ceasing, that having received from us the word to hear from God, ye received it not as the word of men, (but as it is in truth) the word of God, which effectually works in you that believe.
14 For ye, brethren, have been imitators in Christ Jesus of the congregations {Gr. ekklesia – called out ones} of God which are in Judaea, for ye also have suffered like things of your own nation, even as they have of the Jews,
15 who killed both the Lord Jesus and their own prophets and have persecuted us, and they do not please God and are contrary to all men,
16 forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they might be saved, to fill up the measure of their sins always, for the wrath of God has come upon them to the uttermost.
17 ¶ But we, brethren, being taken from you for a short time in presence, not in heart, endeavoured the more abundantly with great desire to see your face.
18 Therefore we would have come unto you, even I, Paul, once and again, but Satan hindered us.
19 For what is our hope or joy or crown of rejoicing? Is it not you in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming?
20 For ye are our glory and joy.
19 And the princes of the priests and the scribes the same hour sought to lay hands on him, for they perceived that he had spoken this parable against them; but they feared the people.
20 ¶ And they watched him and sent forth spies who feigned themselves just men that they might take hold of him as he was speaking, that so they might deliver him unto the power and authority of the governor.
21 And they asked him, saying, Master, we know that thou sayest and teachest rightly, neither dost thou accept the person of any, but teachest the way of God with truth;
22 Is it lawful for us to give tribute unto Caesar or no?
23 But he, perceiving their craftiness, said unto them, Why tempt ye me?
24 Show me a denarius. Whose image and inscription does it have? They answered and said, Caesar’s.
25 And he said unto them, Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s and unto God the things which are God’s.
26 And they could not take hold of his words before the people, and they marvelled at his answer and were silent.
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