Book of Common Prayer
ZAIN.
49 ¶ Remember the word unto thy slave, in which thou hast caused me to wait.
50 ¶ This is my comfort in my affliction; for thy spoken word has caused me to live.
51 ¶ The proud have had me greatly in derision; yet I have not deviated from thy law.
52 ¶ I remembered thy judgments of old, O LORD, and have consoled myself.
53 ¶ Horror has taken hold upon me because of the wicked that forsake thy law.
54 ¶ Thy statutes have been my songs in the house of my pilgrimage.
55 ¶ I have remembered thy name, O LORD, in the night, and have kept thy law.
56 This I had, because I kept thy precepts.
CHETH.
57 ¶ My portion, O LORD, I have said, will be to keep thy words.
58 ¶ I intreated thy presence with my whole heart; be merciful unto me according to thy word.
59 ¶ I considered my ways and turned my feet unto thy testimonies.
60 I made haste and did not delay to keep thy commandments.
61 ¶ The company of the wicked have robbed me, but I have not forgotten thy law.
62 ¶ At midnight I will rise to give thanks unto thee because of the judgments of thy righteousness.
63 ¶ I am a companion of all those that fear thee and of those that keep thy precepts.
64 ¶ The earth, O LORD, is full of thy mercy and teaches me thy statutes.
TETH.
65 ¶ Thou hast dealt well with thy slave, O LORD, according unto thy word,
66 which teaches me discernment and knowledge, for I have believed thy commandments.
67 ¶ Before I was humbled, I went into error, but now I keep thy spoken word.
68 ¶ Thou art good and doest good; teach me thy statutes.
69 ¶ The proud have forged a lie against me, but I will keep thy precepts with my whole heart.
70 Their heart became fat like grease, but I delight in thy law.
71 ¶ It was good for me that I have been humbled, that I might learn thy statutes.
72 ¶ The law of thy mouth is better unto me than thousands of gold and silver.
To the Overcomer: A Psalm for the sons of Korah.
1 ¶ Hear this, all ye people; give ear, all ye inhabitants of the world:
2 Both low and high, rich and poor, together.
3 My mouth shall speak wisdom; and the meditation of my heart intelligence.
4 I will incline mine ear to a parable; I will declare my enigma upon the harp.
5 Why should I fear in the days of adversity when the iniquity of my heels shall compass me about?
6 ¶ Those that trust in their wealth and boast themselves in the multitude of their riches;
7 none of them can by any means ransom his brother, nor give God an atonement for him;
8 (for the redemption of their soul is of great price, and they shall never pay it)
9 that he should still live for ever and not see corruption.
10 For he sees that all the wise men die, likewise the fool and the ignorant perish and leave their wealth to others.
11 Their inward thought is that their houses are eternal and their dwelling places to all generations; they call their lands after their own names.
12 Nevertheless man will not abide forever in honour; he is like the beasts that are cut off.
13 This their way is their folly; yet their posterity approve their sayings. Selah.
14 Like sheep they are laid in Sheol; death shall feed on them, and the upright shall have dominion over them in the morning, and their beauty shall be consumed in the grave from their dwelling.
15 ¶ Surely God will ransom my soul from the hand of Sheol when he shall take me. Selah.
16 Be not thou afraid when one is made rich, when the glory of his house is increased;
17 for in his death he shall carry nothing away; nor shall his glory descend after him.
18 Though while he lives, his life shall be blessed: and men will praise thee when thou art prosperous.
19 He shall enter into the generation of his fathers; they shall never see light forever.
20 Man that is in honour that does not understand is like the beasts that are cut off.
To the Overcomer upon Mahalath, Maschil, A Psalm of David.
1 ¶ The fool has said in his heart, There is no God. They have corrupted themselves and have done abominable iniquity; there is no one that does good.
2 God looked down from heaven upon the sons of Adam to see if there were any that did understand, that did seek God.
3 Every one of them is gone back; they are altogether become filthy; there is no one that does good, no, not one.
4 Have the workers of iniquity no knowledge? who eat up my people as they eat bread; they have not called upon God.
5 They were there in great fear where no fear was; for God has scattered the bones of him that encamps against thee: thou hast put them to shame because God has despised them.
6 Oh that the saving health of Israel were come out of Zion! When God brings back the captivity of his people, Jacob shall rejoice, and Israel shall be glad.
8 ¶ The Lord sent a word into Jacob, and it has lighted upon Israel.
9 And all the people shall know, even Ephraim and the inhabitant of Samaria, that say in pride and arrogance of heart,
10 The bricks are fallen down, but we will build with hewn stones; the wild fig trees are cut down, but we will put cedars in their place.
11 Therefore the LORD shall set up the adversaries of Rezin against him and join his enemies together,
12 the Syrians before, and the Philistines behind; and they shall devour Israel with open mouth. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.
13 But the people did not turn unto him that smote them, neither did they seek the LORD of the hosts.
14 Therefore the LORD will cut off from Israel head and tail, branch and rush, in one day.
15 The ancient and venerable to look upon is the head; the prophet that teaches lies, he is the tail.
16 For the governors of this people are deceivers, and those who are governed by them are lost.
17 Therefore the Lord shall have no joy in their young men, neither shall he have mercy on their fatherless and widows, for every one is a hypocrite and an evildoer, and every mouth speaks folly. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.
2 ¶ But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who covertly shall bring in destructive sects and shall deny the Lord that bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction.
2 And many shall follow their pernicious ways, by reason of whom the way of truth shall be blasphemed;
3 ¶ and in covetousness they shall make merchandise of you with feigned words, upon whom the condemnation from a long time ago does not delay, and their perdition does not sleep.
4 For if God did not forgive the angels that sinned, but cast them down into the deepest abyss {Gr. Tartarus} and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment;
5 and if he did not forgive the old world, but kept Noah, a preacher of righteousness, with seven other persons, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly;
6 and if he condemned by destruction the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha, turning them into ashes, making them an example unto those that after should live without fear and reverence of God;
7 ¶ and delivered just Lot, who was persecuted by those abominable people because of their nefarious conversation;
8 (for that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, afflicted his righteous soul from day to day with the deeds of those unjust people);
9 the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished;
10 ¶ and chiefly those that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness and despise dominion; presumptuous, arrogant, they are not afraid to speak evil of the higher powers;
1 ¶ The beginning of the gospel of Jesus, the Christ, Son of God,
2 as it is written in the prophets, Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, who shall prepare thy way before thee.
3 The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord; make his paths straight.
4 John baptized in the wilderness and preached the baptism of repentance for remission of sins.
5 And there went out unto him all the land of Judaea and those of Jerusalem and were all baptized of him in the river of Jordan, confessing their sins.
6 John was clothed with camel’s hair and with a girdle of a skin about his loins; and he ate locusts and wild honey
7 and preached, saying, There comes one mightier than I after me, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to stoop down and unloose.
8 I indeed have baptized you with water, but he shall baptize you with the Holy Spirit.
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