Book of Common Prayer
A Psalm to Asaph.
1 ¶ The God of gods, even the LORD, has spoken and convocated the earth from the rising of the sun unto the going down thereof.
2 Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God has shined forth.
3 Our God shall come and shall not keep silence; a fire shall devour before him, and it shall be very tempestuous round about him.
4 He shall convocate the heavens of above, and the earth, that he may judge his people.
5 Gather my merciful ones together unto me, those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice.
6 And the heavens shall declare his righteousness, for God himself is the judge. Selah.
7 ¶ Hear, O my people, and I will speak; O Israel, and I will testify against thee; I am God, even thy God.
8 I will not reprove thee regarding thy sacrifices; thy burnt offerings are continually before me.
9 I will take no bullock out of thy house, nor he goats out of thy folds.
10 For every beast of the forest is mine and the cattle upon a thousand hills.
11 I know all the fowls of the mountains; and the wild beasts of the field are with me.
12 If I were hungry, I would not tell thee; for the world is mine and the fullness thereof.
13 Must I eat the flesh of bulls or drink the blood of goats?
14 Sacrifice praise unto God and pay thy vows unto the most High
15 and call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me.
16 ¶ But unto the wicked God saith, What part hast thou to declare my statutes or that thou should take my covenant in thy mouth?
17 Seeing thou dost hate chastening and dost cast my words behind thee.
18 When thou didst see a thief, then thou didst consent with him and hast been partaker with adulterers.
19 Thou didst give thy mouth to evil, and thy tongue frames deceit.
20 Thou didst sit and speak against thy brother; thou didst slander thine own mother’s son.
21 These things hast thou done, and I kept silence; thou didst think that I was altogether such a one as thyself, but I will reprove thee and set them in order before thine eyes.
22 Now consider this, ye that forget God, lest I take you away, and there be none to deliver.
23 Whosoever sacrifices praise glorifies me; and to him that orders his ways aright I will show the salvation of God.
To the Overcomer upon, Do not destroy, Michtam of David; when Saul sent, and they watched the house to kill him.
1 ¶ Deliver me from my enemies, O my God; defend me from those that rise up against me.
2 Deliver me from the workers of iniquity and save me from bloodthirsty men.
3 For, behold, they lie in wait for my soul; the strong are gathered against me; I am not in rebellion, nor in sin, O LORD.
4 They run and prepare themselves when I have committed no iniquity; awake to help me and behold.
5 Thou, therefore, O LORD God of the hosts, the God of Israel, awake to visit all the Gentiles; be not merciful to any rebellious workers of iniquity. Selah.
6 They will return at evening; they will bark like dogs and go round about outside the city.
7 Behold, they belch out with their mouth; swords are in their lips; for who, say they, doth hear?
8 ¶ But thou, O LORD, shalt laugh at them; thou shalt have all the Gentiles in derision.
9 I will reserve his strength unto thee, for God is my defence.
10 The God of my mercy shall meet me on the way; God shall let me see my desire upon my enemies.
11 Slay them not lest my people forget; scatter them by thy power and bring them down, O Lord our shield.
12 For the sin of their mouth and the words of their lips, let them even be taken in their pride; they shall be subject to weakness and to a curse.
13 Consume them in wrath, consume them that they may not be and let them know that God rules in Jacob unto the ends of the earth. Selah.
14 And at evening let them return and let them bark like dogs and go round about outside the city.
15 Let them wander up and down for food and murmur if they are not satisfied.
16 But I will sing of thy power; I will sing aloud of thy mercy in the morning, for thou hast been my defence and refuge in the day of my trouble.
17 Unto thee, O my strength, will I sing, for God is my defence and the God of my mercy.
To the Overcomer upon Shushaneduth, Michtam of David, to teach; when he strove with Aramnaharaim and with Aramzobah, when Joab returned and smote of Edom in the valley of salt twelve thousand.
1 ¶ O God, thou hast cast us off, thou hast scattered us; thou hast been displeased; O turn thyself to us again.
2 Thou hast made the earth to tremble; thou hast broken it; heal its breaches, for it shakes.
3 Thou hast showed thy people hard things; thou hast made us to drink the wine of shaking.
4 Thou hast given a banner to those that fear thee that they raise up for the truth. Selah.
5 That thy beloved may be delivered, save with thy right hand and hear me.
6 ¶ God has spoken in his holiness; I will rejoice, I will divide Shechem and mete out the valley of Succoth.
7 Gilead is mine, and Manasseh is mine; Ephraim also is the strength of my head; Judah is my lawgiver;
8 Moab is my washpot; over Edom I will cast out my shoe; Philistia, triumph thou because of me.
9 Who will bring me into the strong city? Who will lead me into Edom?
10 Surely thou, O God, who had cast us off; and thou, O God, who did not go out with our armies.
11 Give us help from trouble, for vain is the salvation of man.
12 Through God we shall do valiantly, for he it is that shall tread down our enemies.
1 ¶ Rejoice in the LORD, O ye righteous, for to the upright praise is beautiful.
2 Celebrate unto the LORD with harp; sing unto him with the psaltery and an instrument of ten strings.
3 Sing unto him a new song; play unto excellence with joy.
4 For the word of the LORD is right, and all his works are done in truth.
5 He loves righteousness and judgment; the earth is full of the mercy of the LORD.
6 By the word of the LORD were the heavens made, and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth.
7 He gathers the waters of the sea together as a heap; he lays up the deeps for treasures.
8 Let all the earth fear the LORD; let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him.
9 For he spoke, and it was done; he commanded, and it came into being.
10 The LORD brings the counsel of the Gentiles to nought; he makes the devices of the peoples of no effect.
11 The counsel of the LORD stands for ever, the thoughts of his heart to all generations.
12 ¶ Blessed is the people whose God is the LORD; the people whom he has chosen for his own inheritance.
13 The LORD looked from heaven; he saw all the sons of Adam.
14 From the place of his habitation he looked upon all the inhabitants of the earth.
15 He fashioned all of their hearts; he considers all their works.
16 The king is not saved by the multitude of the army; the mighty man does not escape by much strength.
17 A horse is a vain thing for salvation; neither shall he deliver any by his great strength.
18 Behold, the eye of the LORD is upon those that fear him, upon those that wait for his mercy
19 to deliver their souls from death and to keep them alive in the famine.
20 Our soul waited for the LORD; he is our help and our shield.
21 Therefore our heart shall rejoice in him because we have trusted in the name of his holiness.
22 Let thy mercy, O LORD, be upon us, according as we have waited upon thee.
18 For wickedness burns as the fire, it shall devour the briers and thorns and shall kindle in the thickets of the forest, and they shall mount up like the lifting up of smoke.
19 Through the wrath of the LORD of the hosts the land is darkened, and the people shall be as the fuel of the fire; no man shall spare his brother.
20 And he shall snatch on the right hand and be hungry, and he shall eat on the left hand, and they shall not be satisfied; they shall eat each man the flesh of his own arm:
21 Manasseh, Ephraim; and Ephraim, Manasseh; and they together shall be against Judah. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.
10 ¶ Woe unto those that establish unrighteous laws and that wilfully prescribe tyranny
2 to turn aside the poor from right judgment and to take away the right from the afflicted of my people that widows may be their prey and that they may rob the fatherless!
3 And what will ye do in the day of visitation and in the desolation which shall come from far? To whom will ye flee for help and where will ye leave your glory?
4 They shall bow down among the prisoners, and they shall fall among the slain. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.
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;
11 whereas even the angels, who are greater in power and might, bring no curse of judgment against them before the Lord.
12 But these, speaking evil of the things that they do not understand (as natural animals without reason, who are made to be taken and destroyed), shall utterly perish in their own corruption,
13 receiving the reward of their unrighteousness, as those that count it pleasure to live luxuriously every day. These are spots and blemishes, who eat together with you, while at the same time they revel in their deceit,
14 having their eyes full of adultery, and not knowing how to cease from sin, baiting unstable souls, having their heart exercised in covetous practices; cursed sons,
15 who forsaking the right way have erred, having followed the way of Balaam the son of Beor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness,
16 and was rebuked for his iniquity; a dumb animal accustomed to a yoke (upon which he was seated), speaking with man’s voice, hindered the madness of the prophet.
3 ¶ In those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judaea
2 and saying, Repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
3 For this is he that was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah, who said, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord; make his paths straight.
4 And the same John had his raiment of camel’s hair and a leathern girdle about his loins, and his food was locusts and wild honey.
5 Then Jerusalem and all Judaea and all the region round about Jordan went out to him
6 and were baptized of him in the Jordan, confessing their sins.
7 ¶ But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation of vipers, who taught you to flee from the wrath to come?
8 Bring forth therefore fruits worthy of repentance
9 and think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham as our father, for I say unto you that God is able to raise up children unto Abraham of these stones.
10 And now the axe is also laid unto the root of the trees; therefore, every tree which does not bring forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire.
11 I indeed baptize you in water unto repentance, but he that comes after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear; he shall baptize you in the Holy Spirit and fire,
12 whose fan is in his hand; and he will thoroughly purge his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the storehouse, but he will burn up the chaff with fire that shall never be quenched.
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