Book of Common Prayer
To the Overcomer, A Psalm of David.
1 ¶ I waited patiently for the LORD, and he inclined unto me and heard my cry.
2 He brought me up also out of the pit of hopelessness, out of the miry clay and set my feet upon a rock and straightened my steps.
3 And he has put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God; many shall see it and fear and shall wait on the LORD.
4 Blessed is that man that makes the LORD his trust and does not respect the proud, nor such as turn aside to lies.
5 Thou hast increased, O LORD my God, thy wonderful works which thou hast done and thy thoughts regarding us; they are beyond our ability to express, declare, or speak; they cannot be told.
6 ¶ Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire; mine ears hast thou opened; burnt offering and sin offering thou hast not required.
7 Then said I, Behold, I come; in the volume of the book it is written of me,
8 I delight to do thy will, O my God; thy law is within my bowels.
9 I have preached righteousness in the great congregation; behold, I have not refrained my lips, O LORD, thou knowest.
10 I have not hid thy righteousness within my heart; I have declared thy truth and thy salvation; I have not concealed thy mercy and thy truth from the great congregation.
11 ¶ Do not withhold thy tender mercies from me, O LORD; let thy mercy and thy truth continually preserve me.
12 For innumerable evils have compassed me about; my iniquities have taken hold upon me, so that I am not able to see; they are more than the hairs of my head; therefore my heart fails me.
13 Be pleased, O LORD, to deliver me; O LORD, make haste to help me.
14 Let them be ashamed and confounded together that seek after my life to destroy it; let them be driven backward and put to shame that wish me evil.
15 Let them be desolate for a reward of their shame that say unto me, Aha, aha.
16 Let all those that seek thee rejoice and be glad in thee; let such as love thy salvation say continually, The LORD be magnified.
17 When I am poor and needy; the Lord will remember me; thou art my help and my deliverer; make no tarrying, O my God.
To the Overcomer on Neginoth, Maschil, A Psalm of David, when the Ziphims came and said to Saul, Does David not hide himself with us?
1 ¶ Save me, O God, in thy name and defend me by thy valour.
2 Hear my prayer, O God; give ear to the words of my mouth.
3 For strangers are risen up against me, and oppressors seek after my soul; they have not set God before them. Selah.
4 ¶ Behold, God is my helper; the Lord is with those that uphold my soul.
5 He shall reward evil unto my enemies; cut them off in thy truth.
6 I will freely sacrifice unto thee; I will praise thy name, O LORD; for it is good.
7 For he has delivered me out of all trouble, and my eye has seen his desire upon my enemies.
To the Overcomer, A Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet came unto him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba.
1 ¶ Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy mercy; according unto the multitude of thy compassion eradicate my rebellion.
2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.
3 For I acknowledge my rebellion; and my sin is ever before me.
4 Against thee, against thee only, have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight that thou be declared just in thy word and pure in thy judgment.
5 Behold, the pain of my iniquity has caused me to writhe; my mother conceived me so that sin might be removed from me.
6 Behold, thou dost desire truth in the inward parts, and in the secret things thou hast made me to know wisdom.
7 ¶ Remove the sin in me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
8 Make me to hear joy and gladness that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice.
9 Hide thy face from my sins and eradicate all my iniquities.
10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.
11 Cast me not away from thy presence and take not thy Holy Spirit from me.
12 Restore unto me the joy of thy saving health, and thy spirit of liberty shall uphold me.
13 Then I will teach transgressors thy ways, and sinners shall be converted unto thee.
14 ¶ Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, thou God of my salvation, and my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness.
15 O Lord, open my lips; and my mouth shall show forth thy praise.
16 For thou dost not desire sacrifice or else would I give it; thou dost not delight in burnt offering.
17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.
18 Do good in thy good pleasure unto Zion; build thou the walls of Jerusalem.
19 Then thou shalt be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness, the burnt offering, the offering that has been totally consumed by the fire; then shall they offer bullocks upon thine altar.
5 ¶ O Assyrian, rod and staff of my anger, in thy hand have I placed my indignation.
6 I will send him against a hypocritical nation, and upon the people of my wrath will I send him to take spoil and to take prey and to ready them that they might be tread down like the mire of the streets.
7 Howbeit he shall not think like this; not even in his heart shall he imagine this way of doing things, but his thought shall be to destroy and cut off nations not a few.
8 For he shall say, Are not my princes altogether kings?
9 Is not Calno as Carchemish? Is not Hamath as Arpad? Is not Samaria as Damascus?
10 As my hand has found the kingdoms of the idols, and whose graven images did excel those of Jerusalem and of Samaria;
11 shall I not, as I have done unto Samaria and her idols, so do to Jerusalem and her idols?
12 Therefore it shall come to pass, that when the Lord has performed his whole work upon Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, I will come upon the fruit of the pride of the heart of the king of Assyria, and upon the glory of his high looks.
13 For he said, By the strength of my hand I have done it, and by my wisdom; for I have been prudent: and I have removed the boundaries of the peoples, and have robbed their treasures, and I have cast down as valiant ones those who were seated:
14 And my hand has found as a nest the riches of the peoples: and as one gathers eggs that are left, I have taken control over all the earth; and there was no one that moved the wing, or opened the mouth, or peeped.
15 Shall the axe boast itself against him that hews with it? or shall the saw magnify itself against him that moves it? as if the rod should rise up against those that lift it up, or as if the staff should lift itself up. Is it not wood?
16 Therefore shall the Lord, the LORD of the hosts, send among his fat ones leanness; and under his glory he shall kindle a burning like the burning of a fire.
17 And the light of Israel shall be for a fire, and his Holy One for a flame: and it shall burn and devour his thorns and his briers in one day;
18 and shall consume the glory of his forest and of his fruitful field, from the soul unto the flesh; and they shall come to be as a standard-bearer in defeat.
19 And the trees that shall remain in his forest shall be in number such that a child may count them.
17 These are wells without water, clouds that are brought by a whirlwind, to whom gross darkness is reserved for ever.
18 For speaking arrogant words of vanity, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through much wantonness, those that were clean escaped from those who converse in error,
19 promising them liberty, being they themselves the slaves of corruption: for he who is overcome by someone is subject to bondage by the one that overcame him.
20 Certainly, if having separated themselves from the contaminations of the world, by the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they again entangle themselves therein and are overcome, their latter end is made worse for them than the beginnings.
21 For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn back from the holy commandment delivered unto them.
22 But it has happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog returns unto his own vomit, and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire.
2 Now when John had heard in the prison the works of the Christ, he sent two of his disciples,
3 and said unto him, Art thou he that should come, or do we look for another?
4 Jesus answered and said unto them, Go and tell John those things which you hear and see:
5 The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk; the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear; the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them.
6 And blessed is he who is not offended in me.
7 ¶ And as they departed, Jesus began to say unto the multitudes concerning John, What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken with the wind?
8 But what did you go out to see? A man clothed in soft raiment? Behold, those that wear soft clothing are in kings’ houses.
9 But what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I say unto you, and more than a prophet.
10 For this is he of whom it is written, Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, who shall prepare thy way before thee.
11 Verily I say unto you, Among those that are born of women there has not risen a greater than John the Baptist; notwithstanding, he that is least in the kingdom of the heavens is greater than he.
12 From the days of John the Baptist until now, life is given unto the kingdom of the heavens, and the valiant take hold of it.
13 For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John.
14 And if ye will receive it, this is that Elijah who was to come.
15 He that has ears to hear, let him hear.
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