Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 26
A Psalm of David.
1 Judge me, O Lord,
for I have walked in my integrity.
I have trusted in the Lord;
I will not slip.
2 Examine me, O Lord, and test me;
try my affections and my heart.
3 For Your lovingkindness is before my eyes,
and I have walked in Your truth.
4 I have not sat with the worthless,
nor will I go with hypocrites.
5 I have hated the congregation of evildoers,
and will not sit with the wicked.
6 I will wash my hands in innocence;
thus I will go around Your altar, O Lord,
7 that I may proclaim with the voice of thanksgiving,
and tell of all Your wondrous works.
8 Lord, I have loved the refuge of Your house,
and the place where Your honor dwells.
9 Do not gather my soul with sinners,
nor my life with murderers,
10 in whose hands is wickedness,
and their right hand is full of bribes.
11 But as for me, I will walk in my integrity;
redeem me and be gracious to me.
12 My foot stands in an even place;
with the congregations I will bless the Lord.
Psalm 28
A Psalm of David.
1 To You, O Lord, will I cry;
my Rock, do not be silent to me;
lest if You were silent to me,
then I would become like those who go down to the pit.
2 Hear the voice of my supplications
when I cry to You,
when I lift up my hands
toward Your most holy place.
3 Do not draw me away with the wicked
and with the workers of iniquity,
who speak peace to their neighbors,
but mischief is in their hearts.
4 Give them according to their deeds,
and according to the wickedness of their endeavors;
give them according to the work of their hands;
return to them what they deserve.
5 Because they do not regard the works of the Lord,
nor the work of His hands,
He will destroy them
and not build them up.
6 Blessed be the Lord,
because He has heard the voice of my supplications.
7 The Lord is my strength and my shield;
my heart trusted in Him, and I was helped;
therefore my heart rejoices,
and with my song I will thank Him.
8 The Lord is the strength of His people,
and He is the saving strength of His anointed.
9 Save Your people,
and bless Your inheritance;
feed them and lift them up forever.
Psalm 36
For the Music Director. A Psalm of David, the servant of the Lord.
1 An oracle within my heart
about the transgression of the wicked:
There is no fear of God
before their eyes.
2 For they flatter themselves in their own eyes,
that their iniquity cannot be found out and hated.
3 The words of their mouth are wickedness and deceit;
they have ceased to be wise and to do good.
4 They devise mischief on their bed;
they set themselves on a path that is not good;
they do not reject evil.
5 Your mercy, O Lord, is in the heavens,
and Your faithfulness reaches to the clouds.
6 Your righteousness is like the great mountains,
Your judgments like the great deep;
O Lord, You preserve man and beast.
7 How excellent is Your lovingkindness, O God!
Therefore mankind
seeks refuge in the shadow of Your wings.
8 They will drink their fill from the abundance of Your house,
and You will cause them to drink from the river of Your pleasures.
9 For with You is the fountain of life;
in Your light we see light.
10 Oh, continue Your lovingkindness to those who know You,
and Your righteousness to the upright in heart.
11 Do not let the foot of the arrogant come against me,
and do not let the hand of the wicked cause me to wander.
12 There the workers of iniquity have fallen;
they are cast down and not able to rise.
Psalm 39
For the Music Director. To Jeduthun. A Psalm of David.
1 I said, “I will take heed of my ways
so that I do not sin with my tongue;
I will keep my mouth muzzled
while the wicked are before me.”
2 I was speechless in silence;
I was silent to no avail,
but my anguish was stirred up.
3 My heart was hot within me;
while I was musing, the fire burned,
then I spoke with my tongue:
4 “Lord, make me to know my end,
and what is the measure of my days,
that I may know how transient I am.
5 Indeed, You have made my days as a handbreadth,
and my age is as nothing before You;
indeed every man at his best is as a breath.” Selah
6 Surely every man walks in a mere shadow;
surely he goes as a breath;
he heaps up riches, and does not know who will gather them.
7 Now, Lord, what do I wait for?
My hope is in You.
8 Deliver me from all my transgressions;
do not make me the reproach of the foolish.
9 I was speechless, I did not open my mouth,
because You did it.
10 Remove Your blow from me;
I am consumed by the hostility of Your hand.
11 When with rebukes You correct a man for iniquity,
You consume like a moth what is dear to him;
surely every man is vapor. Selah
12 Hear my prayer, O Lord,
and give ear to my cry;
do not be silent at my tears,
for I am a stranger with You,
and a sojourner, as all my fathers were.
13 Turn Your gaze of displeasure from me, that I may smile,
before I go away and am no more.
16 You shall not tempt the Lord your God, as you tempted Him in Massah. 17 You shall diligently keep the commandments of the Lord your God, and His testimonies and His statutes which He has commanded you. 18 You shall do what is right and good in the sight of the Lord that it may be well with you and that you may go in and possess the good land which the Lord swore to your fathers, 19 to drive out all your enemies before you, just as the Lord has spoken.
20 When your son asks you in time to come, saying, “What do the testimonies and the statutes and the judgments mean which the Lord our God has commanded you?” 21 then you shall say to your son, “We were slaves of Pharaoh in Egypt, and the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand. 22 And the Lord showed great and devastating signs and wonders upon Egypt, upon Pharaoh, and upon all his household before our eyes. 23 He brought us out from there, so that He might bring us in, to give us the land which He swore to our fathers. 24 The Lord commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear the Lord our God, for our good always, that He might preserve us, as He has to this day. 25 It will be our righteousness if we are careful to keep all these commandments before the Lord our God, just as He has commanded us.”
The Great Salvation
2 Therefore we should be more attentive to what we have heard, lest we drift away. 2 For if the word spoken by angels was true, and every sin and disobedience received a just recompense, 3 how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation, which was first declared by the Lord, and was confirmed to us by those who heard Him? 4 God also bore them witness with signs and wonders and diverse miracles and with gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to His own will.
The Pioneer of Salvation
5 For it was not to the angels that He has subjected the world to come, of which we are speaking. 6 But someone in a certain place testified, saying:
“What is man that You are mindful of him,
or the son of man that You care for him?
7 You made him a little lower than the angels;
You crowned him with glory and honor,
and set him over the works of Your hands.
8 You have put all things in subjection under his feet.”[a]
For in subjecting all things under him, He left nothing that is not subjected to him. Yet now we do not see all things subject to him. 9 But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels to suffer death, crowned with glory and honor, so that He, by the grace of God, should experience death for everyone.
10 For it was fitting for Him, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, to make the Author of their salvation perfect through suffering.
The Testimony of John the Baptist(A)
19 Now this is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?” 20 He confessed, and did not deny, but confessed, “I am not the Christ.”
21 They asked him, “Who then? Are you Elijah?”
He said, “I am not.”
“Are you the Prophet?”
He answered, “No.”
22 They said to him then, “Who are you? Tell us so that we may give an answer to those who sent us. What do you say concerning yourself?”
23 John said, “I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’[a] just as the prophet Isaiah said.”
24 Now those who were sent were from the Pharisees. 25 They asked him, “Why do you baptize then, if you are not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?”
26 John answered them, “I baptize with water, but One stands among you, whom you do not know. 27 This is He who comes after me, who is preferred before me, the strap of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie.”
28 These things took place in Bethany beyond the Jordan, where John was baptizing.
The Holy Bible, Modern English Version. Copyright © 2014 by Military Bible Association. Published and distributed by Charisma House.