Book of Common Prayer

78 A psalm for Asaph. O God, the heathens are come into thy inheritance, they have defiled thy holy temple: they have made Jerusalem as a place to keep fruit.

² They have given the dead bodies of thy servants to be meat for the fowls of the air: the flesh of thy saints for the beasts of the earth.

³ They have poured out their blood as water, round about Jerusalem and there was none to bury them.

⁴ We are become a reproach to our neighbours: a scorn and derision to them that are round about us.

⁵ How long, O Lord, wilt thou be angry for ever: shall thy zeal be kindled like a fire?

⁶ Pour out thy wrath upon the nations that have not known thee: and upon the kingdoms that have not called upon thy name.

⁷ Because they have devoured Jacob; and have laid waste his place.

⁸ Remember not our former iniquities: let thy mercies speedily prevent us, for we are become exceeding poor.

⁹ Help us, O God, our saviour: and for the glory of thy name, O Lord, deliver us: and forgive us our sins for thy name's sake:

¹⁰ Lest they should say among the Gentiles: Where is their God? And let him be made known among the nations before our eyes, By the revenging the blood of thy servants, which hath been shed:

¹¹ Let the sighing of the prisoners come in before thee. According to the greatness of thy arm, take possession of the children of them that have been put to death.

¹² And render to our neighbours sevenfold in their bosom: the reproach wherewith they have reproached thee, O Lord.

¹³ But we thy people, and the sheep of thy pasture, will give thanks to thee for ever. We will shew forth thy praise, unto generation and generation.

¹¹ Take heed, and beware lest at any time thou forget the Lord thy God, and neglect his commandments and judgments and ceremonies, which I command thee this day:

¹² Lest after thou hast eaten and art filled, hast built goodly houses, and dwelt in them,

¹³ And shalt have herds of oxen and flocks of sheep, and plenty of gold and of silver, and of all things,

¹⁴ Thy heart be lifted up, and thou remember not the Lord thy God, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage:

¹⁵ And was thy leader in the great and terrible wilderness, wherein there was the serpent burning with his breath, and the scorpion and the dipsas, and no waters at all: who brought forth streams out of the hardest rock,

¹⁶ And fed thee in the wilderness with manna which thy fathers knew not. And after he had afflicted and proved thee, at the last he had mercy on thee,

¹⁷ Lest thou shouldst say in thy heart: My own might, and the strength of my own hand have achieved all these things for me.

¹⁸ But remember the Lord thy God, that he hath given thee strength, that he might fulfill his covenant, concerning which he swore to thy fathers, as this present day sheweth.

¹⁹ But if thou forget the Lord thy God, and follow strange gods, and serve and adore them: behold now I foretell thee that thou shalt utterly perish.

²⁰ As the nations, which the Lord destroyed at thy entrance, so shall you also perish, if you be disobedient to the voice of the Lord your God.

¹⁶ Do not err, therefore, my dearest brethren.

¹⁷ Every best gift, and every perfect gift, is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no change, nor shadow of alteration.

¹⁸ For of his own will hath he begotten us by the word of truth, that we might be some beginning of his creatures.

¹⁹ You know, my dearest brethren. And let every man be swift to hear, but slow to speak, and slow to anger.

²⁰ For the anger of man worketh not the justice of God.

²¹ Wherefore casting away all uncleanness, and abundance of naughtiness, with meekness receive the ingrafted word, which is able to save your souls.

²² But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.

²³ For if a man be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he shall be compared to a man beholding his own countenance in a glass.

²⁴ For he beheld himself, and went his way, and presently forgot what manner of man he was.

²⁵ But he that hath looked into the perfect law of liberty, and hath continued therein, not becoming a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work; this man shall be blessed in his deed.

²⁶ And if any man think himself to be religious, not bridling his tongue, but deceiving his own heart, this man's religion is vain.

²⁷ Religion clean and undefiled before God and the Father, is this: to visit the fatherless and widows in their tribulation: and to keep one's self unspotted from this world.

11 And it came to pass, that as he was in a certain place praying, when he ceased, one of his disciples said to him: Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples.

² And he said to them: When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come.

³ Give us this day our daily bread.

⁴ And forgive us our sins, for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation.

⁵ And he said to them: Which of you shall have a friend, and shall go to him at midnight, and shall say to him: Friend, lend me three loaves,

⁶ Because a friend of mine is come off his journey to me, and I have not what to set before him.

⁷ And he from within should answer, and say: Trouble me not, the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot rise and give thee.

⁸ Yet if he shall continue knocking, I say to you, although he will not rise and give him, because he is his friend; yet, because of his importunity, he will rise, and give him as many as he needeth.

⁹ And I say to you, Ask, and it shall be given you: seek, and you shall find: knock, and it shall be opened to you.

¹⁰ For every one that asketh, receiveth; and he that seeketh, findeth; and to him that knocketh, it shall be opened.

¹¹ And which of you, if he ask his father bread, will he give him a stone? or a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent?

¹² Or if he shall ask an egg, will he reach him a scorpion?

¹³ If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father from heaven give the good Spirit to them that ask him?