Book of Common Prayer

To the chief Musician. A Psalm of David.

41 Blessed is he that understandeth the poor: Jehovah will deliver him in the day of evil.

² Jehovah will preserve him, and keep him alive; he shall be made happy in the land; and thou wilt not deliver him to the will of his enemies.

³ Jehovah will sustain him upon the bed of languishing: thou turnest all his bed in his sickness.

⁴ As for me, I said, Jehovah, be gracious unto me: heal my soul; for I have sinned against thee.

⁵ Mine enemies wish me evil: When will he die, and his name perish?

⁶ And if one come to see [me], he speaketh falsehood; his heart gathereth wickedness to itself: he goeth abroad, he telleth [it].

⁷ All that hate me whisper together against me; against me do they devise my hurt.

⁸ A thing of Belial cleaveth fast unto him; and now that he is laid down, he will rise up no more.

⁹ Yea, mine own familiar friend, in whom I confided, who did eat of my bread, hath lifted up [his] heel against me.

¹⁰ But thou, Jehovah, be gracious unto me, and raise me up, that I may requite them.

¹¹ By this I know that thou delightest in me, because mine enemy doth not triumph over me.

¹² But as for me, thou upholdest me in mine integrity, and settest me before thy face for ever.

¹³ Blessed be Jehovah, the God of Israel, from eternity to eternity! Amen, and Amen.

To the chief Musician: an instruction. Of David; when Doeg the Edomite came and told Saul, and said unto him, David came to the house of Ahimelech.

52 Why boastest thou thyself in evil, thou mighty man? The loving-kindness of God [abideth] continually.

² Thy tongue deviseth mischievous things, like a sharp razor, practising deceit.

³ Thou hast loved evil rather than good, lying rather than to speak righteousness. Selah.

⁴ Thou hast loved all devouring words, O deceitful tongue!

⁵ God shall likewise destroy thee for ever; he shall take thee away, and pluck thee out of [thy] tent, and root thee out of the land of the living. Selah.

⁶ The righteous also shall see, and fear, and shall laugh at him, [saying,]

⁷ Behold the man that made not God his strength, but put confidence in the abundance of his riches, [and] strengthened himself in his avarice.

⁸ But as for me, I am like a green olive-tree in the house of God: I will confide in the loving-kindness of God for ever and ever.

⁹ I will praise thee for ever, because thou hast done [it]; and I will wait on thy name, before thy godly ones, for it is good.

To the chief Musician. Of the sons of Korah. An instruction.

44 O God, with our ears have we heard, our fathers have told us, the work thou wroughtest in their days, in the days of old:

² Thou, by thy hand, didst dispossess the nations, but them thou didst plant; thou didst afflict the peoples, but them didst thou cause to spread out.

³ For not by their own sword did they take possession of the land, neither did their own arm save them; but thy right hand, and thine arm, and the light of thy countenance, because thou hadst delight in them.

⁴ Thou thyself art my king, O God: command deliverance for Jacob.

⁵ Through thee will we push down our adversaries; through thy name will we tread them under that rise up against us.

⁶ For I will not put confidence in my bow, neither shall my sword save me.

⁷ For thou hast saved us from our adversaries, and hast put them to shame that hate us.

⁸ In God will we boast all the day, and we will praise thy name for ever. Selah.

⁹ But thou hast cast off, and put us to confusion, and dost not go forth with our armies;

¹⁰ Thou hast made us to turn back from the adversary, and they that hate us spoil for themselves;

¹¹ Thou hast given us over like sheep [appointed] for meat, and hast scattered us among the nations;

¹² Thou hast sold thy people for nought, and hast not increased [thy wealth] by their price;

¹³ Thou makest us a reproach to our neighbours, a mockery and a derision for them that are round about us;

¹⁴ Thou makest us a byword among the nations, a shaking of the head among the peoples.

¹⁵ All the day my confusion is before me, and the shame of my face hath covered me,

¹⁶ Because of the voice of him that reproacheth and blasphemeth; by reason of the enemy and the avenger.

¹⁷ All this is come upon us; yet have we not forgotten thee, neither have we dealt falsely against thy covenant:

¹⁸ Our heart is not turned back, neither have our steps declined from thy path;

¹⁹ Though thou hast crushed us in the place of jackals, and covered us with the shadow of death.

²⁰ If we had forgotten the name of our God, and stretched out our hands to a strange god,

²¹ Would not God search this out? for he knoweth the secrets of the heart.

²² But for thy sake are we killed all the day long; we are reckoned as sheep for slaughter.

²³ Awake, why sleepest thou, Lord? arise, cast [us] not off for ever.

²⁴ Wherefore hidest thou thy face, [and] forgettest our affliction and our oppression?

²⁵ For our soul is bowed down to the dust; our belly cleaveth unto the earth.

²⁶ Rise up for our help, and redeem us for thy loving-kindness' sake.

¹³ And it shall come to pass, if ye hearken diligently unto my commandments which I command you this day, to love Jehovah your God, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul,

¹⁴ that I will give rain to your land in its season, the early rain and the latter rain; and thou shalt gather in thy corn, and thy new wine, and thine oil;

¹⁵ and I will give grass in thy field for thy cattle; and thou shalt eat and be full.

¹⁶ Take heed to yourselves, that your heart be not deceived, and ye turn aside and serve other gods, and bow down to them,

¹⁷ and Jehovah's wrath kindle against you, and he shut up the heavens, that there be no rain, and that the ground yield not its produce, and ye perish quickly from off the good land which Jehovah is giving you.

¹⁸ And ye shall lay up these my words in your heart and in your soul, and bind them for a sign upon your hand, and they shall be for frontlets between your eyes.

¹⁹ And ye shall teach them unto your children, speaking of them when thou sittest in thy house, and when thou goest on the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up;

¹¹ Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord we persuade men, but have been manifested to God, and I hope also that we have been manifested in your consciences.

¹² [For] we do not again commend ourselves to you, but [we are] giving to you occasion of boast in our behalf, that ye may have [such] with those boasting in countenance, and not in heart.

¹³ For whether we are beside ourselves, [it is] to God; or are sober, [it is] for you.

¹⁴ For the love of the Christ constrains us, having judged this: that one died for all, then all have died;

¹⁵ and he died for all, that they who live should no longer live to themselves, but to him who died for them and has been raised.

¹⁶ So that *we* henceforth know no one according to flesh; but if even we have known Christ according to flesh, yet now we know [him thus] no longer.

¹⁷ So if any one [be] in Christ, [there is] a new creation; the old things have passed away; behold all things have become new:

¹⁸ and all things [are] of the God who has reconciled us to himself by [Jesus] Christ, and given to us the ministry of that reconciliation:

¹⁹ how that God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, not reckoning to them their offences; and putting in us the word of that reconciliation.

²⁰ We are ambassadors therefore for Christ, God as [it were] beseeching by us, we entreat for Christ, Be reconciled to God.

²¹ Him who knew not sin he has made sin for us, that *we* might become God's righteousness in him.

6 But [as] fellow-workmen, we also beseech that ye receive not the grace of God in vain:

² (for he says, I have listened to thee in an accepted time, and I have helped thee in a day of salvation: behold, now [is the] well-accepted time; behold, now [the] day of salvation:)

17 And he said to his disciples, It cannot be but that offences come, but woe [to him] by whom they come!

² It would be [more] profitable for him if a millstone were hanged about his neck and he cast into the sea, than that he should be a snare to one of these little ones.

³ Take heed to yourselves: if thy brother should sin, rebuke him; and if he should repent, forgive him.

⁴ And if he should sin against thee seven times in the day, and seven times should return to thee, saying, I repent, thou shalt forgive him.

⁵ And the apostles said to the Lord, Give more faith to us.

⁶ But the Lord said, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard [seed], ye had said to this sycamine tree, Be thou rooted up, and be thou planted in the sea, and it would have obeyed you.

⁷ But which of you [is there] who, having a bondman ploughing or shepherding, when he comes in out of the field, will say, Come and lie down immediately to table?

⁸ But will he not say to him, Prepare what I shall sup on, and gird thyself and serve me that I may eat and drink; and after that *thou* shalt eat and drink?

⁹ Is he thankful to the bondman because he has done what was ordered? I judge not.

¹⁰ Thus *ye* also, when ye shall have done all things that have been ordered you, say, We are unprofitable bondmen; we have done what it was our duty to do.