Book of Common Prayer

To the chief Musician. Of David. A Psalm.

40 I waited patiently for Jehovah; and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry.

² And he brought me up out of the pit of destruction, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock; he hath established my goings:

³ And he hath put a new song in my mouth, praise unto our God. Many shall see it, and fear, and shall confide in Jehovah.

⁴ Blessed is the man that hath made Jehovah his confidence, and turneth not to the proud, and to such as turn aside to lies.

⁵ Thou, O Jehovah my God, hast multiplied thy marvellous works, and thy thoughts toward us: they cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee; would I declare and speak [them], they are more than can be numbered.

⁶ Sacrifice and oblation thou didst not desire: ears hast thou prepared me. Burnt-offering and sin-offering hast thou not demanded;

⁷ Then said I, Behold, I come, in the volume of the book it is written of me—

⁸ To do thy good pleasure, my God, is my delight, and thy law is within my heart.

⁹ I have published righteousness in the great congregation: behold, I have not withheld my lips, Jehovah, *thou* knowest.

¹⁰ I have not hidden thy righteousness within my heart; I have declared thy faithfulness and thy salvation: I have not concealed thy loving-kindness and thy truth from the great congregation.

¹¹ Withhold not thou, Jehovah, thy tender mercies from me; let thy loving-kindness and thy truth continually preserve me.

¹² For innumerable evils have compassed me about: mine iniquities have taken hold upon me, so that I cannot see; they are more than the hairs of my head: and my heart hath failed me.

¹³ Be pleased, O Jehovah, to deliver me; Jehovah, make haste to my help.

¹⁴ Let them be ashamed and brought to confusion together that seek after my soul to destroy it; let them be turned backward and confounded that take pleasure in mine adversity;

¹⁵ Let them be desolate, because of their shame, that say unto me, Aha! Aha!

¹⁶ Let all those that seek thee be glad and rejoice in thee; let such as love thy salvation say continually, Jehovah be magnified!

¹⁷ But I am afflicted and needy: the Lord thinketh upon me. Thou art my help and my deliverer: my God, make no delay.

To the chief Musician. On stringed instruments: an instruction. Of David; when the Ziphites came, and said to Saul, Is not David hiding himself with us?

54 O God, by thy name save me, and by thy strength do me justice.

² O God, hear my prayer; give ear to the words of my mouth.

³ For strangers are risen up against me, and the violent seek after my life: they have not set God before them. Selah.

⁴ Behold, God is my helper; the Lord is among them that uphold my soul.

⁵ He will requite evil to mine enemies: in thy truth cut them off.

⁶ I will freely sacrifice unto thee; I will praise thy name, O Jehovah, because it is good.

⁷ For he hath delivered me out of all trouble; and mine eye hath seen [its desire] upon mine enemies.

To the chief Musician. A Psalm of David; when Nathan the prophet came to him, after he had gone in to Bath-sheba.

51 Be gracious unto me, O God, according to thy loving-kindness; according to the abundance of thy tender mercies, blot out my transgressions.

² Wash me fully from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.

³ For I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is continually before me.

⁴ Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done what is evil in thy sight; that thou mayest be justified when thou speakest, be clear when thou judgest.

⁵ Behold, in iniquity was I brought forth, and in sin did my mother conceive me.

⁶ Behold, thou wilt have truth in the inward parts; and in the hidden [part] thou wilt make me to know wisdom.

⁷ Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

⁸ Make me to hear gladness and joy; [that] the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice.

⁹ Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities.

¹⁰ Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.

¹¹ Cast me not away from thy presence, and take not the spirit of thy holiness from me.

¹² Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation, and let a willing spirit sustain me.

¹³ I will teach transgressors thy ways, and sinners shall return unto thee.

¹⁴ Deliver me from blood-guiltiness, O God, thou God of my salvation: my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness.

¹⁵ Lord, open my lips, and my mouth shall declare thy praise.

¹⁶ For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it: thou hast no pleasure 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 the walls of Jerusalem.

¹⁹ Then shalt thou have sacrifices of righteousness, burnt-offering, and whole burnt-offering; then shall they offer up bullocks upon thine altar.

26 And it shall be when thou comest into the land that Jehovah thy God giveth thee for an inheritance, and possessest it, and dwellest therein,

² that thou shalt take of the first of all the fruit of the ground, which thou shalt bring of thy land which Jehovah thy God giveth thee, and shalt put it in a basket, and shalt go unto the place that Jehovah thy God will choose to cause his name to dwell there;

³ and thou shalt come unto the priest that shall be in those days, and say unto him, I profess this day unto Jehovah thy God, that I am come unto the land that Jehovah swore unto our fathers to give us.

⁴ And the priest shall take the basket out of thy hand, and set it down before the altar of Jehovah thy God.

⁵ And thou shalt speak and say before Jehovah thy God, A perishing Aramean was my father, and he went down to Egypt with a few, and sojourned there, and became there a nation, great, mighty, and populous.

⁶ And the Egyptians evil-entreated us, and afflicted us, and laid upon us hard bondage;

⁷ and we cried to Jehovah, the God of our fathers, and Jehovah heard our voice, and looked on our affliction, and our labour, and our oppression;

⁸ and Jehovah brought us forth out of Egypt with a powerful hand, and with a stretched-out arm, and with great terribleness, and with signs, and with wonders;

⁹ and he hath brought us into this place, and hath given us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey!

¹⁰ And now, behold, I have brought the first of the fruits of the land, which thou, Jehovah, hast given me. And thou shalt set it down before Jehovah thy God, and worship before Jehovah thy God.

¹¹ And thou shalt rejoice in all the good that Jehovah thy God hath given to thee, and to thy house, thou, and the Levite, and the stranger that is in thy midst.

¹⁶ But thanks [be] to God, who gives the same diligent zeal for you in the heart of Titus.

¹⁷ For he received indeed the entreaty, but, being full of zeal, he went of his own accord to you;

¹⁸ but we have sent with him the brother whose praise [is] in the glad tidings through all the assemblies;

¹⁹ and not only [so], but [is] also chosen by the assemblies as our fellow-traveller with this grace, ministered by us to the glory of the Lord himself, and [a witness of] our readiness;

²⁰ avoiding this, that any one should blame us in this abundance [which is] administered by us;

²¹ for we provide for things honest, not only before [the] Lord, but also before men.

²² And we have sent with them our brother whom we have often proved to be of diligent zeal in many things, and now more diligently zealous through the great confidence [he has] as to you.

²³ Whether as regards Titus, [he is] my companion and fellow-labourer in your behalf; or our brethren, [they are] deputed messengers of assemblies, Christ's glory.

²⁴ Shew therefore to them, before the assemblies, the proof of your love, and of our boasting about you.

⁹ And he spoke also to some, who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and made nothing of all the rest [of men], this parable:

¹⁰ Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a tax-gatherer.

¹¹ The Pharisee, standing, prayed thus to himself: God, I thank thee that I am not as the rest of men, rapacious, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax-gatherer.

¹² I fast twice in the week, I tithe everything I gain.

¹³ And the tax-gatherer, standing afar off, would not lift up even his eyes to heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, O God, have compassion on me, the sinner.

¹⁴ I say unto you, This [man] went down to his house justified rather than that [other]. For every one who exalts himself shall be humbled, and he that humbles himself shall be exalted.