Book of Common Prayer
70 Make haste, O God, to deliver me; make haste to help me, O Lord!
2 Let them be ashamed and confounded that seek after my soul; let them be turned backward and put to confusion that desire my hurt.
3 Let them be turned back as a reward for their shame that say, “Aha, aha!”
4 Let all those that seek Thee rejoice and be glad in Thee; and let such as love Thy salvation say continually, “Let God be magnified!”
5 But I am poor and needy; make haste unto me, O God. Thou art my help and my deliverer; O Lord, make no tarrying.
71 In Thee, O Lord, do I put my trust; let me never be put to confusion.
2 Deliver me in Thy righteousness, and cause me to escape; incline Thine ear unto me, and save me.
3 Be Thou my strong habitation, whereunto I may continually resort; Thou hast given commandment to save me, for Thou art my rock and my fortress.
4 Deliver me, O my God, out of the hand of the wicked, out of the hand of the unrighteous and cruel man.
5 For Thou art my hope, O Lord God; Thou art my trust from my youth.
6 By Thee have I been held from the womb; Thou art He that took me out of my mother’s womb. My praise shall be continually of Thee.
7 I am as a wonder unto many, but Thou art my strong refuge.
8 Let my mouth be filled with Thy praise, and with Thy honor all the day.
9 Cast me not off in the time of old age; forsake me not when my strength faileth.
10 For mine enemies speak against me, and they that lie in wait for my soul take counsel together,
11 saying, “God hath forsaken him; persecute and take him, for there is none to deliver him.”
12 O God, be not far from me; O my God, make haste to help me.
13 Let them be confounded and consumed that are adversaries to my soul; let them be covered with reproach and dishonor that seek my hurt.
14 But I will hope continually and will yet praise Thee more and more.
15 My mouth shall show forth Thy righteousness and Thy salvation all the day, for I know not the numbers thereof.
16 I will go in the strength of the Lord God; I will make mention of Thy righteousness, even of Thine only.
17 O God, Thou hast taught me from my youth, and hitherto have I declared Thy wondrous works.
18 Now also when I am old and grayheaded, O God, forsake me not, until I have shown Thy strength unto this generation and Thy power to every one that is to come.
19 Thy righteousness also, O God, is very high, who hast done great things. O God, who is like unto Thee!
20 Thou, who hast shown me great and sore troubles, shalt quicken me again, and shalt bring me up again from the depths of the earth.
21 Thou shalt increase my greatness, and comfort me on every side.
22 I will also praise Thee with the psaltery for Thy truth, O my God; unto Thee will I sing with the harp, O Thou Holy One of Israel.
23 My lips shall greatly rejoice when I sing unto Thee, and my soul which Thou hast redeemed.
24 My tongue also shall talk of Thy righteousness all the day long; for they are confounded, for they are brought to shame that seek my hurt.
74 O God, why hast Thou cast us off for ever? Why doth Thine anger smoke against the sheep of Thy pasture?
2 Remember Thy congregation, which Thou hast purchased of old, the rod of Thine inheritance, which Thou hast redeemed, this Mount Zion, wherein Thou hast dwelt.
3 Lift up Thy feet unto the perpetual desolations, even all that the enemy hath done wickedly in the sanctuary.
4 Thine enemies roar in the midst of Thy congregations; they set up their ensigns for signs.
5 Once a man was famous according as he had lifted up axes upon the thick trees,
6 but now they break down the carved work thereof at once with axes and hammers.
7 They have cast fire into Thy sanctuary; they have defiled by casting down to the ground the dwelling place of Thy name.
8 They said in their hearts, “Let us destroy them together!” They have burned up all the synagogues of God in the land.
9 We see not our signs; there is no more any prophet; neither is there among us any that knoweth how long.
10 O God, how long shall the adversary reproach? Shall the enemy blaspheme Thy name for ever?
11 Why withdrawest Thou Thy hand, even Thy right hand? Pluck it out of Thy bosom!
12 For God is my King of old, working salvation in the midst of the earth.
13 Thou didst divide the sea by Thy strength; Thou breakest the heads of the dragons in the waters.
14 Thou breakest the heads of Leviathan in pieces, and gavest him to be meat to the people inhabiting the wilderness.
15 Thou didst cleave the fountain and the flood; Thou driedst up mighty rivers.
16 The day is Thine, the night also is Thine; Thou hast prepared the light and the sun.
17 Thou hast set all the borders of the earth; Thou hast made summer and winter.
18 Remember this, that the enemy hath reproached, O Lord, and that the foolish people have blasphemed Thy name.
19 O deliver not the soul of Thy turtledove unto the multitude of the wicked; forget not the congregation of Thy poor for ever.
20 Have respect unto the covenant, for the dark places of the earth are full of the habitations of cruelty.
21 O let not the oppressed return ashamed; let the poor and needy praise Thy name.
22 Arise, O God, plead Thine own cause; remember how the foolish man reproacheth Thee daily.
23 Forget not the voice of Thine enemies; the tumult of those that rise up against Thee increaseth continually.
4 And when Saul’s son heard that Abner was dead in Hebron, his hands were feeble, and all the Israelites were troubled.
2 And Saul’s son had two men who were captains of companies: the name of the one was Baanah and the name of the other Rechab, the sons of Rimmon a Beerothite, of the children of Benjamin. (For Beeroth also was reckoned to Benjamin;
3 and the Beerothites fled to Gittaim and were sojourners there until this day.)
4 And Jonathan, Saul’s son, had a son who was lame in his feet. He was five years old when the tidings came of Saul and Jonathan out of Jezreel, and his nurse took him up and fled. And it came to pass, as she made haste to flee, that he fell and became lame. And his name was Mephibosheth.
5 And the sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, Rechab and Baanah, went and came about the heat of the day to the house of Ishbosheth, who lay on a bed at noon.
6 And they came thither into the midst of the house as though they would have fetched wheat, and they smote him under the fifth rib; and Rechab and Baanah his brother escaped.
7 For when they came into the house, he lay on his bed in his bedchamber; and they smote him, and slew him, and beheaded him, and took his head, and got themselves away through the plain all night.
8 And they brought the head of Ishbosheth unto David at Hebron, and said to the king, “Behold the head of Ishbosheth the son of Saul thine enemy, who sought thy life; and the Lord hath avenged my lord the king this day of Saul and of his seed.”
9 And David answered Rechab and Baanah his brother, the sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, and said unto them, “As the Lord liveth, who hath redeemed my soul out of all adversity,
10 when one told me, saying, ‘Behold, Saul is dead,’ thinking to have brought good tidings, I took hold of him and slew him in Ziklag; he thought that I would have given him a reward for his tidings.
11 How much more, when wicked men have slain a righteous person in his own house upon his bed? Shall I not therefore now require his blood at your hand and take you away from the earth?”
12 And David commanded his young men, and they slew them and cut off their hands and their feet, and hanged them up over the pool in Hebron. But they took the head of Ishbosheth and buried it in the sepulcher of Abner in Hebron.
25 And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed and sang praises unto God, and the prisoners heard them.
26 And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone’s bands were loosed.
27 And the keeper of the prison, awakening out of his sleep and seeing the prison doors open, drew out his sword and would have killed himself, supposing that the prisoners had fled.
28 But Paul cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Do thyself no harm, for we are all here!”
29 Then he called for a light, and sprang in, and came trembling and fell down before Paul and Silas,
30 and brought them out and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”
31 And they said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.”
32 And they spoke unto him the Word of the Lord, and to all who were in his house.
33 And he took them that same hour of the night and washed their stripes, and was baptized, he and all his, straightway.
34 And when he had brought them into his house, he set meat before them and rejoiced, believing in God with all his house.
35 And when it was day, the magistrates sent the sergeants, saying, “Let those men go.”
36 And the keeper of the prison told these words to Paul, saying, “The magistrates have sent to let you go; now therefore depart and go in peace.”
37 But Paul said unto them, “They have beaten us openly, uncondemned, being Romans, and have cast us into prison. And now do they thrust us out privily? Nay verily! Let them come themselves and fetch us out.”
38 And the sergeants told these words unto the magistrates, and they feared when they heard that they were Romans.
39 And they came and besought them and brought them out, and entreated them to depart out of the city.
40 And they went out of the prison and entered into the house of Lydia. And when they had seen the brethren, they comforted them and departed.
7 Then came together unto Him the Pharisees and certain of the scribes, who came from Jerusalem.
2 And when they saw some of His disciples eat bread with defiled (that is to say, unwashed) hands, they found fault.
3 For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat, unless they wash their hands oft, holding to the tradition of the elders.
4 And when they come from the market, they eat not unless they wash; and there are many other customs which they have received and hold to, as the washing of cups, pots, brazen vessels and of tables.
5 Then the Pharisees and scribes asked Him, “Why walk not thy disciples according to the tradition of the elders, but eat bread with unwashed hands?”
6 He answered and said unto them, “Well hath Isaiah prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written: ‘This people honoreth Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me.
7 Therefore, in vain do they worship Me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.’
8 For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold to the tradition of men, as the washing of pots and cups, and many other like things ye do.”
9 And He said unto them, “Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition.
10 For Moses said, ‘Honor thy father and thy mother,’ and, ‘Whoso curseth father or mother, let him die the death.’
11 But ye say that if a man shall say to his father or mother, ‘It is Corban’ (that is to say, a gift of whatsoever thou mightest have profited from me), he shall be freed;
12 and ye suffer him no more to do aught for his father or his mother,
13 thus making the Word of God of no effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered. And many like things do ye.”
14 And when He had called all the people unto Him, He said unto them, “Hearken unto Me every one of you, and understand:
15 There is nothing from outside a man that, entering into him, can defile him; but the things which come out of him, those are they that defile the man.
16 If any man have ears to hear, let him hear.”
17 And when He had entered into the house away from the people, His disciples asked Him concerning the parable.
18 And He said unto them, “Are ye so without understanding also? Do ye not perceive that whatsoever thing from outside entereth into a man, it cannot defile him,
19 because it entereth not into his heart, but into the belly and goeth out into the drain, thereby purging all meats?”
20 And He said, “That which cometh out of the man, that defileth the man.
21 For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders,
22 thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness:
23 all these evil things come from within and defile the man.”
Copyright © 1994 by Deuel Enterprises, Inc.