Book of Common Prayer
97 The Lord reigneth, let the earth rejoice! Let the multitude of isles be glad thereof!
2 Clouds and darkness are round about Him; righteousness and judgment are the habitation of His throne.
3 A fire goeth before Him, and burneth up His enemies round about.
4 His lightnings enlightened the world; the earth saw and trembled.
5 The hills melted like wax at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the Lord of the whole earth.
6 The heavens declare His righteousness, and all the people see His glory.
7 Confounded be all they that serve graven images, that boast themselves of idols. Worship Him, all ye gods!
8 Zion heard and was glad, and the daughters of Judah rejoiced because of Thy judgments, O Lord.
9 For Thou, Lord, art high above all the earth; Thou art exalted far above all gods.
10 Ye that love the Lord, hate evil! He preserveth the souls of His saints; He delivereth them out of the hand of the wicked.
11 Light is sown for the righteous, and gladness for the upright in heart.
12 Rejoice in the Lord, ye righteous, and give thanks at the remembrance of His holiness.
99 The Lord reigneth; let the people tremble! He sitteth between the cherubims; let the earth be moved!
2 The Lord is great in Zion, and He is high above all the people.
3 Let them praise Thy great and fearsome name, for it is holy.
4 The King’s strength also loveth judgment; Thou dost establish equity; Thou executest judgment and righteousness in Jacob.
5 Exalt ye the Lord our God, and worship at His footstool, for He is holy!
6 Moses and Aaron are among His priests, and Samuel among them that call upon His name; they called upon the Lord, and He answered them.
7 He spoke unto them in the cloudy pillar; they kept His testimonies and the ordinance that He gave them.
8 Thou didst answer them, O Lord our God; Thou wast a God that forgavest them, though Thou took vengeance on their inventions.
9 Exalt the Lord our God, and worship at His holy hill; for the Lord our God is holy.
100 Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands!
2 Serve the Lord with gladness; come before His presence with singing!
3 Know ye that the Lord, He is God; it is He that hath made us, and not we ourselves. We are His people, and the sheep of His pasture.
4 Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise! Be thankful unto Him, and bless His name!
5 For the Lord is good, His mercy is everlasting; and His truth endureth to all generations.
94 O Lord God, to whom vengeance belongeth—O God, to whom vengeance belongeth, show Thyself.
2 Lift up Thyself, Thou judge of the earth; render to the proud their due reward.
3 Lord, how long shall the wicked, how long shall the wicked triumph?
4 How long shall they utter and speak hard things, and all the workers of iniquity boast?
5 They break in pieces Thy people, O Lord, and afflict Thine heritage.
6 They slay the widow and the stranger, and murder the fatherless.
7 Yet they say, “The Lord shall not see, neither shall the God of Jacob regard it.”
8 Understand, ye brutish among the people; and ye fools, when will ye be wise?
9 He that planted the ear, shall He not hear? He that formed the eye, shall He not see?
10 He that chastiseth the heathen, shall not He correct? He that teacheth man knowledge, shall not He know?
11 The Lord knoweth the thoughts of man, that they are vanity.
12 Blessed is the man whom Thou chastenest, O Lord, and teachest him out of Thy law,
13 that Thou mayest give him rest from the days of adversity, until the pit be dug for the wicked.
14 For the Lord will not cast off His people, neither will He forsake His inheritance.
15 But judgment shall return unto righteousness, and all the upright in heart shall follow it.
16 Who will rise up for me against the evildoers? Or who will stand up for me against the workers of iniquity?
17 Unless the Lord had been my help, my soul had almost dwelt in silence.
18 When I said, “My foot slippeth,” Thy mercy, O Lord, held me up.
19 In the multitude of my thoughts within me, Thy comforts delight my soul.
20 Shall the throne of iniquity have fellowship with Thee, which frameth mischief by a law?
21 They gather themselves together against the soul of the righteous, and condemn the innocent blood.
22 But the Lord is my defense, and my God is the rock of my refuge.
23 And He shall bring upon them their own iniquity, and shall cut them off in their own wickedness; yea, the Lord our God shall cut them off!
95 O come, let us sing unto the Lord! Let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!
2 Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving, and make a joyful noise unto Him with psalms.
3 For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods.
4 In His hand are the deep places of the earth; the strength of the hills is His also.
5 The sea is His, and He made it; and His hands formed the dry land.
6 O come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord our Maker.
7 For He is our God, and we are the people of His pasture and the sheep of His hand. Today, if ye will hear His voice:
8 “Harden not your heart as in the provocation, and as in the day of temptation in the wilderness
9 when your fathers tempted Me, proved Me, and saw My work.
10 Forty years long was I grieved with this generation, and said ‘It is a people that do err in their heart, and they have not known My ways.’
11 Unto them I swore in My wrath, that they should not enter into My rest.”
3 and come to the king and speak in this manner unto him.” So Joab put the words in her mouth.
4 And when the woman of Tekoa spoke to the king, she fell on her face to the ground and did obeisance, and said, “Help, O king!”
5 And the king said unto her, “What aileth thee?” And she answered, “I am indeed a widow woman, and mine husband is dead.
6 And thy handmaid had two sons, and the two strove together in the field; and there was none to part them, but the one smote the other and slew him.
7 And behold, the whole family has risen against thine handmaid, and they said, ‘Deliver him that smote his brother, that we may kill him for the life of his brother whom he slew; and we will destroy the heir also.’ And so they shall quench my coal which is left, and shall leave to my husband neither name nor remnant upon the earth.”
8 And the king said unto the woman, “Go to thine house, and I will give charge concerning thee.”
9 And the woman of Tekoa said unto the king, “My lord, O king, the iniquity be on me and on my father’s house, and the king and his throne be guiltless.”
10 And the king said, “Whosoever saith aught unto thee, bring him to me, and he shall not touch thee any more.”
11 Then said she, “I pray thee, let the king remember the Lord thy God, that thou wouldest not suffer the avengers of blood to destroy any more, lest they destroy my son.” And he said, “As the Lord liveth, there shall not one hair of thy son fall to the earth.”
12 Then the woman said, “Let thine handmaid, I pray thee, speak one word unto my lord the king.” And he said, “Say on.”
13 And the woman said, “Why then hast thou thought such a thing against the people of God? For the king doth speak this thing as one who is faulty, in that the king doth not fetch home again his banished.
14 For we must needs die, and are as water spilled on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again; neither doth God respect any person. Yet doth He devise means, that His banished be not expelled from Him.
15 Now therefore, why I have come to speak of this thing unto my lord the king: it is because the people have made me afraid. And thy handmaid said, ‘I will now speak unto the king. It may be that the king will perform the request of his handmaid.
16 For the king will hear, to deliver his handmaid out of the hand of the man who would destroy me and my son together out of the inheritance of God.’
17 Then thine handmaid said, ‘The word of my lord the king shall now be comforting; for as an angel of God, so is my lord the king to discern good and bad. Therefore the Lord thy God will be with thee.’”
18 Then the king answered and said unto the woman, “Hide not from me, I pray thee, the thing that I shall ask thee.” And the woman said, “Let my lord the king now speak.”
19 And the king said, “Is not the hand of Joab with thee in all this?” And the woman answered and said, “As thy soul liveth, my lord the king, none can turn to the right hand or to the left from aught that my lord the king hath spoken; for thy servant Joab, he bade me, and he put all these words in the mouth of thine handmaid.
20 To bring about this manner of speech hath thy servant Joab done this thing; and my lord is wise, according to the wisdom of an angel of God, to know all things that are in the earth.”
21 And it came to pass that after we had parted from them and had launched, we came on a straight course unto Coos, and the day following unto Rhodes, and from thence unto Patara.
2 And finding a ship sailing over unto Phoenicia, we went aboard and set forth.
3 Now when we had sighted Cyprus, we left it on the left hand, and sailed to Syria and landed at Tyre, for there the ship was to unload her burden.
4 And having found disciples, we tarried there seven days. They told Paul through the Spirit that he should not go up to Jerusalem.
5 And when those days there had been accomplished, we departed and went our way; and they all brought us on our way, with wives and children, until we were out of the city. And we kneeled down on the shore and prayed.
6 And when we had taken our leave one of another, we boarded ship, and they returned home again.
7 And when we had finished our course from Tyre, we came to Ptolemais and saluted the brethren, and stayed with them one day.
8 The next day, we who were in Paul’s company departed and came unto Caesarea, and we entered into the house of Philip the evangelist, who was one of the seven, and lodged with him.
9 And this man had four daughters, virgins, who prophesied.
10 And as we tarried there many days, there came down from Judea a certain prophet named Agabus.
11 And when he had come unto us, he took Paul’s girdle and bound his own hands and feet, and said, “Thus saith the Holy Ghost, ‘So shall the Jews at Jerusalem bind the man who owneth this girdle, and shall deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles.’”
12 And when we heard these things, both we and those at that place besought him not to go up to Jerusalem.
13 Then Paul answered, “What mean ye to weep and to break mine heart? For I am not only ready to be bound, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.”
14 And when he would not be dissuaded, we ceased, saying, “The will of the Lord be done.”
10 And He rose from thence, and went into the region of Judea by the farther side of the Jordan. And the people resorted unto Him again; and as He was wont, He taught them again.
2 And the Pharisees came to Him and asked Him, “Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife?” — testing Him.
3 And He answered and said unto them, “What did Moses command you?”
4 And they said, “Moses suffered to write a bill of divorcement, and to put her away.”
5 And Jesus answered and said unto them, “Because of the hardness of your heart he wrote you this precept.
6 But from the beginning of the creation, ’God made them male and female.
7 For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and cleave to his wife,
8 and the two shall be one flesh.’ So then they are no more two, but one flesh.
9 What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.”
10 And in the house His disciples asked Him again about the same matter.
11 And He said unto them, “Whosoever shall put away his wife and marry another, committeth adultery against her.
12 And if a woman shall put away her husband and be married to another, she committeth adultery.”
13 And they brought young children to Him, that He should touch them; and His disciples rebuked those who brought them.
14 But when Jesus saw it, He was much displeased and said unto them, “Suffer the little children to come unto Me, and forbid them not, for of such is the Kingdom of God.
15 Verily I say unto you, whosoever shall not receive the Kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein.”
16 And He took them up in His arms, put His hands upon them, and blessed them.
Copyright © 1994 by Deuel Enterprises, Inc.