Book of Common Prayer
To the Overcomer, A Psalm of David.
1 ¶ I waited patiently for the LORD, and he inclined unto me and heard my cry.
2 He brought me up also out of the pit of hopelessness, out of the miry clay and set my feet upon a rock and straightened my steps.
3 And he has put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God; many shall see it and fear and shall wait on the LORD.
4 Blessed is that man that makes the LORD his trust and does not respect the proud, nor such as turn aside to lies.
5 Thou hast increased, O LORD my God, thy wonderful works which thou hast done and thy thoughts regarding us; they are beyond our ability to express, declare, or speak; they cannot be told.
6 ¶ Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire; mine ears hast thou opened; burnt offering and sin offering thou hast not required.
7 Then said I, Behold, I come; in the volume of the book it is written of me,
8 I delight to do thy will, O my God; thy law is within my bowels.
9 I have preached righteousness in the great congregation; behold, I have not refrained my lips, O LORD, thou knowest.
10 I have not hid thy righteousness within my heart; I have declared thy truth and thy salvation; I have not concealed thy mercy and thy truth from the great congregation.
11 ¶ Do not withhold thy tender mercies from me, O LORD; let thy mercy and thy truth continually preserve me.
12 For innumerable evils have compassed me about; my iniquities have taken hold upon me, so that I am not able to see; they are more than the hairs of my head; therefore my heart fails me.
13 Be pleased, O LORD, to deliver me; O LORD, make haste to help me.
14 Let them be ashamed and confounded together that seek after my life to destroy it; let them be driven backward and put to shame that wish me evil.
15 Let them be desolate for a reward of their shame that say unto me, Aha, aha.
16 Let all those that seek thee rejoice and be glad in thee; let such as love thy salvation say continually, The LORD be magnified.
17 When I am poor and needy; the Lord will remember me; thou art my help and my deliverer; make no tarrying, O my God.
To the Overcomer on Neginoth, Maschil, A Psalm of David, when the Ziphims came and said to Saul, Does David not hide himself with us?
1 ¶ Save me, O God, in thy name and defend me by thy valour.
2 Hear my prayer, O God; give ear to the words of my mouth.
3 For strangers are risen up against me, and oppressors seek after my soul; they have not set God before them. Selah.
4 ¶ Behold, God is my helper; the Lord is with those that uphold my soul.
5 He shall reward evil unto my enemies; cut them off in thy truth.
6 I will freely sacrifice unto thee; I will praise thy name, O LORD; for it is good.
7 For he has delivered me out of all trouble, and my eye has seen his desire upon my enemies.
To the Overcomer, A Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet came unto him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba.
1 ¶ Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy mercy; according unto the multitude of thy compassion eradicate my rebellion.
2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.
3 For I acknowledge my rebellion; and my sin is ever before me.
4 Against thee, against thee only, have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight that thou be declared just in thy word and pure in thy judgment.
5 Behold, the pain of my iniquity has caused me to writhe; my mother conceived me so that sin might be removed from me.
6 Behold, thou dost desire truth in the inward parts, and in the secret things thou hast made me to know wisdom.
7 ¶ Remove the sin in me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
8 Make me to hear joy and gladness that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice.
9 Hide thy face from my sins and eradicate all my iniquities.
10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.
11 Cast me not away from thy presence and take not thy Holy Spirit from me.
12 Restore unto me the joy of thy saving health, and thy spirit of liberty shall uphold me.
13 Then I will teach transgressors thy ways, and sinners shall be converted unto thee.
14 ¶ Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, thou God of my salvation, and my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness.
15 O Lord, open my lips; and my mouth shall show forth thy praise.
16 For thou dost not desire sacrifice or else would I give it; thou dost not delight 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 thou the walls of Jerusalem.
19 Then thou shalt be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness, the burnt offering, the offering that has been totally consumed by the fire; then shall they offer bullocks upon thine altar.
20 Then Ahab sent unto all the sons of Israel and gathered the prophets together unto Mount Carmel.
21 ¶ And Elijah came near unto all the people and said, How long shall ye halt between two opinions? If the LORD is God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him. And the people did not answer him a word.
22 Then Elijah spoke again unto the people, I, even I only, remain a prophet of the LORD; but Baal’s prophets are four hundred and fifty men.
23 Give us, therefore, two bullocks, and let them choose one bullock for themselves and cut it in pieces and lay it on wood and put no fire under it; and I will dress the other bullock and lay it on wood and put no fire under it.
24 And invoke ye in the name of your gods, and I will invoke in the name of the LORD; and it shall be that the God that answers by fire is God. And all the people answered and said, It is well spoken.
25 So Elijah said unto the prophets of Baal, Choose you one bullock for yourselves and dress it first, for ye are many, and invoke in the name of your gods, but put no fire under it.
26 And they took the bullock which was given them, and they dressed it and invoked in the name of Baal from morning even until noon, saying, O Baal, answer us. But there was no voice nor anyone that answered. And they jumped up and down near the altar which they had made.
27 And it came to pass at noon that Elijah mocked them and said, Cry aloud, for he is a god; peradventure he is talking or he had to go to the latrine, or he is on a journey, or he sleeps and will awake.
28 And they cried aloud and cut themselves after their manner with knives and lancets until the blood gushed out upon them.
29 And when midday was past, even so they prophesied until the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice, and there was neither voice nor anyone that answered nor anyone that heard.
30 Then Elijah said unto all the people, Come near unto me. And all the people came near unto him. And he repaired the altar of the LORD that was broken down.
31 And Elijah took twelve stones, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, unto whom the word of the LORD came, saying, Israel shall be thy name;
32 and with the stones he built an altar in the name of the LORD; then he made a trench round about the altar, as great as would contain two measures of seed.
33 And he put the wood in order and cut the bullock in pieces and laid it on the wood and said, Fill four pitchers with water and pour it on the burnt sacrifice and on the wood.
34 And he said, Do it the second time, and they did it the second time. And he said, Do it the third time, and they did it the third time.
35 So that the water ran round about the altar, and he had filled the trench also with water.
36 And it came to pass at the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice, that Elijah the prophet came near and said, LORD God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Israel, let it be known this day that thou art God in Israel and that I am thy slave and that I have done all these things at thy word.
37 Answer me, O LORD, answer me, that this people may know that thou art the LORD God and that thou shalt convert their heart back again to thee.
38 Then fire of the LORD fell, which consumed the burnt sacrifice and the wood and the stones and the dust and licked up the water that was in the trench.
39 And seeing it, all the people fell on their faces, and they said, The LORD, he is the God; the LORD, he is the God.
40 And Elijah said unto them, Seize the prophets of Baal; let not one of them escape. And they seized them; and Elijah took them down to the brook Kishon and slew them there.
3 ¶ It remains, my brethren, that ye rejoice in the Lord. It does not bother me to write the same things to you, and for you it is safe.
2 Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the concision.
3 For we are the circumcision, who serve God in spirit and glory in Christ Jesus, having no confidence in the flesh.
4 ¶ Though I might also have reason to confide in the flesh. If any other man thinks that he has whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more:
5 Circumcised the eighth day, of the lineage of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; concerning the law, a Pharisee;
6 concerning zeal, a persecutor of the congregation; {Gr. ekklesia – called out ones} concerning the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.
7 But those things which were gain to me, I counted loss for Christ.
8 And doubtless I even count all things as loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ
9 ¶ and be found in him, not having my own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith:
10 That I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death,
11 if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.
12 Not as though I had already attained it, either were already perfect, but I follow after, if I may lay hold of that for which I have also been laid hold of by the Christ, Jesus.
13 Brethren, I do not reckon to have laid hold of it yet, but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and extending myself unto those things which are ahead,
14 I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
15 ¶ Let us, therefore, as many as are perfect, be thus minded; and if in anything ye are otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you.
16 Nevertheless, in that unto which we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us have the same mind.
3 ¶ In those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judaea
2 and saying, Repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
3 For this is he that was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah, who said, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord; make his paths straight.
4 And the same John had his raiment of camel’s hair and a leathern girdle about his loins, and his food was locusts and wild honey.
5 Then Jerusalem and all Judaea and all the region round about Jordan went out to him
6 and were baptized of him in the Jordan, confessing their sins.
7 ¶ But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation of vipers, who taught you to flee from the wrath to come?
8 Bring forth therefore fruits worthy of repentance
9 and think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham as our father, for I say unto you that God is able to raise up children unto Abraham of these stones.
10 And now the axe is also laid unto the root of the trees; therefore, every tree which does not bring forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire.
11 I indeed baptize you in water unto repentance, but he that comes after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear; he shall baptize you in the Holy Spirit and fire,
12 whose fan is in his hand; and he will thoroughly purge his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the storehouse, but he will burn up the chaff with fire that shall never be quenched.
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