Book of Common Prayer
To the Overcomer upon: The silent dove in a distant land, Michtam of David, when the Philistines took him in Gath.
1 ¶ Be merciful unto me, O God, for man would swallow me up; he oppresses me fighting me daily.
2 My enemies would daily swallow me up, for they are many that fight against me, O thou most High.
3 When I am afraid, I will trust in thee.
4 In God I will praise his word, in God I have put my trust; I will not fear what flesh can do unto me.
5 Every day my life is filled with sorrow; all their thoughts are against me for evil.
6 They gather themselves together, they hide themselves, they mark my steps when they wait for my soul.
7 Shall they escape by iniquity? in thine anger cast down the peoples, O God.
8 ¶ Thou tellest my wanderings; put my tears into thy bottle; are they not in thy book?
9 When I cry unto thee, then shall my enemies be turned back; in this I know that God is for me.
10 In God I will praise his word; in the LORD I will praise his word.
11 In God I have put my trust; I will not be afraid of what man can do unto me.
12 Thy promises are upon me, O God; I will render praises unto thee.
13 For thou hast delivered my life from death; thou hast kept my feet from falling, that I may walk before God in the light of the living.
To the Overcomer upon, Do not destroy, Michtam of David, when he fled from the presence of Saul in the cave.
1 ¶ Be merciful unto me, O God, be merciful unto me: for my soul trusts in thee; and in the shadow of thy wings I will make my refuge until these calamities are overpast.
2 I will cry unto God most high, unto God that performs all things for me.
3 He shall send from the heavens and save me from the reproach of him that would swallow me up. Selah. God shall send forth his mercy and his truth.
4 My soul is among lions, and I lie even among those that are set on fire, even the sons of men, whose teeth are spears and arrows and their tongue a sharp sword.
5 Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens; let thy glory be above all the earth.
6 They have prepared a net for my steps; my soul is bowed down; they have dug a pit before me, into the midst of which they are fallen themselves. Selah.
7 ¶ My heart is ready, O God, my heart is willing; I will sing and give praise.
8 Awake, my glory; awake, psaltery and harp; I myself will arise early.
9 I will praise thee, O Lord, among the peoples; I will sing unto thee among the nations.
10 For thy mercy is great unto the heavens, and thy truth unto the clouds.
11 Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens; let thy glory be above all the earth.
To the Overcomer upon, Do not destroy, Michtam of David.
1 ¶ Do ye indeed speak righteousness, O congregation? do ye judge uprightly, O ye sons of Adam?
2 Yea, in heart ye work iniquity; ye weigh the violence of your hands in the earth.
3 The wicked are estranged from the womb; they go astray as soon as they are born, speaking lies.
4 Their poison is like the poison of a serpent; they are like the deaf adder that stops her ear,
5 which will not hearken to the voice of charmers, charming never so wisely.
6 ¶ Break their teeth, O God, in their mouth; break out the great teeth of the young lions, O LORD.
7 Let them melt away as waters which run continually; when he bends his bow to shoot his arrows, let them be as cut in pieces.
8 As a snail which melts, let them pass away, like the untimely birth of a woman, that they may not see the sun.
9 Before your pots can feel the fire of the thorns, he shall take them away as with a whirlwind, both living, and in his wrath.
10 The righteous shall rejoice when he sees the vengeance; he shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked.
11 So that a man shall say, Verily there is a reward for the righteous; verily there is a God that judges in the earth.
To the Overcomer, A Psalm of David.
1 ¶ Hear my voice, O God, in my prayer; preserve my life from fear of the enemy.
2 Hide me from the secret counsel of the wicked, from the insurrection of the workers of iniquity:
3 Who whet their tongue like a sword and bend their bows to shoot their arrows, even bitter words
4 That they may shoot in secret at the perfect; suddenly do they shoot at him and fear not.
5 They encourage themselves in an evil matter; they attempt to hide the snares; they say, Who shall see them?
6 They search out iniquities; they perfect and put into effect that which they have invented in the inward thought of each one of them and that which they have devised in their heart.
7 ¶ But God shall shoot at them with an arrow; suddenly shall they be wounded.
8 So they shall make their own council and agreements to fall upon themselves; all that see them shall flee away.
9 And all men shall fear and shall declare the work of God, for they shall understand his doing.
10 The righteous shall be glad in the LORD and shall become secure in him, and all the upright in heart shall glory in him.
To the Overcomer, A Psalm and Song of David.
1 ¶ Praise doth rest in thee, O God, in Sion and unto thee shall the vow be performed.
2 O thou that hearest prayer, unto thee shall all flesh come.
3 Words of iniquity overwhelmed me, but thou shalt purge away our rebellion.
4 Blessed is the man whom thou dost choose and cause to approach unto thee that he may dwell in thy courts: we shall be satisfied with the goodness of thy house even of thy holy temple.
5 With tremendous things in righteousness wilt thou answer us, O God of our saving health, who art the hope of all the ends of the earth and of those that are afar off upon the sea:
6 ¶ Thou art he who doth establish the mountains by thy strength, being girded with valour:
7 He who stills the noise of the seas, the noise of their waves and the tumult of the Gentiles.
8 They also that dwell in the uttermost parts are afraid at thy wonders; thou makest the outgoings of the morning and evening to rejoice.
9 Thou dost visit the earth, and when thou hast caused it to want, thou dost greatly enrich it with the river of God, which is full of water; thou dost prepare their grain, according to thy will.
10 Thou dost water its rows abundantly; thou dost settle its furrows; thou dost make it soft with showers of rain; thou dost bless its sprouting.
11 Thou dost crown the year with thy goodness, and thy clouds distill fatness.
12 They fall upon the habitations of the wilderness; and the hills gird themselves with happiness.
13 The plains clothe themselves with sheep, and the valleys cover themselves with grain; they give shouts of triumph, they even sing.
6 ¶ Now it came to pass when Sanballat and Tobiah and Geshem, the Arabian, and the rest of our enemies, heard that I had built the wall and that there was no breach left in it (though at that time I had not set up the doors upon the gates),
2 that Sanballat and Geshem sent unto me, saying, Come, let us meet together in one of the villages in the plain of Ono. But they had thought to do me evil.
3 And I sent messengers unto them, saying, I am doing a great work so that I cannot come down; why should the work cease, whilst I leave it and come down to you?
4 Yet they sent unto me four times after this sort, and I answered them after the same manner.
5 Then Sanballat sent his slave to say the same thing for the fifth time with an open letter in his hand,
6 in which was written, It is reported among the Gentiles, and Gashmu saith it, that thou and the Jews think to rebel, for which cause thou dost build the wall, that thou may be their king, according to these words.
7 And thou hast also appointed prophets to preach of thee at Jerusalem, saying, There is a king in Judah! And now these words shall be heard by the king. Come now, therefore, and let us take counsel together.
8 Then I sent unto him, saying, There are no such things done as thou sayest, but thou dost feign them out of thine own heart.
9 For they all made us afraid, saying, Their hands shall be weakened from the work, that it not be done. Now, therefore, O God, strengthen my hands.
10 ¶ Afterward I came in secret unto the house of Shemaiah, the son of Delaiah, the son of Mehetabeel, who was shut up; and he said, Let us meet together in the house of God, within the temple, and let us shut the doors of the temple; for they are coming to slay thee; yea, tonight they will come to slay thee.
11 Then I said, Should such a man as I flee? And who is there as I who could go into the temple and live? I will not go in.
12 And I perceived that God had not sent him, but that he pronounced this prophecy against me, for Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him.
13 For he was bribed to make me be thus afraid and sin and that they might have matter for an evil report, that they might reproach me.
14 My God, think thou upon Tobiah and Sanballat according to these their works and on the prophetess Noadiah and the rest of the prophets, that did things to put me in fear.
15 ¶ So the wall was finished the twenty-fifth of Elul, in fifty-two days.
16 And it came to pass, that when all our enemies heard of it, all the Gentiles that were about us feared, and they were much cast down in their own eyes, and they knew that this work was wrought of our God.
17 Likewise, in those days the principals of Judah sent many letters unto Tobiah, and the letters of Tobiah came unto them.
18 For there were many in Judah sworn unto him, because he was the son-in-law of Shechaniah, the son of Arah; and his son Johanan had taken the daughter of Meshullam, the son of Berechiah.
19 They also reported his good deeds before me and uttered my words to him. And Tobiah sent letters to put me in fear.
10 ¶ And I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven, clothed with a cloud; and a rainbow was upon his head, and his face was as the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire:
2 And he had in his hand a little open book, and he set his right foot upon the sea and his left foot upon the land
3 And cried out with a loud voice as when a lion roars; and when he had cried out, seven thunders uttered their voices.
4 And when the seven thunders had uttered their voices, I was about to write, and I heard a voice from heaven, saying unto me, Seal up those things which the seven thunders have spoken and do not write them.
5 And the angel whom I saw standing upon the sea and upon the land lifted up his hand to heaven
6 and swore by him that lives for ever and ever, who created the heaven and the things that are therein, and the earth, and the things that are therein, and the sea and the things which are therein, that there should be time no longer;
7 but in the day of the voice of the seventh angel when he shall begin to sound the trumpet, the mystery of God shall be finished, as he did evangelize unto his slaves the prophets.
8 ¶ And the voice which I heard from heaven spoke unto me again and said, Go and take the little book which is open in the hand of the angel who stands upon the sea and upon the land.
9 And I went unto the angel and said unto him, Give me the little book. And he said unto me, Take it, and eat it up; and it shall make thy belly bitter, but it shall be in thy mouth sweet as honey.
10 And I took the little book from the angel’s hand and ate it up; and it was in my mouth sweet as honey: and as soon as I had eaten it, my belly was bitter.
11 And he said unto me, Thou must prophesy again as to many peoples and nations and tongues and kings.
36 Then Jesus sent the multitude away and went into the house, and his disciples came unto him, saying, Declare unto us the parable of the tares of the field.
37 He answered and said unto them, He that sows the good seed is the Son of man;
38 the field is the world; the good seed are the sons of the kingdom, but the tares are the sons of the wicked;
39 and the enemy that sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are the angels.
40 As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so shall it be in the end of this age.
41 The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend and those who do iniquity
42 and shall cast them into the furnace of fire; there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.
43 Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.
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