Book of Common Prayer

Psalm 16

A Poem of David; [probably] intended to record memorable thoughts.

¹ Keep and protect me, O God, for in You I have found refuge, and in You do I put my trust and hide myself.

² I say to the Lord, You are my Lord; I have no good beside or beyond You.

³ As for the godly (the saints) who are in the land, they are the excellent, the noble, and the glorious, in whom is all my delight.

⁴ Their sorrows shall be multiplied who choose another god; their drink offerings of blood will I not offer or take their names upon my lips.

⁵ The Lord is my chosen and assigned portion, my cup; You hold and maintain my lot.

⁶ The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; yes, I have a good heritage.

⁷ I will bless the Lord, Who has given me counsel; yes, my heart instructs me in the night seasons.

⁸ I have set the Lord continually before me; because He is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.

⁹ Therefore my heart is glad and my glory [my inner self] rejoices; my body too shall rest and confidently dwell in safety,

¹⁰ For You will not abandon me to Sheol (the place of the dead), neither will You suffer Your holy one [Holy One] to see corruption.^(A)

¹¹ You will show me the path of life; in Your presence is fullness of joy, at Your right hand there are pleasures forevermore.^(B)

Psalm 17

A Prayer of David.

¹ Hear the right (my righteous cause), O Lord; listen to my shrill, piercing cry! Give ear to my prayer, that comes from unfeigned and guileless lips.

² Let my sentence of vindication come from You! May Your eyes behold the things that are just and upright.

³ You have proved my heart; You have visited me in the night; You have tried me and find nothing [no evil purpose in me]; I have purposed that my mouth shall not transgress.

⁴ Concerning the works of men, by the word of Your lips I have avoided the ways of the violent (the paths of the destroyer).

⁵ My steps have held closely to Your paths [to the tracks of the One Who has gone on before]; my feet have not slipped.

⁶ I have called upon You, O God, for You will hear me; incline Your ear to me and hear my speech.

⁷ Show Your marvelous loving-kindness, O You Who save by Your right hand those who trust and take refuge in You from those who rise up against them.

⁸ Keep and guard me as the pupil of Your eye; hide me in the shadow of Your wings

⁹ From the wicked who despoil and oppress me, my deadly adversaries who surround me.

¹⁰ They are enclosed in their own prosperity and have shut up their hearts to pity; with their mouths they make exorbitant claims and proudly and arrogantly speak.

¹¹ They track us down in each step we take; now they surround us; they set their eyes to cast us to the ground,

¹² Like a lion greedy and eager to tear his prey, and as a young lion lurking in hidden places.

¹³ Arise, O Lord! Confront and forestall them, cast them down! Deliver my life from the wicked by Your sword,

¹⁴ From men by Your hand, O Lord, from men of this world [these poor moths of the night] whose portion in life is idle and vain. Their bellies are filled with Your hidden treasure [what You have stored up]; their children are satiated, and they leave the rest [of their] wealth to their babes.

¹⁵ As for me, I will continue beholding Your face in righteousness (rightness, justice, and right standing with You); I shall be fully satisfied, when I awake [to find myself] beholding Your form [and having sweet communion with You].

Psalm 22^[a]

To the Chief Musician; set to [the tune of] Aijeleth Hashshahar [the hind of the morning dawn]. A Psalm of David.

¹ My God, my God, why have You forsaken me? Why are You so far from helping me, and from the words of my groaning?^(A)

² O my God, I cry in the daytime, but You answer not; and by night I am not silent or find no rest.

³ But You are holy, O You Who dwell in [the holy place where] the praises of Israel [are offered].

⁴ Our fathers trusted in You; they trusted (leaned on, relied on You, and were confident) and You delivered them.

⁵ They cried to You and were delivered; they trusted in, leaned on, and confidently relied on You, and were not ashamed or confounded or disappointed.

⁶ But I am a worm, and no man; I am the scorn of men, and despised by the people.^(B)

⁷ All who see me laugh at me and mock me; they shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying,^(C)

⁸ He trusted and rolled himself on the Lord, that He would deliver him. Let Him deliver him, seeing that He delights in him!^(D)

⁹ Yet You are He Who took me out of the womb; You made me hope and trust when I was on my mother’s breasts.

¹⁰ I was cast upon You from my very birth; from my mother’s womb You have been my God.

¹¹ Be not far from me, for trouble is near and there is none to help.

¹² Many [foes like] bulls have surrounded me; strong bulls of Bashan have hedged me in.^(E)

¹³ Against me they opened their mouths wide, like a ravening and roaring lion.

¹⁴ I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint. My heart is like wax; it is softened [with anguish] and melted down within me.

¹⁵ My strength is dried up like a fragment of clay pottery; [with thirst] my tongue cleaves to my jaws; and You have brought me into the dust of death.^(F)

¹⁶ For [like a pack of] dogs they have encompassed me; a company of evildoers has encircled me, they pierced my hands and my feet.^(G)

¹⁷ I can count all my bones; [the evildoers] gaze at me.^(H)

¹⁸ They part my clothing among them and cast lots for my raiment (a long, shirtlike garment, a seamless undertunic). ^(I))

¹⁹ But be not far from me, O Lord; O my Help, hasten to aid me!

²⁰ Deliver my life from the sword, my dear life [my only one] from the power of the dog [the agent of execution].

²¹ Save me from the lion’s mouth; for You have answered me [kindly] from the horns of the wild oxen.

²² I will declare Your name to my brethren; in the midst of the congregation will I praise You.^(J)

²³ You who fear (revere and worship) the Lord, praise Him! All you offspring of Jacob, glorify Him. Fear (revere and worship) Him, all you offspring of Israel.

²⁴ For He has not despised or abhorred the affliction of the afflicted; neither has He hidden His face from him, but when he cried to Him, He heard.

²⁵ My praise shall be of You in the great congregation. I will pay to Him my vows [made in the time of trouble] before them who fear (revere and worship) Him.

²⁶ The poor and afflicted shall eat and be satisfied; they shall praise the Lord—they who [diligently] seek for, inquire of and for Him, and require Him [as their greatest need]. May your hearts be quickened now and forever!

²⁷ All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations shall bow down and worship before You,

²⁸ For the kingship and the kingdom are the Lord’s, and He is the ruler over the nations.

²⁹ All the mighty ones upon earth shall eat [in thanksgiving] and worship; all they that go down to the dust shall bow before Him, even he who cannot keep himself alive.

³⁰ Posterity shall serve Him; they shall tell of the Lord to the next generation.

³¹ They shall come and shall declare His righteousness to a people yet to be born—that He has done it [that it is finished]!^(K)

8 Does not skillful and godly Wisdom cry out, and understanding raise her voice [in contrast to the loose woman]?

² On the top of the heights beside the way, where the paths meet, stands Wisdom [skillful and godly];

³ At the gates at the entrance of the town, at the coming in at the doors, she cries out:

⁴ To you, O men, I call, and my voice is directed to the sons of men.

⁵ O you simple and thoughtless ones, understand prudence; you [self-confident] fools, be of an understanding heart.^(A)

⁶ Hear, for I will speak excellent and princely things; and the opening of my lips shall be for right things.

⁷ For my mouth shall utter truth, and wrongdoing is detestable and loathsome to my lips.

⁸ All the words of my mouth are righteous (upright and in right standing with God); there is nothing contrary to truth or crooked in them.

⁹ They are all plain to him who understands [and opens his heart], and right to those who find knowledge [and live by it].

¹⁰ Receive my instruction in preference to [striving for] silver, and knowledge rather than choice gold,

¹¹ For skillful and godly Wisdom is better than rubies or pearls, and all the things that may be desired are not to be compared to it.^(B)

¹² I, Wisdom [from God], make prudence my dwelling, and I find out knowledge and discretion.^(C)

¹³ The reverent fear and worshipful awe of the Lord [includes] the hatred of evil; pride, arrogance, the evil way, and perverted and twisted speech I hate.

¹⁴ I have counsel and sound knowledge, I have understanding, I have might and power.

¹⁵ By me kings reign and rulers decree justice.^(D)

¹⁶ By me princes rule, and nobles, even all the judges and governors of the earth.

¹⁷ I love those who love me, and those who seek me early and diligently shall find me.^(E)

¹⁸ Riches and honor are with me, enduring wealth and righteousness (uprightness in every area and relation, and right standing with God).^(F)

¹⁹ My fruit is better than gold, yes, than refined gold, and my increase than choice silver.

²⁰ I [Wisdom] walk in the way of righteousness (moral and spiritual rectitude in every area and relation), in the midst of the paths of justice,

²¹ That I may cause those who love me to inherit [true] riches and that I may fill their treasuries.

¹ The elderly elder [of the church addresses this letter] to the elect (chosen) lady (Cyria) and her children, whom I truly love—and not only I but also all who are [progressively] learning to recognize and know and understand the Truth—

² Because of the Truth which lives and stays on in our hearts and will be with us forever:

³ Grace (spiritual blessing), mercy, and [soul] peace will be with us, from God the Father and from Jesus Christ (the Messiah), the Father’s Son, in all sincerity (truth) and love.

⁴ I was greatly delighted to find some of your children walking (living) in [the] Truth, just as we have been commanded by the Father [Himself].

⁵ And now I beg you, lady (Cyria), not as if I were issuing a new charge (injunction or command), but [simply recalling to your mind] the one we have had from the beginning, that we love one another.

⁶ And what this love consists in is this: that we live and walk in accordance with and guided by His commandments (His orders, ordinances, precepts, teaching). This is the commandment, as you have heard from the beginning, that you continue to walk in love [guided by it and following it].

⁷ For many imposters (seducers, deceivers, and false leaders) have gone out into the world, men who will not acknowledge (confess, admit) the coming of Jesus Christ (the Messiah) in bodily form. Such a one is the imposter (the seducer, the deceiver, the false leader, the antagonist of Christ) and the antichrist.

⁸ Look to yourselves (take care) that you may not lose (throw away or destroy) all that we and you have labored for, but that you may [persevere until you] win and receive back a perfect reward [in full].

⁹ Anyone who runs on ahead [of God] and does not abide in the doctrine of Christ [who is not content with what He taught] does not have God; but he who continues to live in the doctrine (teaching) of Christ [does have God], he has both the Father and the Son.

¹⁰ If anyone comes to you and does not bring this doctrine [is disloyal to what Jesus Christ taught], do not receive him [do not accept him, do not welcome or admit him] into [your] house or bid him Godspeed or give him any encouragement.

¹¹ For he who wishes him success [who encourages him, wishing him Godspeed] is a partaker in his evil doings.

¹² I have many things to write to you, but I prefer not to do so with paper and ink; I hope to come to see you and talk with you face to face, so that our joy may be complete.

¹³ The children of your elect (chosen) sister wish to be remembered to you. Amen (so be it).

12 At that ^[a]particular time Jesus went through the fields of standing grain on the Sabbath; and His disciples were hungry, and they began to pick off the spikes of grain and to eat.^(A)

² And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to Him, See there! Your disciples are doing what is unlawful and not permitted on the Sabbath.

³ He said to them, Have you not even read what David did when he was hungry, and those who accompanied him—^(B)

⁴ How he went into the house of God and ate the loaves of the showbread—which was not lawful for him to eat, nor for the men who accompanied him, but for the priests only?

⁵ Or have you never read in the Law that on the Sabbath the priests in the temple violate the sanctity of the Sabbath [breaking it] and yet are guiltless?^(C)

⁶ But I tell you, Something greater and ^[b]more exalted and more majestic than the temple is here!

⁷ And if you had only known what this saying means, I desire mercy [readiness to help, to spare, to forgive] rather than sacrifice and sacrificial victims, you would not have condemned the guiltless.^(D)

⁸ For the Son of Man is Lord [even] of the Sabbath.

⁹ And going on from there, He went into their synagogue.

¹⁰ And behold, a man was there with one withered hand. And they said to Him, Is it lawful or allowable to cure people on the Sabbath days?—that they might accuse Him.

¹¹ But He said to them, What man is there among you, if he has only one sheep and it falls into a pit or ditch on the Sabbath, will not take hold of it and lift it out?

¹² How much better and of more value is a man than a sheep! So it is lawful and allowable to do good on the Sabbath days.

¹³ Then He said to the man, Reach out your hand. And the man reached it out and it was restored, as sound as the other one.

¹⁴ But the Pharisees went out and held a consultation against Him, how they might do away with Him.