Book of Common Prayer
55 Unto the end, for a people that is removed at a distance from the sanctuary for David, for an inscription of a title (or pillar) when the Philistines held him in Geth.
2 Have mercy on me, O God, for man hath trodden me under foot; all the day long he hath afflicted me fighting against me.
3 My enemies have trodden on me all the day long; for they are many that make war against me.
4 From the height of the day I shall fear: but I will trust in thee.
5 In God I will praise my words, in God I have put my trust: I will not fear what flesh can do against me.
6 All the day long they detested my words: all their thoughts were against me unto evil.
7 They will dwell and hide themselves: they will watch my heel. As they have waited for my soul,
8 For nothing shalt thou save them: in thy anger thou shalt break the people in pieces, O God,
9 I have declared to thee my life: thou hast set my tears in thy sight, As also in thy promise.
10 Then shall my enemies be turned back. In what day soever I shall call upon thee, behold I know thou art my God.
11 In God will I praise the word, in the Lord will I praise his speech. In God have I hoped, I will not fear what man can do to me.
12 In me, O God, are vows to thee, which I will pay, praises to thee:
13 Because thou hast delivered my soul from death, my feet from falling: that I may please in the sight of God, in the light of the living.
138 Lord, thou hast proved me, and known me:
2 Thou hast know my sitting down, and my rising up.
3 Thou hast understood my thoughts afar off: my path and my line thou hast searched out.
4 And thou hast foreseen all my ways: for there is no speech in my tongue.
5 Behold, O Lord, thou hast known all things, the last and those of old: thou hast formed me, and hast laid thy hand upon me.
6 Thy knowledge is become wonderful to me: it is high, and I cannot reach to it.
7 Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy face?
8 If I ascend into heaven, thou art there: if I descend into hell, thou art present.
9 If I take my wings early in the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea:
10 Even there also shall thy hand lead me: and thy right hand shall hold me.
11 And I said: Perhaps darkness shall cover me: and night shall be my light in my pleasures.
12 But darkness shall not be dark to thee, and night shall be light as day: the darkness thereof, and the light thereof are alike to thee.
13 For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast protected me from my mother's womb.
14 I will praise thee, for thou art fearfully magnified: wonderful are thy works, and my soul knoweth right well.
15 My bone is not hidden from thee, which thou hast made in secret: and my substance in the lower parts of the earth.
16 Thy eyes did see my imperfect being, and in thy book all shall be written: days shall be formed, and no one in them.
17 But to me thy friends, O God, are made exceedingly honourable: their principality is exceedingly strengthened.
18 I will number them, and they shall be multiplied above the sand: I rose up and am still with thee.
19 If thou wilt kill the wicked, O God: ye men of blood, depart from me:
20 Because you say in thought: They shall receive thy cities in vain.
21 Have I not hated them, O Lord, that hated thee: and pine away because of thy enemies?
22 I have hated them with a perfect hatred: and they are become enemies to me.
23 Prove me, O God, and know my heart: examine me, and know my paths.
24 And see if there be in me the way of iniquity: and lead me in the eternal way.
139 Unto the end, a psalm for David.
2 Deliver me, O Lord, from the evil man: rescue me from the unjust man.
3 Who have devised iniquities in their hearts: all the day long they designed battles.
4 They have sharpened their tongues like a serpent: the venom of saps is under their lips.
5 Keep me, O Lord, from the hand of the wicked: and from unjust men deliver me. Who have proposed to supplant my steps.
6 The proud have hidden a net for me. And they have stretched out cords for a snare: they have laid for me a stumblingblock by the wayside.
7 I said to the Lord: Thou art my God: hear, O Lord, the voice of my supplication.
8 O Lord, Lord, the strength of my salvation: thou hast overshadowed my head in the day of battle.
9 Give me not up, O Lord, from my desire to the wicked: they have plotted against me; do not thou forsake me, lest they should triumph.
10 The head of them compassing me about: the labour of their lips shall overwhelm them.
11 Burning coals shall fall upon them; thou wilt cast them down into the fire: in miseries they shall not be able to stand.
12 A man full of tongue shall not be established in the earth: evil shall catch the unjust man unto destruction.
13 I know that the Lord will do justice to the needy, and will revenge the poor.
14 But as for the just, they shall give glory to thy name: and the upright shall dwell with thy countenance.
8 Moreover there is the king that reigneth over all the land subject to him.
9 A covetous man shall not be satisfied with money: and he that loveth riches shall reap no fruit from them: so this also is vanity.
10 Where there are great riches, there are also many to eat them. And what doth it profit the owner, but that he seeth the riches with his eyes?
11 Sleep is sweet to a labouring man, whether he eat little or much: but the fulness of the rich will not suffer him to sleep.
12 There is also another grievous evil, which I have seen under the sun: riches kept to the hurt of the owner.
13 For they are lost with very great affliction: he hath begotten a son, who shall be in extremity of want.
14 As he came forth naked from his mother's womb, so shall he return, and shall take nothing away with him of his labour.
15 A most deplorable evil: as he came, so shall he return. What then doth it profit him that he hath laboured for the wind?
16 All the days of his life he eateth in darkness, and in many cares, and in misery, and sorrow.
17 This therefore hath seemed good to me, that a man should eat and drink, and enjoy the fruit of his labour, wherewith he hath laboured under the sun, all the days of his life, which God hath given him: and this is his portion.
18 And every man to whom God hath given riches, and substance, and hath given him power to eat thereof, and to enjoy his portion, and to rejoice of his labour: this is the gift of God.
19 For he shall not much remember the days of his life, because God entertaineth his heart with delight,
23 But before the faith came, we were kept under the law shut up, unto that faith which was to be revealed.
24 Wherefore the law was our pedagogue in Christ, that we might be justified by faith.
25 But after the faith is come, we are no longer under a pedagogue.
26 For you are all the children of God by faith, in Christ Jesus.
27 For as many of you as have been baptized in Christ, have put on Christ.
28 There is neither Jew nor Greek: there is neither bond nor free: there is neither male nor female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus.
29 And if you be Christ's, then are you the seed of Abraham, heirs according to the promise.
4 Now I say, as long as the heir is a child, he differeth nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all;
2 But is under tutors and governors until the time appointed by the father:
3 So we also, when we were children, were serving under the elements of the world.
4 But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent his Son, made of a woman, made under the law:
5 That he might redeem them who were under the law: that we might receive the adoption of sons.
6 And because you are sons, God hath sent the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying: Abba, Father.
7 Therefore now he is not a servant, but a son. And if a son, an heir also through God.
8 But then indeed, not knowing God, you served them, who, by nature, are not gods.
9 But now, after that you have known God, or rather are known by God: how turn you again to the weak and needy elements, which you desire to serve again?
10 You observe days, and months, and times, and years.
11 I am afraid of you, lest perhaps I have laboured in vain among you.
15 Then came to him from Jerusalem scribes and Pharisees, saying:
2 Why do thy disciples transgress the tradition of the ancients? For they wash not their hands when they eat bread.
3 But he answering, said to them: Why do you also transgress the commandment of God for your tradition? For God said:
4 Honour thy father and mother: And: He that shall curse father or mother, let him die the death.
5 But you say: Whosoever shall say to father or mother, The gift whatsoever proceedeth from me, shall profit thee.
6 And he shall not honour his father or his mother: and you have made void the commandment of God for your tradition.
7 Hypocrites, well hath Isaias prophesied of you, saying:
8 This people honoureth me with their lips: but their heart is far from me.
9 And in vain do they worship me, teaching doctrines and commandments of men.
10 And having called together the multitudes unto him, he said to them: Hear ye and understand.
11 Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man: but what cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man.
12 Then came his disciples, and said to him: Dost thou know that the Pharisees, when they heard this word, were scandalized?
13 But he answering them, said: Every plant which my heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up.
14 Let them alone: they are blind, and leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both will fall into the pit.
15 And Peter answering, said to him: Expound to us this parable.
16 But he said: Are you also yet without understanding?
17 Do you not understand, that whatsoever entereth into the mouth, goeth into the belly, and is cast out into the privy?
18 But the things which proceed out of the mouth, come forth from the heart, and those things defile a man.
19 For from the heart come forth evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false testimonies, blasphemies.
20 These are the things that defile a man. But to eat with unwashed hands doth not defile a man.
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