Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 25
A Psalm of David.
1 To You, O Lord,
do I lift up my soul.
2 O my God, I trust in You;
may I not be ashamed;
may my enemies not triumph over me.
3 Yes, let none who wait on You
be ashamed;
let them be ashamed
who transgress without cause.
4 Make me to know Your ways, O Lord;
teach me Your paths.
5 Lead me in Your truth and teach me,
for You are the God of my salvation;
on You I wait all the day.
6 Remember Your mercies, O Lord, and Your lovingkindness,
for they are from old.
7 Do not remember the sins of my youth
or my transgressions;
according to Your lovingkindness remember me,
on account of Your goodness, O Lord.
8 Good and upright is the Lord;
therefore He will teach sinners in the way.
9 The meek will He guide in judgment,
and the meek He will teach His way.
10 All the paths of the Lord are lovingkindness and truth,
for those who keep His covenant and His testimonies.
11 For Your name’s sake, O Lord, pardon my iniquity,
for it is great.
12 Who is the man who fears the Lord?
He will teach him in the way He should choose.
13 He will dwell at ease,
and his descendants will inherit the land.
14 The counsel of the Lord is with those who fear him,
and He will make His covenant known to them.
15 My eyes are ever toward the Lord,
for He will lead my feet from the net.
16 Turn to me, and be gracious to me,
for I am isolated and afflicted.
17 The troubles of my heart are enlarged;
bring me out of my distresses.
18 Look on my pain and misery,
and forgive all my sins.
19 Consider my enemies, for they are many,
and they hate me with violent hatred.
20 Watch over my life, and deliver me!
Let me not suffer shame,
for I seek refuge in You.
21 Truth and integrity will preserve me
while I wait for You.
22 Redeem Israel, O God,
out of all their troubles.
Psalm 9
For the Music Director. To the melody of “The Death of the Son.” A Psalm of David.
1 I will give thanks to You, O Lord, with my whole heart;
I will declare all Your marvelous works.
2 I will be glad and rejoice in You;
I will sing praise to Your name, O Most High.
3 When my enemies are turned back,
they will stumble and perish at Your presence.
4 For You have maintained my right and my cause;
You sat on the throne judging what is right.
5 You have rebuked the nations,
You have destroyed the wicked,
You have wiped out their name forever and ever.
6 O you enemy, destructions have come to you for a perpetual end.
You have destroyed cities;
their memory perished with them.
7 But the Lord remains forever;
He has established His throne for judgment.
8 He will judge the world in righteousness;
He will give judgment to the peoples in uprightness.
9 The Lord also will be a refuge for the oppressed,
a refuge in times of trouble.
10 Those who know Your name will put their trust in You,
for You, Lord, have not forsaken those who seek You.
11 Sing praises to the Lord who dwells in Zion;
declare His deeds among the people.
12 He who avenges deaths remembers them;
He does not forget the cry of the humble.
13 Be gracious to me, O Lord; consider my trouble from those who hate me,
O You who lifts me up from the gates of death,
14 that I may recount all Your praise
in the gates of the daughter of Zion,
that I may rejoice in Your salvation.
15 The nations have sunk down in the pit that they made;
their own foot is caught in the net which they hid.
16 The Lord is known by the judgment that He executes;
the wicked one is snared in the work of his own hands. Meditation. Selah
17 The wicked will be turned to Sheol,
and all the nations that forget God.
18 For the needy will not always be forgotten,
nor will the hope of the poor perish forever.
19 Arise, O Lord, may mortals not prevail;
let the nations be judged in Your sight.
20 Put them in fear, O Lord,
that the nations themselves may know they are mortals. Selah
Psalm 15
A Psalm of David.
1 Lord, who will abide in Your tabernacle?
Who will dwell in Your holy hill?
2 He who walks uprightly,
and does righteousness,
and speaks truth in his heart;
3 he who does not slander with the tongue
and does no evil to his neighbor,
nor bears a reproach against his friend;
4 in whose eyes a vile person is despised,
but who honors those who fear the Lord;
he who swears to avoid evil
and does not change;
5 he who does not put his money out to usury,
nor take a bribe against the innocent.
He who does these things
will never be moved.
Rahab and the Spies
2 Then Joshua son of Nun sent two men out from Shittim to spy, saying, “Go see the land, especially Jericho.” So they went, and they came to the house of a prostitute named Rahab. They spent the night there.
2 The king of Jericho was told, “Israelite men came here tonight to spy out the land.” 3 So the king of Jericho sent orders to Rahab, “Bring out the men who came to you, who have entered your house, for they came to spy out the whole land.”
4 Now the woman had taken the two men and had hidden them. She said, “Yes, the men came to me, but I did not know where they were from. 5 The men went out when it was time to shut the gate at dark. I do not know where the men went. Chase after them quickly, for you can overtake them.” 6 Yet she had brought them up to the roof. She hid them in the stalks of flax that she had spread out on the roof. 7 So the men chased after them on the road to the Jordan as far as the fords. They shut the gate as soon as the pursuers went out after them.
8 Before the spies went to sleep, Rahab went up to them on the roof. 9 She said to the men, “I know that the Lord has given you the land, for dread from you has fallen upon us, and all the inhabitants of the land melt in terror before you. 10 For we heard how the Lord dried up the waters of the Red Sea before you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to Sihon and Og, the two kings of the Amorites who were on the other side of the Jordan, whom you completely destroyed. 11 Our hearts melted when we heard these things, and no man had any breath in him because of you, for the Lord your God is God in heaven above and on earth below.
12 “So now, since I have acted faithfully toward you, please swear to me by the Lord that you will also act faithfully toward my father’s house. Please give me a firm pledge 13 that you will spare my father, my mother, my brothers, my sisters, and all whom they own, and that you will deliver our lives from death.”
14 The men said to her, “Our lives for yours; if you do not report us, then when the Lord gives us the land, we will act faithfully and kindly with you.”
The Remnant of Israel
11 I say then, has God rejected His people? God forbid! For I also am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. 2 God has not rejected His people whom He foreknew. Do you not know what the Scripture says of Elijah? How he pleads with God against Israel, saying, 3 “Lord, they have killed Your prophets and destroyed Your altars. I alone am left, and they seek my life”?[a] 4 But what is the divine reply to him? “I have kept for Myself seven thousand men, who have not bowed the knee to Baal.”[b] 5 So then at this present time there is a remnant according to the election of grace. 6 And if by grace, then it is no longer by works; otherwise grace would no longer be grace. But if it is by works, then is it no longer by grace; otherwise work would no longer be work.
7 What then? Israel has not obtained what it was seeking. But the elect obtained it, and the rest were hardened. 8 As it is written:
“God has given them a spirit of slumber,
eyes that would not see
and ears that would not hear,
to this very day.”[c]
9 And David says:
“Let their table become a snare and a trap,
a stumbling block and a retribution to them.
10 Let their eyes be darkened, so that they may not see,
and always bow down their backs.”[d]
The Salvation of the Gentiles
11 I say then, have they stumbled that they should fall? God forbid! But through their transgression salvation has come to the Gentiles, to make them jealous. 12 Now if their transgression means riches for the world, and their failure means riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their fullness mean?
The Parable of the Ten Virgins
25 “Then the kingdom of heaven shall be like ten virgins, who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. 2 Five of them were wise and five were foolish. 3 Those who were foolish took their lamps, but took no oil with them. 4 But the wise took jars of oil with their lamps. 5 While the bridegroom delayed, they all rested and slept.
6 “But at midnight there was a cry, ‘Look, the bridegroom is coming! Come out to meet him!’
7 “Then all those virgins rose and trimmed their lamps. 8 But the foolish said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps have gone out.’
9 “The wise answered, ‘No, lest there not be enough for us and you. Go rather to those who sell it, and buy some for yourselves.’
10 “But while they went to buy some, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet. And the door was shut.
11 “Afterward, the other virgins came also, saying, ‘Lord, Lord, open the door for us.’
12 “But he answered, ‘Truly I say to you, I do not know you.’
13 “Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming.
The Holy Bible, Modern English Version. Copyright © 2014 by Military Bible Association. Published and distributed by Charisma House.