Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 38
A Psalm of David. To bring remembrance.
1 O Lord, do not rebuke me in Your wrath,
nor chasten me in Your hot displeasure.
2 For Your arrows pierce me,
and Your hand presses down on me.
3 There is no soundness in my flesh because of Your indignation,
nor is there health in my bones because of my sin.
4 For my iniquities have passed over my head;
as a heavy burden they are too heavy for me.
5 My wounds grow foul and fester
because of my foolishness.
6 I am bent, I am bowed down greatly;
I go mourning all the day long.
7 For my sides are filled with burning,
and there is no soundness in my flesh.
8 I am numb and completely crushed;
I have roared because of the groaning of my heart.
9 Lord, all my desire is before You,
and my sighing is not hidden from You.
10 My heart throbs, my strength fails me;
as for the light of my eyes, it also is gone from me.
11 My friends and my companions stand back because of my affliction,
and those close to me stand at a distance.
12 The people who seek my life strike at me;
those who seek my harm speak destruction,
and plan treacheries all the day long.
13 But I, like a deaf man, did not hear;
and like a dumb man, did not open my mouth.
14 Thus I was as a man who does not hear,
and in whose mouth are no reproofs.
15 For in You, O Lord, do I hope;
You will answer, O Lord my God.
16 For I said, “Lest otherwise they should rejoice over me.
When my foot slips, they magnify themselves against me.”
17 For I am ready to stumble,
and my pain is continually before me.
18 For I will declare my iniquity;
I am anxious because of my sin.
19 But my enemies are lively, and they are strong;
and those who wrongfully hate me are many.
20 Those also who repay evil for good are my adversaries,
because I pursue good.
21 Do not abandon me, O Lord;
O my God, do not be far from me.
22 Make haste to help me,
O Lord, my salvation.
ד Daleth
25 My soul clings to the dust;
revive me according to Your word.
26 I have declared my ways, and You heard me;
teach me Your statutes.
27 Make me to understand the way of Your precepts;
then I shall contemplate on Your wondrous works.
28 My soul collapses on account of grief;
strengthen me according to Your word.
29 Remove from me the way of falsehood,
and graciously grant me Your law.
30 I have chosen the way of faithfulness;
Your judgments I have laid before me.
31 I have stayed with Your testimonies, O Lord;
may I not be put to shame.
32 I will run in the way of Your commandments,
when You set my heart free.
ה He
33 Teach me, O Lord, the way of Your statutes,
and I shall keep it to the end.
34 Give me understanding, and I shall keep Your law
and observe it with my whole heart.
35 Lead me in the path of Your commandments,
for I delight in them.
36 Incline my heart unto Your testimonies,
and not for unjust gain.
37 Turn away my eyes from beholding worthlessness,
and revive me in Your way.
38 Establish Your word to Your servant,
so that You are feared.
39 Turn away my reproach that I dread,
for Your judgments are good.
40 Behold, I have a longing for Your precepts;
revive me in Your righteousness.
ו Waw
41 Let Your mercies come to me, O Lord,
even Your deliverance according to Your word.
42 So I shall have an answer for him who reproaches me,
for I trust in Your word.
43 Do not take the word of truth out of my mouth,
for I have hoped in Your judgments.
44 So I shall keep Your law continually,
forever and ever.
45 I will walk in an open space,
for I seek Your precepts.
46 I will speak of Your testimonies also before kings
and will not be ashamed.
47 I will delight in Your commandments,
which I have loved.
48 My hands I will lift up unto Your commandments, which I have loved;
I will meditate on Your statutes.
The Commission of Isaiah
6 In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and His train filled the temple. 2 Above it stood the seraphim. Each one had six wings. With two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. 3 One cried to another and said:
“Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of Hosts;
the whole earth is full of His glory.”
4 The posts of the door moved at the voice of him who cried, and the house was filled with smoke.
5 And I said: “Woe is me! For I am undone because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. For my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of Hosts.”
6 Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a live coal which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar in his hand. 7 And he laid it on my mouth, and said, “This has touched your lips, and your iniquity is taken away, and your sin purged.”
8 Also I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?”
Then I said, “Here am I. Send me.”
9 He said, “Go, and tell this people:
‘Keep on hearing, but do not understand;
keep on seeing, but do not perceive.’
10 Make the heart of this people dull,
and their ears heavy,
and shut their eyes;
lest they see with their eyes,
and hear with their ears,
and understand with their heart,
and turn and be healed.”
11 Then I said, “Lord, how long?”
And He answered:
“Until the cities are laid waste
without inhabitants,
and the houses without man,
and the land is utterly desolate,
12 and the Lord has removed men far away,
and there is a great forsaking in the midst of the land.
13 But yet in it shall be a tenth,
and it shall return, and shall be burned,
as a terebinth tree or as an oak,
whose stump remains when it is cut down,
so the holy seed is its stump.”
Salutation
1 Paul, and Silas, and Timothy,
To the church of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ:
2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
The Judgment at Christ’s Coming
3 We are bound to thank God always for you, brothers, as it is fitting, because your faith is growing abundantly, and the love of every one of you abounds toward each other. 4 So we boast about you in the churches of God for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that you are enduring.
5 This is evidence that God’s judgment, being righteous, will count you worthy of the kingdom of God for which you are suffering. 6 It is a righteous matter with God to repay with tribulation those who trouble you, 7 and to give you who are troubled rest with us when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, 8 in flaming fire taking vengeance on those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 They shall be punished with eternal destruction, isolated from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power, 10 when He comes, in that Day, to be glorified in His saints and to be marveled at by all those who believe, because our testimony among you was believed.
11 Therefore we always pray for you that our God would count you worthy of this calling and with power fulfill all your good desires and works done by faith, 12 so that the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you, and you in Him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.
The Woman Caught in Adultery
53 Then everyone went to his own house.[a]
8 But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. 2 Early in the morning He returned to the temple. All the people came to Him, and He sat down and taught them. 3 The scribes and Pharisees brought a woman caught in adultery. When they had put her in the middle, 4 they said to Him, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the very act of adultery. 5 Now Moses in the law commanded us to stone such, but what do You say?” 6 They said this, testing Him, that they might have something of which to accuse Him.
But Jesus stooped down and wrote on the ground with His finger, as though He did not hear them. 7 So when they continued asking Him, He stood up and said to them, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.” 8 Again He stooped down and wrote on the ground.
9 Being convicted by their conscience, those who heard it went out one by one, beginning with the eldest even to the last. Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst. 10 When Jesus had stood up and saw no one but the woman, He said to her, “Woman, where are your accusers? Did no one condemn you?”
11 She said, “No one, Lord.”
Jesus said to her, “Neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no more.”
The Holy Bible, Modern English Version. Copyright © 2014 by Military Bible Association. Published and distributed by Charisma House.