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)

42 Behold my ^[a]Servant, Whom I uphold, My elect in Whom My soul delights! I have put My Spirit upon Him; He will bring forth justice and right and reveal truth to the nations.^(A)

² He will not cry or shout aloud or cause His voice to be heard in the street.

³ A bruised reed He will not break, and a dimly burning wick He will not quench; He will bring forth justice in truth.^(B)

⁴ He will not fail or become weak or be crushed and discouraged till He has established justice in the earth; and the islands and coastal regions shall wait hopefully for Him and expect His direction and law.^(C)

⁵ Thus says God the Lord—He Who created the heavens and stretched them forth, He Who spread abroad the earth and that which comes out of it, He Who gives breath to the people on it and spirit to those who walk in it:

⁶ I the Lord have called You [the Messiah] for a righteous purpose and in righteousness; I will take You by the hand and will keep You; I will give You for a covenant to the people [Israel], for a light to the nations [Gentiles],

⁷ To open the eyes of the blind, to bring out prisoners from the dungeon, and those who sit in darkness from the prison.^(D)

⁸ I am the Lord; that is My name! And My glory I will not give to another, nor My praise to graven images.

⁹ Behold, the former things have come to pass, and new things I now declare; before they spring forth I tell you of them.

¹⁰ Sing to the Lord a new song, and His praise from the end of the earth! You who go down to the sea, and all that is in it, the islands and coastal regions and the inhabitants of them [sing a song such as has never been heard in the heathen world]!

¹¹ Let the wilderness and its cities lift up their voices, the villages that Kedar inhabits. Let the inhabitants of the rock [Sela or Petra] sing; let them shout from the tops of the mountains!

¹² Let them give glory to the Lord and declare His praise in the islands and coastal regions.

¹³ The Lord will go forth like a mighty man, He will rouse up His zealous indignation and vengeance like a warrior; He will cry, yes, He will shout aloud, He will do mightily against His enemies.

¹⁴ [Thus says the Lord] I have for a long time held My peace, I have been still and restrained Myself. Now I will cry out like a woman in travail, I will gasp and pant together.

¹⁵ I will lay waste the mountains and hills and dry up all their herbage; I will turn the rivers into islands, and I will dry up the pools.

¹⁶ And I will bring the blind by a way that they know not; I will lead them in paths that they have not known. I will make darkness into light before them and make uneven places into a plain. These things I have determined to do [for them]; and I will not leave them forsaken.

¹⁷ They shall be turned back, they shall be utterly put to shame, who trust in graven images, who say to molten images, You are our gods.

3 For this reason [^[a]because I preached that you are thus built up together], I, Paul, [am] the prisoner of Jesus the Christ ^[b]for the sake and on behalf of you Gentiles—

² Assuming that you have heard of the stewardship of God’s grace (His unmerited favor) that was entrusted to me [to dispense to you] for your benefit,

³ [And] that the mystery (secret) was made known to me and I was allowed to comprehend it by direct revelation, as I already briefly wrote you.

⁴ When you read this you can understand my insight into the mystery of Christ.

⁵ [This mystery] was never disclosed to human beings in past generations as it has now been revealed to His holy apostles (consecrated messengers) and prophets by the [Holy] Spirit.

⁶ [It is this:] that the Gentiles are now to be fellow heirs [with the Jews], members of the same body and joint partakers [sharing] in the same divine promise in Christ through [their acceptance of] the glad tidings (the Gospel).

⁷ Of this [Gospel] I was made a minister according to the gift of God’s free grace (undeserved favor) which was bestowed on me by the exercise (the working in all its effectiveness) of His power.

⁸ To me, though I am the very least of all the saints (God’s consecrated people), this grace (favor, privilege) was granted and graciously entrusted: to proclaim to the Gentiles the unending (boundless, fathomless, incalculable, and exhaustless) riches of Christ [wealth which no human being could have searched out],

⁹ Also to enlighten all men and make plain to them what is the plan [regarding the Gentiles and providing for the salvation of all men] of the mystery kept hidden through the ages and concealed until now in [the mind of] God Who created all things by Christ Jesus.

¹⁰ [The purpose is] that through the church the ^[c]complicated, many-sided wisdom of God in all its infinite variety and innumerable aspects might now be made known to the angelic rulers and authorities (principalities and powers) in the heavenly sphere.

¹¹ This is in accordance with the terms of the eternal and timeless purpose which He has realized and carried into effect in [the person of] Christ Jesus our Lord,

¹² In Whom, because of our faith in Him, we dare to have the boldness (courage and confidence) of free access (an unreserved approach to God with freedom and without fear).

¹³ So I ask you not to lose heart [not to faint or become despondent through fear] at what I am suffering in your behalf. [Rather glory in it] for it is an honor to you.

¹³ [Jesus] went out again along the seashore; and all the multitude kept gathering about Him, and He kept teaching them.

¹⁴ And as He was passing by, He saw Levi (Matthew) son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax office, and He said to him, Follow Me! [Be ^[a]joined to Me as a disciple, side with My party!] And he arose and joined Him as His disciple and sided with His party and accompanied Him.

¹⁵ And as Jesus, together with His disciples, sat at table in his [Levi’s] house, many tax collectors and persons [^[b]definitely stained] with sin were dining with Him, for there were many who walked the same road (followed) with Him.

¹⁶ And the scribes [belonging to the party] of the Pharisees, when they saw that He was eating with [those ^[c]definitely known to be especially wicked] sinners and tax collectors, said to His disciples, Why does He eat and drink with tax collectors and [notorious] sinners?

¹⁷ And when Jesus heard it, He said to them, Those who are strong and well have no need of a physician, but those who are weak and sick; I came not to call the righteous ones to repentance, but sinners (the ^[d]erring ones and ^[e]all those not free from sin).

¹⁸ Now John’s disciples and the Pharisees were observing a fast; and [some people] came and asked Jesus, Why are John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fasting, but Your disciples are not doing so?

¹⁹ Jesus answered them, Can the wedding guests fast (abstain from food and drink) while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast.

²⁰ But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and they will fast in that day.

²¹ No one sews a patch of unshrunken (new) goods on an old garment; if he does, the patch tears away from it, the new from the old, and the rent (tear) becomes bigger and worse [than it was before].

²² And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; if he does, the wine will burst the skins, and the wine is lost and the bottles destroyed; but new wine is to be put in new (fresh) wineskins.