Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 25
[A Psalm] of David.
1 Unto You, O Lord, do I bring my life.
2 O my God, I trust, lean on, rely on, and am confident in You. Let me not be put to shame or [my hope in You] be disappointed; let not my enemies triumph over me.
3 Yes, let none who trust and wait hopefully and look for You be put to shame or be disappointed; let them be ashamed who forsake the right or deal treacherously without cause.
4 Show me Your ways, O Lord; teach me Your paths.
5 Guide me in Your truth and faithfulness and teach me, for You are the God of my salvation; for You [You only and altogether] do I wait [expectantly] all the day long.
6 Remember, O Lord, Your tender mercy and loving-kindness; for they have been ever from of old.
7 Remember not the sins (the lapses and frailties) of my youth or my transgressions; according to Your mercy and steadfast love remember me, for Your goodness’ sake, O Lord.
8 Good and upright is the Lord; therefore will He instruct sinners in [His] way.
9 He leads the humble in what is right, and the humble He teaches His way.
10 All the paths of the Lord are mercy and steadfast love, even truth and faithfulness are they for those who keep His covenant and His testimonies.
11 For Your name’s sake, O Lord, pardon my iniquity and my guilt, for [they are] great.
12 Who is the man who reverently fears and worships the Lord? Him shall He teach in the way that he should choose.
13 He himself shall dwell at ease, and his offspring shall inherit the land.
14 The secret [of the sweet, satisfying companionship] of the Lord have they who fear (revere and worship) Him, and He will show them His covenant and reveal to them its [deep, inner] meaning.(A)
15 My eyes are ever toward the Lord, for He will pluck my feet out of the net.
16 [Lord] turn to me and be gracious to me, for I am lonely and afflicted.
17 The troubles of my heart are multiplied; bring me out of my distresses.
18 Behold my affliction and my pain and forgive all my sins [of thinking and doing].
19 Consider my enemies, for they abound; they hate me with cruel hatred.
20 O keep me, Lord, and deliver me; let me not be ashamed or disappointed, for my trust and my refuge are in You.
21 Let integrity and uprightness preserve me, for I wait for and expect You.
22 Redeem Israel, O God, out of all their troubles.
Psalm 9
To the Chief Musician; set for [possibly] soprano voices. A Psalm of David.
1 I will praise You, O Lord, with my whole heart; I will show forth (recount and tell aloud) all Your marvelous works and wonderful deeds!
2 I will rejoice in You and be in high spirits; I will sing praise to Your name, O Most High!
3 When my enemies turned back, they stumbled and perished before You.
4 For You have maintained my right and my cause; You sat on the throne judging righteously.
5 You have rebuked the nations, You have destroyed the wicked; You have blotted out their name forever and ever.
6 The enemy have been cut off and have vanished in everlasting ruins, You have plucked up and overthrown their cities; the very memory of them has perished and vanished.
7 But the Lord shall remain and continue forever; He has prepared and established His throne for judgment.(A)
8 And He will judge the world in righteousness (rightness and equity); He will minister justice to the peoples in uprightness.(B)
9 The Lord also will be a refuge and a high tower for the oppressed, a refuge and a stronghold in times of trouble (high cost, destitution, and desperation).
10 And they who know Your name [who have experience and acquaintance with Your mercy] will lean on and confidently put their trust in You, for You, Lord, have not forsaken those who seek (inquire of and for) You [on the authority of God’s Word and the right of their necessity].(C)
11 Sing praises to the Lord, Who dwells in Zion! Declare among the peoples His doings!
12 For He Who avenges the blood [of His people shed unjustly] remembers them; He does not forget the cry of the afflicted (the poor and the humble).
13 Have mercy upon me and be gracious to me, O Lord; consider how I am afflicted by those who hate me, You Who lift me up from the gates of death,
14 That I may show forth (recount and tell aloud) all Your praises! In the gates of the Daughter of Zion I will rejoice in Your salvation and Your saving help.
15 The nations have sunk down in the pit that they made; in the net which they hid is their own foot caught.
16 The Lord has made Himself known; He executes judgment; the wicked are snared in the work of their own hands. Higgaion [meditation]. Selah [pause, and calmly think of that]!
17 The wicked shall be turned back [headlong into premature death] into Sheol (the place of the departed spirits of the wicked), even all the nations that forget or are forgetful of God.
18 For the needy shall not always be forgotten, and the expectation and hope of the meek and the poor shall not perish forever.
19 Arise, O Lord! Let not man prevail; let the nations be judged before You.
20 Put them in fear [make them realize their frail nature], O Lord, that the nations may know themselves to be but men. Selah [pause, and calmly think of that]!
Psalm 15
A Psalm of David.
1 Lord, who shall dwell [temporarily] in Your tabernacle? Who shall dwell [permanently] on Your holy hill?
2 He who walks and lives uprightly and blamelessly, who works rightness and justice and speaks and thinks the truth in his heart,
3 He who does not slander with his tongue, nor does evil to his friend, nor takes up a reproach against his neighbor;
4 In whose eyes a vile person is despised, but he who honors those who fear the Lord (who revere and worship Him); who swears to his own hurt and does not change;
5 [He who] does not put out his money for [a]interest [to one of his own people] and who will not take a bribe against the innocent. He who does these things shall never be moved.(A)
6 Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel and his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts: I am the First and I am the Last; besides Me there is no God.(A)
7 Who is like Me? Let him [stand and] proclaim it, declare it, and set [his proofs] in order before Me, since I made and established the people of antiquity. [Who has announced from of old] the things that are coming? Then let them declare yet future things.
8 Fear not, nor be afraid [in the coming violent upheavals]; have I not told it to you from of old and declared it? And you are My witnesses! Is there a God besides Me? There is no [other] Rock; I know not any.
21 Remember these things [earnestly], O Jacob, O Israel, for you are My servant! I formed you, you are My servant; O Israel, you shall not be forgotten by Me.
22 I have blotted out like a thick cloud your transgressions, and like a cloud your sins. Return to Me, for I have redeemed you.
23 Sing, O heavens, for the Lord has done it; shout, you depths of the earth; break forth into singing, you mountains, O forest and every tree in it! For the Lord has redeemed Jacob, and He glorifies Himself in Israel.
4 I therefore, the prisoner for the Lord, appeal to and beg you to walk (lead a life) worthy of the [divine] calling to which you have been called [with behavior that is a credit to the summons to God’s service,
2 Living as becomes you] with complete lowliness of mind (humility) and meekness (unselfishness, gentleness, mildness), with patience, bearing with one another and making allowances because you love one another.
3 Be eager and strive earnestly to guard and keep the harmony and oneness of [and produced by] the Spirit in the binding power of peace.
4 [There is] one body and one Spirit—just as there is also one hope [that belongs] to the calling you received—
5 [There is] one Lord, one faith, one baptism,
6 One God and Father of [us] all, Who is above all [Sovereign over all], pervading all and [living] in [us] all.
7 Yet grace (God’s unmerited favor) was given to each of us individually [not indiscriminately, but in different ways] in proportion to the measure of Christ’s [rich and bounteous] gift.
8 Therefore it is said, When He ascended on high, He led captivity captive [He led a train of [a]vanquished foes] and He bestowed gifts on men.(A)
9 [But He ascended?] Now what can this, He ascended, mean but that He had previously descended from [the heights of] heaven into [the depths], the lower parts of the earth?
10 He Who descended is the [very] same as He Who also has ascended high above all the heavens, that He [His presence] might fill all things (the whole universe, from the lowest to the highest).
11 And His gifts were [varied; He Himself appointed and gave men to us] some to be apostles (special messengers), some prophets (inspired preachers and expounders), some evangelists (preachers of the Gospel, traveling missionaries), some pastors (shepherds of His flock) and teachers.
12 His intention was the perfecting and the full equipping of the saints (His consecrated people), [that they should do] the work of ministering toward building up Christ’s body (the church),
13 [That it might develop] until we all attain oneness in the faith and in the comprehension of the [[b]full and accurate] knowledge of the Son of God, that [we might arrive] at really mature manhood (the completeness of personality which is nothing less than the standard height of Christ’s own perfection), the measure of the stature of the fullness of the Christ and the completeness found in Him.
14 So then, we may no longer be children, tossed [like ships] to and fro between chance gusts of teaching and wavering with every changing wind of doctrine, [the prey of] the cunning and cleverness of [c]unscrupulous men, [gamblers engaged] in every shifting form of trickery in inventing errors to mislead.
15 Rather, let our lives lovingly [d]express truth [in all things, speaking truly, dealing truly, living truly]. Enfolded in love, let us grow up in every way and in all things into Him Who is the Head, [even] Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One).
16 For because of Him the whole body (the church, in all its various parts), closely joined and firmly knit together by the joints and ligaments with which it is supplied, when each part [with power adapted to its need] is working properly [in all its functions], grows to full maturity, building itself up in love.
7 And Jesus retired with His disciples to the lake, and a great throng from Galilee followed Him. Also from Judea
8 And from Jerusalem and Idumea and from beyond the Jordan and from about Tyre and Sidon—a vast multitude, hearing all the many things that He was doing, came to Him.
9 And He told His disciples to have a little boat in [constant] readiness for Him because of the crowd, lest they press hard upon Him and crush Him.
10 For He had healed so many that all who had distressing bodily diseases kept falling upon Him and pressing upon Him in order that they might touch Him.
11 And the spirits, the unclean ones, [a]as often as they might see Him, fell down before Him and kept screaming out, You are the Son of God!
12 And He charged them strictly and severely under penalty again and again that they should not make Him known.
13 And He went up on the hillside and called to Him [[b]for Himself] those whom He wanted and chose, and they came to Him.
14 And He appointed twelve to [c]continue to be with Him, and that He might send them out to preach [as apostles or special messengers]
15 And to have authority and power to heal the sick and to drive out demons:
16 [They were] Simon, and He surnamed [him] Peter;
17 James son of Zebedee and John the brother of James, and He surnamed them Boanerges, that is, Sons of Thunder;
18 And Andrew, and Philip, and Bartholomew (Nathaniel), and Matthew, and Thomas, and James son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus (Judas, not Iscariot), and Simon the Cananaean [also called Zelotes],
19 And Judas Iscariot, he who betrayed Him.
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