Book of Common Prayer
A Psalm of David.
1 ¶ I will sing of mercy and judgment; unto thee, O LORD, will I sing.
2 When thou shalt come unto me, I will walk in the way of perfection and understand. I will walk in the midst of my house in the perfection of my heart.
3 I will set nothing of Belial before my eyes: I hate the work of those that betray; it shall not cleave to me.
4 A perverse heart shall depart from me; I will not know a wicked person.
5 Whosoever secretly slanders his neighbour, I will cut off; he that has a high look and a proud heart I will not suffer.
6 My eyes shall be upon the faithful of the land, that they may dwell with me; he that walks in the way of perfection, he shall serve me.
7 He that works deceit shall not dwell within my house; he that tells lies shall not tarry in my sight.
8 I will early destroy all the wicked of the land, that I may cut off all the workers of iniquity from the city of the LORD.
To the Overcomer, A Psalm of David.
1 ¶ Do not hold thy peace, O God of my praise;
2 for the mouth of the wicked and the mouth of the deceitful are opened against me; they have spoken of me with a lying tongue.
3 They compassed me about with words of hatred and fought against me without a cause.
4 They have responded to my love by becoming my adversaries, but I give myself unto prayer.
5 And they have rewarded me evil for good, and hatred for my love.
6 ¶ Set thou the wicked man over him, and let Satan stand at his right hand.
7 When he shall be judged, let him be condemned, and let his prayer become sin.
8 Let his days be few, and let another take his office.
9 Let his children be fatherless and his wife a widow.
10 Let his children be continually vagabonds and beg; let them seek their bread out of their desolate places.
11 Let the extortioner catch all that he has, and let the strangers spoil his labour.
12 Let there be no one to extend mercy unto him: neither let there be any to favour his fatherless children.
13 Let his posterity be cut off, and in the generation following let their name be blotted out.
14 Let the iniquity of his fathers be remembered with the LORD, and let not the sin of his mother be blotted out.
15 Let them be before the LORD continually, that he may cut off the memory of them from the earth.
16 Because he did not remember to show mercy but persecuted the man who is poor in spirit and destitute and broken in heart, that he might slay him.
17 As he loved the curse, so let it come unto him; as he delighted not in the blessing, so let it be far from him.
18 As he clothed himself with the curse like as with his garment, and it entered into his bowels like water and like oil into his bones.
19 Let it be unto him as the garment which covers him and for a girdle wherewith he is girded continually.
20 Let this be the reward from the LORD of those who spoke falsely against me and of those that speak evil against my soul.
21 ¶ And thou, O GOD the Lord, do unto me for thy name’s sake; because thy mercy is good, deliver me.
22 For I am poor and needy, and my heart is wounded within me.
23 I am gone like the shadow when it declines; I am tossed up and down by the wind as the locust.
24 My knees are weak through fasting, and my flesh fails for lack of fatness.
25 I have become a reproach unto them; when they looked upon me they shook their heads.
26 Help me, O LORD my God; O save me according to thy mercy,
27 that they may know that this is thy hand, that thou, O LORD, hast done it.
28 Let them curse, but bless thou; when they arise, let them be ashamed, but let thy slave rejoice.
29 Let those who speak evil against me falsely be clothed with shame, and let them cover themselves with their own confusion as with a mantle.
30 I will greatly praise the LORD with my mouth; yea, I will praise him among the multitude.
AIN.
121 ¶ I have complied with judgment and righteousness; do not leave me to my oppressors.
122 Be surety for thy slave for good; do not let the proud do violence unto me.
123 ¶ Mine eyes fail for thy saving health and for the spoken word of thy righteousness.
124 ¶ Deal with thy slave according to thy mercy, and teach me thy statutes.
125 I am thy slave; give me understanding, that I may know thy testimonies.
126 ¶ It is time for thee, O LORD, to act; for they have dissipated thy law.
127 ¶ Therefore I have loved thy commandments above gold, yea, above fine gold.
128 Therefore I have esteemed all thy precepts concerning all things to be right and I have hated every false way.
PE.
129 ¶ Thy testimonies are wonderful; therefore does my soul keep them.
130 ¶ The exposition of thy words gives light; it gives understanding unto the simple.
131 ¶ I opened my mouth and panted; for I longed for thy commandments.
132 ¶ Look thou upon me and be merciful unto me, as thou didst use to do unto those that love thy name.
133 ¶ Order my steps with thy word; and let not any iniquity have dominion over me.
134 ¶ Ransom me from the violence of men, and I will keep thy precepts.
135 ¶ Make thy face to shine upon thy slave and teach me thy statutes.
136 ¶ Rivers of waters ran down my eyes because they did not keep thy law.
TZADDI.
137 ¶ Righteous art thou, O LORD, and upright are thy judgments.
138 Thou hast commanded righteousness, which consists of thy testimonies and thy truth.
139 ¶ My zeal has consumed me, because my enemies have forgotten thy words.
140 ¶ Thy word is very pure; therefore thy slave loves it.
141 ¶ I am small and despised; yet I have not forgotten thy precepts.
142 ¶ Thy righteousness is eternal righteousness, and thy law is the truth.
143 ¶ Trouble and anguish found me; but thy commandments were my delights.
144 Thy testimonies are eternal righteousness; give me understanding, and I shall live.
15 ¶ Look down from heaven, and behold from the habitation of thy holiness and of thy glory; where is thy zeal and thy strength, the feeling of thy bowels and of thy mercies toward me? are they restrained?
16 Doubtless thou art our father, though Abraham be ignorant of us, and Israel not acknowledge us; thou, O LORD, art our father; our everlasting Redeemer is thy name.
17 O LORD, why hast thou made us to err from thy ways? Hast thou hardened our heart to thy fear? Return for thy slaves, for the tribes of thine inheritance.
18 The people of thy holiness have possessed the promised land but a little while: our adversaries have trodden down thy sanctuary.
19 We have been like those over whom thou didst never rule, who were never called by thy name.
64 ¶ Oh that thou would rend the heavens, that thou would come down, that the mountains might flow down at thy presence,
2 as when the melting fire burns, the fire causes the waters to boil, to make thy name known to thine adversaries, that the Gentiles may tremble at thy presence!
3 As thou didst come down when thou didst terrible things which we did not look for, that the mountains flowed down at thy presence.
4 Nor have men heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither has the eye seen a God beside thee, that thou might do it again for the one who waits in him.
5 Thou didst come out to meet him that with rejoicing had worked righteousness. In thy ways they remembered thee. Behold, thou art wroth; for we have sinned: thy ways are eternal, and we shall be saved.
6 ¶ But we were all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses as filthy rags; and we all fell as the leaves of a tree; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.
7 And there is none that calls upon thy name, that wakes himself up to take hold of thee; therefore, thou hast hid thy face from us and hast allowed us to wither in the power of our iniquities.
8 But now, O LORD, thou art our father; we are the clay, and thou our potter; such that we all are the work of thy hands.
9 Be not wroth very sore, O LORD, neither remember iniquity for ever; behold, see, we beseech thee, we are all thy people.
3 ¶ The Word is faithful, If anyone desires the office of a bishop, {to be a pastor or elder in the congregation} he desires a difficult ministry.
2 It is expedient, therefore, that the bishop be blameless, the husband of only one wife, vigilant, temperate, of worldly affections mortified, given to hospitality, apt to teach;
3 not given to wine, not hurtful, not greedy of dishonest gain, but gentle, not contentious, not covetous;
4 one that rules well his own house, having his children in subjection with all integrity;
5 (for if a man does not know how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the congregation {Gr. ekklesia – called out ones} of God?)
6 not a novice, lest being puffed up, he fall into judgment of the devil.
7 Moreover he must have a good report of those who are outside lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil.
8 ¶ Likewise the deacons must be honest, not doubletongued, not given to much wine, not greedy of dishonest gain;
9 holding the mystery of the faith together with a pure conscience.
10 And let these also first be proved; then let them minister, if they are blameless.
11 The wives likewise are to be honest, not slanderers, temperate, faithful in all things.
12 Let the deacons be the husbands of only one wife, ruling their children and their own houses well.
13 For those that minister well purchase to themselves a good degree and great boldness in the faith which is in Christ Jesus.
14 ¶ These things write I unto thee, hoping to come unto thee shortly
15 But if I tarry long, that thou may know how it is expedient to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the congregation {Gr. ekklesia – called out ones} of the living God, the pillar and base of the truth.
16 And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.
27 ¶ And they returned to Jerusalem, and as he was walking in the temple, the princes of the priests and the scribes and the elders came
28 and said unto him, By what faculty doest thou these things? and who gave thee this faculty to do these things?
29 Then Jesus, answering, said unto them, I will also ask of you one word, and respond unto me, and I will tell you with what faculty I do these things.
30 The baptism of John, was it of heaven or of men? Respond unto me.
31 Then they thought inside themselves, saying, If we shall say, From heaven, he will say, Why then did ye not believe him?
32 But if we shall say, Of men, we fear the people, for everyone judged regarding John that he truly was a prophet.
33 And answering, they said unto Jesus, We do not know. And Jesus, answering, said unto them, Neither shall I tell you with what faculty I do these things.
12 ¶ And he began to speak unto them by parables. A certain man planted a vineyard and set a hedge about it and dug a place for the winefat {Place where grapes are tread} and built a tower and let it out to husbandmen and went far away.
2 And at the season he sent to the husbandmen a slave that he might receive from the husbandmen of the fruit of the vineyard.
3 And taking him, they beat him and sent him away empty.
4 And again he sent unto them another slave, and casting stones at him, they wounded him in the head and sent him away shamefully handled.
5 And again he sent another, and him they killed and many others, beating some and killing some.
6 Having yet therefore one son, his wellbeloved, he sent him also last unto them, saying, They will reverence my son.
7 But those husbandmen said among themselves, This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and the place shall be ours.
8 And taking hold of him, they killed him and cast him out of the vineyard.
9 What, therefore, shall the lord of the vineyard do? He shall come and destroy those husbandmen and shall give his vineyard unto others.
10 And have ye not read this scripture: The stone which the builders rejected is placed as the head of the corner;
11 This was the Lord’s doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes?
12 And they sought to lay hold on him but feared the multitude, for they understood that he had spoken the parable against them, and leaving him, they went away.
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