Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 55
For the Music Director. With stringed instruments. A Contemplative Maskil of David.
1 Give ear to my prayer, O God,
and do not hide Yourself from my supplication.
2 Attend to me, and answer me;
I am restless in my complaint, and I murmur,
3 because of the voice of the enemy,
because of the pressure of the wicked,
for they cause trouble to drop on me,
and in wrath they have animosity against me.
4 My heart is in pain within me,
and the terrors of death have fallen on me.
5 Fear and trembling come into me,
and horror has overwhelmed me.
6 I said, “Oh, that I had wings like a dove!
For then I would fly away and be at rest.
7 Indeed, then I would wander far off,
and remain in the wilderness. Selah
8 I would hasten my escape
from the windy storm and tempest.”
9 Confuse, O Lord, divide their tongues,
for I have seen violence and strife in the city.
10 Day and night they go around it on its walls;
trouble and sorrow are in its midst.
11 Destruction is in its midst;
oppression and treachery do not depart from its streets.
12 For it is not an enemy who reproaches me;
then I could bear it.
Nor is it one who hates me who has exalted himself against me;
then I could hide from him.
13 But it was you, my peer,
my guide, and my acquaintance.
14 We took pleasant counsel together,
and walked to the house of God in company.
15 May death surprise them,
and may their lives go down to Sheol,
for wickedness is in their dwellings and among them.
16 As for me, I will call on God,
and the Lord will save me.
17 Evening and morning and at noon,
I will make my complaint and murmur,
and He will hear my voice.
18 He has ransomed my life in peace
from the battle against me,
for there were many against me.
19 God will hear and afflict them,
even He who sits enthroned from of old. Selah
Because they do not change,
therefore they do not fear God.
20 My friend has set his hands against those at peace with him;
he has violated his covenant.
21 The words of his mouth were smoother than butter,
but battle was in his heart;
his words were softer than oil,
yet they were drawn swords.
22 Cast your burden on the Lord,
and He will sustain you;
He will never allow
the righteous to be moved.
23 But You, O God, will cast the wicked down
into the pit of destruction;
men of blood and deceitful men
will not live out half their days.
But I will trust in You.
Psalm 138
A Psalm of David.
1 I will praise You, O Lord, with my whole heart;
before the gods I will sing Your praise.
2 I will worship toward Your holy temple,
and praise Your name
for Your lovingkindness and for Your truth;
for You have exalted Your word
above all Your name.
3 On the day I called, You answered me,
and strengthened me in my soul.
4 All the kings of the earth shall praise You, O Lord,
for they have heard the words of Your mouth.
5 Indeed, they shall sing of the ways of the Lord,
for great is the glory of the Lord.
6 Though the Lord is exalted, yet He has concern for the lowly,
but the proud one He knows from a distance.
7 Though I walk in the midst of trouble,
You will preserve me;
You stretch forth Your hand against the wrath of my enemies,
and Your right hand saves me.
8 The Lord will fulfill His purpose for me;
Your mercy, O Lord, endures forever;
do not forsake the works of Your hands.
Psalm 139
For the Music Director. A Psalm of David.
1 O Lord, You have searched me
and known me.
2 You know when I sit down and when I get up;
You understand my thought from far off.
3 You search my path and my lying down
and are aware of all my ways.
4 For there is not a word on my tongue,
but behold, O Lord, You know it fully.
5 You put Yourself behind and before me,
and keep Your hand on me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
it is lofty, and I cannot fathom it.
7 Where shall I go from Your spirit,
or where shall I flee from Your presence?
8 If I ascend to heaven, You are there;
if I make my bed in Sheol, You are there.
9 If I take the wings of the morning
and dwell at the end of the sea,
10 even there Your hand shall guide me,
and Your right hand shall take hold of me.
11 If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me,
and the light shall be as night about me,”
12 even the darkness is not dark to You,
but the night shines as the day,
for the darkness is like light to You.
13 You brought my inner parts into being;
You wove me in my mother’s womb.
14 I will praise you, for You made me with fear and wonder;
marvelous are Your works,
and You know me completely.
15 My frame was not hidden from You
when I was made in secret,
and intricately put together in the lowest parts of the earth.
16 Your eyes saw me unformed,
yet in Your book
all my days were written,
before any of them came into being.
17 How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God!
How great is the sum of them!
18 If I should count them,
they are more in number than the sand;
when I awake,
I am still with You.
19 If only You would slay the wicked, O God!
O violent men, depart from me.
20 For they speak against You with malice,
and Your enemies take your name in vain.
21 Do I not hate those, O Lord, who hate You?
And do I not abhor those who rise up against You?
22 I hate them with perfect hatred;
I count them my enemies.
23 Search me, O God, and know my heart;
try me, and know my concerns,
18 Therefore you must fix these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and bind them as a sign on your hand, so that they may be as frontlets between your eyes. 19 You shall teach them to your children, speaking of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. 20 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, 21 so that your days and the days of your children may be multiplied in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers to give them, as long as the days of heaven on the earth.
22 For if you diligently keep all these commandments which I am commanding you to do—to love the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways, and to hold fast to Him— 23 then the Lord will drive out all these nations from before you, and you will dispossess nations greater and mightier than you. 24 Every place where the soles of your feet tread will be yours. Your border will be from the wilderness to Lebanon, from the river, the River Euphrates, as far as the Mediterranean Sea. 25 No man will be able to resist you, for the Lord your God shall lay the fear of you and the dread of you on all the land where you shall tread, just as He has spoken to you.
26 See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse: 27 the blessing if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God, which I am commanding you today, 28 and the curse, if you will not obey the commandments of the Lord your God, but turn from the way which I am commanding you today, to go after other gods which you have not known.
5 For every high priest chosen from among men is appointed to represent men in things pertaining to God, that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins. 2 He is able to have compassion on the ignorant and on those who are wayward, for he himself is also subject to weakness. 3 Because of this he must offer sacrifices for his own sins, just as he does for the people. 4 No man takes this honor for himself, but he who is called by God receives it, just as Aaron did.
5 So also Christ did not glorify Himself to be made a High Priest, but it was He who said to Him:
“You are My Son;
today I have become Your Father.”[a]
6 As He also says in another place:
“You are a priest forever
in the order of Melchizedek.”[b]
7 In the days of His flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears to Him who was able to save Him from death. He was heard because of His godly fear. 8 Though He was a Son, He learned obedience through the things that He suffered, 9 and being made perfect, He became the source of eternal salvation for all those who obey Him, 10 being designated by God a High Priest according to the order of Melchizedek.
Jesus and the Samaritan Woman
4 Now when the Lord learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John 2 (though Jesus Himself did not baptize, but His disciples), 3 He left Judea and departed again to Galilee.
4 Now it was necessary that He go through Samaria. 5 So He came to a city of Samaria which is called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was there. Jesus, therefore, being exhausted from His journey, sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour.
7 A woman of Samaria came there to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give Me a drink.” 8 For His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.
9 Then the woman of Samaria said to Him, “How is it that You, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.
10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who is saying to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.”
11 The woman said to Him, “Sir, You have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where then do You get that living water? 12 Are You greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, along with his sons and his livestock?”
13 Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again, 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water that I shall give him will become in him a well of water springing up into eternal life.”
15 The woman said to Him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not thirst, nor come here to draw.”
16 Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.”
17 The woman answered, “I have no husband.”
Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband,’ 18 for you have had five husbands, and he whom you now have is not your husband. So you have spoken truthfully.”
19 The woman said to Him, “Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet. 20 Our fathers worshipped on this mountain, but you all say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.”
21 Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. 22 You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. 23 Yet the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth. For the Father seeks such to worship Him. 24 God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and truth.”
25 The woman said to Him, “I know that Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ). “When He comes, He will tell us all things.”
26 Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am He.”
The Holy Bible, Modern English Version. Copyright © 2014 by Military Bible Association. Published and distributed by Charisma House.