Book of Common Prayer
To the Overcomer, A Psalm of David.
1 ¶ Blessed is he that understands regarding the poor; the LORD will deliver him in the day of evil.
2 The LORD will preserve him and keep him alive, and he shall be blessed upon the earth, and thou wilt not deliver him unto the will of his enemies.
3 The LORD will strengthen him upon the bed of languishing; thou wilt soften all his bed in his sickness.
4 I said, LORD, be merciful unto me; heal my soul; for I have sinned against thee.
5 ¶ My enemies speak evil of me, When shall he die and his name perish?
6 And if he came to see me, he spoke lies: his heart gathered iniquity to itself, and when he goes out, he tells it.
7 All that hate me congregate together and murmur against me; against me do they devise my hurt.
8 A disease of Belial, they say, cleaves fast unto him, and now that he lies he shall rise up no more.
9 Even the man of my peace, in whom I trusted, who ate of my bread, has lifted up his heel against me.
10 But thou, O LORD, be merciful unto me and raise me up that I may requite them.
11 In this I shall know that I have pleased thee, that my enemy does not triumph over me.
12 And as for me, thou sustained me in my integrity and hast seated me before thy face for ever.
13 Blessed be the LORD God of Israel from everlasting and to everlasting. Amen, and Amen.
To the Overcomer, Maschil, A Psalm of David, when Doeg the Edomite came and told Saul, and said unto him, David is come to the house of Ahimelech.
1 ¶ Why dost thou boast of evil, O strong man? The mercy of God is day by day.
2 Thy tongue devises wickedness like a sharp razor, working deceitfully.
3 Thou dost love evil more than good; and lying rather than to speak righteousness. Selah.
4 Thou dost love all devouring words, O thou deceitful tongue.
5 God shall likewise cast thee down for ever; he shall cut thee off and pluck thee out of thy dwelling place and root thee out of the land of the living. Selah.
6 ¶ The righteous also shall see and fear and shall laugh at him, saying:
7 Behold, this is the man that did not make God his strength, but trusted in the abundance of his riches and strengthened himself in his wickedness.
8 But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God; I trust in the eternal mercy of God for ever.
9 I will praise thee for ever because thou hast done it, and I will wait on thy name, for it is good before thy merciful ones.
To the Overcomer for the sons of Korah, Maschil.
1 ¶ We have heard with our ears, O God, our fathers have told us, what work thou didst in their days in the times of old.
2 How thou didst drive out the Gentiles with thy hand and plant them in their place; how thou didst afflict the peoples and cast them out.
3 For they did not get the land in inheritance by their own sword, neither did their own arm save them, but thy right hand and thine arm, and the light of thy countenance because thy delight was in them.
4 Thou art my King, O God; command saving health unto Jacob.
5 Through thee will we push down our enemies; through thy name will we tread under those that rise up against us.
6 For I will not trust in my bow, neither shall my sword save me.
7 But thou hast saved us from our enemies and hast put to shame those that hated us.
8 In God we boast all the day long and praise thy name for ever. Selah.
9 ¶ But thou hast cast us off and put us to shame and doth not go forth with our armies.
10 Thou makest us to turn back from the enemy, and we are spoiled by those who hate us.
11 Thou hast given us over like sheep appointed for food and hast scattered us among the Gentiles.
12 Thou hast sold thy people for nothing and dost not increase thy wealth by their price.
13 Thou makest us a reproach to our neighbours, a scorn and a derision to those that are round about us.
14 Thou makest us a byword among the Gentiles, a shaking of the head among the people.
15 My confusion is continually before me, and the shame of my face has covered me,
16 for the voice of him that reproaches and blasphemes by reason of the enemy and of the avenger.
17 ¶ All this is come upon us; yet we have not forgotten thee, neither have we dealt falsely in thy covenant.
18 Our heart is not turned back, neither have our steps declined from thy way
19 though thou hast sore broken us in the place of dragons and covered us with the shadow of death.
20 If we have forgotten the name of our God or stretched out our hands to a strange god,
21 shall not God search this out? For he knows the secrets of the heart.
22 Yea, for thy sake are we killed all the day long; we are counted as sheep for the slaughter.
23 Awake, why sleepest thou, O Lord? Arise, do not cast us off for ever.
24 Why dost thou hide thy face and forget our affliction and our oppression?
25 For our soul is bowed down to the dust; our belly cleaves unto the earth.
26 Arise for our help and ransom us for thy mercies’ sake.
37 ¶ And Jacob dwelt in the land in which his father was a stranger, in the land of Canaan.
2 These are the generations of Jacob. Joseph, being seventeen years old, was feeding the flock with his brethren; and the lad was with the sons of Bilhah and with the sons of Zilpah, his father’s wives; and Joseph brought unto his father their evil report.
3 Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his other sons because he was the son of his old age, and he made him a coat of many colours.
4 And when his brethren saw that their father loved him more than all his brethren, they hated him and could not speak peaceably unto him.
5 ¶ And Joseph dreamed a dream, and he told it to his brethren; and they hated him yet the more.
6 And he said unto them, Hear, I pray you, this dream which I have dreamed:
7 For, behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and, behold, my sheaf arose and also stood upright; and, behold, your sheaves stood round about and made obeisance to my sheaf.
8 And his brethren said to him, Shalt thou indeed reign over us? Or shalt thou indeed have dominion over us? And they hated him yet the more for his dreams and for his words.
9 And he dreamed yet another dream and told it to his brethren, saying, Behold, I have dreamed another dream; and, behold, the sun and the moon and eleven stars made obeisance to me.
10 And he told it to his father and to his brethren; and his father reprehended him and said unto him, What is this dream that thou hast dreamed? Shall I and thy mother and thy brethren indeed come to bow down ourselves to thee to the earth?
11 And his brethren envied him; but his father kept the word.
1 ¶ Paul, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God, and Sosthenes, our brother,
2 unto the congregation {Gr. ekklesia – called out ones} of God which is at Corinth, to those that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be holy, with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours:
3 Grace be unto you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
4 I thank my God always on your behalf for the grace of God which is given you in Christ Jesus,
5 that in every thing ye are enriched in him in all word and in all knowledge,
6 with which the testimony of the Christ was confirmed in you,
7 so that ye lack nothing in any gift, waiting for the manifestation of our Lord Jesus Christ,
8 who shall also confirm that ye shall remain unimpeachable unto the end, in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.
9 God is faithful, by whom ye were called into the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord.
10 ¶ Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing and that there be no divisions among you, but that ye be perfect, joined together in the same understanding and in the same perception.
11 For it has been declared unto me of you, my brethren, by those of the house of Chloe, that there are contentions among you.
12 In other words, that each one of you says, I am of Paul, and I of Apollos, and I of Cephas, and I of Christ.
13 Is the Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? or were ye baptized into the name of Paul?
14 ¶ I thank God that I baptized none of you, but Crispus and Gaius,
15 lest any should say that ye were baptized into my name.
16 And I baptized also the household of Stephanas; besides, I know not whether I baptized any other.
17 ¶ For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not with wisdom of words, lest the cross {Gr. stauros – stake} of Christ should be made void.
18 For the word of the cross {Gr. stauros – stake} is foolishness to those that perish, but unto us who are saved, it is the power of God.
19 For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.
1 ¶ The beginning of the gospel of Jesus, the Christ, Son of God,
2 as it is written in the prophets, Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, who shall prepare thy way before thee.
3 The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord; make his paths straight.
4 John baptized in the wilderness and preached the baptism of repentance for remission of sins.
5 And there went out unto him all the land of Judaea and those of Jerusalem and were all baptized of him in the river of Jordan, confessing their sins.
6 John was clothed with camel’s hair and with a girdle of a skin about his loins; and he ate locusts and wild honey
7 and preached, saying, There comes one mightier than I after me, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to stoop down and unloose.
8 I indeed have baptized you with water, but he shall baptize you with the Holy Spirit.
9 ¶ And it came to pass in those days that Jesus came from Nazareth a city of Galilee and was baptized of John in the Jordan.
10 And as soon as he was come out of the water, John saw the heavens opened and the Spirit like a dove descending and resting upon him;
11 and there came a voice from heaven, saying, Thou art my dear Son, in whom I delight.
12 And immediately the Spirit drove him into the wilderness.
13 And he was there in the wilderness forty days and forty nights and was tempted of Satan and was with the wild beasts, and the angels ministered unto him.
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