Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 119
Delight in God’s Word
א Alef
1 How[a] happy are those whose way is blameless,(A)
who live according to the Lord’s instruction!(B)
2 Happy are those who keep His decrees(C)
and seek Him with all their heart.(D)
3 They do nothing wrong;(E)
they follow His ways.
4 You have commanded that Your precepts(F)
be diligently kept.
5 If only my ways were committed
to keeping Your statutes!(G)
6 Then I would not be ashamed(H)
when I think about all Your commands.
7 I will praise You with a sincere heart(I)
when I learn Your righteous judgments.
8 I will keep Your statutes;
never abandon me.(J)
ב Bet
9 How can a young man keep his way pure?
By keeping Your[b] word.(K)
10 I have sought You with all my heart;(L)
don’t let me wander from Your commands.(M)
11 I have treasured Your word in my heart(N)
so that I may not sin against You.
12 Lord, may You be praised;
teach me Your statutes.(O)
13 With my lips I proclaim
all the judgments from Your mouth.(P)
14 I rejoice in the way revealed by Your decrees(Q)
as much as in all riches.
15 I will meditate on Your precepts(R)
and think about Your ways.(S)
16 I will delight in Your statutes;(T)
I will not forget Your word.
ג Gimel
17 Deal generously with Your servant(U)
so that I might live;
then I will keep Your word.
18 Open my eyes so that I may contemplate
wonderful things from Your instruction.
19 I am a stranger on earth;(V)
do not hide Your commands from me.
20 I am continually overcome
with longing for Your judgments.(W)
21 You rebuke the proud,
the ones under a curse,(X)
who wander from Your commands.(Y)
22 Take insult and contempt away from me,(Z)
for I have kept Your decrees.
23 Though princes sit together speaking against me,(AA)
Your servant will think about Your statutes;(AB)
24 Your decrees are my delight
and my counselors.(AC)
Psalm 12
Oppression by the Wicked
For the choir director: according to Sheminith.(A) A Davidic psalm.
1 Help, Lord, for no faithful one remains;
the loyal have disappeared from the human race.(B)
2 They lie to one another;
they speak with flattering lips and deceptive hearts.(C)
3 May the Lord cut off all flattering lips
and the tongue that speaks boastfully.(D)
4 They say, “Through our tongues we have power;[a]
our lips are our own—who can be our master?”(E)
5 “Because of the oppression of the afflicted
and the groaning of the poor,
I will now rise up,” says the Lord.
“I will put the one who longs for it in a safe place.”(F)
6 The words of the Lord are pure words,
like silver refined in an earthen furnace,
purified seven times.(G)
7 You, Lord, will guard us;[b]
You will protect us[c] from this generation forever.(H)
8 The wicked wander[d] everywhere,
and what is worthless is exalted by the human race.(I)
Psalm 13
A Plea for Deliverance
For the choir director. A Davidic psalm.
1 Lord, how long will You forget me?
Forever?
How long will You hide Your face from me?(J)
2 How long will I store up anxious concerns[e] within me,
agony in my mind every day?
How long will my enemy dominate me?(K)
3 Consider me and answer, Lord my God.
Restore brightness to my eyes;(L)
otherwise, I will sleep in death.
4 My enemy will say, “I have triumphed over him,”
and my foes will rejoice because I am shaken.(M)
5 But I have trusted in Your faithful love;(N)
my heart will rejoice in Your deliverance.(O)
6 I will sing to the Lord
because He has treated me generously.(P)
Psalm 14
A Portrait of Sinners
For the choir director. Davidic.
1 The fool says in his heart, “God does not exist.”(Q)
They are corrupt; they do vile deeds.
There is no one who does good.
2 The Lord looks down from heaven on the human race(R)
to see if there is one who is wise,
one who seeks God.
3 All have turned away;
all alike have become corrupt.
There is no one who does good,
not even one.[f](S)
4 Will evildoers never understand?
They consume My people as they consume bread;(T)
they do not call on the Lord.(U)
Job’s Reply to Eliphaz
6 Then Job answered:
7 Isn’t mankind consigned to forced labor(A) on earth?
Are not his days like those of a hired hand?
2 Like a slave he longs for shade;
like a hired man he waits for his pay.
3 So I have been made to inherit months of futility,
and troubled nights have been assigned to me.(B)
4 When I lie down I think:
When will I get up?
But the evening drags on endlessly,
and I toss and turn until dawn.
5 My flesh is clothed with maggots and encrusted with dirt.[a]
My skin forms scabs[b] and then oozes.(C)
6 My days pass more swiftly than a weaver’s shuttle;
they come to an end without hope.(D)
7 Remember that my life is but a breath.
My eye will never again see anything good.(E)
8 The eye of anyone who looks on me
will no longer see me.
Your eyes will look for me, but I will be gone.(F)
9 As a cloud fades away and vanishes,
so the one who goes down to Sheol(G) will never rise again.
10 He will never return to his house;
his hometown will no longer remember[c] him.(H)
11 Therefore I will not restrain my mouth.
I will speak in the anguish of my spirit;
I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.
12 Am I the sea[d](I) or a sea monster,(J)
that You keep me under guard?
13 When I say: My bed will comfort me,
and my couch will ease my complaint,
14 then You frighten me with dreams,
and terrify me with visions,(K)
15 so that I prefer strangling[e]—
death rather than life in this body.[f](L)
16 I give up! I will not live forever.
Leave me alone,(M) for my days are a breath.[g]
17 What is man, that You think so highly of him
and pay so much attention to him?(N)
18 You inspect him every morning,
and put him to the test every moment.(O)
19 Will You ever look away from me,
or leave me alone long enough to swallow?[h]
20 If I have sinned, what have I done to You,
Watcher of mankind?
Why have You made me Your target,(P)
so that I have become a burden to You?[i]
21 Why not forgive my sin
and pardon my transgression?(Q)
For soon I will lie down in the grave.(R)
You will eagerly seek me, but I will be gone.(S)
Cornelius’s Vision
10 There was a man in Caesarea named Cornelius, a centurion of what was called the Italian Regiment.(A) 2 He was a devout man and feared God along with his whole household. He did many charitable deeds for the Jewish people and always prayed to God.(B) 3 About three in the afternoon[a] he distinctly saw in a vision an angel of God who came in and said to him, “Cornelius!”(C)
4 Looking intently at him, he became afraid and said, “What is it, lord?”
The angel told him, “Your prayers and your acts of charity have come up as a memorial offering before God.(D) 5 Now send men to Joppa and call for Simon, who is also named Peter. 6 He is lodging with Simon, a tanner, whose house is by the sea.”(E)
7 When the angel who spoke to him had gone, he called two of his household slaves and a devout soldier, who was one of those who attended him. 8 After explaining everything to them, he sent them to Joppa.
Peter’s Vision
9 The(F) next day, as they were traveling and nearing the city, Peter went up to pray on the housetop(G) about noon.[b] 10 Then he became hungry and wanted to eat, but while they were preparing something, he went into a visionary state. 11 He saw heaven opened(H) and an object that resembled a large sheet coming down, being lowered by its four corners to the earth. 12 In it were all the four-footed animals and reptiles of the earth, and the birds of the sky. 13 Then a voice said to him, “Get up, Peter; kill and eat!”
14 “No, Lord!” Peter said. “For I have never eaten anything common[c] and ritually unclean!”(I)
15 Again, a second time, a voice said to him, “What God has made clean, you must not call common.”(J) 16 This happened three times, and then the object was taken up into heaven.
The Unbelief of Jesus’ Brothers
7 After this, Jesus traveled in Galilee,(A) since He did not want to travel in Judea(B) because the Jews(C) were trying to kill Him.(D) 2 The Jewish Festival of Tabernacles[a][b](E) was near, 3 so His brothers(F) said to Him, “Leave here and go to Judea so Your disciples can see Your works(G) that You are doing. 4 For no one does anything in secret while he’s seeking public recognition. If You do these things, show Yourself to the world.” 5 (For not even His brothers believed in Him.)
6 Jesus told them, “My time(H) has not yet arrived, but your time is always at hand. 7 The world cannot hate(I) you, but it does hate Me because I testify about it—that its deeds are evil. 8 Go up to the festival yourselves. I’m not going up to the festival yet,[c] because My time has not yet fully come.” 9 After He had said these things, He stayed in Galilee.
Jesus at the Festival of Tabernacles
10 After His brothers had gone up to the festival, then He also went up, not openly but secretly. 11 The Jews were looking for Him at the festival and saying, “Where is He?” 12 And there was a lot of discussion about Him among the crowds. Some were saying, “He’s a good(J) man.” Others were saying, “No, on the contrary, He’s deceiving(K) the people.” 13 Still, nobody was talking publicly about Him because they feared the Jews.
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