Book of Common Prayer
Promised Faithfulness to the Lord
A Psalm of David.
101 I will sing of mercy and justice;
To You, O Lord, I will sing praises.
2 I will behave wisely in a [a]perfect way.
Oh, when will You come to me?
I will (A)walk within my house with a perfect heart.
3 I will set nothing [b]wicked before my eyes;
(B)I hate the work of those (C)who fall away;
It shall not cling to me.
4 A perverse heart shall depart from me;
I will not (D)know wickedness.
5 Whoever secretly slanders his neighbor,
Him I will destroy;
(E)The one who has a haughty look and a proud heart,
Him I will not endure.
6 My eyes shall be on the faithful of the land,
That they may dwell with me;
He who walks in a [c]perfect way,
He shall serve me.
7 He who works deceit shall not dwell within my house;
He who tells lies shall not [d]continue in my presence.
8 (F)Early I will destroy all the wicked of the land,
That I may cut off all the evildoers (G)from the city of the Lord.
Plea for Judgment of False Accusers
To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David.
109 Do(A) not keep silent,
O God of my praise!
2 For the mouth of the wicked and the mouth of the deceitful
Have opened against me;
They have spoken against me with a (B)lying tongue.
3 They have also surrounded me with words of hatred,
And fought against me (C)without a cause.
4 In return for my love they are my accusers,
But I give myself to prayer.
5 Thus (D)they have rewarded me evil for good,
And hatred for my love.
6 Set a wicked man over him,
And let (E)an [a]accuser stand at his right hand.
7 When he is judged, let him be found guilty,
And (F)let his prayer become sin.
8 Let his days be (G)few,
And (H)let another take his office.
9 (I)Let his children be fatherless,
And his wife a widow.
10 Let his children [b]continually be vagabonds, and beg;
Let them [c]seek their bread also from their desolate places.
11 (J)Let the creditor seize all that he has,
And let strangers plunder his labor.
12 Let there be none to extend mercy to him,
Nor let there be any to favor his fatherless children.
13 (K)Let his [d]posterity be cut off,
And in the generation following let their (L)name be blotted out.
14 (M)Let the iniquity of his fathers be remembered before the Lord,
And let not the sin of his mother (N)be blotted out.
15 Let them be continually before the Lord,
That He may (O)cut off the memory of them from the earth;
16 Because he did not remember to show mercy,
But persecuted the poor and needy man,
That he might even slay the (P)broken in heart.
17 (Q)As he loved cursing, so let it come to him;
As he did not delight in blessing, so let it be far from him.
18 As he clothed himself with cursing as with his garment,
So let it (R)enter his body like water,
And like oil into his bones.
19 Let it be to him like the garment which covers him,
And for a belt with which he girds himself continually.
20 Let this be the Lord’s reward to my accusers,
And to those who speak evil against my person.
21 But You, O God the Lord,
Deal with me for Your name’s sake;
Because Your mercy is good, deliver me.
22 For I am poor and needy,
And my heart is wounded within me.
23 I am gone (S)like a shadow when it lengthens;
I am shaken off like a locust.
24 My (T)knees are weak through fasting,
And my flesh is feeble from lack of fatness.
25 I also have become (U)a reproach to them;
When they look at me, (V)they shake their heads.
26 Help me, O Lord my God!
Oh, save me according to Your mercy,
27 (W)That they may know that this is Your hand—
That You, Lord, have done it!
28 (X)Let them curse, but You bless;
When they arise, let them be ashamed,
But let (Y)Your servant rejoice.
29 (Z)Let my accusers be clothed with shame,
And let them cover themselves with their own disgrace as with a mantle.
30 I will greatly praise the Lord with my mouth;
Yes, (AA)I will praise Him among the multitude.
ע AYIN
121 I have done justice and righteousness;
Do not leave me to my oppressors.
122 Be (A)surety[a] for Your servant for good;
Do not let the proud oppress me.
123 My eyes fail from seeking Your salvation
And Your righteous word.
124 Deal with Your servant according to Your mercy,
And teach me Your statutes.
125 (B)I am Your servant;
Give me understanding,
That I may know Your testimonies.
126 It is time for You to act, O Lord,
For they have [b]regarded Your law as void.
127 (C)Therefore I love Your commandments
More than gold, yes, than fine gold!
128 Therefore all Your precepts concerning all things
I consider to be right;
I hate every false way.
פ PE
129 Your testimonies are wonderful;
Therefore my soul keeps them.
130 The entrance of Your words gives light;
(D)It gives understanding to the (E)simple.
131 I opened my mouth and (F)panted,
For I longed for Your commandments.
132 (G)Look upon me and be merciful to me,
(H)As Your custom is toward those who love Your name.
133 (I)Direct my steps by Your word,
And (J)let no iniquity have dominion over me.
134 (K)Redeem me from the oppression of man,
That I may keep Your precepts.
135 (L)Make Your face shine upon Your servant,
And teach me Your statutes.
136 (M)Rivers of water run down from my eyes,
Because men do not keep Your law.
צ TSADDE
137 (N)Righteous are You, O Lord,
And upright are Your judgments.
138 (O)Your testimonies, which You have commanded,
Are righteous and very faithful.
139 (P)My zeal has [c]consumed me,
Because my enemies have forgotten Your words.
140 (Q)Your word is very [d]pure;
Therefore Your servant loves it.
141 I am small and despised,
Yet I do not forget Your precepts.
142 Your righteousness is an everlasting righteousness,
And Your law is (R)truth.
143 Trouble and anguish have [e]overtaken me,
Yet Your commandments are my delights.
144 The righteousness of Your testimonies is everlasting;
Give me understanding, and I shall live.
The Idolatry of Israel
11 “Harlotry, wine, and new wine (A)enslave the heart.
12 My people ask counsel from their (B)wooden idols,
And their [a]staff informs them.
For (C)the spirit of harlotry has caused them to stray,
And they have played the harlot against their God.
13 (D)They offer sacrifices on the mountaintops,
And burn incense on the hills,
Under oaks, poplars, and terebinths,
Because their shade is good.
(E)Therefore your daughters commit harlotry,
And your brides commit adultery.
14 “I will not punish your daughters when they commit harlotry,
Nor your brides when they commit adultery;
For the men themselves go apart with harlots,
And offer sacrifices with a (F)ritual harlot.
Therefore people who do not understand will be trampled.
15 “Though you, Israel, play the harlot,
Let not Judah offend.
(G)Do not come up to Gilgal,
Nor go up to (H)Beth[b] Aven,
(I)Nor swear an oath, saying, ‘As the Lord lives’—
Paul Urged to Make Peace
15 And after those days we [a]packed and went up to Jerusalem. 16 Also some of the disciples from Caesarea went with us and brought with them a certain Mnason of Cyprus, an early disciple, with whom we were to lodge.
17 (A)And when we had come to Jerusalem, the brethren received us gladly. 18 On the following day Paul went in with us to (B)James, and all the elders were present. 19 When he had greeted them, (C)he told in detail those things which God had done among the Gentiles (D)through his ministry. 20 And when they heard it, they glorified the Lord. And they said to him, “You see, brother, how many myriads of Jews there are who have believed, and they are all (E)zealous for the law; 21 but they have been informed about you that you teach all the Jews who are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, saying that they ought not to circumcise their children nor to walk according to the customs. 22 [b]What then? The assembly must certainly meet, for they will hear that you have come. 23 Therefore do what we tell you: We have four men who have taken a vow. 24 Take them and be purified with them, and pay their expenses so that they may (F)shave their heads, and that all may know that those things of which they were informed concerning you are nothing, but that you yourself also walk orderly and keep the law. 25 But concerning the Gentiles who believe, (G)we have written and decided [c]that they should observe no such thing, except that they should keep themselves from things offered to idols, from blood, from things strangled, and from [d]sexual immorality.”
Arrested in the Temple
26 Then Paul took the men, and the next day, having been purified with them, (H)entered the temple (I)to announce the [e]expiration of the days of purification, at which time an offering should be made for each one of them.
Matthew the Tax Collector(A)
27 (B)After these things He went out and saw a tax collector named Levi, sitting at the tax office. And He said to him, (C)“Follow Me.” 28 So he left all, rose up, and (D)followed Him.
29 (E)Then Levi gave Him a great feast in his own house. And (F)there were a great number of tax collectors and others who sat down with them. 30 [a]And their scribes and the Pharisees [b]complained against His disciples, saying, (G)“Why do You eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?”
31 Jesus answered and said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. 32 (H)I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.”
Jesus Is Questioned About Fasting(I)
33 Then they said to Him, (J)“Why[c] do the disciples of John fast often and make prayers, and likewise those of the Pharisees, but Yours eat and drink?”
34 And He said to them, “Can you make the friends of the bridegroom fast while the (K)bridegroom is with them? 35 But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them; then they will fast in those days.”
36 (L)Then He spoke a parable to them: “No one [d]puts a piece from a new garment on an old one; otherwise the new makes a tear, and also the piece that was taken out of the new does not match the old. 37 And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; or else the new wine will burst the wineskins and be spilled, and the wineskins will be ruined. 38 But new wine must be put into new wineskins, [e]and both are preserved. 39 And no one, having drunk old wine, [f]immediately desires new; for he says, ‘The old is [g]better.’ ”
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.