Book of Common Prayer
Prologue—Psalms 1–2[a]
Psalm 1[b]
True Happiness
1 Blessed[c] is the man
who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked,
nor stand in the way of sinners,
nor sit in the company of scoffers.
2 Rather, his delight is in the law of the Lord,[d]
and on that law he meditates day and night.
3 He is like a tree planted near streams of water,
which bears fruit in its season,
and whose leaves never wither.[e]
In the same way,
everything he does will prosper.
4 This is not true of the wicked,
for they are like chaff that the wind blows away.[f]
5 Therefore, the wicked will not stand firm at the judgment,[g]
nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.
6 For the Lord watches over[h] the way of the righteous,
but the way of the wicked will perish.
Psalm 2[i]
Universal Reign of the Messiah
1 Why do the nations rage
and the peoples devise futile plots?
2 The kings of the earth rise up,
and the princes conspire together
against the Lord
and against his Anointed One:[j]
3 “Let us finally break their shackles
and cast away their chains from us.”
4 The one who is enthroned in heaven laughs;
the Lord mocks their plans.
5 Then he rebukes them in his anger
and terrifies them in his wrath, saying,
6 “I myself have anointed my king
on Zion, my holy mountain.”[k]
7 I will proclaim the decree[l] of the Lord:
He said to me, “You are my son;
this day I have begotten you.”
8 Simply make the request of me,
and I will give you the nations as your inheritance,
and the ends of the earth as your possession.[m]
9 You will rule them with an iron scepter;
you will shatter them like a potter’s vessel.[n]
10 Therefore, O kings, pay heed;
take warning, O rulers of the earth.
11 Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice before him;
with trembling 12 bow down in homage[o]
lest he become angry
and you perish from the way,
for his wrath can flare up in an instant.
Blessed are all those
who take refuge in him.
Book I—Psalms 3–41[p]
Psalm 3[q]
Trust in God in Time of Danger
1 A psalm of David. When he was fleeing from his son Absalom.
2 O Lord, how great is the number of my enemies,
how many are those who rise up against me.
3 How numerous are the ones who say of me,
“He will not receive salvation from God.” Selah[r]
4 But you, O Lord, are a shield to protect me;
you are my glory and the one who raises my head high.[s]
5 Whenever I cry aloud to the Lord,
he answers me from his holy mountain.[t] Selah
6 I lie down and sleep;
I awaken again, for the Lord sustains me.[u]
7 Thus, I will not fear the multitudes
who have surrounded me on every side.
8 Rise up, O Lord!
Rescue me, O my God!
You will strike all my enemies across the face[v]
and break the teeth of the wicked.
9 Salvation comes from the Lord.
May your blessing be upon your people. Selah
Psalm 4[w]
Joyful Confidence in God
1 For the director.[x] With stringed instruments. A psalm of David.
2 When I call upon you, answer me, O God,
you who uphold my rights.
When I was in distress, you set me free;
have pity on me and listen to my prayer.
3 How long[y] will you people turn my glory into shame,
cherishing what is worthless and pursuing what is false? Selah
4 Remember that the Lord wonderfully favors those who are faithful,[z]
and the Lord listens when I call out to him.
5 [aa]When you are angry, be careful not to sin;
reflect in silence
as you lie upon your beds. Selah
6 Offer worthy sacrifices
and place your trust in the Lord.
7 Many exclaim, “Who will show us better times!
Let the light of your face shine on[ab] us, O Lord!”
8 You have granted my heart[ac] greater joy
than others experience when grain and wine abound.
9 In peace I lie down and sleep,
for only with your help, O Lord,
can I rest secure.
Psalm 7[a]
Appeal to the Divine Judge
1 A plaintive song of David, which he sang to the Lord concerning Cush,[b] a Benjaminite.
2 O Lord, my God, I take refuge in you;
keep me safe from all my pursuers and deliver me,
3 lest like a lion they tear me to pieces
and carry me off, with no one to rescue me.
4 O Lord, my God, if I have done this,
if my hands are stained with guilt,
5 if I have repaid a friend with treachery—
I who spared the lives of those who without cause were my enemies—[c]
6 then let my foe pursue and overtake me;
let him trample my life into the ground
and leave my honor in the dust. Selah
7 Rise up, O Lord, in your indignation;
rise against the fury of my enemies.
Rouse yourself for me,
and fulfill the judgment you have decreed.
8 Let the peoples assemble in your presence
as you sit above them enthroned on high.
9 The Lord is the judge of the nations.
Therefore, pass judgment on me, O Lord, according to my righteousness,
according to my innocence, O Most High.
10 Put an end to the malice of the wicked
but continue to sustain the righteous,
O God of justice,
you who search minds and hearts.[d]
11 God is a shield to me;
he saves those who are upright of heart.
12 God is a just judge,
a God who expresses his indignation every day.
13 When a sinner refuses to repent,
God sharpens his sword,
and he bends and aims his bow.
14 He has prepared deadly weapons for him
and made his arrows into fiery shafts.
15 [e]Behold, he who conceives iniquity
and is pregnant with mischief
will give birth to lies.
16 He digs a pit and makes it deep,
but he will fall into the trap he has made.
17 His wickedness will recoil upon his own head,
and his violence will fall back on his own crown.
18 I will offer thanks to the Lord because of his righteousness,
and I will sing hymns of praise[f] to the name of the Lord Most High.
Chapter 7
More than One Righteous Person among the People
1 How great is my misery!
I have become like one who,
when the summer fruit has been gathered
and the vines have been gleaned,
finds not a single cluster of grapes to eat,
nor any of those early figs for which I long.
2 The faithful have vanished from the land;
there is no honest person to be found.
They all lie in wait to shed blood;
each one hunts his brother with a net.
3 Their hands are skilled in performing evil deeds;
the ruler demands gifts,
the judge asks for a bribe,
the powerful man follows his own desires.
4 The best of them is like a briar,
the most upright like a thorn hedge.
The day of their punishment now approaches;
now they will be seized by confusion.
5 Put no trust in a friend:
have no confidence in a loved one.
Guard the portals of your mouth
against her who lies in your embrace.
6 For a son maligns his father,
a daughter rebels against her mother,
a daughter-in-law rises up against her mother-in-law;
your enemies are to be found in your own household.
7 But as for me, I will look to the Lord.
I place my hope in God my savior;
my God will hear me.
Chapter 26
Paul’s Defense before Agrippa. 1 Agrippa said to Paul, “You have permission to speak for yourself.” Then Paul stretched out his hand and began to defend himself: 2 “I consider myself fortunate, King Agrippa, that it is before you today that I am to defend myself against all the accusations of the Jews, 3 particularly since you are well acquainted with all our Jewish customs and controversies. Therefore, I implore you to listen to me patiently.
4 “The Jews all know my way of life from my youth, which I first lived among my own people and in Jerusalem. 5 They have known about me from my youth, and they could testify, if they were willing, that I belonged to the strictest sect of our religion and lived as a Pharisee. 6 But now I am on trial because of my hope in the promise made by God to our ancestors.
7 “Our twelve tribes worship night and day with intense devotion in the hope of seeing its fulfillment. It is because of this hope that I am accused by the Jews, O king. 8 Why should it seem incredible to any of you that God raises the dead?
9 “I myself once thought that I had to do everything possible against the name of Jesus of Nazareth. 10 And that is what I did in Jerusalem. With the authorization of the chief priests, I not only sent many of the saints[a] to prison, but when they were being condemned to death, I cast my vote against them. 11 In all the synagogues, I tried by inflicting repeated punishments to force them to blaspheme, and I was so enraged with fury against them that I even pursued them to foreign cities.
12 “On one such occasion, I was traveling to Damascus with the authorization and commission of the chief priests. 13 At midday, as I was on my way, O king, I saw a light from the sky, brighter than the sun, shining all around me and my companions. 14 We all fell to the ground, and I heard a voice saying to me in Aramaic, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? It is hard for you to kick against the goad.’[b]
15 “I asked, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ The Lord answered, ‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. 16 Get up now and stand on your feet, for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to appoint you as my servant and as a witness to what you have seen of me and what you will yet see. 17 I will rescue you from your own people and from the Gentiles to whom I am sending you. 18 You are to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light[c] and from the power of Satan to God. Thus, they may obtain forgiveness of their sins and an inheritance among those who have been consecrated through faith in me.’
19 “And so, King Agrippa, I did not disobey the vision from heaven. 20 Rather, I started to preach, first to the people in Damascus, and then in Jerusalem and throughout the countryside of Judea, and also to the Gentiles, calling on them to repent and turn to God and prove their repentance by their deeds. 21 That is why the Jews seized me in the temple and tried to kill me.
22 “But I have had help from God to this very day, and I stand here and testify to both the lowly and the great. I assert nothing more than what the Prophets and Moses said would occur: 23 that the Christ must suffer, and that, by being the first to rise from the dead, he would proclaim light to the people and to the Gentiles.”
26 Jesus Casts Out a Legion of Demons.[a] Then they sailed to the region of the Gerasenes, which is opposite Galilee. 27 As he stepped ashore, he was approached by a man from the town who was possessed by demons. For a long time he had worn no clothes. Moreover, he did not live in a house but among the tombs.
28 When the man caught sight of Jesus, he cried out and fell at his feet, shouting at the top of his voice, “What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I implore you, do not torment me!” 29 For he had ordered the unclean spirit to come out of the man. Many times in the past it had seized him, and on such occasions they used to restrain him with chains and shackles, but he would manage to break loose and be driven by the demon into the wilds.
30 Then Jesus asked him, “What is your name?” “Legion,” he replied, for many demons had entered him. 31 And they begged him not to order them to go back into the abyss.
32 Now on the mountainside a large herd of pigs was feeding, and they pleaded with him to let them go into the pigs. He allowed this. 33 The demons then came out of the man and entered the pigs. Thereupon the herd charged down the steep bank into the lake and drowned.
34 When those tending the herd saw what had occurred, they ran off and reported the incident in the town and throughout the countryside. 35 As a result, people came out to see what had happened. When they came near Jesus, they found the man from whom the demons had gone out sitting at Jesus’ feet, fully clothed and in his right mind, and they were frightened.
36 Those who had been eye-witnesses to the incident told how the one who had been possessed by demons had been healed. 37 Then all the people of the region of the Gerasenes asked Jesus to depart from them, for they were seized with great fear. So he got into the boat and went away.
38 The man from whom the demons had gone out pleaded that he be allowed to go with him, but Jesus sent him away, saying, 39 “Return to your home and give witness to what God has done for you.” He then departed, proclaiming throughout the town what Jesus had done for him.
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