Book of Common Prayer
Supplication for deliverance, and grateful trust in God.
For the Chief Musician; set to [a]Jonath elem rehokim. A Psalm of David. Michtam; when the Philistines took him in Gath.
56 Be merciful unto me, O God; for man would swallow me up:
All the day long he fighting oppresseth me.
2 [b]Mine enemies would swallow me up all the day long;
For they are many that fight proudly against me.
3 What time I am afraid,
I will put my trust in thee.
4 In God (I will praise his word),
In God have I put my trust, I will not be afraid;
What can flesh do unto me?
5 All the day long they wrest my words:
All their thoughts are against me for evil.
6 They gather themselves together, they hide themselves,
They mark my steps,
[c]Even as they have waited for my soul.
7 [d]Shall they escape by iniquity?
In anger cast down the peoples, O God.
8 Thou numberest my wanderings:
Put thou my tears into thy bottle;
Are they not in thy [e]book?
9 Then shall mine enemies turn back in the day that I call:
This I know, [f]that God is for me.
10 In God (I will praise his word),
In Jehovah (I will praise his word),
11 In God have I put my trust, I will not be afraid;
What can man do unto me?
12 Thy vows are upon me, O God:
I will render thank-offerings unto thee.
13 For thou hast delivered my soul from death:
Hast thou not delivered my feet from falling,
That I may walk before God
In the light of [g]the living?
Prayer for rescue from persecutors.
For the Chief Musician; set to Al-tashheth. A Psalm of David. Michtam; when he fled from Saul, in the cave.
57 Be merciful unto me, O God, be merciful unto me;
For my soul taketh refuge in thee:
Yea, in the shadow of thy wings will I take refuge,
Until these [h]calamities be overpast.
2 I will cry unto God Most High,
Unto God that performeth all things for me.
3 He will send from heaven, and save me,
When he that would swallow me up reproacheth; Selah
God will send forth his lovingkindness and his truth.
4 My soul is among lions;
I [i]lie among them that are set on fire,
Even the sons of men, whose teeth are spears and arrows,
And their tongue a sharp sword.
5 Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens;
Let thy glory be above all the earth.
6 They have prepared a net for my steps;
My soul is bowed down:
They have digged a pit before me;
They are fallen into the midst thereof themselves. Selah
7 My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed:
I will sing, yea, I will sing praises.
8 Awake up, my glory; awake, psaltery and harp:
I myself [j]will awake right early.
9 I will give thanks unto thee, O Lord, among the peoples:
I will sing praises unto thee among the nations.
10 For thy lovingkindness is great unto the heavens,
And thy truth unto the skies.
11 Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens;
Let thy glory be above all the earth.
Prayer for the punishment of the wicked.
For the Chief Musician; set to Al-tashheth. A Psalm of David. Michtam.
[k]58 Do ye indeed [l]in silence speak righteousness?
Do ye [m]judge uprightly, O ye sons of men?
2 Nay, in heart ye work wickedness;
Ye weigh out the violence of your hands in the earth.
3 The wicked are estranged from the womb:
They go astray as soon as they are born, speaking lies.
4 Their poison is like the poison of a serpent:
They are like the deaf adder that stoppeth her ear,
5 Which hearkeneth not to the voice of [n]charmers,
Charming never so wisely.
6 Break their teeth, O God, in their mouth:
Break out the great teeth of the young lions, O Jehovah.
7 Let them melt away as water that runneth apace:
When he aimeth his arrows, let them be as though they were cut off.
8 Let them be as a snail which melteth and passeth away,
Like the untimely birth of a woman, [o]that hath not seen the sun.
9 Before your pots can feel the thorns,
[p]He will take them away with a whirlwind, the green and the burning alike.
10 The righteous shall rejoice when he seeth the vengeance:
He shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked;
11 So that men shall say, Verily there is [q]a reward for the righteous:
Verily there is a God that judgeth in the earth.
Prayer for deliverance from secret enemies.
For the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David.
64 Hear my voice, O God, in my complaint:
Preserve my life from fear of the enemy.
2 Hide me from the secret counsel of evil-doers,
From the [a]tumult of the workers of iniquity;
3 Who have whet their tongue like a sword,
And have aimed their arrows, even bitter words,
4 That they may shoot in secret places at the perfect:
Suddenly do they shoot at him, and fear not.
5 They encourage themselves in an evil purpose;
They commune of laying snares privily;
They say, Who will see them?
6 They search out iniquities;
[b]We have accomplished, say they, a diligent search:
And the inward thought and the heart of every one is deep.
7 But God will shoot at them;
With an arrow suddenly shall they be wounded.
8 So [c]they shall be made to stumble, their own tongue being against them:
All that see them shall [d]wag the head.
9 And all men shall fear;
And they shall declare the work of God,
And shall wisely consider of his doing.
10 The righteous shall be glad in Jehovah, and shall take refuge in him;
And all the upright in heart shall glory.
God’s abundant favor to earth and man.
For the Chief Musician. A Psalm. A Song of David.
[e]65 Praise waiteth for thee, O God, in Zion;
And unto thee shall the vow be performed.
2 O thou that hearest prayer,
Unto thee shall all flesh come.
3 [f]Iniquities prevail against me:
As for our transgressions, thou wilt [g]forgive them.
4 Blessed is the man whom thou choosest, and causest to approach unto thee,
That he may dwell in thy courts:
We shall be satisfied with the goodness of thy house,
Thy holy temple.
5 By terrible things thou wilt answer us in righteousness,
O God of our salvation,
Thou that art the confidence of all the ends of the earth,
And [h]of them that are afar off upon the sea:
6 Who by his strength setteth fast the mountains,
Being girded about with might;
7 Who stilleth the roaring of the seas,
The roaring of their waves,
And the tumult of the peoples.
8 They also that dwell in the uttermost parts are afraid at thy tokens:
Thou makest the outgoings of the morning and evening to rejoice.
9 Thou visitest the earth, and waterest it,
Thou greatly enrichest it;
The river of God is full of water:
Thou providest them grain, [i]when thou hast so prepared [j]the earth.
10 Thou waterest its furrows abundantly;
Thou [k]settlest the ridges thereof:
Thou makest it soft with showers;
Thou blessest the springing thereof.
11 Thou crownest [l]the year with thy goodness;
And thy paths drop fatness.
12 [m]They drop upon the pastures of the wilderness;
And the hills are girded with joy.
13 The pastures are clothed with flocks;
The valleys also are covered over with grain;
They shout for joy, they also sing.
17 Awake, awake, stand up, O Jerusalem, that hast drunk at the hand of Jehovah the cup of his wrath; thou hast drunken the bowl of the cup of staggering, and drained it. 18 There is none to guide her among all the sons whom she hath brought forth; neither is there any that taketh her by the hand among all the sons that she hath brought up. 19 These two things are befallen thee, who shall bemoan thee? desolation and destruction, and the famine and the sword; how shall I comfort thee? 20 Thy sons have fainted, they lie at the head of all the streets, as an antelope in a net; they are full of the wrath of Jehovah, the rebuke of thy God.
21 Therefore hear now this, thou afflicted, and drunken, but not with wine: 22 Thus saith thy Lord Jehovah, and thy God that pleadeth the cause of his people, Behold, I have taken out of thy hand the cup of staggering, even the bowl of the cup of my wrath; thou shalt no more drink it again: 23 and I will put it into the hand of them that afflict thee, that have said to thy soul, Bow down, that we may go over; and thou hast laid thy back as the ground, and as the street, to them that go over.
4 But I say that so long as the heir is a child, he differeth nothing from a bondservant though he is lord of all; 2 but is under guardians and stewards until the day appointed of the father. 3 So we also, when we were children, were held in bondage under the [a]rudiments of the world: 4 but when the fulness of the time came, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, 5 that he might redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. 6 And because ye are sons, God sent forth the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father. 7 So that thou art no longer a bondservant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God.
8 Howbeit at that time, not knowing God, ye were in bondage to them that by nature are no gods: 9 but now that ye have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how turn ye back again to the weak and beggarly [b]rudiments, whereunto ye desire to be in bondage over again? 10 Ye observe days, and months, and seasons, and years. 11 I am afraid of you, lest by any means I have bestowed labor upon you in vain.
24 And from thence he arose, and went away into the borders of Tyre [a]and Sidon. And he entered into a house, and would have no man know it; and he could not be hid. 25 But straightway a woman, whose little daughter had an unclean spirit, having heard of him, came and fell down at his feet. 26 Now the woman was a [b]Greek, a Syrophoenician by race. And she besought him that he would cast forth the demon out of her daughter. 27 And he said unto her, Let the children first be filled: for it is not meet to take the children’s [c]bread and cast it to the dogs. 28 But she answered and saith unto him, Yea, Lord; even the dogs under the table eat of the children’s crumbs. 29 And he said unto her, For this saying go thy way; the demon is gone out of thy daughter. 30 And she went away unto her house, and found the child laid upon the bed, and the demon gone out.
31 And again he went out from the borders of Tyre, and came through Sidon unto the sea of Galilee, through the midst of the borders of Decapolis. 32 And they bring unto him one that was deaf, and had an impediment in his speech; and they beseech him to lay his hand upon him. 33 And he took him aside from the multitude privately, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spat, and touched his tongue; 34 and looking up to heaven, he sighed, and saith unto him, Ephphatha, that is, Be opened. 35 And his ears were opened, and the bond of his tongue was loosed, and he spake plain. 36 And he charged them that they should tell no man: but the more he charged them, so much the more a great deal they published it. 37 And they were beyond measure astonished, saying, He hath done all things well; he maketh even the deaf to hear, and the dumb to speak.
Public Domain (Why are modern Bible translations copyrighted?)