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Book of Common Prayer

Daily Old and New Testament readings based on the Book of Common Prayer.
Duration: 861 days
American Standard Version (ASV)
Version
Psalm 56-58

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.
[b]Mine enemies would swallow me up all the day long;
For they are many that fight proudly against me.
What time I am afraid,
I will put my trust in thee.
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?
All the day long they wrest my words:
All their thoughts are against me for evil.
They gather themselves together, they hide themselves,
They mark my steps,
[c]Even as they have waited for my soul.
[d]Shall they escape by iniquity?
In anger cast down the peoples, O God.
Thou numberest my wanderings:
Put thou my tears into thy bottle;
Are they not in thy [e]book?
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.
I will cry unto God Most High,
Unto God that performeth all things for me.
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.
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.
Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens;
Let thy glory be above all the earth.

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
My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed:
I will sing, yea, I will sing praises.
Awake up, my glory; awake, psaltery and harp:
I myself [j]will awake right early.
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?
Nay, in heart ye work wickedness;
Ye weigh out the violence of your hands in the earth.
The wicked are estranged from the womb:
They go astray as soon as they are born, speaking lies.
Their poison is like the poison of a serpent:
They are like the deaf adder that stoppeth her ear,
Which hearkeneth not to the voice of [n]charmers,
Charming never so wisely.
Break their teeth, O God, in their mouth:
Break out the great teeth of the young lions, O Jehovah.
Let them melt away as water that runneth apace:
When he aimeth his arrows, let them be as though they were cut off.
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.
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.

Psalm 64-65

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.
Hide me from the secret counsel of evil-doers,
From the [a]tumult of the workers of iniquity;
Who have whet their tongue like a sword,
And have aimed their arrows, even bitter words,
That they may shoot in secret places at the perfect:
Suddenly do they shoot at him, and fear not.
They encourage themselves in an evil purpose;
They commune of laying snares privily;
They say, Who will see them?
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.
But God will shoot at them;
With an arrow suddenly shall they be wounded.
So [c]they shall be made to stumble, their own tongue being against them:
All that see them shall [d]wag the head.
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.
O thou that hearest prayer,
Unto thee shall all flesh come.
[f]Iniquities prevail against me:
As for our transgressions, thou wilt [g]forgive them.
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.
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:
Who by his strength setteth fast the mountains,
Being girded about with might;
Who stilleth the roaring of the seas,
The roaring of their waves,
And the tumult of the peoples.
They also that dwell in the uttermost parts are afraid at thy tokens:
Thou makest the outgoings of the morning and evening to rejoice.
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.

Jeremiah 1:11-19

11 Moreover the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying, Jeremiah, what seest thou? And I said, I see a rod of [a]an almond-tree. 12 Then said Jehovah unto me, Thou hast well seen: for I [b]watch over my word to perform it.

13 And the word of Jehovah came unto me the second time, saying, What seest thou? And I said, I see a boiling caldron; and the face thereof is from the north. 14 Then Jehovah said unto me, Out of the north evil [c]shall break forth upon all the inhabitants of the land. 15 For, lo, I will call all the families of the kingdoms of the north, saith Jehovah; and they shall come, and they shall set every one his throne at the entrance of the gates of Jerusalem, and against all the walls thereof round about, and against all the cities of Judah. 16 And I will [d]utter my judgments against them touching all their wickedness, in that they have forsaken me, and have burned incense unto other gods, and worshipped the works of their own hands. 17 Thou therefore gird up thy loins, and arise, and speak unto them all that I command thee: be not dismayed at them, lest I dismay thee before them. 18 For, behold, I have made thee this day a fortified city, and an iron pillar, and brazen walls, against the whole land, against the kings of Judah, against the princes thereof, against the priests thereof, and against the people of the land. 19 And they shall fight against thee; but they shall not prevail against thee: for I am with thee, saith Jehovah, to deliver thee.

Romans 1:1-15

Paul, a [a]servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the [b]gospel of God, which he promised afore through his prophets in the holy scriptures, concerning his Son, who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh, who was [c]declared to be the Son of God [d]with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection [e]from the dead; even Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom we received grace and apostleship, unto obedience [f]of faith among all the [g]nations, for his name’s sake; among whom are ye also, called to be Jesus Christ’s: to all that are in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, [h]that your faith is proclaimed throughout the whole world. For God is my witness, whom I serve in my spirit in the [i]gospel of his Son, how unceasingly I make mention of you, always in my prayers 10 making request, if by any means now at length I may be prospered [j]by the will of God to come unto you. 11 For I long to see you, that I may impart unto you some spiritual gift, to the end ye may be established; 12 that is, that I with you may be comforted [k]in you, each of us by the other’s faith, both yours and mine. 13 And I would not have you ignorant, brethren, that oftentimes I purposed to come unto you (and was hindered hitherto), that I might have some fruit [l]in you also, even as [m]in the rest of the Gentiles. 14 I am debtor both to Greeks and to Barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish. 15 So, as much as in me is, I am ready to [n]preach the gospel to you also that are in Rome.

John 4:27-42

27 And upon this came his disciples; and they marvelled that he was speaking with a woman; yet no man said, What seekest thou? or, Why speakest thou with her? 28 So the woman left her waterpot, and went away into the city, and saith to the people, 29 Come, see a man, who told me all things that ever I did: can this be the Christ? 30 They went out of the city, and were coming to him. 31 In the mean while the disciples prayed him, saying, Rabbi, eat. 32 But he said unto them, I have meat to eat that ye know not. 33 The disciples therefore said one to another, Hath any man brought him aught to eat? 34 Jesus saith unto them, My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to accomplish his work. 35 Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh the harvest? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields, that they are [a]white already unto harvest. 36 He that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal; that he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together. 37 For herein is the saying true, One soweth, and another reapeth. 38 I sent you to reap that whereon ye have not labored: others have labored, and ye are entered into their labor.

39 And from that city many of the Samaritans believed on him because of the word of the woman, who testified, He told me all things that ever I did. 40 So when the Samaritans came unto him, they besought him to abide with them: and he abode there two days. 41 And many more believed because of his word; 42 and they said to the woman, Now we believe, not because of thy speaking: for we have heard for ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Saviour of the world.