Book of Common Prayer
50 A Psalm of Asaph. The God of gods -- Jehovah -- hath spoken, And He calleth to the earth From the rising of the sun unto its going in.
2 From Zion, the perfection of beauty, God shone.
3 Our God cometh, and is not silent, Fire before Him doth devour, And round about him it hath been very tempestuous.
4 He doth call unto the heavens from above, And unto the earth, to judge His people.
5 Gather ye to Me My saints, Making covenant with Me over a sacrifice.
6 And the heavens declare His righteousness, For God Himself [is] judge. Selah.
7 Hear, O My people, and I speak, O Israel, and I testify against thee, God, thy God [am] I.
8 Not for thy sacrifices do I reprove thee, Yea, thy burnt-offerings [Are] before Me continually.
9 I take not from thy house a bullock, From thy folds he goats.
10 For Mine [is] every beast of the forest, The cattle on the hills of oxen.
11 I have known every fowl of the mountains, And the wild beast of the field [is] with Me.
12 If I am hungry I tell not to thee, For Mine [is] the world and its fulness.
13 Do I eat the flesh of bulls, And drink the blood of he-goats?
14 Sacrifice to God confession, And complete to the Most High thy vows.
15 And call Me in a day of adversity, I deliver thee, and thou honourest Me.
16 And to the wicked hath God said: What to thee -- to recount My statutes? That thou liftest up My covenant on thy mouth?
17 Yea, thou hast hated instruction, And dost cast My words behind thee.
18 If thou hast seen a thief, Then thou art pleased with him, And with adulterers [is] thy portion.
19 Thy mouth thou hast sent forth with evil, And thy tongue joineth deceit together,
20 Thou sittest, against thy brother thou speakest, Against a son of thy mother givest slander.
21 These thou didst, and I kept silent, Thou hast thought that I am like thee, I reprove thee, and set in array before thine eyes.
22 Understand this, I pray you, Ye who are forgetting God, Lest I tear, and there is no deliverer.
23 He who is sacrificing praise honoureth Me, As to him who maketh a way, I cause him to look on the salvation of God!
59 To the Overseer. -- `Destroy not,' by David. -- A secret treasure, in Saul's sending, and they watch the house to put him to death. Deliver me from mine enemies, O my God, From my withstanders set me on high.
2 Deliver me from workers of iniquity, And from men of blood save me.
3 For, lo, they laid wait for my soul, Assembled against me are strong ones, Not my transgression nor my sin, O Jehovah.
4 Without punishment they run and prepare themselves, Stir up to meet me, and see.
5 And Thou, Jehovah, God of Hosts, God of Israel, Awake to inspect all the nations. Favour not any treacherous dealers of iniquity. Selah.
6 They turn back at evening, They make a noise like a dog, And go round about the city.
7 Lo, they belch out with their mouths, Swords [are] in their lips, for `Who heareth?'
8 And Thou, O Jehovah dost laugh at them, Thou dost mock at all the nations.
9 O my Strength, unto Thee I take heed, For God [is] my tower -- the God of my kindness.
10 God doth go before me, He causeth me to look on mine enemies.
11 Slay them not, lest my people forget, Shake them by Thy strength, And bring them down, O Lord our shield.
12 The sin of their mouth [is] a word of their lips, And they are captured in their pride, And from the curse and lying they recount.
13 Consume in fury, consume and they are not, And they know that God is ruling in Jacob, To the ends of the earth. Selah.
14 And they turn back at evening, They make a noise like a dog, And they go round about the city.
15 They -- they wander for food, If they are not satisfied -- then they murmur.
16 And I -- I sing [of] Thy strength, And I sing at morn [of] Thy kindness, For thou hast been a tower to me, And a refuge for me in a day of adversity.
17 O my Strength, unto Thee I sing praise, For God [is] my tower, the God of my kindness!
60 To the Overseer. -- `Concerning the Lily of Testimony,' a secret treasure of David, to teach, in his striving with Aram-Naharaim, and with Aram-Zobah, and Joab turneth back and smiteth Edom in the valley of Salt -- twelve thousand. O God, Thou hadst cast us off, Thou hadst broken us -- hadst been angry! -- Thou dost turn back to us.
2 Thou hast caused the land to tremble, Thou hast broken it, Heal its breaches, for it hath moved.
3 Thou hast shewn Thy people a hard thing, Thou hast caused us to drink wine of trembling.
4 Thou hast given to those fearing thee an ensign. To be lifted up as an ensign Because of truth. Selah.
5 That Thy beloved ones may be drawn out, Save [with] Thy right hand, and answer us.
6 God hath spoken in His holiness: I exult -- I apportion Shechem, And the valley of Succoth I measure,
7 Mine [is] Gilead, and mine [is] Manasseh, And Ephraim [is] the strength of my head, Judah [is] my lawgiver,
8 Moab [is] my pot for washing, over Edom I cast my shoe, Shout, concerning me, O Philistia.
9 Who doth bring me [to] a city of bulwarks? Who hath led me unto Edom?
10 Is it not Thou, O God? hast Thou cast us off? And dost Thou not go forth, O God, with our hosts!
11 Give to us help from adversity, And vain [is] the deliverance of man.
12 In God we do mightily, And He treadeth down our adversaries!
114 In the going out of Israel from Egypt, The house of Jacob from a strange people,
2 Judah became His sanctuary, Israel his dominion.
3 The sea hath seen, and fleeth, The Jordan turneth backward.
4 The mountains have skipped as rams, Heights as sons of a flock.
5 What -- to thee, O sea, that thou fleest? O Jordan, thou turnest back!
6 O mountains, ye skip as rams! O heights, as sons of a flock!
7 From before the Lord be afraid, O earth, From before the God of Jacob,
8 He is turning the rock to a pool of waters, The flint to a fountain of waters!
115 Not to us, O Jehovah, not to us, But to Thy name give honour, For Thy kindness, for Thy truth.
2 Why do the nations say, `Where, pray, [is] their God.
3 And our God [is] in the heavens, All that He hath pleased He hath done.
4 Their idols [are] silver and gold, work of man's hands,
5 A mouth they have, and they speak not, Eyes they have, and they see not,
6 Ears they have, and they hear not, A nose they have, and they smell not,
7 Their hands, but they handle not, Their feet, and they walk not;
8 Nor do they mutter through their throat, Like them are their makers, Every one who is trusting in them.
9 O Israel, trust in Jehovah, `Their help and their shield [is] He.'
10 O house of Aaron, trust in Jehovah, `Their help and their shield [is] He.'
11 Ye fearing Jehovah, trust in Jehovah, `Their help and their shield [is] He.'
12 Jehovah hath remembered us, He blesseth, He blesseth the house of Israel, He blesseth the house of Aaron,
13 He blesseth those fearing Jehovah, The small with the great.
14 Jehovah addeth to you, to you, and to your sons.
15 Blessed [are] ye of Jehovah, maker of heaven and earth,
16 The heavens -- the heavens [are] Jehovah's, And the earth He hath given to sons of men,
17 The dead praise not Jah, Nor any going down to silence.
18 And we, we bless Jah, From henceforth, and unto the age. Praise ye Jah!
8 See that no one shall be carrying you away as spoil through the philosophy and vain deceit, according to the deliverance of men, according to the rudiments of the world, and not according to Christ,
9 because in him doth tabernacle all the fulness of the Godhead bodily,
10 and ye are in him made full, who is the head of all principality and authority,
11 in whom also ye were circumcised with a circumcision not made with hands, in the putting off of the body of the sins of the flesh in the circumcision of the Christ,
12 being buried with him in the baptism, in which also ye rose with [him] through the faith of the working of God, who did raise him out of the dead.
13 And you -- being dead in the trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh -- He made alive together with him, having forgiven you all the trespasses,
14 having blotted out the handwriting in the ordinances that is against us, that was contrary to us, and he hath taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross;
15 having stripped the principalities and the authorities, he made a shew of them openly -- having triumphed over them in it.
16 Let no one, then, judge you in eating or in drinking, or in respect of a feast, or of a new moon, or of sabbaths,
17 which are a shadow of the coming things, and the body [is] of the Christ;
18 let no one beguile you of your prize, delighting in humble-mindedness and [in] worship of the messengers, intruding into the things he hath not seen, being vainly puffed up by the mind of his flesh,
19 and not holding the head, from which all the body -- through the joints and bands gathering supply, and being knit together -- may increase with the increase of God.
20 If, then, ye did die with the Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances?
21 -- thou mayest not touch, nor taste, nor handle --
22 which are all for destruction with the using, after the commands and teachings of men,
23 which are, indeed, having a matter of wisdom in will-worship, and humble-mindedness, and neglecting of body -- not in any honour, unto a satisfying of the flesh.
39 And he spake a simile to them, `Is blind able to lead blind? shall they not both fall into a pit?
40 A disciple is not above his teacher, but every one perfected shall be as his teacher.
41 `And why dost thou behold the mote that is in thy brother's eye, and the beam that [is] in thine own eye dost not consider?
42 or how art thou able to say to thy brother, Brother, suffer, I may take out the mote that [is] in thine eye -- thyself the beam in thine own eye not beholding? Hypocrite, take first the beam out of thine own eye, and then thou shalt see clearly to take out the mote that [is] in thy brother's eye.
43 `For there is not a good tree making bad fruit, nor a bad tree making good fruit;
44 for each tree from its own fruit is known, for not from thorns do they gather figs, nor from a bramble do they crop a grape.
45 `The good man out of the good treasure of his heart doth bring forth that which [is] good; and the evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart doth bring forth that which [is] evil; for out of the abounding of the heart doth his mouth speak.
46 `And why do ye call me, Lord, Lord, and do not what I say?
47 Every one who is coming unto me, and is hearing my words, and is doing them, I will shew you to whom he is like;
48 he is like to a man building a house, who did dig, and deepen, and laid a foundation upon the rock, and a flood having come, the stream broke forth on that house, and was not able to shake it, for it had been founded upon the rock.
49 `And he who heard and did not, is like to a man having builded a house upon the earth, without a foundation, against which the stream brake forth, and immediately it fell, and the ruin of that house became great.'