Book of Common Prayer

Psalm 93

¹ The Lord reigns, He is clothed with majesty; the Lord is robed, He has girded Himself with strength and power; the world also is established, that it cannot be moved.

² Your throne is established from of old; You are from everlasting.

³ The floods have lifted up, O Lord, the floods have lifted up their voice; the floods lift up the roaring of their waves.

⁴ The Lord on high is mightier and more glorious than the noise of many waters, yes, than the mighty breakers and waves of the sea.

⁵ Your testimonies are very sure; holiness [apparent in separation from sin, with simple trust and hearty obedience] is becoming to Your house, O Lord, forever.

Psalm 96

¹ O sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord, all the earth!

² Sing to the Lord, bless (affectionately praise) His name; show forth His salvation from day to day.

³ Declare His glory among the nations, His marvelous works among all the peoples.

⁴ For great is the Lord and greatly to be praised; He is to be reverently feared and worshiped above all [so-called] gods.^(A)

⁵ For all the gods of the nations are [lifeless] idols, but the Lord made the heavens.

⁶ Honor and majesty are before Him; strength and beauty are in His sanctuary.

⁷ Ascribe to the Lord, O you families of the peoples, ascribe to the Lord glory and strength.

⁸ Give to the Lord the glory due His name; bring an offering and come [before Him] into His courts.

⁹ O worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness; tremble before and reverently fear Him, all the earth.

¹⁰ Say among the nations that the Lord reigns; the world also is established, so that it cannot be moved; He shall judge and rule the people righteously and with justice.^(B)

¹¹ Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice; let the sea roar, and all the things which fill it;

¹² Let the field be exultant, and all that is in it! Then shall all the trees of the wood sing for joy

¹³ Before the Lord, for He comes, for He comes to judge and govern the earth! He shall judge the world with righteousness and justice and the peoples with His faithfulness and truth.^(C)

Psalm 34

[A Psalm] of David; when he pretended to be insane before Abimelech, who drove him out, and he went away.

¹ I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth.

² My life makes its boast in the Lord; let the humble and afflicted hear and be glad.

³ O magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt His name together.

⁴ I sought (inquired of) the Lord and required Him [of necessity and on the authority of His Word], and He heard me, and delivered me from all my fears.^(A)

⁵ They looked to Him and were radiant; their faces shall never blush for shame or be confused.

⁶ This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles.

^7 [a]The Angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear Him [who revere and worship Him with awe] and each of them He delivers.^(B)

⁸ O taste and see that the Lord [our God] is good! Blessed (happy, fortunate, to be envied) is the man who trusts and takes refuge in Him.^(C)

⁹ O fear the Lord, you His saints [revere and worship Him]! For there is no want to those who truly revere and worship Him with godly fear.

¹⁰ The young lions lack food and suffer hunger, but they who seek (inquire of and require) the Lord [by right of their need and on the authority of His Word], none of them shall lack any beneficial thing.

¹¹ Come, you children, listen to me; I will teach you to revere and worshipfully fear the Lord.

¹² What man is he who desires life and longs for many days, that he may see good?

¹³ Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit.

¹⁴ Depart from evil and do good; seek, inquire for, and crave peace and pursue (go after) it!

¹⁵ The eyes of the Lord are toward the [uncompromisingly] righteous and His ears are open to their cry.

¹⁶ The face of the Lord is against those who do evil, to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth.^(D)

¹⁷ When the righteous cry for help, the Lord hears, and delivers them out of all their distress and troubles.

¹⁸ The Lord is close to those who are of a broken heart and saves such as are crushed with sorrow for sin and are humbly and thoroughly penitent.

¹⁹ Many evils confront the [consistently] righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all.

²⁰ He keeps all his bones; not one of them is broken.

²¹ Evil shall cause the death of the wicked; and they who hate the just and righteous shall be held guilty and shall be condemned.

²² The Lord redeems the lives of His servants, and none of those who take refuge and trust in Him shall be condemned or held guilty.

¹⁴ Although I hope to come to you before long, I am writing these instructions to you so that,

¹⁵ If I am detained, you may know how people ought to conduct themselves in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and stay (the prop and support) of the Truth.

¹⁶ And great and important and weighty, we confess, is the hidden truth (the mystic secret) of godliness. He [^[a]God] was made visible in human flesh, justified and vindicated in the [Holy] Spirit, was seen by angels, preached among the nations, believed on in the world, [and] taken up in glory.

4 But the [Holy] Spirit distinctly and expressly declares that in latter times some will turn away from the faith, giving attention to deluding and seducing spirits and doctrines that demons teach,

² Through the hypocrisy and pretensions of liars whose consciences are seared (cauterized),

³ Who forbid people to marry and [teach them] to abstain from [certain kinds of] foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and have [an increasingly clear] knowledge of the truth.

⁴ For everything God has created is good, and nothing is to be thrown away or refused if it is received with thanksgiving.

⁵ For it is hallowed and consecrated by the Word of God and by prayer.

²⁴ Another parable He set forth before them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field.

²⁵ But while he was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed also darnel (weeds resembling wheat) among the wheat, and went on his way.

²⁶ So when the plants sprouted and formed grain, the darnel (weeds) appeared also.

²⁷ And the servants of the owner came to him and said, Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? Then how does it have darnel shoots in it?

²⁸ He replied to them, An enemy has done this. The servants said to him, Then do you want us to go and weed them out?

²⁹ But he said, No, lest in gathering the wild wheat (weeds resembling wheat), you root up the [true] wheat along with it.

³⁰ Let them grow together until the harvest; and at harvest time I will say to the reapers, Gather the darnel first and bind it in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my granary.

³¹ Another story by way of comparison He set forth before them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field.

³² Of all the seeds it is the smallest, but when it has grown it is the largest of the garden herbs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and find shelter in its branches.

³³ He told them another parable: The kingdom of heaven is like leaven (^[a]sour dough) which a woman took and covered over in three measures of meal or flour till all of it was leavened.^(A)

³⁴ These things ^[b]all taken together Jesus said to the crowds in parables; indeed, without a parable He said nothing to them.