Book of Common Prayer
ZAIN.
49 ¶ Remember the word unto thy slave, in which thou hast caused me to wait.
50 ¶ This is my comfort in my affliction; for thy spoken word has caused me to live.
51 ¶ The proud have had me greatly in derision; yet I have not deviated from thy law.
52 ¶ I remembered thy judgments of old, O LORD, and have consoled myself.
53 ¶ Horror has taken hold upon me because of the wicked that forsake thy law.
54 ¶ Thy statutes have been my songs in the house of my pilgrimage.
55 ¶ I have remembered thy name, O LORD, in the night, and have kept thy law.
56 This I had, because I kept thy precepts.
CHETH.
57 ¶ My portion, O LORD, I have said, will be to keep thy words.
58 ¶ I intreated thy presence with my whole heart; be merciful unto me according to thy word.
59 ¶ I considered my ways and turned my feet unto thy testimonies.
60 I made haste and did not delay to keep thy commandments.
61 ¶ The company of the wicked have robbed me, but I have not forgotten thy law.
62 ¶ At midnight I will rise to give thanks unto thee because of the judgments of thy righteousness.
63 ¶ I am a companion of all those that fear thee and of those that keep thy precepts.
64 ¶ The earth, O LORD, is full of thy mercy and teaches me thy statutes.
TETH.
65 ¶ Thou hast dealt well with thy slave, O LORD, according unto thy word,
66 which teaches me discernment and knowledge, for I have believed thy commandments.
67 ¶ Before I was humbled, I went into error, but now I keep thy spoken word.
68 ¶ Thou art good and doest good; teach me thy statutes.
69 ¶ The proud have forged a lie against me, but I will keep thy precepts with my whole heart.
70 Their heart became fat like grease, but I delight in thy law.
71 ¶ It was good for me that I have been humbled, that I might learn thy statutes.
72 ¶ The law of thy mouth is better unto me than thousands of gold and silver.
To the Overcomer: A Psalm for the sons of Korah.
1 ¶ Hear this, all ye people; give ear, all ye inhabitants of the world:
2 Both low and high, rich and poor, together.
3 My mouth shall speak wisdom; and the meditation of my heart intelligence.
4 I will incline mine ear to a parable; I will declare my enigma upon the harp.
5 Why should I fear in the days of adversity when the iniquity of my heels shall compass me about?
6 ¶ Those that trust in their wealth and boast themselves in the multitude of their riches;
7 none of them can by any means ransom his brother, nor give God an atonement for him;
8 (for the redemption of their soul is of great price, and they shall never pay it)
9 that he should still live for ever and not see corruption.
10 For he sees that all the wise men die, likewise the fool and the ignorant perish and leave their wealth to others.
11 Their inward thought is that their houses are eternal and their dwelling places to all generations; they call their lands after their own names.
12 Nevertheless man will not abide forever in honour; he is like the beasts that are cut off.
13 This their way is their folly; yet their posterity approve their sayings. Selah.
14 Like sheep they are laid in Sheol; death shall feed on them, and the upright shall have dominion over them in the morning, and their beauty shall be consumed in the grave from their dwelling.
15 ¶ Surely God will ransom my soul from the hand of Sheol when he shall take me. Selah.
16 Be not thou afraid when one is made rich, when the glory of his house is increased;
17 for in his death he shall carry nothing away; nor shall his glory descend after him.
18 Though while he lives, his life shall be blessed: and men will praise thee when thou art prosperous.
19 He shall enter into the generation of his fathers; they shall never see light forever.
20 Man that is in honour that does not understand is like the beasts that are cut off.
To the Overcomer upon Mahalath, Maschil, A Psalm of David.
1 ¶ The fool has said in his heart, There is no God. They have corrupted themselves and have done abominable iniquity; there is no one that does good.
2 God looked down from heaven upon the sons of Adam to see if there were any that did understand, that did seek God.
3 Every one of them is gone back; they are altogether become filthy; there is no one that does good, no, not one.
4 Have the workers of iniquity no knowledge? who eat up my people as they eat bread; they have not called upon God.
5 They were there in great fear where no fear was; for God has scattered the bones of him that encamps against thee: thou hast put them to shame because God has despised them.
6 Oh that the saving health of Israel were come out of Zion! When God brings back the captivity of his people, Jacob shall rejoice, and Israel shall be glad.
3 ¶ For all things there is a season, and every will under the heaven has its time determined.
2 A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;
3 a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;
4 a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
5 a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
6 a time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
7 a time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
8 a time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.
9 What profit does the one that works have in that in which he labours?
10 I have seen the travail which God has given to the sons of men that they may be occupied in it.
11 ¶ He has made every thing beautiful in his time: even the world he has given over to their will, in such a way that no man can attain to this work that God makes from the beginning to the end.
12 I have learned that there is nothing better for them, but to rejoice and to do good in his life.
13 And also that every man should eat and drink and enjoy the good of all his labour; it is the gift of God.
14 I have understood that whatever God does, it shall be for ever; nothing can be added to it, nor any thing taken from it because God does it that men should fear before him.
15 That which has been is now, and that which is to be has already been and God shall seek that which is past.
11 ¶ But when Peter was come to Antioch, I withstood him to the face because he was to be blamed.
12 For before certain ones came from James, he ate with the Gentiles, but when they were come, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing those who were of the circumcision.
13 And the other Jews dissembled likewise with him, insomuch that Barnabas also was carried away with their hypocrisy.
14 But when I saw that they did not walk uprightly according to the truth of the gospel, I said unto Peter before them all, If thou, being a Jew, dost live after the manner of Gentiles, and not as do the Jews, why dost thou compel the Gentiles to live as do the Jews?
15 We who are Jews by nature, and not sinners of the Gentiles,
16 knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law; for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.
17 But if, while we seek to be justified in Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, is therefore Christ the minister of our sin? No, in no wise.
18 For if I build again the things which I destroyed, I make myself a rebel.
19 For through the law I am dead to the law, that I might live unto God.
20 I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ lives in me, and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
21 I do not reject the grace of God, for if righteousness comes by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.
14 ¶ At that time Herod the tetrarch heard of the fame of Jesus
2 and said unto his slaves, This is John the Baptist; he is risen from the dead, and therefore mighty works do show forth themselves in him.
3 For Herod had laid hold on John and bound him and put him in prison for Herodias’ sake, his brother Philip’s wife.
4 For John said unto him, It is not lawful for thee to have her.
5 And when he would have put him to death, he feared the multitude because they counted him as a prophet.
6 But when Herod’s birthday was kept, the daughter of Herodias danced before them and pleased Herod.
7 Whereupon he promised with an oath to give her whatever she would ask.
8 And she, being before instructed of her mother, said, Give me here John the Baptist’s head in a platter.
9 And the king was sorry; nevertheless because of the oath and of those who sat with him at the table, he commanded it to be given her.
10 And he sent and beheaded John in the prison.
11 And his head was brought in a platter and given to the damsel, and she brought it to her mother.
12 And his disciples came and took up the body and buried it and went and told Jesus.
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