Book of Common Prayer
To the Overcomer upon: The silent dove in a distant land, Michtam of David, when the Philistines took him in Gath.
1 ¶ Be merciful unto me, O God, for man would swallow me up; he oppresses me fighting me daily.
2 My enemies would daily swallow me up, for they are many that fight against me, O thou most High.
3 When I am afraid, I will trust in thee.
4 In God I will praise his word, in God I have put my trust; I will not fear what flesh can do unto me.
5 Every day my life is filled with sorrow; all their thoughts are against me for evil.
6 They gather themselves together, they hide themselves, they mark my steps when they wait for my soul.
7 Shall they escape by iniquity? in thine anger cast down the peoples, O God.
8 ¶ Thou tellest my wanderings; put my tears into thy bottle; are they not in thy book?
9 When I cry unto thee, then shall my enemies be turned back; in this I know that God is for me.
10 In God I will praise his word; in the LORD I will praise his word.
11 In God I have put my trust; I will not be afraid of what man can do unto me.
12 Thy promises are upon me, O God; I will render praises unto thee.
13 For thou hast delivered my life from death; thou hast kept my feet from falling, that I may walk before God in the light of the living.
To the Overcomer upon, Do not destroy, Michtam of David, when he fled from the presence of Saul in the cave.
1 ¶ Be merciful unto me, O God, be merciful unto me: for my soul trusts in thee; and in the shadow of thy wings I will make my refuge until these calamities are overpast.
2 I will cry unto God most high, unto God that performs all things for me.
3 He shall send from the heavens and save me from the reproach of him that would swallow me up. Selah. God shall send forth his mercy and his truth.
4 My soul is among lions, and I lie even among those 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 dug a pit before me, into the midst of which they are fallen themselves. Selah.
7 ¶ My heart is ready, O God, my heart is willing; I will sing and give praise.
8 Awake, my glory; awake, psaltery and harp; I myself will arise early.
9 I will praise thee, O Lord, among the peoples; I will sing unto thee among the nations.
10 For thy mercy is great unto the heavens, and thy truth unto the clouds.
11 Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens; let thy glory be above all the earth.
To the Overcomer upon, Do not destroy, Michtam of David.
1 ¶ Do ye indeed speak righteousness, O congregation? do ye judge uprightly, O ye sons of Adam?
2 Yea, in heart ye work iniquity; ye weigh 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 stops her ear,
5 which will not hearken to the voice of charmers, charming never so wisely.
6 ¶ Break their teeth, O God, in their mouth; break out the great teeth of the young lions, O LORD.
7 Let them melt away as waters which run continually; when he bends his bow to shoot his arrows, let them be as cut in pieces.
8 As a snail which melts, let them pass away, like the untimely birth of a woman, that they may not see the sun.
9 Before your pots can feel the fire of the thorns, he shall take them away as with a whirlwind, both living, and in his wrath.
10 The righteous shall rejoice when he sees the vengeance; he shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked.
11 So that a man shall say, Verily there is a reward for the righteous; verily there is a God that judges in the earth.
To the Overcomer, A Psalm of David.
1 ¶ Hear my voice, O God, in my prayer; preserve my life from fear of the enemy.
2 Hide me from the secret counsel of the wicked, from the insurrection of the workers of iniquity:
3 Who whet their tongue like a sword and bend their bows to shoot their arrows, even bitter words
4 That they may shoot in secret at the perfect; suddenly do they shoot at him and fear not.
5 They encourage themselves in an evil matter; they attempt to hide the snares; they say, Who shall see them?
6 They search out iniquities; they perfect and put into effect that which they have invented in the inward thought of each one of them and that which they have devised in their heart.
7 ¶ But God shall shoot at them with an arrow; suddenly shall they be wounded.
8 So they shall make their own council and agreements to fall upon themselves; all that see them shall flee away.
9 And all men shall fear and shall declare the work of God, for they shall understand his doing.
10 The righteous shall be glad in the LORD and shall become secure in him, and all the upright in heart shall glory in him.
To the Overcomer, A Psalm and Song of David.
1 ¶ Praise doth rest in thee, O God, in Sion and unto thee shall the vow be performed.
2 O thou that hearest prayer, unto thee shall all flesh come.
3 Words of iniquity overwhelmed me, but thou shalt purge away our rebellion.
4 Blessed is the man whom thou dost choose and cause to approach unto thee that he may dwell in thy courts: we shall be satisfied with the goodness of thy house even of thy holy temple.
5 With tremendous things in righteousness wilt thou answer us, O God of our saving health, who art the hope of all the ends of the earth and of those that are afar off upon the sea:
6 ¶ Thou art he who doth establish the mountains by thy strength, being girded with valour:
7 He who stills the noise of the seas, the noise of their waves and the tumult of the Gentiles.
8 They also that dwell in the uttermost parts are afraid at thy wonders; thou makest the outgoings of the morning and evening to rejoice.
9 Thou dost visit the earth, and when thou hast caused it to want, thou dost greatly enrich it with the river of God, which is full of water; thou dost prepare their grain, according to thy will.
10 Thou dost water its rows abundantly; thou dost settle its furrows; thou dost make it soft with showers of rain; thou dost bless its sprouting.
11 Thou dost crown the year with thy goodness, and thy clouds distill fatness.
12 They fall upon the habitations of the wilderness; and the hills gird themselves with happiness.
13 The plains clothe themselves with sheep, and the valleys cover themselves with grain; they give shouts of triumph, they even sing.
16 Then the people answered and said, May it never happen that we should forsake the LORD, to serve other gods.
17 For the LORD our God, he it is that brought us and our fathers up out of the land of Egypt from the house of slavery and who did those great signs in our sight and has kept us in all the way in which we went and among all the peoples through whom we passed.
18 And the LORD drove out from before us all the peoples, even the Amorites which dwelt in the land; therefore, will we also serve the LORD, for he is our God.
19 Then Joshua said unto the people, Ye cannot serve the LORD, for he is a holy God; he is a jealous God; he will not allow your rebellions nor your sins.
20 If ye forsake the LORD and serve strange gods, then he will turn and do you hurt and consume you, after he has done you good.
21 And the people said unto Joshua, No, but we will serve the LORD.
22 And Joshua said unto the people, Ye shall be witnesses against yourselves that ye have chosen the LORD, to serve him. And they said, We shall be witnesses.
23 Now, therefore, take away, the strange gods which are among you and incline your heart unto the LORD God of Israel.
24 And the people replied unto Joshua, We will serve the LORD our God and hear his voice.
25 So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day and set them statutes and laws in Shechem.
26 And Joshua wrote these words in the book of the law of God, and taking a great stone, he set it up there under an oak that was in the sanctuary of the LORD.
27 And Joshua said unto all the people, Behold, this stone shall be a witness unto us, for it has heard all the words of the LORD which he spoke unto us: it shall be, therefore, a witness unto you lest ye deny your God.
28 So Joshua sent the people, each one unto his inheritance.
29 ¶ And after these things, Joshua, the son of Nun, the slave of the LORD, died, being one hundred and ten years old.
30 And they buried him within the border of his inheritance in Timnathserah, which is in Mount Ephraim, on the north side of the Mountain of Gaash.
31 And Israel served the LORD all the days of Joshua and all the days of the elders that outlived Joshua and who had known all the works of the LORD that he had done with Israel.
32 And the bones of Joseph, which the sons of Israel had brought up out of Egypt, they buried in Shechem in the part of the field which Jacob bought from the sons of Hamor, the father of Shechem, for one hundred ewes, and it became the inheritance of the sons of Joseph.
33 And Eleazar, the son of Aaron, died, and they buried him in the hill of Phinehas, his son, which was given to him in the mountain of Ephraim.
16 ¶ I commend unto you Phebe our sister, who is a servant of the congregation {Gr. ekklesia – called out ones} which is at Cenchrea,
2 that ye receive her in the Lord as a worthy saint, and that ye assist her in whatever thing in which she has need of you, for she has been a helper of many and of myself also.
3 Greet Priscilla and Aquila, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus
4 (who have for my life laid down their own necks; unto whom not only I give thanks, but also all the congregations {Gr. ekklesia – called out ones} of the Gentiles);
5 likewise greet the congregation {Gr. ekklesia – called out ones} in their house. Salute my wellbeloved Epaenetus, who is the firstfruits of Achaia in Christ.
6 Greet Mary, who has laboured much with us.
7 Salute Andronicus and Junia, my kinsmen and my fellowprisoners, who are of note among the apostles, who also were in Christ before me.
8 Greet Amplias, my beloved in the Lord.
9 Salute Urbane, our helper in Christ, and Stachys, my beloved.
10 Salute Apelles, approved in Christ. Salute those who are of Aristobulus’ household.
11 Salute Herodion, my kinsman. Greet those that are of the household of Narcissus who are in the Lord.
12 Salute Tryphena and Tryphosa, who labour in the Lord. Salute the beloved Persis, who laboured much in the Lord.
13 Salute Rufus, chosen in the Lord, and his mother and mine.
14 Salute Asyncritus, Phlegon, Hermas, Patrobas, Hermes, and the brethren who are with them.
15 Salute Philologus and Julia, Nereus and his sister, and Olympas, and all the saints who are with them.
16 Salute one another with a holy kiss. All the congregations {Gr. ekklesia – called out ones} of Christ salute you.
24 When Pilate saw that he could prevail nothing, but that rather a tumult was made, he took water and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, I am innocent of the blood of this just person; see ye to it.
25 Then all the people answered and said, His blood be on us and on our children.
26 ¶ Then he released Barabbas unto them; and when he had scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified.
27 Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the common hall and gathered unto him the whole band of soldiers.
28 And they stripped him and put on him a scarlet robe.
29 And when they had platted a crown of thorns, they put it upon his head and a reed in his right hand; and they bowed the knee before him and mocked him, saying, Receive joy, King of the Jews!
30 And they spit upon him and took the reed and smote him on the head.
31 And after they had mocked him, they took the robe off from him and put his own raiment on him and led him away to crucify {Gr. stauroo – Hang on a stake} him.
Copyright © 2013, 2020 by Ransom Press International