Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 38
A Psalm of David; to bring to remembrance and make memorial.
1 O Lord, rebuke me not in Your wrath, neither chasten me in Your hot displeasure.
2 For Your arrows have sunk into me and stick fast, and Your hand has come down upon me and pressed me sorely.
3 There is no soundness in my flesh because of Your indignation; neither is there any health or rest in my bones because of my sin.
4 For my iniquities have gone over my head [like waves of a flood]; as a heavy burden they weigh too much for me.
5 My wounds are loathsome and corrupt because of my foolishness.
6 I am bent and bowed down greatly; I go about mourning all the day long.
7 For my loins are filled with burning; and there is no soundness in my flesh.
8 I am faint and sorely bruised [deadly cold and quite worn out]; I groan by reason of the disquiet and moaning of my heart.
9 Lord, all my desire is before You; and my sighing is not hidden from You.
10 My heart throbs, my strength fails me; as for the light of my eyes, it also is gone from me.
11 My lovers and my friends stand aloof from my plague; and my neighbors and my near ones stand afar off.(A)
12 They also that seek and demand my life lay snares for me, and they that seek and require my hurt speak crafty and mischievous things; they meditate treachery and deceit all the day long.
13 But I, like a deaf man, hear not; and I am like a dumb man who opens not his mouth.
14 Yes, I have become like a man who hears not, in whose mouth are no arguments or replies.
15 For in You, O Lord, do I hope; You will answer, O Lord my God.
16 For I pray, Let them not rejoice over me, who when my foot slips boast against me.
17 For I am ready to halt and fall; my pain and sorrow are continually before me.
18 For I do confess my guilt and iniquity; I am filled with sorrow for my sin.(B)
19 But my enemies are vigorous and strong, and those who hate me wrongfully are multiplied.
20 They also that render evil for good are adversaries to me, because I follow the thing that is good.
21 Forsake me not, O Lord; O my God, be not far from me.
22 Make haste to help me, O Lord, my Salvation.
25 My earthly life cleaves to the dust; revive and stimulate me according to Your word!(A)
26 I have declared my ways and opened my griefs to You, and You listened to me; teach me Your statutes.
27 Make me understand the way of Your precepts; so shall I meditate on and talk of Your wondrous works.(B)
28 My life dissolves and weeps itself away for heaviness; raise me up and strengthen me according to [the promises of] Your word.
29 Remove from me the way of falsehood and unfaithfulness [to You], and graciously impart Your law to me.
30 I have chosen the way of truth and faithfulness; Your ordinances have I set before me.
31 I cleave to Your testimonies; O Lord, put me not to shame!
32 I will [not merely walk, but] run the way of Your commandments, when You give me a heart that is willing.
33 Teach me, O Lord, the way of Your statutes, and I will keep it to the end [steadfastly].
34 Give me understanding, that I may keep Your law; yes, I will observe it with my whole heart.(C)
35 Make me go in the path of Your commandments, for in them do I delight.
36 Incline my heart to Your testimonies and not to covetousness (robbery, sensuality, unworthy riches).(D)
37 Turn away my eyes from beholding vanity (idols and idolatry); and restore me to vigorous life and health in Your ways.
38 Establish Your word and confirm Your promise to Your servant, which is for those who reverently fear and devotedly worship You.(E)
39 Turn away my reproach which I fear and dread, for Your ordinances are good.
40 Behold, I long for Your precepts; in Your righteousness give me renewed life.
41 Let Your mercy and loving-kindness come also to me, O Lord, even Your salvation according to Your promise;
42 Then shall I have an answer for those who taunt and reproach me, for I lean on, rely on, and trust in Your word.
43 And take not the word of truth utterly out of my mouth, for I hope in Your ordinances.
44 I will keep Your law continually, forever and ever [hearing, receiving, loving, and obeying it].
45 And I will walk at liberty and at ease, for I have sought and inquired for [and desperately required] Your precepts.
46 I will speak of Your testimonies also before kings and will not be put to shame.(F)
47 For I will delight myself in Your commandments, which I love.
48 My hands also will I lift up [in fervent supplication] to Your commandments, which I love, and I will meditate on Your statutes.
24 Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, and He Who formed you from the womb: I am the Lord, Who made all things, Who alone stretched out the heavens, Who spread out the earth by Myself [who was with Me]?—
25 [I am the Lord] Who frustrates the signs and confounds the omens [upon which the false prophets’ forecasts of the future are based] of the [boasting] liars and makes fools of diviners, Who turns the wise backward and makes their knowledge foolishness,(A)
26 [The Lord] Who confirms the word of His servant and performs the counsel of His messengers, Who says of Jerusalem, She shall [again] be inhabited, and of the cities of Judah, They shall [again] be built, and I will raise up their ruins,
27 Who says to the deep, Be dry, and I will dry up your rivers,
28 Who says of Cyrus, He is My shepherd (ruler), and he shall perform all My pleasure and fulfill all My purpose—even saying of Jerusalem, She shall [again] be built, and of the temple, Your foundation shall [again] be laid.
45 Thus says the Lord to His anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have held to subdue nations before him, and I will unarm and ungird the loins of kings to open doors before him, so that gates will not be shut.
2 I will go before you and level the mountains [to make the crooked places straight]; I will break in pieces the doors of bronze and cut asunder the bars of iron.
3 And I will give you the treasures of darkness and hidden riches of secret places, that you may know that it is I, the Lord, the God of Israel, Who calls you by your name.
4 For the sake of Jacob My servant, and of Israel My chosen, I have called you by your name. I have surnamed you, though you have not known Me.
5 I am the Lord, and there is no one else; there is no God besides Me. I will gird and arm you, though you have not known Me,
6 That men may know from the east and the rising of the sun and from the west and the setting of the sun that there is no God besides Me. I am the Lord, and no one else [is He].
7 I form the light and create darkness, I make peace [national well-being] and I create [physical] [a]evil (calamity); I am the Lord, Who does all these things.
5 Therefore be imitators of God [copy Him and follow His example], as well-beloved children [imitate their father].
2 And walk in love, [esteeming and delighting in one another] as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us, a [a]slain offering and sacrifice to God [for you, so that it became] a sweet fragrance.(A)
3 But immorality (sexual vice) and all impurity [[b]of lustful, rich, wasteful living] or greediness must not even be named among you, as is fitting and proper among saints (God’s consecrated people).
4 Let there be no filthiness (obscenity, indecency) nor foolish and sinful (silly and corrupt) talk, nor coarse jesting, which are not fitting or becoming; but instead voice your thankfulness [to God].
5 For be sure of this: that no person practicing sexual vice or impurity in thought or in life, or one who is covetous [who has lustful desire for the property of others and is greedy for gain]—for he [in effect] is an idolater—has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.
6 Let no one delude and deceive you with empty excuses and groundless arguments [for these sins], for through these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of rebellion and disobedience.
7 So do not associate or be sharers with them.
8 For once you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord; walk as children of Light [lead the lives of those native-born to the Light].
9 For the fruit (the effect, the product) of the Light or [c]the Spirit [consists] in every form of kindly goodness, uprightness of heart, and trueness of life.
10 And try to learn [in your experience] what is pleasing to the Lord [let your lives be constant proofs of what is most acceptable to Him].
11 Take no part in and have no fellowship with the fruitless deeds and enterprises of darkness, but instead [let your lives be so in contrast as to] [d]expose and reprove and convict them.
12 For it is a shame even to speak of or mention the things that [such people] practice in secret.
13 But when anything is exposed and reproved by the light, it is made visible and clear; and where everything is visible and clear there is light.
14 Therefore He says, Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall shine (make day dawn) upon you and give you light.(B)
4 Again Jesus began to teach beside the lake. And a very great crowd gathered about Him, so that He got into a ship in order to sit in it on the sea, and the whole crowd was at the lakeside on the shore.
2 And He taught them many things in parables (illustrations or comparisons put beside truths to explain them), and in His teaching He said to them:
3 Give attention to this! Behold, a sower went out to sow.
4 And as he was sowing, some seed fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up.
5 Other seed [of the same kind] fell on ground full of rocks, where it had not much soil; and at once it sprang up, because it had no depth of soil;
6 And when the sun came up, it was scorched, and because it had not taken root, it withered away.
7 Other seed [of the same kind] fell among thorn plants, and the thistles grew and pressed together and utterly choked and suffocated it, and it yielded no grain.
8 And other seed [of the same kind] fell into good (well-adapted) soil and brought forth grain, growing up and increasing, and yielded up to thirty times as much, and sixty times as much, and even a hundred times as much as had been sown.
9 And He said, He who has ears to hear, let him be hearing [and let him [a]consider, and comprehend].
10 And as soon as He was alone, those who were around Him, with the Twelve [apostles], began to ask Him about the parables.
11 And He said to them, To you has been entrusted the mystery of the kingdom of God [that is, [b]the secret counsels of God which are hidden from the ungodly]; but for those outside [[c]of our circle] everything becomes a parable,
12 In order that they may [indeed] look and look but not see and perceive, and may hear and hear but not grasp and comprehend, [d]lest haply they should turn again, and it [[e]their willful rejection of the truth] should be forgiven them.(A)
13 And He said to them, Do you not discern and understand this parable? How then is it possible for you to discern and understand all the parables?
14 The sower sows the Word.
15 The ones along the path are those who have the Word sown [in their hearts], but when they hear, Satan comes at once and [by force] takes away the message which is sown in them.
16 And in the same way the ones sown upon stony ground are those who, when they hear the Word, at once receive and accept and welcome it with joy;
17 And they have no real root in themselves, and so they endure for a little while; then when trouble or persecution arises on account of the Word, they immediately are offended (become displeased, indignant, resentful) and they stumble and fall away.
18 And the ones sown among the thorns are others who hear the Word;
19 Then the cares and anxieties of the world and distractions of the age, and the pleasure and delight and false glamour and deceitfulness of riches, and the craving and passionate desire for other things creep in and choke and suffocate the Word, and it becomes fruitless.
20 And those sown on the good (well-adapted) soil are the ones who hear the Word and receive and accept and welcome it and bear fruit—some thirty times as much as was sown, some sixty times as much, and some [even] a hundred times as much.
Copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation